Under the Umbrella

I do really like these city umbrellas, parasols, sun-shields.

And I can't help smiling over this picture. The umbrella isn't blocking enough sun, so the merchant has crafted greater coverage with a big piece of cardboard. Anything to keep the sun off. The green crate and black ones like it on the ground are typical plastic crates. Bread and produce arrives at shops and restaurants all over town in crates just like those. The gold angular drums are probably empty--but once they held oil or ghee. There's a large water bottle there too. There are plenty of bags of chips behind the produce table, and probably you already noticed the coca-cola sign hanging overhead. There's soda inside, but no coke. Long ago distribution changed and now you can only get coke in a restaurants and big markets. But they'll have pepsi in there, so who cares?

Welcome to Beirut.