What Goes Round...

In the swimming pool where I swim twice a week, a swimmer and the pool attendant were recounting their driving experiences. The swimmer said that a few days before she was driving along a quiet road. It had snowed and it was freezing cold and dark. An elderly couple stood by the pavement, apparently waiting for a taxi. The man waved at her. In Iran private drivers, usually male, also take passengers for a fare. The man reminded her of her father, so she stopped. The man said, “We’ve been waiting here for a long time; please take my wife to the end of the road, and I will walk there.”
The driver asked them both to board the car and drove them to their destination. The couple thanked her for her kindness and wished that God repay her for her good deed.
When she got home, her son had just returned from college. He said that the taxi he was in had a near escape on the icy road. An articulated lorry cut in front of the taxi and nearly lost control. If that had happened, the taxi and all the passengers would have been crushed.
The woman thought that her act of kindness helped avert the disaster that threatened her son.

Snow At Last

Some snow had fallen in the northern suburbs last week, but last night central Tehran had its first real taste of winter.
After an unseasonably mild and dry autumn, to the point where fears for a summer drought seemed very real, heavy snow fell all across the country. Tehran, where heavy snow fell about three years ago, is now covered in white.
Last night the small park in front of our block of flats turned white in the space of an hour. Groups of children ran out to play in the snow, their excited screams mingling with the car alarms were set off by snowballs. At about midnight, the national news service announced that all schools would be closed today, adding another reason to schoolchildren’s excitement.