No sleep

For some unknown reason I had little to no sleep last night, I have no idea why apart from a niggling doubt that I possibly took four of my tablets instead of two, now I would have thought that they would have knocked me out had this been the case, but I had no sleep so maybe they work in reverse, it's not that they are sleepers, they are for nerve pain in my back, and generally work wonderfully, and although through the night I didn't have nerve pain, I was very restless, and I know I have nothing to be guilty about so it can't be that.....

D day today, contracts signed and we will have a new home, I now know all the supermarkets and know where to get the provisions I need, I also know to avoid the delivery aisle, because YOU WILL be there for hours, especially when the person in front of you decides to continue shopping when your behind them, completely they're oblivious to your one item. I have also to get used to having no space, it has been invaded numerous times whilst waiting in a queue, I've even had my spinach fiddled with by an elderly gentleman which wasn't pleasant, luckily for him it was in a sealed box, or I maybe would have drop kicked him......My space, your space seems to be OUR space and will take some getting used too. But having said that when you get offers of lifts from complete strangers and you know your safe with that, then you know your in Israel.

I have to pay attention because when people talk to me I don't have a clue unless they tap me on the shoulder, or shout down my ear. I just presume that no one will be speaking to me as I don't know them, wrong, every one will speak to you, just not in a Language I understand.

The Little Princes are dead excited for their visit in the Easter holidays, they are looking forward to seeing the house and visiting Israel, a Country they know little about, but have been misguided about by someone. They will learn to embrace and enjoy Israel just like we have, I think they will love the beaches and the people, and I'm sure as long as they get Spaghetti Bolognase at least once whilst visiting they will be fine, and if not there is the ice cream, the chocolate, the cakes and all the other food groups the Israelis do so well.

Lunch was Tuna salad and the lovely girl in Spoons is getting very friendly now, sitting by the window and reading a book was what I did for most of the afternoon, well until I took a mad idea that I would transfer all my photos from the Viao to the Mac, oh dear god 14,000 photos and hours later I decided to cancel the import and use the hard drive and once I did that it was simples, 21,000 photos later and it was done in a flash.

Supper was taken at HaBank with My Beloved, no drink for us we are healthy through the week....and for me the weight seems to be dropping, hooray. We took a walk past our new home, it looks lovely at night with all the lights, blue and white on the outsides of the building.

Just as we were arriving back at our room Itzhak called to say when would I like to go around to see the house and speak with Lily about furniture, so I'm going to see them tomorrow morning at 10 am. How exciting, Natalie has given me directions for all the places to buy great furniture, so between Natalie and Lily I'm sure I will find something.

I forgot to mention I have downloaded an app that now tracks my movements, not that My Beloved has to keep and eye on me, but so I can figure out where I have been, how long it took and how far I walked, and if I really care, how fast, how how, and how low. This lovely app even lets me stop it when I nip in for a coffee break, then restart when I'm ready. Did I ever mention I love Apple.

Elijah's Cave, Mt Carmel, Haifa

So this morning I woke and took breakfast in the business lounge as I was blogging, I decided today I was going to visit the beach, half way down the mountain I received a phone call from My Beloved to say contracts were getting signed and it looks like the house will be ours on Wednesday, shopping time me thinks, our belongings don't arrive for another two weeks, not that we have much in the way of furniture, but it will be great to use all our wedding gifts in our new home.

After the phone call I decided that Elijah's cave must be close to where I wanted to be, so I googled and got the GPS working, eventually after a very long walk I came across a sign which said Elijah's cave, but could I find the cave, turns our the second sign I had seen which said Tourist Information was actually the directional arrow for the cave. I had walked passed all the other signs as they were in Hebrew, so I ignored them.  I walked the path to the cave which has a Church over the top of it, and entered, it was really quite bizarre to be in the cave where reportedly Elijah hid from King Ahab and where he set up school when returning from exile, also reportedly Mary, Joseph and Jesus had sought shelter here on their way back from Egypt.

From the cave I walked down to the cable car and decided to take the short hop up the mountain, what a brilliant view over the downtown and port areas of Haifa, and out to sea and across to the Lebanon mountains, at the top after taking lots of pics I found a lovely restaurant which was glass fronted and decided on a spot of lunch, I only ordered a salad and what started as two dishes, turned to four, then five, then six, I had to say stop in the end, but each bowl was filled with different salads from the Lebanon, the waiter explained everything as it arrived, I had tomato salads, avocado salad, pomegranate salad, mushroom salad, leaves and pittas and garlic coated things, what they reminded me of was toast but when you thinly slice the crust off and throw away the bread, they were delicious, tabouleh arrived and I had to say STOP I was gonna need a kick start after all this food, I took an Americano, but an espresso arrived and along with it was another gift a Lebanese Kanafeh, a small slice of dessert to take with my coffee and it was lush.

