Under Siege XIII: Drop the Dead Internet Connection

I wrote on Sunday of food and milk shortages. I can now add another to my list: Internet pre-pay cards. This is truly a media age and one in which the search for a pre-pay monthly internet card has reached almost the same level of the search for carrots in Communist Russia. I am tempted to go join a queue - any queue - in the hope that I will be able to get a highly coveted internet card.

So, as you may gather from this post, and the fact that I was unable to add anyone's comments to the blog yesterday, we have no internet. I have walked the whole of Achrafieh, called people and used 'wasta' (the Lebanese term for knowing the right people and having the right influence to get things done). To no avail. My walk was hot and fruitless, my calls were unanswered and my wasta wilted. I am now in an internet cafe desperately trying to catch up on emails (still no replies to anyone - really sorry) and typing up yesterday's entry now.

We have a colleague of Dom's staying with us at the moment. Her family are from Saida (Sidon) and although they have now moved to safety she has only just been able to get to Beirut. She's had a pretty tough time as some bombs came very close to her house, and much of the outskirts of Saida has been hit. Her family are all OK though, and that is the main thing. Hopefully she'll be able to get some rest with us.

I'll finish this off quickly but yesterday for me was relatively normal as I had another glorious day off. I went to the gym, walked around the ABC shopping centre which is open during the day, albeit very quiet, went on the fruitless internet card search and fell asleep on the sofa for two hours. I then scraped the car on a bollard and left a tissue in the washing machine so it is all over my clothes. Clearly not yet operating on all cylinders...

Sydney is still fine and I estimate the gestation will be over soon - I hope so!!!