Time flies

Street scene

 Mondays are traumatic ... I have 9pm class on Sunday evening, then 4am on Monday and another class at 8am. When I finish with lessons by 10am, I am so exhausted that yesterday I was vomiting with chest pains. Was in bed till 4pm before I went down to the kitchen to get food. Age has caught up. I could have easily done this 20 yrs ago with no problems ... but now I no longer have the energy nor focus.

Tensions at the northern border with Syria continue bombings continue to take place. I thought I heard sirens last night, but I wasn't too sure. But locally tensions are even higher at the largest supermarket chain Supersol because they sell goods cheaper to ultra-orthodox jews while double the price for other people. It's awful because with the yearlong lockdown, people are poor. And a favourite Sushi restaurant has been forced to close because of hygiene problems. Many people have had food poisoning there but nothing was done till now ... almost after 5 years. 

The shekel is getting higher against the US dollar, so changing from US$ to shekels is a big loss. The news says it's the highest in 25 years. It used to be 3.6 shekels to a dollar, today it dropped to 3.1. Time to keep the money under the pillow. Not buying anything. 

It struck me that we're now in November and 2021 is almost over. Our Christian Quarter Christmas Shop will open in 2 days and I saw many boxes of goods at its entrance this morning. Time flies. I hope this year Bethlehem will open and tourists can come back and spend Christmas there. It's such a unique experience. And by the way, Israel is now letting tourists in even with 2 shots so long as they remain in their tour group. No free time to wander around alone. Up to groups of 40 people. That's a good start.