Transfiguration

Fresh dates on sale

The Arts and Crafts Festival in Jerusalem has begun. It's a 2 week festival held in the Gehenna Valley featuring artistes and craftsmen of all sorts, each with their small stands. There are also concerts and foodstalls .... food being considered an art. That's one summer must-do I hope to fulfill. Walking down to the valley would be nice in the evening cool .... but walking back up makes me think twice about going. Anyway ... it's summer so why not.

Wild hollyhocks
by the street

Yesterday and today has once again been a busy rush with meetings with lawyers and accountants. Books for the library are being sent back to the publishers without our agreement and taxes on each book is rising. Then the Post Office is forcing us to use one specific company for delivery of the packages ... without this service, all books will be returned to the publishers. This company makes us pay 250 shekels for each package. We receive over 25+ packs of books each week .... how much does that make out? Plus we must pay tax for the book, and other handling charges. All in all we pay twice the amount of money that the book cost. It's a nightmare. Anyway because of this bureaucratic programme I had to cancel my doctor's appointment for this morning. I will have to go tomorrow instead ... but knowing my luck, something else will happen to hinder me.

Yesterday was the feast of the Transfiguration. In the evening I had to meet a large group of chinese pilgrims in the hotel ... 58 of them. It was a nice meeting and the priest leading them was my student 17 years ago. Along the road to the hotel, I noticed wild hollyhocks growing by the street in front of the anglican St. George Cathedral. Beautiful flowers and incredible life force. And all the fruit stalls are carrying fresh dates ... that means autumn is coming. Fresh dates are crunchy and sweet but not like the preserved/dried version which is sickly sweet. And Buddy and Chilli both like them as well. I bought some and the 3 of us were munching on them. So despite the busy day and summer heat, it was fun to spend some time with the 2 intelligent parakeets.