Unfun Runs and Festive Fever

Sorry about the time lapse... although I am a lady of leisure I have been quite busy and have neglected the blog. I will try to be less tardy in future...

I am certainly enjoying my time off and am relaxing, learning Arabic (2 lessons a week now!) and generally getting into the Christmas spirit. I predict that come January, I will be looking for some work and although I managed to resist applying for a job on mine clearance that looked really interesting (but a: was in Sour/Tyre in the south and b: has pretty much already been given to someone else), I have already identified a couple of things I might try and volunteer for. (Don't worry, the mine clearance job would not have been in the fields, it would have been project managing part of it!).

Anyway, the run itself, although it took place during a time of pretty high tension in Beirut and the country as a whole, passed off without incident and was enjoyed by all. Being no athlete, I only enjoyed it once I finished the run - mine was rather a poor time of 1 hour 18 but as my friend Lucy pointed out, I did have to spend 14 minutes getting a stone out of my shoe!! Dom was far more athletic as befits one who looks like a certain champion middle distance runner, and the picture of him finishing appears above... His time was 1 hour 4 minutes. Next year I aim to beat that!

Otherwise, we have been struggling to get into the festive spirit much like many others in Beirut. The opposition remains camped out in the centre of town, meaning that traffic is terrible at the moment and that many businesses in Downtown are likely to close for good after Christmas. Even friends of mine who are strongly pro-Aoun and Hezbollah are completely fed up with the current state of affairs. But at least the very real threat of civil war has passed - although some writers, or headline writers at the very least, seem determined to mention it in any article about Lebanon. A certain Mr Fisk is the main culprit here... see http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article2076121.ece for both a well written and insightful, and egotistical and hysterical article, pretty much in equal parts. Still, he is one of only a few who continue to bring Lebanon to the attention of western readers.

The last few days have seen a bit of a last minute rush - although I think Christmas buying starts late here anyway. Traffic round the ABC centre in Achrafieh, a large mall, is packed solid for much of the day and the city is certainly looking more festive.

One final festive/political gem to show how one can easily mistake intentions in these confusing times... the other day Dom thought that the protestors had set up camp in Sassine - however on closer inspection he found that it was actually a large fake cave containing the nativity!

Merry Christmas!!