Heatwave

Only date palms
enjoy the heatwave

It's the last Friday of Ramadan and Nakba Day as well. Police were everywhere and the City Gates were blockaded by police. Only residents and workers were allowed to enter the City. Everyone else wee turned away. I had to go to work but as I left Damascus Gate ... I was afraid I might not be let into New Gate. Luckily through my mask, the police there could see I was a foreigner so they let me enter.

We're now officially in a heatwave. It was over 30 degrees today and you can feel the heat from the ground. It was oppressive. The weekend will see temps up to 36 or 38 degrees. I'm sure people will either stay indoors and so keep social distancing .... or rush off to the beaches which will break social distancing. The police are not ready to enforce the law in the beaches ... so it'll be quite a scene. Everyone will be blaming everyone if a 2nd wave of infections hit the country.

Homemade blue-
cheese & anchovy
pizza

During work today I noticed a nestling sparrow on the ground beside the library. No idea where it fell from though I can hear the parent birds chirping wildly somewhere. I took the nestling into my office and managed to get some nestling food from one of our workers who keeps canaries in the next office. But when I returned, the sparrow was dead. It must have been in the heat for quite some time .... dehydrated and hungry and killed by the heatwave. Poor thing.

Schools will fully open by Sunday and all public transport will also be back to normal routine. Right on heatwave Sunday. And I was asked by the Armenian Catholic bishop to start celebrating mass for the armenian catholic community this Sunday too. It'll be nice to meet everyone again. But we'll need to keep social distancing.

One good piece of good news ... Israel is testing the effects of medical cannabis on coronavirus. In Israel, medical cannabis is lawful and it has many beneficial effects ... from alleviating pain to curing multiple sclerosis. https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/Rambam-Health-Care-Campus-to-look-into-effects-of-cannabis-on-COVID-19-628128?fbclid=IwAR1FjYleZrVPnu0jqMSiOpZcO1XA4Z5BssIq61KfFkdBTRNgd7zlf1HFepQ