I left the restaurant and set the GPS because having come halfway up the mountain in cable car it appears I had a short walk home, but GPS is wrong, wrong, wrong, my short walk home, turned into a trek up the mountain mainly via the steps again, how is it I find the paths on the way down and the bloody steps on the way up. By the time I got back to the hotel I was like a wrung out dishcloth, a little damp, and very unattractive, so shower time again.

My Beloved finished early and we walked up the road to find a barbers as he was starting to resemble a Yeti, I sat and watched as he had his hair cut, shaved, manipulated and oiled, I have never seen so much care and attention taken to a mans haircut, this guy was amazing and will be getting regular custom from My Beloved. Never he said has he had so many implements used on his hair in one haircut.

We decided on a light supper which turned out to be Japanika, the Tuna was to die for and the Japanika Special was huge, once again you just can't eat small when it comes to Sushi. When we arrived back to the lounge Natalie was asking what we have been up too, and once again called me crazy, especially when we worked out how far my walking trip was today, in total I walked 13.5km, 8.5 down and 4.5 up the mountain, its no wonder I'm feeling weary tonight.

We chatted with the Buba Mumma and Dadda tonight, it was great speaking to them and getting all the news from Turriff, and telling them our news about the house, then it was onto Lou Lou for a little Facetime with her and Lydia.

Time for bed..................

Elijah's Cave

 The cable car and the Lebanese Restaurant 

view from Cable car of Maritime Museum

 snippet of downtown and Port, you have to keep traveling right off the photo to get to Kishon Port where My Beloved is based                   

Shabbat

My poor Beloved had to leave the hotel early and start work, me I rolled over and went back to sleep until 9 am, breakfast in the hotel was amazing, it was Kosher this morning due to Shabbat, but that didn't stop my enjoyment of the vast array of delightful food that was on display, tables and tables full of salads, cheeses, fish, eggs, and cakes, one whole table bigger than my hotel room in Haifa full of cakes and pastries. I ate Salmon and Mackeral and grapefruit and cheese, what a concoction but when in Rome DONT EAT THE CAKE.

The sun was shining and the balcony was a trap to catch it, I sat outside sunning myself watching the people walk by.  Some folk were surfing and I managed to get a couple of shots of them riding the waves. The Chalets below ours even have hot tubs on their verandah's next time I want a hot tub.

My Beloved had been working hard all day and had to come over to collect me at 3pm for check out. I was sorry to be leaving this beautiful hotel, but it will also be nice to get back to The Crowne Plaza, I have missed the staff there with their happy faces and chatty natures. Not that the people of Dan Accadia were any less friendly or chatty, but having already built a rapport with The Crowne staff its slightly different when you have to start again.

Shimeji Mushrooms

My Beloved dropped me at my now favourite Chocolate cafe and went back to work, I resisted the Chocolate today, and ordered a light salad and an Americano, I have cut back on the caffeine, but not cut out. My salad once again was amazing shimeji mushrooms with fresh basil leaves and balsamic dressing, and what I believe to be cress, now its a long time since I have had cress, that really takes me back to my child hood, I remember growing cress on tissue on my Mothers window sill, and as everyone knows cress is so easy to grow. The waitress was a little concerned that what I had ordered had a strong taste, I assured her it would be fine, and it was, she need not have worried.

Kosher - now I am trying to work my way around the Kosher requirements, but so far I have only managed to learn that you cannot eat fish and meat together EVER, I know you can eat liver but it has to be prepared very specifically to Kosher it, this entails broiling the liver, and even that process is not simple, but I have to say Mark had liver from Barbarrosa a few nights ago and allowed me to sample it, I have never had such soft liver in my life, beautiful and I would certainly order that for myself.

I found a little Natural and organic supermarket just before My Beloved finished work, what a shop galvanised buckets of spices, teas, rices, and all manner of things, I was in for ages just looking around the shelves,  I even found Marmite, I love it, but a lot of people hate it.... the wonderful smells of the tea leaves and spices were like music to my nose, there were spices for marinades, there were dried fruits and nuts, you just weighed what you wanted. The lovely assistant helped me to find horseradish, although he said they had run out of the white stuff, would the red stuff do it is Called Chrain here and is a mixture of horseradish and beetroot and is a special sauce used for Passover.

