He's been a neighbour and a warmly casual friend for over twenty years.  Much has changed in his life during those years.  He went from a family man with two pre-teen boys and a beautiful young wife to a lonely bachelor in the later years, older but not much wiser when it came to women.  He always had a roving eye; behind that twinkle was an irrepressible Lothario.

His only company now in his large home is a little stray cat he adopted.  He'd never had much interest in a companion pet throughout his life, but he is now devoted to the little cat.  When he embarks on one of this twice-yearly adventures he invites his sister, who lives in Montreal, to stay over at his house to look after the little cat.

On his return from this trip, a month-long trip to Israel and Jordan, areas of the world he has visited on previous occasions, particularly Egypt, he enthused about the number of photographs he had taken, close to two thousand.  He loved this trip.  Of course, he enjoys all the trips he takes, everywhere he goes around the world.  He has the means to indulge himself, and feels to do otherwise would be a waste of opportunity.  He's not yet 70, in fairly good physical shape, because he's always been actively involved in life's opportunities.

And he keeps urging us to make a date with him, to go over to his place so he can give us a slideshow of his latest trip.  Petra was fascinating, he tells us, but Jordan seemed like a great, empty desert with relatively little human habitation compared to Israel which, everywhere he went, in every corner of that tiny country, teemed with life, enthusiasm, colour, culture and history.  He enjoyed the people he met there, thought them to be friendly and outgoing, like himself, and he plans to return.

In the several weeks since his return from the dramatic theatre in the cradle of world religion, great turmoil has broken out.  Just as well he returned when he did.