3rd November
Bethlehem.
One word that I haven’t used since coming to Palestine until now is ‘overcast’. But today is verging on overcast, and that is because in the last few days there has been the feeling of the approaching winter here in the hills high above the Mediterranean.
Accordingly, people are becoming British about it. Taxi drivers talk of how cold the nights are getting, my local shop owner has begun making the weather a regular part of her small-talk – it’s all very familiar.
It is at nights that the change is first noticeable – I’ve started closing the sliding doors to my balcony at night and am using two sheets on my bed now, though still no duvet. It is in many ways the perfect temperature at the moment, warm but no so hot that you sweat each time you move. But the change from now on will be fast - soon it will be cold during the days as well, and I fear for the day that the rain comes. The grease of the last 7 months’ traffic (it last rained in March) has been thoroughly slow-cooked onto the roads, and at the first sign of water this will make for a dangerous mixture. The driving style I have witnessed so far is certainly not well suited to slippery roads, and it will be interesting to either see that change or witness the resulting carnage.
