2007 and more snow

All things considered, the New Year’s celebrations in Beirut went probably as well as they could have. The Lebanese are doing an excellent job of stubbornly ignoring in what mess the society finds itself today and pretending that everything is as it should be. It is a survival mechanism, and when it comes to survival mechanisms, the Lebanese have perfected the art. I think it is recommendable.

We celebrated it outside Beirut, with an excellent view on the city. Fireworks are not as popular here as they are in Holland. Machine guns are, however. In the early days (90’s), every house must have had one (maybe even two), and so it was the most practical ‘fireworks’. Tracer bullets shot from a Kalashnikov (I am being told) are treated with a special dye at the tip, which – due to friction - burns in midair, thus creating a glowing pattern which shows up at night. So with New Year you’d see these traces all trough the sky, like shooting stars.

My first new year in Beirut was spent mainly indoors because so many bullets went up in the air that the host of the party was worried that we’d be hit by landing bullets. What goes up must come down, after all. One landed on my car roof, so then I drove around town with a little hole in my car. Not really an issue, until the rains came in January, when I drove around with a soaked interior.
I’ve had one anti-aircraft bullet landing on my balcony in 1996, and that made a pretty decent hole in the floor, while pieces that ricochet broke a window.

Over the years the celebration with machine guns has slowly diminished, but as I celebrated the New Year near the home (not IN, but NEAR) of a former warlord (and therefore currently a member of the government or the opposition), I noticed that the old Kalashnikovs have not yet lost their popularity as a means of fireworks.

Yesterday I did make it to Qanat Bakish. A beautiful area on the right side of a private ski resort. Yes, this is the country where entire mountain sides are off limits as they are for ‘members only’. My, even beaches in this place are off limits and ‘members only’. Anyway, cross the private ski resort (they do allow you to cross), and you come to a very quiet area, beautiful when covered by snow, and wonderful for sledding.

The dog had a ball. Boeffie’s getting a little old , 13 years now, but still bouncing off the walls as a bearded collie should. This one has sheep herding characteristics, and likes to keep the ‘troops’ together. We used to take him skiing with us in the Cedars, where they allow dogs on the slope (and guns too, by the way). It would annoy him to no extent that we’d be spread out all over the slope (Eddie and I), and he’d try and get us back together by cutting us off, pushing us inwards, pulling on ski pants etc. He’s too old for that kind of running, but he still follows the sled like crazy.