Chrain

Passover a Jewish feast commemorating the protection God gave to Jewish families when he killed all the first-born men and animals in the land of Egypt. After this divine punishment, Pharaoh consented to allow Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery (Exodus 12)

When My Beloved eventually finished work he was very, very tired, we dropped the Big Chief back to his hotel, set the GPS for home and began our journey, apart from the occasional nutter on the road the journey home was quiet, mainly due to the fact that My Beloved was concentrating and I was trying to get the handsfree unit to work.

We arrived back at the Crowne, no wifi ney greet, so we had an early night, but not before My Beloved soothed his weary body with a lovely bath. Having always been told by My Beloved that a bath is the best way to warm you up, I now believe him, he was roasting by the time he came out and we had to open all the windows. Our date with Buba Mumma and Dadda went by the by due to the wifi, Lou Lou is bored witless because she couldn't get facetime either, tomorrow is a new day and a new wifi.

Sleepover in Herzliya

This morning arrived very early and we set off for Herzliya in the new Puget, it's quite nice, roomy and comfortable and now I have made music discs no more Hebrew signing for us. So now Flo Rida is blasting and we are all having a good feeling that today's gonna be a good good day.....

The drive was uneventful which is always a good sign, GPS directed us very well and we arrived early. Herzliya is nothing like Haifa, its very nice and very modern, and very, very flat, so if I was to get lost here there were no distinguishing skylines I could find to decide if I was in the correct vicinity or not, parking was a bit of an issue as My Beloved believes himself invisible to traffic wardens and doesn't feel the need to purchase parking tickets, I sorted him out and we said our goodbyes, I went to the cafe below his office, he went to the office. Cafe Chocolate for me and the most amazing cup of dark chocolate ever, so thick you eat it from a spoon, so good it made your mouth water just looking at it. I wrote my blog whilst sitting and only left when my wriggling began to draw attention, toilet stop for me then off to explore.

The weather today was meant to be sun, sun, sun, but it was sunny enough for glasses but also windy and wet, oh that reminds me I have found my glasses they weren't lost after all just stolen, I happened to mention to My Beloved that I had to buy new sun glasses, and a glazed look came over his face, 'don't tell me' I said, yep he had picked them up the morning he was going offshore, because he doesn't put the light on he just lifted them, he did think they were light but lifted them anyways, I have to say my new polarised ones are great though and I am even able to read my phone in the sun, this is a first. So the weather turned decidedly nasty just as I entered the Arena centre which is situated next to the Marina, I would like to say the yatchs were bobbing, but even with the bad weather they were hardly moving really, the marina is beautiful, from behind glass that is. I have Curly hair remember and I straighten it every day, would you go out in the rain if you didn't have to, I think not.

So I mooched around the shops, in and out, and in and out, I purchased a few bits for friends, a little something for myself, and then decided it must be lunch time, we can't get to our hotel till 2pm so I have to amuse myself, so I'm doing it with food, carpaccio it is then, Bistro 56 for lunch, a little glass of wine, 'it is the weekend you know', lunch was lush the restaurant is obviously a popular one as it filled quite quickly, I love that carpaccio is on the menu everywhere, I could live off carpaccio and green beans emmmmmm what a nice thought. Oh and maybe the occasional Israeli wine, obviously....

Next stop after a trek across town, Seven Star Centre, a very nice young lady helped me with the correct bus when I ran out of path again and was confronted with motorway, so the 501 it was and the cost was 6.50, cheap as chips, two long stops later and I emerged from the bus just as the heavens decided to open, now I had to get across the road, I waited for a lull in the traffic and made a run for it, I still got tooted, but only because they can, by the time i figured out where the entrance was my knees were a little damp. Quick browse around the shops as they were beginning to close, Shabbat remember, so I took the shops at speed, and threw two sodas down my neck. The guys that served me my soda also gave me a number for a taxi service for getting back to My Beloved, my bags, and hopefully the hotel. The taxi delivered me just as My Beloved was out getting air, I took myself back in the Cafe Chocolate and this time ordered a Mocha, dark chocolate indulgence, I will be working doubly hard at the gym, honest.

It's now 4.30 and the sun has decided to make an appearance, it doesn't really matter because the wind is so fierce any heat is being blown straight across to Tel Aviv, but I'm cosy in my Chocolate Heaven, surrounded by chocolate lovers young and old.

My Beloved finished work and we asked GPS to take us to our hotel The Dan Arcadia, ohhhh it was lush, we were upgraded to a chalet room, although this confused me as we were on the first floor, the room was huge, with a balcony, a bed that would take me a week to get around, and even longer to find My Beloved, there was a chaise lounge in the room too and a business station, the bathroom was to die for, and could easily hold a party of folk, but not me I had it all to myself but I let My Beloved share, especially when he found the TV in the bathroom, so I ran my bath and watched Jason Bourne, I could get used to this, not Jason in the bath with me but the lifestyle.

