Festival of Music

Music and light show along the
City Wall

Last night I decided to go see the Music Festival. The weather was cold and there was a blackout along the main road but the crowd was still quite large. However the festival was reduced to one third of its normal size. No concerts inside the Old City. 7 concert locales all along the City Walls .... outside. The massive exhibition was the western wall ... the entire stretch had very loud music blaring and light show synchronised to the music. Jewish performers had their concerts along the south-western to western part of the City walls while the northern section had a couple of concerts ... one which for the first time is totally dedicated to arab performers. It was good to see the arab population included in this festival. It was very crowded and among the crowd were sephardi jews ... those who grew up in arab countries, speak arabic and share arabic culture. It was good to see music uniting the 2 races.

Arab concert at Damascus Gate

This morning I had Mass on Mt. Calvary ... with a few friends in attendance. Some baked brownies for me. Then I bumped into an old classmate from 26 yrs back. We chatted before I rushed home to start work. The 3rd Station sisters gave me a gift which was rally nice of them. Then at my other place of work, the Curia staff had a surprise birthday cake for me. In the afternoon I had english class with my students in a cafe ... they had to learn how to order and pay for food in english. Then it was adoration and confessions at Ml Teresa's convent till 7pm. They gave me a box of chocolate doughnuts. How nice everyone was! At dinner our cook prepared 2 cake to celebrate my birthday and my community was very festive about it. There was even a bottle of champagne.

Well I'm exhausted with work and social obligations for today. Age has caught up. Time to rest.