Ramadan traditions

Tags

charity, good fellowship, humanity, kindness

The word ‘Ramadan‘ originally meant the ninth month of the Muslim lunar calendar, also known as “Hegira”. … A semantic shift means that the word is now also used to refer to the month of fasting that accompanies it.

My first post in the Middle East was in Cairo, a vast metropolis straddling the Nile River surrounded by the Sahara Desert. From the night I arrived in Cairo on the flight from Paris, I had stopped there for 48 hours, Egypt was an adventure, with some funny and exotic twists. The day I arrived was at the end of Ramadan and the First Day of the EID ul Fitr marking the end of the Holy Month. It was late July, temperature was 28 C., the streets were full of people celebrating, bright colourful lights strung everywhere.

As my car drove through the streets of Old Cairo the stench of blood was overpowering and nauseating. I asked my Muslim driver about it and he explained the significance of what had taken place. Lambs had been sacrificed as is the tradition from the Old Testament and also from the Jewish tradition of Passover. The story as you can read it goes this way;

That night, God sent the angel of death to kill the firstborn sons of the Egyptians. God told Moses to order the Israelite families to sacrifice a lamb and smear the blood on the door of their houses. In this way the angel would know to ‘pass over’ the houses of the Israelites.

This is a bit confusing since Muslims are not Jews but observe the exact same traditions, Islam being part of the 3 great Abrahamic religions. The Coran is a re-affirmation of God’s Commands given to Abraham and Moses and Jesus. But there was another meaning to all this, roasting the entire lamb, a good portion of the meat must be given to the poor. It is a religious duty and practicing Muslims must observe it. Charity and good works towards the community is an important part of Ramadan. Those who can afford it even in a small measure must give alms. Many families will prepare food dishes at least once during the month and bring it to the Mosque to be distributed, call it a Soup Kitchen. Ramadan puts the emphasis on the community and on sharing. You never hear this unfortunately unless you have Muslim friends or live in a majority Muslim country.

I had never experienced Ramadan or the great holiday following the end of the month, EID ul Fitr. What was impressive was the cuisine and specialty dishes. During Ramadan at Sunset the IFTAR is the meal shared with others. At least as important as what is eaten is the fact that it is shared with family and friends. The prophet Muhammad instructed his disciples to “eat together, and do not separate, for the blessing is in the company.”

The dishes are numerous and so are the sweets served Sweets are particularly popular. Iraqis make a rosewater-scented, date-filled pastry called klaicha. A similar cookie called mamoul served in Lebanon, Syria and elsewhere, is filled with dates or ground walnuts. Palestinians make a butter cookie with almonds or pine nuts called ghraybeh.

The streets are strewn with what looked to me like Xmas lights and colourful tents are set up for meals and entertainment. After the meal there will be traditional music, singing, folk dancing, story telling and games like cards. Coffee scented with cardamon and sweet tea is served usually in glasses.

Egypt and Cairo is seen as the centre of many Islamic traditions. Cairo has always been a centre of culture and learning. Egyptians cherish their past since the Pharaohs and into the Muslim period. So much of what you see in the Middle East comes from Cairo, in the 1940 to the 1980’s Egyptian television and radio dominated the airwaves in the region. This is part due to the greater liberty to create, be it films, theatre, literature or political discourse. Something you would not see in neighbouring countries. So when it comes to Ramadan, Egypt is the place you want to be. I remember Ramadan in Jordan and Syria, it was a much more staid affair.

Observance of fasting from Sunrise to Sunset depends very much on each individual, same for prayers. At the Office we had staff who were Muslims and out of respect we either went home for lunch or have a small bite to eat in our offices with doors closed. However I did notice that after the first week, many colleagues would cheat and have a little coffee or tea or a cigarette. Few actually observed the fast as it is prescribed, also it is permitted if you are travelling, pregnant, sick or working full time in an Office to avoid fasting.  Children under the age of 12 do not fast. There is a lot of nuance in the way one practices his religion.

Egyptians love a party and Ramadan was treated as such. Finding in a month of fasting a meaning to enjoy yourself with friends and family.

Recipe for Namoura cake

Tags

dessert, life, Middle East, Namoura, Recipe

Namoura (نمورة), is a delicious cake/dessert that is easy to make and widely known across the Middle East.  It is topped with almonds, baked and then soaked with an aromatic sugar.

This Namoura dessert is the classic recipe for the original Lebanese Namoura. Many other Middle Eastern cultures called it by other names. Egyptians call it Basbousa, Palestinians call it Harissa, Armenians call it Shamali, Persians call it Revani/Ravani.