We met up with The Big Chief for supper and one or two bottles of the grape juice, initially the place was quiet but by the time the grape had been flowing more than once the place started to jump, their was a live band on too, and the ancient rocker was a cross between Bono and the guy from Status Quo Francis Rossi, very strange, the music was ok, but it was all in Hebrew so they could have been singing about anything and I wouldn't have known. We hailed a taxi at the end of the night to take us back to our huge bed, it was hard work getting around that bed let me tell you, I got seasick rolling around trying to find My Beloved, I nearly gave up thinking he had got bored waiting and gone to the bar.

No pretty pictures today as My Beloved has a new computer from work, its all singing all dancing, so he has given me his beautiful New Mac, and I can't bloody work it ..........

Take the next left

I woke early and said goodbye to My Beloved, I washed the smalls and hung them on the line in the bathroom, I do feel for the poor maid when she has to clean and work her way around them, getting dripped on by our smalls can't be very nice for her, I think I will have to leave her a nice tip when we eventually leave, still no word on the house yet!!

Today I blogged early and decided on my itinerary for the day, I googled The Castra centre or the Kastra centre depending on googles mood, this is a centre for artists to work and display their goods, and also there are general shops too, I found a lovely supermarket with everything I could need had I got a fridge, a house, or even something to clean other than smalls.

Getting here was a bit of a trial, I used good old google maps and worked out the best route, but i do believe Haifa has changed a bit since the last time google was here, my map said it would take me one hour and fifteen minutes to get where I wanted to be, I had my phone out tracking my blue dot, because that is how google sees me, I am a pulsing blue dot on the map, so I do everything I'm told and get to the top of a set of steps, I head down only to be confronted with a barricade and a house, this must be one of the things google missed, so back up the steps I go, I had to detour way, way over the top of the Mountain before I could pick up the trail again, by which time I had run out of path, was the wrong side of the dual carriageway and could do no more than get on a bus. Now this is my first time on a bus since arriving in Haifa, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised, as I have said most people speak some or a lot of English, I held out my grubby hand which was full of small change and said Castra please :), the lovely man took some money gave me change and my ticket and promised to tell me where to get off!!!

A little while later Castra came the shout and my driver set me down what appeared to be in the middle of nowhere, but as it is always in Haifa, you are never in the middle of nowhere you just have to look a little deeper and you are in the middle of somewhere, so I found myself just around the corner, which wasn't actually a corner but a flyover,  from Castra.

Once I had had my bag searched as is the morm in all centres, buildings, car parks and other facilities, I was inside, there were ladies making dolls, not the playing kind the displaying kind, there are painters and whilst having lunch I was watching a gentleman making glass things, and I only says things because I'm not sure what they were, he wasn't blowing the glass but he was heating it with a Bunsen and moulding it, it was all very creative. So whilst eating my Mediterranean salad (hold the bread) I watched as this gentleman created his things on sticks.

I had a bit of Facetime with Lou Lou who wouldn't show me her face as she is lying in bed with Flu, and is blaming her gentleman for passing on his bugs, didn't help that he has informed her he feels much better...I showed her my holiday hair, I'm surprised she didn't have a miraculous recovery, because I don't feel ill and I look this bad.

I left the Castra Centre and headed towards a car park, and miracle upon miracle, here was another hidden gem, Haifa Mall, three floors of lovely shops, bumper cars outside for the kids, Holmes place gym inside for the adults, I shopped till I dropped. Afternoon coffee was taken in a little cafe within the centre and I watched how the Israeli's do things. They appear to do them very well I have to say.

I left this particular centre around 3.30 and decided to take a taxi back, its alright going down hill at the start of the day, but bugger going up hill at the end of the day.  My taxi driver took it into his head I am from Stockholm, and not Scotland as I had told him, it all gets lost in translation, but he was happy, I was happy, and we didn't care.

Gym time, so I hit the gym before if closed early as its almost weekend time again, I will get my head around this weekend one day, just not today, so I beasted my upper body for an hour or maybe a little less and felt superb when I finished, time for a shower and plaster on some of my new lotions and potions purchased today.

