More rain

Rain inside Damascus Gate

Tensions rose again when Gaza fired 3 rockets into Israel yesterday. Israel responded by bombing several military posts. It's a sudden escalation which saw a renewal of protests at the Gaza border .... something which stopped for the past 3 weeks. Everything is so unpredictable. We just need to be on our toes.

It drizzled a lot last night and into the early morning. The sky is cloudy and grey and it's 11 degrees but the weather forecast says it feels like 8 degrees. It actually does ... in fact it feels even lower than 8 degrees. One third of our house is sick with fever and coughs. The other third has already gone home for the holidays. And only one third is active enough to be out and about. I'm ok so far ... touch wood .... but I'll have to go out to the park to gather pine branches to decorate Our Lady's statue in our refectory. It's the feast of the Immaculate Conception today but being an Advent Sunday, the feast is postponed to tomorrow. I could buy fresh flowers for tomorrow but in 5 days I still have to put up the pine branches so I might as well do it today and save from buying any flowers.

Awnings are extended

It's 2pm and I'm still debating if I should go to the park and cut the pine branches. The thought of trudging in the mud and braving the cold winds is not very nice. But the evening it might get worse ... much colder and winds much stronger.

Last night I met a chinese group and there was a chinese doctor among them. He checked my tongue and wrist (don't know what you call it) and diagnosed that I have a weak tummy, high blood, diabetes, headaches etc... So he started blood-letting on my all 10 fingers! It was painful! Every finger had 3 pricks and blood was squeezed out. Apparently my blood is too thick and they had a hard time squeezing it out. And the initial blood flow was very dark.  Anyway after that I did feel better ... and I actually slept 7 hours without waking up. I would have it done again if it didn't hurt so much.