端午節

Northern dumplings

Yesterday was the summer solstice and of course it's the Dragon Boat festival  端午節.  The chinese sisters made rice dumplings and brought them over to me. It was nice of them. Being northerners, they made their style of dumplings .... glutinous rice with dates. And the funny thing was they managed to get bamboo leaves to wrap the dumplings! It's not the huge bamboo leaves that we have back on Asia ... its much smaller but it still served it's purpose. I do miss the nonya dumplings back home ... with savory spiced meat filling. Now with the lockdown of the airport, it's unlikely I'll get any from visiting groups. I'll wait for next year.

And the  端午節 got me thinking. Being the 5th day of the 5th month, considered inauspicious and when venomous animals end their hibernation ... Was that why I was so sick yesterday? Of course it's superstitious to thank that! But ... what a coincidence. Last night I was up at midnight with chest pains again ... and a load of phlegm deep in my lungs which I could not cough up. I walked for almost 2 hours on the terrace and that helped loosen my chest and calmed the spasms in the windpipe. Mind you, it was very cold. The wind was unusually chilly but the sweet strong perfume of the night blooming jasmine made a big difference. It had a calming effect. Let's hope I won't have to undergo another night like that. 

Midnight over the City

Meantime our street continues to be closed to traffic and our van cannot go out to deliver our laundry. That means we'll all be wearing dirty clothes for the next week. We're all wondering when it will all end ... and why it was ever imposed in the first place. We've called the police but have received no answers.   

News just in. Bethlehem will be under lockdown. I was planning to go there on Sunday to deliver medicines and food to the MC sisters but now it looks like it'll not be possible. The virus is spreading real fast ... but unlike Palestine, Israel is still undecided what to do. It'll be a costly procrastination.