Sunday 10th December

Wake at 5a.m. sharp.  Dawn chorus.  Update diary.  Make coffee with warmish bath tap.  7.30a.m.,  time to break this fast.  Day beckons warm … you’re on holiday,  Jamie … let’s get this broken body browner !

Similar fare to previous day but eat less  –  last pot of apricot jam.  Settle on patio to pen postcards to my girls … my brain’s not functioning … before that I had gone for morning walk down to beach,  left towards Jordan over different bridge,  walked tother side of lagoon (musing that this should become Eilat’s first golf course)  –  the soil here is a superfriable loam that clings to my trainers a bit.  Accompanied by a fine selection of wildlife such as seagulls,  heron,  sparrows,  wagtails dabbing the way,  indiscriminate beauties particularly human friendly dart around me,  cormorants from the lagoon,  black fishes wiggling up the salty creek,  a sandpiper  –  up to fish farm complex then left back to hotel spotting large limo with rich Arabs in the back.

… one more Sainsbury’s Gold Choice & restaurant ‘pani gurm’ (hot water) from my Gujerat waiter mate & on with the postcards … One to Pip & Charlotte,  one a thank you for last Sunday’s lunch chez my doc & wife,  2 side letter to G started inside cos heat beginning to overcome.

Pause scripting for a lazy mo flattish on my back by the pool  –  less grockles as it’s changeover day.  Ponder my vanity.  Who on earth is going to notice if my body is brown & anyway it’s winter in the U.K. so is this exercise (or lack of it) pointless ?  Yes.  Take new Olympus OM1 (£169 extravagance last month in Acton) & head for the hills for a brisk hour plus,  this time on south side of town to suitable mound for 3x panorama picture of Eilat with Aqaba in the distance.  Head down left passing new road bridge over the wadi which I join taking me down to port area & back to base camp.

1.40p.m.  –  finish letter & contemplate one to Enya.  Her music speaks to God  –  do I let her know ?  She must know already.

Sun begins to hide obscured by clouds so I cruise again.  Banks will open at 4p.m. I’m told,  shops at 5p.m..  To town past one established older house in what remains of park area where guarded by ass,  pony,  geese,  cockerel and barky dog  –  place for the children’s zoo à la Battersea Park ?

Efficient service upstairs at Bank Leumi gets me £50 (250 shekels) on my Diners Club card but the people downstairs will have to Q for ages  –  they need more banks here to serve the swelling numbers.

Candles & chewing gum (lemon) from Shekem Dept. Store  –  the lemon continues my experiment of bleaching my yellowy brown teeth.  I had earlier bought a lemon for 30 cents from my favourite shop lady,  chewed,  bitten & sucked en route uphill.  Will it work ?  Is the pain worth the gain ?

Enquire about Eilat’s export of mail at travel agency  –  he tells me it goes via Tel Aviv & can take a long time.. That needs attention doesn’t it,  as at least twice a week planes go to Britain ?

Bath at hotel  –  make decision to leave Eilat & pay bill.  To Petra ?  Rose Red City of Jordan ?  Peut-ȇtre.  Conceive ‘wicked’ plan to to cheat Israeli postal service by stamping my mail with U.K. stamps & passing them to Brits flying home on the morrow but two local hotels seem bereft of Brits.  Plan B goes into action & I return to nice Essex man at agency who kindly takes them.

Rap awhile re Petra (difficult to get to  –  too difficult as yet),  Assad of Syria who has just murdered 15,000 of his own people (?) & Saddam Hussein who has sneakily gained foothold in Lebanon (?).  This conversation at another travel agent,  lady ex-U.K. run.

Return to my deli but my bird has flown … Still,  purchase one more tub of aubergine pãté,  2 pitta type roundels & a doughnut. Eat my supper on a grassy mound before the wind & palms  motion me towards the Royal Beach Hotel.

This is some palace  –  the swankiest hotel I have ever set foot in … automatic doors everywhere,  even sensored taps in the loo. Marble halls,  vast carpets,  comfortable chairs,  elegance  –  surreal,  a roving clarinettist  –  beautiful pools,  warm.  Treat myself to a 6.50 (not overpriced) lemon pressée in one of the myriad of bars & lounges.  Drink outside in splendour,  noticing earthquake damage to 2 crucial lines  –  their pillars ain’t strong or don’t have the girth to cope with such weight of rooms above. Fearful for the safety of this delightful dream-like domain I express concern to the concierge who is diffident.  “Only superficial damage,  all will be completed next week “.  I reply, “You’ve only cemented over the cracks.  It’s not enough,  you need wider (stretch out arms) pillars.  Another quake ?” (frown).  Reception finally tells me it’s $212 a night here but it’s probably worth it.

Emerge from trance & return to sleep 9.30/10p.m.