HOW TO MAKE THE NAMOURA (نمورة)

In a large bowl mix the sugar, semolina, and butter together. Then add in the milk, baking powder, orange blossoms water, yogurt and mix well to obtain a thick sticky batter.

Brush a non-stick sheet pan (which I prefer using because I like my Namoura cake thin, about an inch and half thick at the most) with tahini paste and then place the batter on it and flatten out completely with a spatula or your palm.

Let it sit for about 30 minutes and then cut out the namoura into square patterns or diamond shape patterns, whatever you prefer. I do it like this because it looks pretty. Then press a piece of halved raw almond (peeled) on each piece of cut out cake. The reason I cut it out before baking is because it makes the cutting later so much easier and doesn’t break apart as much. the pieces come one perfectly cut on the edges.

Bake the Namoura cake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 40 minutes, and if the top if not gold enough for you, you can broil it for a few minutes. I just don’t like to over cook the Namoura because it becomes try and too crunch. That is why if it needs any more color, I just broil the top. Once you remove from the oven, pour 1 1/4 cup of sugar syrup evenly over the Namoura while it’s hot. I like using those ketchup or mustard rubber containers to drizzle the sugar syrup over the cake. We don’t like the cake super sweet. Some people drench the cake with sugar and that is one reason I don’t like to buy this cake and would rather make it at home. If you like it super sweet, feel free to add some more sugar syrup to it.

Namoura is very popular during Ramadan. The portions are small and you don’t have to eat a huge piece. You can enjoy a small piece whenever you have a sweet tooth.

Ingredients

• 3 cups semolina flour coarse
• 1.5 cup melted butter
• 1.5 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup plain yogurt not Greek
• 1/2 cup milk I used Carnation
• 3 tbsp. orange blossoms water
• 2 tbsps.. tahini paste
• 1/2 cup almonds (peeled and halved)

SUGAR SYRUP:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1.5 tbsps. orange blossoms water

Instructions

• In a large bowl mix the sugar, semolina, and butter together. Add in the milk, orange blossoms water, baking powder, yogurt and mix well to obtain a thick sticky batter.
• Brush a non-stick sheet pan with the tahini paste and then place the batter on it and spread out with a spatula or your palm.
• Let it sit for about 30 minutes and then cut out the namoura into square patterns or diamond shape patterns, whatever you prefer.
• Bake the Namoura cake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 40 minutes, and then turn on the broiler to broil the top a few minutes if you would like to obtain a darker golden color.
• Remove from the oven and pour 1 1/4 cup of sugar syrup evenly over the Namoura while it’s hot. Let it cool at room temperature before serving.

SUGAR SYRUP:

• In a small pot, mix the sugar and water well until the sugar dissolves. Bing to boil and then start timing 5 minutes time on low-medium heat.
• Add in the lemon juice and orange blossoms water and boil for 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the syrup cool down.

Notes

Prepare sugar syrup during bake time or before.

Language and words

Tags

Canada., Communism, Feminist, language, Nazi, PEI, people, vocabulary, words

For some time now I have notice and am sure you have noticed also that on social media and in society at large there is an insidious agenda being promoted by so called Social Justice warriors about words and language and how to use them as part of the promotion of the ideology of political change in society.

In Canada we see discussions on what words to use (you should use) and what words you should not use. Words that should be purged from the vocabulary. Recently the Canadian media and here in PEI in particular describe the work of nurses, hospital staff, first responders and doctors dealing daily with patients and Covid 19. You will hear the word Hero to describe these people it is part of the general parlance. Our Chief Medical Officer in PEI is Dr Heather Morrison, a brilliant woman, well spoken, calm and she has the ability to describe difficult topics in simple terms every one can understand. She is highly respected and the Media and people in general describe her a Hero.

Words also used to describe the Covid 19 pandemic is the word War, we are at war with this virus and must defeat it to save ourselves collectively. Many heads of Government have use the war terminology to attract the attention of the public to the seriousness of the matter, there are still doubters out there.

Another term is Victory Garden, which historically were planted by urban populations to grow food during the second world war and afterwards when rationing was still on.

Now here in Charlottetown population 36,000 we have quite a few activists whose agenda is to change the world which usually means imposing their world view as the only correct one. They see this pandemic as their chance to transform and change the world. These same people want certain words banned from our vocabulary. Vocabulary is described as either Patriarchal or Masculine, oppressive and anti-women. They describe the word Hero as a masculine patriarchal word and should not be used when speaking of women in action as in a health care setting. What should we call such women?  What term or adjective should we use to describe their work or actions?