Now I couldn't decided weather to be mad with My Beloved because 'he had gone out to dinner and forgot about me' or because 'he was lying dead on the road side somewhere' but as it turned out all was well, almost all, the poor lad had a dead iphone, and was stressed out because he couldn't phone, couldn't text, luckily for him he had been able to get the immobiliser code out of the phone before it died, cos that really would have stressed him out, all cars in Israel have to be fitted with immobilisers by law, but the law says nothing about dead iphones. So he is now the proud owner of a Peugeot 308 silver ish, and he tells me its quite comfy to drive and his new GPS managed to get him where he needed to go, without breaking into Hebrew or even cursing.

Our evening was spent at Japanika more sushi, you have to love the sushi, and oh they do it very well here, we noticed this time that the chefs are all Japanese which is probably the reason its so good, I know we will be back again, My Beloved is even asking to go now, where as before we arrived in Israel although he would go, it was a little more effort to get him there.

Now I apologise in advance if this blog comes out gobblydegook as I'm on the Mac and have no idea if what I'm doing is saving or not, fingers crossed for when I hit the publish button.

Gents toilets

My poor Beloved was up at the crack of dawn, and left for his day trip offshore, he would get his little breakfast box to take with him from reception as Gustavo had already checked if he was needing one. Gustavo is on reception speaks six languages apparently, this makes me feel very inferior, he has also said recently we are not guests we are family, how nice.

When I got up this morning I decided to give breakfast a miss and just grab an apple from the Business Lounge, so this is what I did whilst blogging. Zeena popped in to say goodbye and good luck, Zeena is American and has been here for at least a year, living in the hotel and working around Haifa for an American company, but today is her last day before she heads home to America, Natalie is quite sad to be loosing her, and so am I she is a very nice lady and will be missed.

So my walk today was lovely mainly due to the sun making an appearance its 19' just now and it was beautiful to walk around the streets, although I did have to make a quick stop off to buy sun glasses, I have no idea what I did with mine yesterday, but squinting is very unattractive, and I personally have enough wrinkles I don't need anymore thank you very much. Now my new glasses may have been a touch on the expensive side, but not as expensive and they could have been, phew the first pair I picked up were almost 800 shekels, no thank you, my last pair from Lewis John just before we got married cost £15.00, so it took me a while to find a cheaper pair, but I did and now I'm not squinting, I still have wrinkles, but I'm not squinting.

I took lunch in a little Cafe today and sat outside, the temperature was lovely but I did take my coffee inside after finishing eating my Tuna salad, which I have to say was just as the menu predicted, which was lucky as this was the first Cafe I have been in that didn't actually have an English menu, and I relied on the waitress to decipher the menu today, and she did grand.

I finished my coffee and decided to powder my nose, now usually you see little pictures on toilet doors depicting the sexes, all I could find was Hebrew, so I'm stuck with a dilemma, to pee or not to pee, it was a long walk back to the hotel so I decided to pee, all went well until I was just exiting and was nearly run over by a man coming in, when the waitress came over I asked her if the toilets are mixed, she laughed at my story but said yes they are mixed. Thank god thats all I can say, because that man coming in the toilets said something to me, I just smiled and prayed he wasn't cursing me for being in his toilet.

I think I'm the third sex

I can't get over the the amount of different Nationalities here, 80% of Israelis are Jews of different ethnicities and races from Arab countries, Ethiopia, India, Russia, the Former Soviet Union republics, Latin America, the US and Europe. Refugees from Arab and Muslim Middle Eastern and North African countries and their descendants make up over hall the Jewish population. Being ignorant of the ways of the world I didn't know you even had Jewish Indians, does that make me a bad person, or just someone who is still learning, they say you are never to old to learn.

On every door way I have found a Mezuzah, now I have had to google the meaning of these:

A Mezuzah is a sacred parchment inscribed by hand with two portions of Torah. It is stored in a protective case and hung on the doorposts of Jewish homes, in every room except the bathroom, they are on the right side, shoulder height, and slightly slanted so that the top points towards the inside of the room. It is a Torah commandment to hang them on your doorposts and gates, and they remind you of Gods prescience, and your duty to fulfill Gods commandments. 

I mention the Mezuzah because when entering rooms I have noticed people touch the Mezuzah and then kiss their fingers, and I'm nosy so I investigate.

I finished off the afternoon watching the world go by sitting in the sun, storing up all that lovely warmth for a day when it turns a little chilly again.

My Beloved surprised me as I was popping outside he was home from the rig early, so we decided to go to our favourite telephone store and get his refund and apologise for the fact that he had actually given them the wrong number to add credit to. The guys from the shop were very gracious and laughed at My Beloved's explanation, but now he is alive again, and hopefully won't keep stealing my credit.

