The welcome return of a cheerful sunny start to the day albeit with some cloud. Late last night I had a cheering message from Basma telling me that the Council has assigned her a single person's temporary housing unit in Grangetown after a month in emergency placement in the Tongwynlais Holiday Inn. In a short while, she'll be able to cook for herself and follow properly her required medical diet in a her own safe space. It's near bus routes to take her to town and her beloved St German's once more. Well done Cardiff Council for dealing decisively with a vulnerable person! This will certainly help her to get on with making a new life for herself and contributing to society here in the way she is eager to do.
Although I woke up just after seven and started listening to the news, I dozed off again after Thought for the Day, and it was nine by the time I finally got up. I must need the extra sleep. Getting myself to bed earlier would make a difference, but I'm just not well disciplined about that. Clare was getting ready to go to her study group, so I made my own breakfast and got on with my daily routine tasks, then finished and uploaded next week's Morning Prayer video.
Israel has launched 1,600 targeted air strikes against Hezbollah military sites yesterday with nearly five hundred people dead, among them women and children, and 1,645 injured. There have been retaliatory missiles fired into Israel, but in comparison minimal casualties. For the moment Gaza is no longer the centre of aggression, and hopes of a ceasefire and release of hostages suspended indefinitely. The reason given for scaled up aggression from the forces of Hezbollah and Yemeni Houthis to start with is to put pressure on Israel to implement a ceasefire deal.
The Netanyahu government pays no heed to this, but is trying to force the aggression to a halt. Despite mass protests in Israel by citizens calling for a deal, a policy is being pursued of utter destruction, a final solution to deal with its adversaries. If they persist in this, it seems likely to me that if there are still hostages surviving, a stage will come at which keeping them alive no longer serving its purpose to their captors, so they'll be killed in a final act of retaliation. Fear persists of all-out war in the Middle East, and will, as long as both sides keep believing there's no alternative to salvation by violence.
I cooked a mildly spicy chick pea dish for lunch, and it was ready when Clare arrived home. She had another follow-up eye appointment at three, and I decided to wait for her rather than going home to wait for her summons. As a result, I spent two hours in the corridor outside the clinic people watching. It was interesting, so I didn't get bored. After we got home and had a cup of tea and bara brith, I walked for an hour, then returned for supper and went out again in the dark to complete my daily step quota. I returned with an idea for another Haikus forming in my mind, and wrote it down.
Bike lights in the night / dazzle dog walkers in the park / hounds bewildered bark.
I spent the rest of the evening scanning photo negatives again. A pack of late 1980's pictures of Nick and Sue's wedding, plus the wedding of Axel and Maggie, and a small number from a camping holiday by Lake Annecy. Lovely to to see photos of the children and Clare, and ones of older generation relatives now dead. And now here we are, elders with only my sister June above us on the family tree.
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