I know that a lot of people are waiting for my first post about Beirut, but I'm still writing... To keep you amused in the meantime, below is another video I filmed during my visit. It was taken at La Plage, a rather chic bar / restaurant on the Corniche, on my second day in Beirut. The guy who's speaking is Hans Jaap Melissen, a reporter for Dutch Radio who clearly has a fabulous sense of humour. He's the one who took us to La Plage; as we entered and I took it all in - the waterfront location, the beautiful people, the sunset and the luxurious setting, I said jokingly, "Wow, Hans, the life of a war reporter is really tough, huh?" You'll see his tongue-in-cheek response in the video.

The secret can finally be told: I was in Beirut for the past week. I'll need a day or two to start posting about that amazing trip, but I'll leave you with two images (one photo and one video), below. Flickr photos are here.

I am on a brief hiatus, with blogging to resume early next week. Meanwhile, check out the book I photographed at an Amman bookshop. ;)

Don't freak out - it's a novel. Review is here.

About a year ago, I wrote about a blog called Israel 2046 . "Shai," the 28 year-old Israeli who created incredibly imaginative posts about a border-less, peaceful Middle East forty years hence, was someone I met via the Internet. After reading some of his wise and perceptive comments on a now defunct blog, called Palestinian Princess, I left a comment in Hebrew (sorry Lucy, that was a bit rude;) in which I asked him to send me an email.

We exchanged notes, then phone calls, and finally we met at a cafe near Rothschild Boulevard and talked for hours, as if we had known one another for years.

He died today, after a long struggle with cancer.

When I met him for the first time, in the spring of 2006, he was already very sick - bald and jaundiced from chemotherapy. But he lived a life that was fuller than that of most healthy people. He had traveled around the world, he was always surrounded by friends, he somehow managed to read the entire Internet every day, he studied at university and he never, ever refused a favour - especially if it was geek-related, because he was the ultimate geek who could find a creative solution for any computer or Internet-related issue you could think of. He was also a pragmatic idealist with a huge heart, amazing powers of observation and a dry sense of humour.

He never, ever complained about being sick. When he was in bed recovering from chemotherapy, he sent me emails several times a week. He was always curious and engaged, always planning his next project. Once he told me that his oncologist wanted him to have his vocal chords removed, but he had refused because he was too young. "I want to get married and have kids first," he said, even though he didn't have a girlfriend at the time. He was so strong, so utterly lacking in self-pity, and so completely convinced that he was going to recover, that I simply believed he would. It did not seem possible that someone so determined to live, could die.

In one of his last emails, sent just a few days ago, he asked if I had heard of Hometown Baghdad, a web documentary made by middle class university students living in Baghdad. He wanted to know if I thought it was feasible to do a similar project with Israeli and Palestinian university students. Below is his response to my last email:

I thought it might catch your interest, wow, doing it for real is
something that I'd be very interested in, but it might be a long time
until i am able.

The operation i ended up having was better as i didn't lose my vocal
chords, but by some rotten luck they stopped working about a week
before, so right now i can't talk, but since i still have them, I'll
work on it and find a way...(I can't eat right now either, so don't
bring chocolate :), flowers and hugs are always welcome)

I'm still tired most of the time and i don't really like having
visitors at my parents house, but as soon as I'm up for it, i promise
to come visit you in Tel Aviv.

Hmmm, yeah the more the idea settles the more i think i actually would
love to be involved with some sort of documentary similar to the Iraqi
one, i don't know what skills i have that would lend to it, but it
could be great. (If you think there is a chance pushing on with this
now, don't wait for me and miss it though).

I don't think editing would be much of a problem, I don't know about
the cameras... maybe you'd like to email the producers of Hometown
Baghdad for tips?

I wasn't quite prepared to feel as bad as I do at this moment. I wish he had let me visit him last week. The world is a much, much poorer place without him. And I am going to miss him so much.

"Shai" means "gift" in Hebrew. It wasn't his real name, but it was an appropriate one.