We decided to take a trip to the Grand Canyon as My Beloved will be collecting his car tomorrow, and is also traveling to Herzliya himself, so GPS required, our lovely assistant at the GPS shop promised us the GPS would be push and play, he lied. We were also guaranteed that the GPS would speak English and not Hebrew although we have the option should we wish to hear Hebrew... We took our supper at Greg's and we decided on Salmon for My Beloved and Mushroom and Feta salad for myself, both dishes arrived and I'm so glad I decided on the small salad, it was huge, both meals were lush and washed down with sparkling water and diet coke, we are so rock and roll.

Taxi back to the Crowne and My Beloved decides to charge his new toy, this would be ok but My Beloved and new technology are not good friends, the scowl was on and the teeth were clamped shut, GPS say NO, I decided to leave him to it, but then the internet went down and my phone is the only piece of equipment we have that can get on the internet. I googled Herzliya and the street name, couldn't find it, I then googled the building that the office is located in, and lucky for us there is a sushi bar there and from the sushi bar I managed to get the directions, we took a photo of the directions and mailed them to My Beloved's account, and went to sleep. At least if he can't find the building tomorrow he we will get fed.

Herzilya

Herzliya

Today My Beloved left for Herzilya early and was collected by taxi, although he has been driving here for quite a while, up and down to the port does not make one experienced, so taxi it is. I sorted myself out and went to breakfast late. After the daily blog was done I left for my morning walk, I took another route today, the great thing about walking here is everything is connected either by steps or by roads and walkways, getting lost is quite difficult because of this, althought My Beloved does not believe me on this issue. He really must take those driving blinkers off.

So I took myself up and down and round and up, until I found myself in need of a toilet. Horev centre it was for me, and a drink stop at Broadway Bagel, My Beloved messaged to say he would be back in the late afternoon, so I decided to get lunch, bit difficult in a bagel shop, everything comes with one of those things, I just don't get them, never have, never will, they are round and look like bread, but are so heavy, I'm sure if you threw them at a car you could take out the windscreen, but I won't try that in Israel. So mushroom salad was ordered with the obligatory bagel on the side.

Well my lunch arrived and although the waitress had taken my order from the English menu, what arrived what not exactly what I was expecting, I believe I ordered a salad of stir fried mushrooms with leaves, and peppers and cucumber and all sorts, what arrived was a bubbling dish of cheese underneath which were my mushrooms, uncooked I might add, I did have a side dish of salad though and no bagel in sight. I decided to try the dish anyway and it was actually quite nice, but definitely odd.

I had a bit of shopping time, bought a few bits and pieces before heading up the road, the weather was lovely and warm which made for a pleasant walk.  My Beloved text me 'Blondie' was the message, so I called him, he still hasn't managed to get his 200 shekels back yet, no time to go to the shop, so he has no credit, but thank goodness for imessage.

My Beloved arrived as did the boys, one American, two Scotsmen, and an Englishman called Mark who arrived with gifts, you have to love the boys that bring you duty free's, we will have quite a collection of Whisky for our new house if the contract ever gets sorted. We all met up in reception and headed off for Barbarossa for dinner, we ordered our food and drinks, one of our company has Man Flu so ordered hot water, lemon and honey, amazingly this arrived and Mark sniffed his way through it, then dinner arrived and all was quite for a moment.

I am still amazed by Israel, where else can you go into a clothes shop and be offered a drink, hot or cold, the service here is superb and although wary in the street, everyone is very friendly. I really like it here and I know I will be sorry if we have to leave.

We did a little wheeling and dealing over facebook with one of our friends before heading back to our room, early start for My Beloved tomorrow he is going offshore for the day to do a survey.

Good morning, good day pronounced Boker Tov spelt in Hebrew בקר טוב

So I woke surprising fresh after our evening out at Habank, the same can't be said for My Beloved who headed for the water and paracetamol, gonna be a long working day.

Breakfast was taken in the hotel restaurant, and today it was eggs with red peppers, the food on display here is lost on me because I can't imagine having a breakfast that would include pastries, salads and fish, although they do look appetising all I can manage is the eggs and peppers. And today no coffee, I'm trying to wean myself off the caffeine, not completely but just a little, the reason for this is the strength. Americano's are lovely but when you feel that you could make three coffee's from one cup, it's time to slow down.

So today I took myself out for my morning stroll, and the first thing I discovered to my delight was Bio-Sculpture nails, so I took the plunge and went into the building, it turns out what I had found was the training centre, but the very nice lady directed me to the Panorama Centre and here I found a beautiful shop so in I popped in and was greeted by Petroiyela a lovely Romanian girl, she asked my name and said ah 12 pm please take a seat, when she was ready for me, she called me over and was just asking what I would like done when another lady came in and it turns out her name is very similar to mine and poor Petroiyela had taken me thinking I was this other person, she was so apologetic and said why don't I come back at 2.30 so I left and took myself off for a spot of lunch, and waited for my appointment time to come around.

