The sound of music blaring across the skies gets closer and closer.

‘Is it a car radio?' I ask.
‘No,' says my new Israeli friend, who I met on the bus yesterday. ‘Watch.'

Within seconds a white van appears from a cobbled lane and stops outside the restaurant in Tel Aviv where we have chosen to dine. The music is so loud.

A bearded man wearing a tiny hat on the crown of his head and a cream trouser suit stands precariously on top, jumping around in a pogo stick style whilst waving his arms in the air.

Some of the restaurant dwellers have stopped eating to stare at the musical spectacle that is unfolding before them. Others smile and are clapping, encouraging the bearded man to jump even higher. Then as quickly as he arrived, he is off, leaving to spread joy and happiness through the streets of Tel Aviv.

What a strange evening.

A November's day in Tel Aviv

007 in Tel Aviv

Stop The Press!

Roads have been closed, the shopping mall has been flooded and no flights can fly in or out of Eilat, the southern-most tip of Israel that borders with Jordan.

Everyone is talking about it and it's even made front page of the newspaper.

The flooded beachfront

Eilat has received nearly half its annual rainfall within three hours. The whole place doesn't know what to do.

Roofs have collapsed and tractors are out in force clearing roads of its water. Ten millimetres of rain within three hours may not seem like a lot but here – it's declared a national disaster!

At least the bars are still open…

Enjoying a few drinks at the Three Monkeys Bar