Reasons to be cheerful? Not yet.

If the hopes of some are to be believed these last few days could prove to have been pretty important in the history of this region and the lives of the Palestinian people. Fortunately, you don't have to rely on me for analysis. You don't even have to read some leftist rag.

Nook Neurosis

(WARNING: This post contains material of a pretentious and self-indulgent nature.)

The following is a delayed response to a post by Chloe in which she ponders the question: To Kindle or not to Kindle...?

In her post, Chloe, committed bibliophile that she is, questions whether forsaking the emotional and physical relationship between reader and book is too heavy a price to pay for the clear practical benefits of using an e-reader. Here's my two-penneth.

More holidays than blog posts

So I lied. 'Normal Ramallah-related service' (see my post from 10th May) will have to wait a little longer. A serious confidence and spare-time drought has reduced my ramblings from a slow trickle to barely a dribble. As a result I've actually been on holiday again since I last posted so I'm going to ease myself back in by posting a few photos with oh-so-witty captions. This is the ultimate exercise in lazy blogging, I know, but it shouldn't be too demanding of you either.

Ultimately Unsure...

In a post from last year I wrote about Ultimate Peace, an US/Israeli initiative which attempts to achieve a form of reconciliation between Israeli and Palestinian children through the magic of frisbee.

When I got home I was asked to write an article for Ultimatum, the annual magazine of the sport's governing body in UK. The article was finally published this week. It goes into a bit more detail than the original post and hopefully reflects how my views settled after I had had a little time to ponder. You can read it here.

Rambling to Ramallah - Part II - Touring Turkey

(As you can see I've given the blog a bit of a revamp. More on this to come. The upshot is I've spent so long faffing around with the design I've left little time for writing. Hence the rather large photo to word ratio in this post. This is a relief to you I'm sure. This will be my last holiday related post. Normal Ramallah-related service will resume shortly.)

Long story short, I decided to skip Syria, stay in Turkey for two weeks and fly to Tel Aviv from Istanbul. Turkey is a wonderful country with stunningly diverse scenery and in Istanbul has one of the most mesmerising cities I've ever visited.

Rambling to Ramallah - Part I - Just BBBBecause

Originally posted on 15th April en route from Bucharest to Istanbul

Now this is the business. A (faux) wood panelled compartment, rainy Romanian countryside trundled past the window and no bog roll for 19 hours. This is international train travel and it kicks Easyjet's orange ass every day of the week. (Let's ignore the fact that I face a 1am bus replacement service due a busted bridge on the Bulgaria-Turkey border - all part of the experience, don't you know.)

Ramble VIII - The Greener Grass of Home?

Just a quickie to pass on some news and a few photos.

This is likely to be my penultimate post as I'm heading home a little earlier than planned. Rather unexpectedly, I have been offered a job in London. It is too good an opportunity to pass up and despite reservations about leaving Ramallah after such a short time, with my current project not quite finished, I will be packing my bag and flying home at the end of the month.

Ramble VII - Head Spin

Apologies to all my followers for the recent blog drought. I'm sure the nervous anticipation has been terribly bothersome for you both. To make up for the dry patch this is a bumper post, consisting of two parts, covering my travels to some new parts in the last couple of weeks. Its a bit long but there are plenty of photos. (As usual, click to enlarge)

Ramble VI - Viva Ramallah

With pleasing symmetry, and thanks to the right boot of a little balding Spaniard, in this post I am able to return to the subject of my first post. If you scroll right to the bottom of this page you'll find photos of the reaction in Ramallah in April to Barcelona's defeat of Real Madrid in El Clasico. Well last night the players of those two teams got together with a couple of mates and beat the best of the rest of the world. Naturally, and just as I predicted in that first post, things kicked off once again.

Ramble V - Bloody foreigners, coming over here, trying to help.

Following the existential naval-gazing of the last post (quick summary: Why I am in Palestine = desire to mitigate injustice + personal connection to people + career prospects + post-colonialist guilt) the BIG question for this one is a natural corollary: Should I or any of the 'internationals' even be here at all?

(Now before your politics filter has you reaching for the remote let me say that I'm writing about this stuff because it is relevant to my own decision of whether to stay or go back the UK. If you have got this far then you might at least care about that.)