Lunch was taken in spoons, all this eating out and I'm actually quite looking forward to the day when I have my own fridge and can actually make something for myself. Or at least wait until My Beloved gets home and he can make it!!! I settled on the Goulash for lunch and although nice, I should have gone with the Onion soup, but lesson learnt. So I'm ready for my nails, Petroiyela pronounced Petronela, was so apologetic but I was not worried, so she began, 90 mins later I emerged with beautiful pink girly nails and with a little design on the ring ringer of each hand, I'm so happy with my nails, so happy in fact I'm booked in again for three weeks, and no more hand washing my smalls without gloves on.

We are still waiting to hear about our new home, the sticking point seems to the contract length and the get out clause, we have left all this in David's hands, lets hope his fingers are crossed.

My Beloved has a new car but as yet has been unable to collect it, mainly due to the time constraints he has at work, he will be going to Herzilya tomorrow to give a presentation, I was going to go with him, but decided against it, Herzilya will be there another day, and that's when I will visit it. It is one of three big cities in Israel, and is only 21 minutes from Tel Aviv by car.

I had a very lazy evening, and was bedded very early, but not before I had a brain wave about My Beloved's phone problem, a light bulb came on and I asked for the phone, it turns our My Beloved has been giving the wrong number to the Shop keeper and no wonder Cellcom couldn't reach him, in his phone book his number is correct, but in his settings he changed one digit, and all the confusion has ensued. I really don't know how he managed without me, I think he is a very lucky man, he's got me all I got is him.........................and I love it.

Coldest Day of The Year

So I woke feeling better than I had on the previous day, well apart from the fact that my eyes looked like I had turned Chinese, slits for eyes is not a good look when you are Caucasian, I put this down to lack of water, and even a cold shower not not make these dodgy eyes any better. And being heavy lidded was hard work, the effort needed just to lift my forehead was too much for my facial muscles and I had to resort to using my hands to keep my forehead up.

Breakfast was fast, protein shake and an apple and then it was time for blogging. That done I took a look at the weather and decided that my day would have to be productive inside and be computer based. So I now have UK TV through all my little gadgets, but let me tell you it's not easy. I became very friendly with Carlos the live chat assistant, poor lad must have been holding the fort yesterday as every time I went online with another question, up popped a very polite Carlos, 'How may I help you this time'...... Carlos gave me the information I required and advised on the correct package I would need. So I am now a subscriber and this means I can use a 'virtual Private network', and all this because I wanted to see Mahairy's TV debut. What this actually means is I'm pretending to be in the UK and my IP address is recognised by whoever comes across it as UK and not IL. I can now watch all the rubbish I didn't watch before, if I ever really want to.

But what I really like is Tunein on my iphone I get to listen to Chris Moyles every morning, and let me tell you it was a rare occasion for me to hear the start of Moyles' show, but now I get to hear all of it, the guy is still crackers, but he is my kind of crackers, and speaks my clackerlacker language.

Natalie was in and out, meetings in Tel Aviv took her away for the day, so the lounge was quiet for the most part. The weather took a turn for the worse and the hail was something to behold, being on the 10th floor gives you a grand view of the weather, lightening and thunder were also on the bill. Apparently it has been the coldest day of the year, and although chilly, it was nothing like last December in Scotland when the temperature reached minus 16, now that was cold.

I decided quite late that I should really have lunch, and took a salad in the Hotel, once again the bread arrived and the young waitress who I started chatting with tried to tell me its very healthy bread, it might be but it wont look healthy when it hits my hips, so I declined. Now the trouble with eating late meant when My Beloved arrived back and said Tom is taking us for something to eat I had to decline, bugger, bugger, bugger, so I left My Beloved to go out with the guys and I pottered around doing very little.  When My Beloved arrived back, we remembered we had to deal with his phone, having charged it with credit on Friday, we are still waiting for the 200 shekels to be placed on the phone, Smoyles and Roni at the shop have tried to sort it, and this evening another young man tried to sort it.  Smoyles was on the phone and called Cellcom and apparently they have been trying to call My Beloved but cannot get through, yet when I call I get through, it's all very odd. So we tried taking the sim out and placing it in another phone and nope our Israeli shop keeper could not call the sim even in another phone, its very strange, we now have to go back tomorrow and Smoyles will either give My Beloved a refund or another sim.

