The last two days have been crazily full, running round seeing people, watching the small boy in his school nativity play - or rather not watching him because he refused to put on his star costume and sing his heart out. He refused again today when his mother went to watch!
He did, however, join in with enthusiasm when it came to making Christmas hats after school at my house. So it goes.
Today Granddaughter Number Two and I went to Manchester early, dropped off at the tram stop by my daughter while it was still only just light. Breakfast in the Arndale Centre Prêt à Manger and a run round the shops, ticking items off her list as are went. I was supposed to be able to pick up an order from Gap, delivered supposedly to the Next shop in the Arndale. They sent it to the wrong shop! Now they will deliver it free to my house, hopefully still in time for me to wrap it before the recipient of the contents arrives.
I’ve also been trying to organise people into giving me their order for the restaurant where an increasingly large group of us will eat on Sunday. Members of the family group keep adding extra bodies. Hopefully the restaurant will cope. But I need to give them an pre-order tomorrow.
I’m running put of discussion time, so here’s something I saw yesterday, regarding the supposed Gaza ceasefire talks:
What do we know so far about the latest ceasefire talks?
Peter Beaumont
On Tuesday an Israeli negotiating team travelled to Qatar while a report from Reuters – denied by his office and Egypt – said that the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was planning to travel to Cairo for talks.
Instead, Netanyahu’s office said he had toured a buffer zone inside Syria that was recently seized by Israeli forces after the fall of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, which he said would remain under Israeli control for the foreseeable future.
Two Egyptian security sources added, however, that Netanyahu was not in Cairo “at this moment” but that a meeting was under way to work through the remaining points – chief among them a Hamas demand for guarantees that any immediate deal would lead to a comprehensive agreement later.
CIA director William Burns, a key US negotiator, was due in Doha on Wednesday for talks with Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on bridging remaining gaps between Israel and Hamas, Reuters reported.
Hamas said in a statement that a deal was possible if Israel stopped setting new conditions. A Palestinian official close to the mediation efforts said negotiations were serious, with discussions under way about every word.
Reinforcing the sense of optimism the White House spokesperson John Kirby said in an interview with Fox News: “We believe – and the Israelis have said this – that we’re getting closer, and no doubt about it, we believe that, but we also are cautious in our optimism.”
He added, however: “We’ve been in this position before where we weren’t able to get it over the finish line.”
Hmm! A familiar story!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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