War on the virus is also wrong according to these same activists because it implies that there is a looser, in this case the virus. But this word War is a masculine word and expresses the violent aggressive nature of all men, they say. The idea being promoted here is that women do not engage in War and are not aggressive, they are bold, nurturing, compassionate. Girls and women can be bold, the term is used to described women in life as bold. So the lady cashier at the grocery store is bold in the face of this pandemic. The nurse is bold in her action in the ICU, but do not call them heroes.

As for the word Victory garden well again the phraseology is masculine and should not be used. Women achieve success by convincing, reach consensus through respectful and inclusive communication. So a garden you plant is just a garden to nurture and nothing else. How about Community garden, would that be ok as long as you make sure to indicate that women are leading.

The list goes on, Cisgender also appear now in describing in social punditry, you are a cisgender male which denotes or relates to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender corresponds with their birth sex. You cannot be, when speaking, just male.

All this jargon is political and we are encourage strongly by activists who seek to change the world to use such phraseology when speaking. If you don’t you will be shamed aggressively either in public or on social media. All this reminds me of the Cold War and the type of Marxist, Maoist or Stalinist ideology, people were cosmopolitan (not a good thing) bourgeois hoarders, revisionists or reactionaries. Are these activists the heirs of the Cold War diatribes and its sickening phraseology?

Another terms which use to be in vogue prior to 1989 was Third World countries to describe a country going through economical development but not having achieve the same level of economic prosperity as a country like Canada or other countries in the Western World. The term Third World was coined by Mao Tse Tung the Chinese dictator who died in 1976. He was describing a world following a Marxist dialectic. So the First world was all Western Imperialistic countries enemies of Communist China. The term “Second World country” was used during the Cold War to refer to the industrial socialist states that were under the influence of the Soviet Union. Second World countries were the Eastern bloc of communist-socialist states and Mao’s China. Third World countries were any other country not aligned with either power.

Now I was told that you cannot use the term Third world countries anymore it being a masculine pejorative word and instead use Developing or emerging nations. When it was pointed out that Mao had invented or coined this term, there was much confusion, Mao who? I also hope that no one is under the illusion that Mao was a feminist, according to his personal doctor and people around him, he was more a Harvey Weinstein kind of sexual predator with poor hygiene.

So what I see here is an effort to control language and how people express themselves in order to direct how society should be transformed along the ideological lines.

A term used by the media currently is the word vulnerable. Persons who are vulnerable to Covid 19 because of certain characteristic are more at risk of becoming seriously ill. However these activists seek to correct the media in general by insisting that the word vulnerable can only be used for women who are single parent or single women, who are poor or oppressed by the male patriarchy in society, victims of social inequalities, etc. The word vulnerable should not be used to described people who are sick with the virus, they do not fit their ascribed definition.

Finally the extremely sad case of the past weekend in the Province of Nova Scotia where a mad man killed 23 people and set fire to 5 houses and some cars while dressed up as a police officer driving a car that looked like a police cruiser. The worst mass murder incident in Canadian history. The media gave a description of the man and is background who he was in an effort to inform the public.

The media was attacked in an article in Now Magazine by Pam Palmater a known Native activist/feminist for giving a description of the murderer and his background, her argument was that doing so the white male dominated media was glorifying white male aggression and downplaying what he had done, in a way excusing it all. She then went on to say that all violent crimes in North America are committed by White males and linked it to Timothy McVeigh the Oklahoma City bomber.

It seems that in periods of crisis like the one we are going through right now bring out the social justice warriors and their change agenda. The world may very well be different after this pandemic or if history is any guide, very little will change, because humans in general do not like change.

Is it not better to listen, to seek a plurality of points of views and to use a wide vocabulary in everyday conversations? Should we not be firmly against this idea of dictating to others how to speak or think and what words to use or not use to suit the  political agenda of the moment. This type of activist agenda is nothing more than thought control, more common with Authoritarian regimes like North Korea and China.  Unfortunately such activists believe that their way is the correct one but in the end all they actually do is divide society in times of crisis.

