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I attended my first Catholic Mass on Sunday. It was very odd to hear the Hail Mary in Arabic and somewhat tedious to hear it repeated about 50 times. I am researching churches to bring the Edinburgh Uni Renaissance Singers out to. I don't think the churches will be a problem, obtaining an audience might be though this would probably not stop most of the choir.

We gate crashed a Palestinian diaspora Iftar party a couple of nights ago when we became too hungry to just eat a falafel and be done with it. I do understand that this goes against the laws of falafel economics, but then you only live once. For a brief moment I felt a little embarrassed as we were shafted up into the top part of the restaurant, but then I heard the music start. Ah yes, the oud and the drums, what a joy! The food wasny too bad either. I just gave a little nod to the Arafat flag as we left and felt my duty was done.

After having described the bathroom and saying that we had worked out the hot water more or less, I think I must retract that statement and add to it the sad reality that both the plug and the socket have somehow melted in such a way that we can no longer get any hot water through that whatsoever. I wonder whether it was Hiba getting her revenge for me poisoning her grape vine (unintentionally of course) with soapy water as I desperately tried to wash all my bedding after a rampant cat whom we have now named Infidel, got into my room and pissed on my bed. I was not happy and ending up spending the entire afternoon trying to amend this terrible occurrence. Fortunately I am now back in my bed and the mattress doesny smell though it does have an ominous yellow tide mark.

The British embassy letter is a joke. I paid £40 ENGLISH POUNDS for a stupid letter just to confirm my identity and have an axe murderer portrait stamped in blue ink. The photo is horrendous, but I hear that there is a photographer nearby that does passport photos with photoshop editing included in the price. "I am an artist" he says. I may be paying him a visit before too long as I am almost out of passport photos, and I do need at least 6 more for various endeavours such as the AIDS test I still haven't been to.

Today Arcadia the Wonderous graced me with her joyous presence. We munched on the best meal ever (falafel, fruit juice and baklava) and then commenced an epic shopping marathon around the old town. Twas a marvellous day indeed, though I was slightly concerned about the taxi I put her in in Bab Touma. He did say he'd use the meter, but his eyes lit up when he realised that India and I were not getting in the taxi with her. And now I haven't done my homework. On the plus I do have a rather nice new leather bag and India managed to buy two knives with original plastic handles. I'd expect no less, though not as good as the slogan shouted at us today: "We have worst quality for most expensive price!" I think perhaps someone should put that man out of his misery. On the minus I haven't looked at the poem that we did in class today. There were many words I did not know…

After tomorrow we have a 9 day Eid holiday. Plans are for a journey into Jordan. Watch this space.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALAN!!!