In case you were wondering how I spent New Year’s Eve

You would be surprised to know that it had more in common with Iraq than with partying. So about 8 PM that night just as the whole family was settling in for a quiet night of watching a nice movie on Channel 2 and enjoying pancakes with honey and nice cup of green tea..it started raining. Well that’s not a problem you would say- or is it ? Actually it is, if the rain increases in intensity and is accompanied by thunder. So we had us a beautiful thunderstorm. The lightning struck the electricity pole and of course no more electricity or light etc… which means no more TV, but also no more heating and no more water since our water supply in the house depends on the automatic pump system. When the heaters are off, the temperature in our houses drops at an alarming rate ( house are not really built to cope with extreme cold). So we’re there freezing (it’s -5 degrees outside) in the dark, listening to the sound of thunder ‘explosions’ outside. Nice scenario eh? But that was not all, we had to put up with the howling wind with a gale force of I don’ know how much , but which was frightening enough to have put in my cousin’s head ( who was staying over at our house that night) the grim notion that a tsunami is coming to the Tripoli shores as well ( we live a 100 metres from the beach). She actually suggested that we go sleep on the roof ?!? what in this cold ? no way, let the tsunami come …

10:30 am January 1st 2005
Damage assessment:

2 dead telephone lines struck by lighting
2 very dead telephones
1 UPS struck by lightning (thank God it as not the PC)
1 fried scanner as well
1 fried digital satellite receiver
1 very traumatized cat :)
Me with the flu :(

Could have been worse, thank god we are all alive. No Tsunami and no War.
Let me mention that this has been an extremely cold winter in Libya and in other North African countries and in the Middle-East, just to know how cold it was it even snowed in the Gulf states !