Politics, the pandemic, and the professional class — Philippe Lagassé

Here’s a piece I wrote as part of Policy for Pandemics series: COVID-19 is highlighting the importance of evidence and expertise in policymaking and democratic government. The pandemic has brought experts to the centre of decision-making and government communications in Canada. Public trust in these experts is high and has helped flatten the curve. […]

via Politics, the pandemic, and the professional class — Philippe Lagassé

LIGHTS OUT AT ERICHS LAMPENLADEN: The story of East Berlin’s Palast der Republik — KREUZBERGED: BERLIN COMPANION

On November 2, 1973 Berlin witnessed the foundation-stone laying ceremony for what was to become one of the city’s most famous and, eventually, most disputable buildings. Three years later, on April 23, 1976 (and 44 years ago today), Palast der Republik, or the Palace of The Republic, was officially opened. Mind you, the public or […]

via LIGHTS OUT AT ERICHS LAMPENLADEN: The story of East Berlin’s Palast der Republik — KREUZBERGED: BERLIN COMPANION

Theme song

Tags

Cairo, Canada., Durrell, Egypt, Embassy, Lilliburo, Mahfouz

In 1989 I was appointed to the Canadian Embassy in Cairo, Egypt. Then the President was Hosni Mubarak who had served under President Anwar Sadat and previously under President Nasser. In those days our Chancery was in Garden City which is a neighbourhood next to Tahrir Square and is very central in Cairo. We had purchased at some point in the 1950’s an old villa and it was a funky spot for an Embassy. At the end of the street was the British Embassy, a large complex which at one point stretched all the way down to the Nile. The British occupied this piece of land in central Cairo since at least 1800. There was several buildings, one being the Residence of the Ambassador in British colonial style with the lawn stretching down to the river, that is until Colonel Nasser who took over the government in a coup in 1952 decided to block river access by building a road, the Corniche al Nil, the reason was that the British had sea planes fly to Cairo and land on the Nile docking at the Embassy. The Egyptian authorities had no control on those planes and the British claimed that they were covered by Diplomatic privilege. However this being Egypt, the government built the new stone wall and gave the Brits some 300,000 Egyptian Pounds in compensation. Next to the Ambassador’s Residence was another building used at one point as a ballroom, it was now used as a Consular section. The third building was quite large and had been built in 1951-52 at the height of tensions between Egypt and Britain when riots took place all around the Embassy compound. The British continued building not paying much attention to the Egyptians. Egypt had been their protectorate since the 1860’s and the British Army and Navy had a strong visible presence in the Red Sea, the Suez Canal and in the Mediterranean. I could walk from my Office to the Commissary store where the British gave us access and we could buy duty free goods, liquor and British style foods which were brought in for diplomats of the Commonwealth. The distinctive feature of the Embassy was the large wrought iron gates with the cypher VR (Victoria Regina) with gas lamps.  This Embassy complex saw many events from the glory days of the British Empire and it was a symbol of the importance of Britain in the world.

His Britannic Majesty’s Ambassador Residence in Garden City

I lived in Kamal Al Tawil street in Zamalek on the island Gezira on the Nile in Central Cairo, from my apartment I had a panoramic view of all Cairo. I would drive from my home down to the Qsar Al Nil Bridge in dense and totally uncoordinated traffic

The famous larger than life lions guarding the bridge, they were sculpted by a French artist Alfred Jacquemart. The bridge until 1954 was called Khedive Ismail Bridge. The current bridge was built in 1932 by an Australian company.

I had bought a VW Jetta in Canada and had it shipped to Egypt by cargo ship in a container. The car had a nice radio that you could pull out completely and take with you, a security feature. The radio was able to get short wave transmission and I would listen to the BBC World Service while driving around. Marion Marshall one of the most recognized voices of the BBC World Service read the news on the hour coming from  London. In those days the BBC identification tune was the military march Lillibulero. The French version is known as the Marche du Prince d’Orange, and is attributed to Louis XIV’s court composers Philidor the Elder and Jean-Baptiste Lully. The basic melody of Lillibulero appears to have been adapted by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for the theme of the first movement of his Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, K.

 

Anytime I hear this tune I instantly think of those days in Cairo. This was amongst one of the best posting I had. Life in Cairo was fun and always full of extravagance and peculiarities so Egyptian. Cairo a Capital of 15 million people is a vast metropolis full of history going back thousands of years. It is reflected in the way the Cairene think of themselves. Previous to my posting in Egypt I had read several books by Nobel Literary Laureate Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006) his stories of the people of Egypt, ordinary people living in and around old Cairo are fascinating. I could walk the streets and recognize buildings and sights described in his books. He use to say; If we reject science, we reject the common man.

