Slackarse Blogger

So to say this blog thing hasn’t really worked out as planned is a bit of an understatement. I haven’t bothered to keep you informed of anything at all and I’ve been here in the Holy Land since July. And it’s not like there’s nothing going on here. There’s been lots to talk about; weddings, firecrackers, Ramadan, puppies, war, oud fragranced soft soap, the peace process, star wars bed sheets, soldiers with lollipops, talk of intifada 3, checkpoints and taxi drivers and ramzi burger icecream. Confused? Well if I get around to it, I’ll explain later. But then again given my track record I wouldn’t hold your breath. Sure I’ve been busy, but I’ve also been drinking a lot of sweet tea at locals’ abodes. And no – that is not some lame analogy for sex. I’m a married woman and I miss my beautiful man immensely. But in all seriousness, Palestine is one of those places where you end up drinking a hell of a lot of tea because you spend an awful lot of time visiting families. Here an hour doesn’t cut it. A standard visit takes at least three and even then as you edge towards the door you’re told “it’s early.” So yeah, to sum up I’ve been busy working, drinking tea (here it has 8 teaspoons of sugar and mint or sage leaves) and pining for loved ones. And at some point in the middle of it all I kind of ended up sitting at a desk opposite a Palestinian bloke who calls himself ‘Danny’, chatting to him about a new easy listening radio station of his called ‘Cool FM’. And now I have a show. It’s called ‘Algila with Daz’ – algila is the term Palestinians use for waterpipe or sheesha – and it takes place weekly on Saturdays at 1pm. It is quite possibly the most surreal thing I’ve ever done. And hence, I’m loving it. So even if I continue to be a slackarse blogger, I can at the very least post the audio from my weekly show here. It goes for an hour and stylistically is easy listening fare with a few interviews thrown in – oh yeah, and I get to pick the music which is ace.

http://algilawithdaz.podomatic.com/