It wasn’t actually raining when I set out to the market on my bicycle this morning. It was generally grey and dull and damp but it wasn’t raining. Of course, five or ten minutes along the way it started to drizzle. Ot never became really heavy rain but it certainly degenerated into heavy drizzle.
Jenny Biscuit was back on the market, which is good because I have been getting complaints that there are no nice biscuits in the house. Ordinary, plain digestives don’t cut it when you have grown accustomed to Jenny Biscuit’s “Oat Flips”. The rain doesn’t put Jenny Biscuit off so much as the wind, which makes it hard to erect her stall. Today, despite the drizzle, there was almost no wind.
The fruit and veg man was complaining about the weather though, moaning that for months now it has rained on him every Wednesday morning. “I’m getting too old for this,” he declared, “I’ll have to become a sunny summer tradesman!” It would be sad to lose him at this time of year as he is one of the few suppliers of Cox’s Orange Pippins, certainly the best apples there are. The customer ahead of me was buying a whole carrier bagful!
Not photos of the city but along her route to campus,
She has grown quite adept at spotting the bits of beauty everywhere.
Yesterday she sent us photos of her Uber booking and the route it was going to follow to take her for a blood test. This was, she told us, a security measure; if we never heard from her again, we would have a clue as the where she had been and with whom. I was about to pooh-pooh this but then, whenever I take a taxi home from Oldham (usually because my tram from Manchester has arrived at the Oldham interchange minutes after the bus set off, with next due in almost an hour’s time) I phone home to let Phil know I am on my way! Such is modern life!
A ceasefire of sorts seems to have been agreed between Israel and Hamas. But the Israeli Defence Force doesn’t quite know when it starts and so continue shooting, apparently.
Dan Sabbagh, the Guardian’s defence and security editor reports:
“A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces emphasised on Wednesday lunchtime that the military would be implementing an “operational pause” rather than a ceasefire and that forces were still waiting on final details of the agreement.
Lt Col Richard Hecht, the IDF’s international spokesperson, told a briefing that “our terminology is not ceasefire, our terminology is an operational pause”, so hinting that Israeli bombing could restart whenever the hostage exchange is completed.
Hecht said he was not able to confirm when fighting would stop or how a ceasefire would operate because orders have not been received from the country’s political leaders. “We still haven’t got the nitty gritty of this framework,” he added.
But Hecht did suggest the ceasefire might not begin in Gaza for over 24 hours from now. “We still have probably, maybe a day-plus before this thing matures, and things can happen in that day. And I assume today is going to be a day of fighting in Gaza,” he said.
Media reports in Egypt and Israel had earlier suggested that a truce would come into effect at 10am tomorrow (8am GMT).”
In the meantime, here’s something former Israeli justice minister, Ayelet Shaked, is reported to have said: “Each country should take a quota… we need all 2 million to leave. That is the solution for Gaza.”
There you go. You add to the world refugee and displaced people problem by taking a group of people who have loved forever in a country and disperse them around the world ao that another group of people who have come originally from various countries around the world can have the homeland to which they feel entitled. Hmmm! Joined-up thinking?
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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