Another writer was Lawrence Durrell who writes about life in the Middle-East prior to 1940. His book The Alexandria Quartet begin with young David Mountolive on the Hosnani estate near Alexandria, where he has begun an affair with Leila Hosnani, mother of Nessim and Narouz. This leads to a recollection of Mountolive’s maturation and career as a diplomat, a career which in time returns him to Egypt. This book won many awards, and is fascinating to read.

I have not returned to Egypt in 20 years and I don’t know if I would recognize it today. But I do keep the most wonderful memories of my time in Egypt.

Happy Birthday

Tags

Birthday, Canada., EIIR, life, Queen, Reign, Sovereign

Today is H.M. the Queen 94th Birthday.  Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was born on 21 April 1926 at number 17 Bruton street, Mayfair, London. The house does not exist anymore. She was named Elizabeth after her mother; Alexandra after  her grandfather’s King George V mother Alexandra of Denmark who had died six months earlier; and Mary after paternal grandfather’s wife Queen Mary of Teck.

She is the longest reigning Monarch of Canada and Great Britain at 68 years. In 1947, she married Philip Duke of Edinburgh, a former prince of Greece and Denmark, with whom she has four children: Charles, Prince of Wales; Anne, Princess Royal; Prince Andrew, Duke of York; and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex.

In 2017, she became the first Canadian and British monarch to reach a Sapphire Jubilee, (65yrs). She is the longest lived and longest-reigning. She is the longest serving female head of State in world history, and the world’s oldest living monarch.

Queen Elizabeth II, personal Standard in Canada, flown when she is on Canadian soil.

Very Happy Birthday and best wishes to Her Majesty.

Princess Elizabeth, portrait 1929.

Quiet Saturday

Tags

Big Band, Canada., Friends, Jacques Saucier, Music, Radio Canada

Another quiet day here in Charlottetown, it is in a way very nice, you can actually hear the chimes of both the R.C. Basilica and the Anglican Church up the street on the hour and half hour. Nice sunny day with a light cool wind.

The Prime Minister at his daily briefing told the Nation that the borders will remain closed for another month. The US Administration agreed that this was the best course of action, despite the Donald telling everyone that he wants to go back to normal pronto. Seems our PM has a way to sooth the evil beast in the White House, he reminds him that if you take one course what might happen. It has been an education for the gang around Trump that Canada does matter to the US economy and well being.
I do have a feeling that our border will remain closed for a few more months or at least as long as the Covid 19 rages in the USA. Here in Canada in some Provinces it appear that the curve is flattening and we will know more in 2 weeks time. It seems that all the measures taken by the Government of Canada and the Provinces are working. It is just a bit boring, but I am continuing to read and walking in the park by the river.

So no visitors this Summer and none of those awful cruise ships. I use to love cruising but not anymore. All the Summer Festivals have been cancelled all over Canada. I am phoning friends and sending SMS to people we know keeping in touch, so far no one we know is sick. My brother and sister-in-law and my sister and brother-in-law in the USA are well. So we are lucky in many ways.

The radio show C’est si bon on Radio-Canada with Jacques Saucier plays music from the 1920 to 1970 and has he says, it is nice to have this music to make us smile in a time of trouble.

 

Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadian Orchestra with singer Bill Flanagan.

Is it Friday already?

Tags

Berlin, Cheese, Friday, life, Macaroni, Sword, tourism, week

The weeks are moving faster and faster, the days are long, strange way time is moving, is it all part of this Pandemic. My sense of time has changed and it is related in part to the fact that there is little to do and tomorrow well there is nothing to do. We have to invent activities.

So the mighty Island is closed off to non Islanders, that is people who do not live here permanently and have the paperwork to prove it. The Government of PEI today decreed a State of Emergency which empowers the police to assist the public service in their duties, this decree comes on top of another decree of Public Health Emergency. Both are valid until 30 April 2020 and will most probably be extended beyond that date.

All this means that no one can come to PEI to occupy their Summer Season Cottage, in the Summer we usually have a surge of tourists, many from the USA who have been coming for years to PEI to occupy their second home. Not this year, no that won’t happen. The Sea Bridge, the ferries, all ports and harbours are closed and under surveillance to prevent people from entering PEI. Some have already argued that this goes against Section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms but given our current circumstances it is an acceptable and reasonable infringement on this right to restrict movement.

As an Islander and like many other people living here permanently I am happy with this decision by my Government on this matter. We have been spared the worst of this Pandemic and want to keep it that way. As of 16 April 2020, PEI has 3 active cases, no deaths and no hospitalizations.

