Consequences of loadshedding

6 hours ago I didn't even know what it meant but I had suffered to consequences without knowing this word. The power is cut briefly every day. Today I learned that this is intentional and the power is cut for an hour every now and then. Usually starting on the hour. There is a brief outage before the generators kick off and start producing electricity for the building while the power lines don't supply any. While I am writing this, the power was cut at 7 pm. It came back at 8 pm. During this hour the generators of the hotel took care of providing electricity. Unfortunately there might be a brief interruption to the Internet connections, as well.
The government is planning to support energy saving by moving into daylight savings time in June, forcing the industrial units have holidays on alternate days, forcing the closure of commercial markets by 9 pm, banning neon signs and switching off half of the street lights.
P.S. I think it's a good idea to go home on Saturday. Tensions rise as the USA killed 12 people with a missile strike on Pakistani ground near the border with Afghanistan.
P.P.S. Three people were murdered in Lahore yesterday. TheNation published the pictures of the victims, dead of course.
One more piece of news: An angry mob killed 2 bandits and tried to burn their bodies. You don't see this every day in Finland.

Alcohol in Pakistan

Basically only non-muslims are allowed to drink alcohol and even they need to apply for a permit. Yesterday I bought a bottle of beer from room service. First I had to fill up an application. Among other things they asked what religion I confess and what is my father's name. I am not sure if they are going to call him to ask if I am allowed to drink beer, yet.
Anyway, finally I got my beer. It was domestic because all alcohol here is. I could tell from the etiquette that Murree beer has won several medals in USA, France, London and Ceylon, around the end of the 19th century... I must confess that I did not drink the whole bottle of this celebrated beer. I wonder how the domestic rum tastes? Maybe I will have to try tomorrow. It would be shame not to visit Rumor, the sports bar. I am, after all, the owner of a "Temporary Gold Card" to this establishment throughout my stay here. My permit to buy alcohol is valid for the whole month.

Unity, faith, discipline

This is kind of a motto of Pakistan. It was the first catch phrase I saw when getting from the airport to the hotel. What can you say? I am practising discipline by staying in the hotel for 3 days.

Istanbul, Turkey, again

I have Kia's camera with me but I don't have the cable or the memory card reader so I have to post the pictures taken with N95. Yesterday I saw a demonstration which was related to the demonstrations last week on 1st of May. Nothing happened, eventually, but there were a lot of policemen preventing the demonstrators from approaching the statue of Atatürk on Taksim square. I took some pics but unfortunately they are still in the camera... I will post them later. I have avoided the dessert made of strips of chicken breast and carrot juice (which tasted like fermented beet root juice) which I had last time I was here... I will also try to avoid them for the rest of the stay. By the way, Kimi and Heikki will be here for the weekend but I won't.

Sao Conrado and Rocinha

I stayed a week in Sao Conrado which is plagued by dengue and poverty. Not much to say. Nothing to do really except avoiding mosquitos. Rocinha is in the end of the road in the picture.