Yesterday evening, I chose to go out to have a drink with some friends and leave my TV alone. I came back home nearly after midnight to find the electricity gone. I couldn't believe that I lasted an entire evening without watching the news. I went straight to bed knowing that it would be hard to sleep in this heat and humidity. I woke up at 2:30 AM at the imperceptible sound of the phone charger's beep, signaling that the electricity is back on. Instinctively, I left the sweaty sheets of my bed and ran towards my favorite TV couch... For 15 minutes... Until the electricity went out again. In the morning, I couldn't remember what I saw on the news.

• There was Pierre of course. And there was also Omar. Omar is one of the most faithful clients in Cafe Younes. Around 60 years of age but looking 90, diabetic, short sighted, partially deaf, with high amounts of cholesterol, Omar has nothing to do in life but to spend around four hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon in Cafe Younes and to give each one of my customers his share of my three sets of newspapers... And no one is allowed to read it for more than 15 minutes. When I greeted him, Omar answered: " Yes, yes, how are you... Why did you close early yesterday, ha, I took a long walk to find your place closed!!!" When I explained that I closed early yesterday because there was no one on the streets due to the rumor of an Israeli bombing on Beirut, he commented angrily: "Allah yimhi Israil (May God erase Israel)".
• Emily, with her lovely smile, showed me a shot of a video film she took on her way to the South. It was about people stuck in front of a partially destroyed bridge. "Lebanese have a solution to everything", she said when I saw a few citizens inventing a rudimentary way to create a narrow passage for the cars to pass through. While other reporters and journalists portray the massacres and the agonizing victims, Emily pictures normal people facing successfully the obstacles of war.
• A British photographer came to order my famous combination of Colombian and Ethiopian beans. The she said while she was sniffing lovingly the coffee bag and looking at the main page of a newspaper showing Qana's massacre: "I went to Qana three days ago to try to take some pictures of locals there. The whole area was totally empty and all what I got were pictures of dogs, cats and goats."
• Then Abed and his muscles showed up. Abed is the owner of a fitness club a few blocks away. He always advises his clients to have a "Younespresso" before starting their sessions. When I asked him the regular how-is-work question, he replied: "It is relatively good. Although I lost a few foreigners, people are coming abundantly to release their stress."
• A Lebanese photographer, specialized in weddings and galas of the Lebanese high class "bourgeoisie" came in. Instead of ordering his usual kilogram of Guatemala coffee, he ordered a cheaper half kilogram of Brazilian coffee. Without asking him the reason, he said: "I am officially out of work and I will not switch to taking pictures of Israeli crimes. I am a "happy moments" specialist and not a crime publisher."
• Three of the regular students came in and ordered their flavored iced soda drinks. Each one was carrying a transparent folder showing their personal passport and some other documents. "Traveling somewhere, guys?", I asked. "Yeah, unfortunately, I am going to Bahrain to work with my father, he is going to Australia to work with his brother and she is trying to continue her degree in Canada", one of them answered. The three are still in their junior year at the university.

Attached is a picture of good old Omar.