ABOUT MAC AND CHEESE

I have been having this discussion on Kraft Macaroni and Cheese with fellow blogger Moving with Mitchell. movingwithmitchell.wordpress.com  who has been delighting us with tales of culinary delight…  So tonight I phoned my little sister who lives in Brooklyn and who loves Mac & Cheese, to ask her if she remembers that Kraft Mac and Cheese dinners congeal quickly once they cool. She confirmed that yes, it is better to make it in your crockpot and simply eat it directly from said crockpot while it is hot and not bother with plates and eating at the dinner table. I should have known this but this fact escaped me. Then I remembered that when at home and I was babysitting her and my younger brother I would make proper macaroni and cheese not the box stuff. This did not prevent them from accusing me in front of our Mom of trying to poison them, such grateful siblings I have.

My sister works at a big palliative care hospital in the Bronx and she is doing fine, though a bit tired. Nonetheless it is a stressful situation for her and her husband who also works at the same facility.

ON OTHER TOPICS

I found this sketch of what the Humboldt Forum former City Palace in Berlin will look like once opened later this year. The dome and the large former chapel below is now called in this diagram the Hall of the Sword Bearer, I do not know why this name is given. The other interesting part which I did see during excavations of the former parking lot in 1998 is the ruined underground portion of what was once the Palace kitchens, it will be possible to visit them, I remember the walls covered in white porcelain tiles.

I do have a Prussian Artillery Officer’s sword, c.1889. It was given to me around 1999 as a Birthday gift by a friend when we lived in Poland. It has the name of the manufacturer on the blade, J.R.O. Brecht, Hoelieferant, (supplier), Berlin. Preussischer Kavalerie-Offizier- Säbel mit Löwenkopf.

 

One more case

Tags

brown rat, Canada., PEI, Stalin, USSR

Well we have been lucky here on PEI. For the last 6 days there were no new cases of the virus, today one appeared in a man in his 30’s who just returned from International travel to give us a total of 3 cases. It is more than clear now that none of the restrictions will be lifted in Canada before at least August. So this could be a long haul and our economy will be impacted by all the restrictions. However the Government of Canada and our Prime Minister have come to the rescue in a big way financially to help Canadians in general. The programs, there are several, are generous, given that Canadians in general have a major personal debt problem and many have mortgages they cannot pay unless they are fully employed, I can see a lot of personal bankruptcies that will push people into permanent poverty. This is not news really since for the last 30 years personal debt has been a big problem for many with too much easy credit and a public ignorant of how personal finances work. An extremely sad situation for many, it could bring a lot of social instability, if we are not careful. In the 1930’s when the great depression struck, Canadians lived mostly on farms and in small rural settlements. Life was simple, many went to a public bath once a week, entertainment was limited. It was not the consumer society of today, far from it. People could make due with little, you made your own food at home, you only bought what was essential and necessary or made without if you could not afford it. My mother use to tell me that getting an orange as a gift at Christmas was a big treat. Other gifts were books and clothing. I can understand how the economic downturn we are living now could create mental health problems for many.

With the city so quiet and deserted, this afternoon I had a shock when getting out of the house to walk Nora, I see across the street this big brown rat walking along on the sidewalk. It was a Norwegian rat, I know them by sight because when I lived in Mexico City you would see them on the street quite often. My concern was Nora and if she saw it would go into killing mode and do her high pitch howling. Now this is a nocturnal creature I wonder if maybe because the city is so quiet we are going to start seeing more creatures coming out here and there. We also live near the river and wharfs which is a natural habitat for these rats. I would prefer seeing urban Foxes instead.

I have decided not to change my winter tires for my summer ones just right now and wait instead another few weeks before going to the garage. I am just concerned with the danger contamination of the car if 3 guys work on it and the clean up job wiping down everything. It can wait I don’t drive the car anyways and it is parked.

I just bought a book on Svetlana Alliluyeva who died in 2011 in Wisconsin while visiting her daughter Olga who is an American citizen. She had the most fascinating life and one filled with sadness, turmoil, death and disappearances. She was well educated and spoke 4 languages. An interview by the BBC done in 1982 in London is very interesting. I had read the biography of her father Josef Stalin and found it harrowing. I also saw the movie Death of Stalin, which is not a comedy but shows the absurdity of the Soviet Regime. She said that all her life she was hostage of her father’s name. I am fascinated by this historical period and by the people who lived in the entourage of Stalin.

We are running out of things to do. We will have to be more creative.