Sand pear surprise

Chinese sand pear

It's the weekend again. And the temp is between 5 to 12 degrees. It feels very cold and damp. Arab boys are burning pieces of wood in street corners to stay warm. Not that they need it ... they have heating at home. But you can't take the bedouin out of them. Everyone is in thick clothes, hoodies and scarves. It feels like Chinese New Year!

As I was out to buy medicines, I saw a fruit stall selling chinese sand pears. A delightful surprise as this fruit doesn't seem appealing to the local palette. It's imported from China. They were expensive ... US$2 each. I just had some spare money and I bought 2 as a treat to myself. I've had a terrible week ... and a small bit of joy was much needed. They were sweet and crunchy and worth the $2. After all it's not going to come back on sale again till maybe next winter.

A Maronite Catholic church was destroyed by anti-christians in a northern city. It's the 2nd Christian building to be vandalised in just as many weeks. Last week the protestant cemetery had severa; headstones smashed ... some were very historical. It's a pity the police didn't catch the culprits. If it were done to a synagogue the culprits would have been caught within hours. This emboldened attacks come as the hardline far right govt takes its first weeks in revamping the govt, the military, the media and just about everything else. The thing is each group is grabbing whatever it can, and all I can see is a torn up society and a looming implosion of the coalition govt as each one is interested only in its own agenda. There's simply not enough pie for everyone to grab.