Back to Aleppo for Bruce's birthday bash

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Drove back to Aleppo today for Bruce's birthday party (South African/Aussie guy who's in Syria for an extended stay).

Some things are just universal: when I stopped at a small gas station in the middle of nowhere I was informed of all the current Dutch soccer player who were any good, and when I said I don't follow soccer but MotoGP was more my thing, they turned out to be Valentino Rossi fans ;-)

Checked into Al Jawahe, and went out with Ahmed to find materials to make Bruce a super huge birthday card. He and Nicole put the card together while I strolled around the deserted souk (friday), then it was Mr Chicken for dinner, and party time. The Syrian band was great, the Syrian booze was cheap, the Syrian cake was a calorie bomb, and there were a couple of good old fashioned heated Syrian arguments about nothing.

In short, a good time was had by all!

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