Quite Random

Scary faces

Mexican mosaic masks taken in the British Museum the other day – click to see larger.

Doctor Juma makes it all better

Just been sent this in an email.

This doctor can do it all.

• Swollen body
• Lost lover
• Insanity
• Vomiting all the time
• Remove misunderstanding with anybody

Foxy

She visits us in the back garden. She’s after food.

I stopped loving Christmas after that terrifying Midnight Mass…

Say hello to the nice Pope… mmmWAAAAHHHH AAHH AHHHH!

A year ago this week…

Meh… what would I want with a view like this when I have Brixton Tube in the mornings?

War in Haifa

The only thing I do know about the current escalation of conflict in the Middle East is that I don’t know enough. It goes back too far for me to know all the facts, is too involved for me to know what to say. Strictly speaking, it’s none of my business, and all a very long way from here. I can quite easily throw in remarks about the lamentable contribution the US and the UK have so far made to cooling everything down, or the hypocrisy and absurdity of the US getting involved in yet another international security situation when they themselves are happily selling arms to the combatants… Whoops, there, I said them. Counts for nothing, because everyone has an opinion on this it seems, and mine is worth not a great deal at all.

I met Hadas, an Israeli, last year in India. Hell, who hasn’t met an Israeli in India – the difference from the stereotype is, Hadas was great company, very friendly, and not obsessed with falafel, trance parties and sitting sullenly around playing guitar. In fact, she makes the best chocolate brownies I’ve ever eaten. I asked her just recently whether she had been affected by the recent conflict – she has. Her younger brother and boyfriend are both fighting at the border, the school she works at is closed because it is in nearby Haifa, and alarms are sounding on a regular basis. The Israelis have had a lot of criticism for the ‘disproportionate response’ to the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah, but Hadas tells me her side of the story, which is that “we are victims of Nasralla who intentionally tries to hurt the Israeli civilians”. So between the news coverage, Bush’s ever-so-helpful suggestion that Hezbollah “stop doing this shit”, and an e-mail from a friend in Israel, I’m no further forward than I was before, other than knowing that it’s a crappy situation I wouldn’t want to be in the middle of.

Hadas sent me these photos of Haifa:

Which one now…

I’m entering the TNT Magazine travel writing and photography awards, and need your help. Which of the photos below, or from my trip last year overall, should I submit?