Ok so now I have lost the will to live and we decide to take a coffee in Habank, our lovely waiter seated us and the coffee turned into wine, two bottles later we really didn't care about phone credit or sim cards, but being intoxicated on a school night was not the brightest of ideas, our Solicitous friend said to us during a meeting in Macduff 'you two will end up like lushes', she may have been right but hey we didn't have dessert today, that has to give us some brownie points with someone.

We left our very happy waiter with the dutiful tip, and teetered down the road, and off to bed, but before we slept water was placed in reaching distance just in case it was needed........................

The Bad Wife

I woke yesterday initially at 7 am and didn't feel to bad, by 9.30 my well being had taken a turn for the worse.  Not having enough strength to open my soda water, I passed it over to My Beloved who was laying next to me stark naked, he preceded to open the soda and as is the usual with soda it erupted all over him, even in my poorly state I couldn't stop laughing, but he got his own back by using my pillow to dry himself.

We got ourselves ready and headed off for breakfast, oh I was decidedly out of sorts, and couldn't even face coffee.  Johnny Walker and I are no longer friends, it is time to put that relationship out to pasture. I can say with all honesty I am a very bad wife, My Beloved has one day off a week, and what does he have to do? He has to tend to me because I am incapable of looking after myself. I get given one job, to be a good Wife and I blow it, tomorrow I'm looking for a new job.

Driving downtown looking for petrol the window was down as fresh air was required, the first petrol station and all was well, until the Russian petrol attendant upset My Beloved by telling him 'Vee Dint take soose cards ere en Israel', politely he explained he has been using his Barclays Bank card for four years and has never had a problem, she was unmoved, we left. The car by this time was working on fumes and not mine, so we managed to get to the next petrol station on a wing and a prayer. Up jumps the attendant, puts the nozzle to the car, manages 5 shekels before the machine cuts out, apparently this car has some kind of mechanism the pump didn't like. We reverse and try the pump next door, this pump likes our mechanism and delivered our needs. Now the problems started, having put 5 shekels on one pump and 195 shekels on another you would have thought payment would have been easy, and you would have been wrong. The five shekels was taken from the Barclays Bank Card and 195 put on it, but when asked they told My Beloved yes you have paid. But as I was purchasing cheesy puffs for my growling hangover, which turned out to be peanut butter flavour eww, note to self learn Hebrew, I could hear the young man behind the kiosk talking about the Mitsubishi which funnily enough was what we were driving, I thought he was admiring it, and couldn't understand why I wasn't getting my change, turns out they had realised they had given my beloved 195 shekels instead of taking it and please could they have payment for the petrol we had taken, My Beloved not understanding their mistake was getting a little irritable, but eventually the poor chap managed to get enough English out for My Beloved to understand the problem, it pays to check your receipts.

So we are fuelled up and heading towards the Cinemall, we have been told about this place recently, it has 23 screens and three of them are VIP with free champagne and popcorn,  and leather reclining seats, this would be ideal on a day with no hangover. Now being Shabbat My Beloved loves this kind of mall, why? because all the shops are closed this is the second time he has taken me shopping on Shabbat and said knock yourself out. I will be knocking him out very soon if I don't get a trip whilst the shops are open. All the restaurants and bars were open so it wasn't a complete waste of a shopping day.

We decided to head back up to Carmel Centre as My Beloved believed that only pizza from Bruno's would cure my hangover which had taken a turn for the worse, mainly due to the peanut butter puffs, obviously my hangover can differentiate between cheese and peanut. Now don't let any one tell you My Beloved is a bad driver, I will tell you right now, he is one hell of a driver, there are not many people in this world who can drive the wrong way up a four lane carriage way, realise there mistake and do a 180 as if nothing had happened. The fact that the car heading towards us had a man in it raising his hands to the sky was of no consequence to us at all.

Bruno's pizza, its a miracle I had two huge squares which I dipped in the spicy garlic dip, and I'm almost, pretty near cured. I don't think I could take another drink for a week, but at least my stomach is not churning its juices and I feel pratically normal, this is new for me because I don't do normal most of the time.

We made arrangements with Issac which is pronounced Icsac to view our potential new home, and also view the neighbours to understand how they have designed theirs. Wow Issac's wife is an interior designer and actually designed the furniture of our neighbours, who happens to be one of their friends. We were shown the most wonderful apartment, similar to ours but smaller. We were also told in our garden, our grass will be artificial, oh the joys of all year round green grass, that never needs cutting. I knew I should have just given our mower away, now we have to store it or sell it here. Issac and Lily as his wife is called were going to take us for coffee and a beer but we had to get back as the guys would need the car, so we said our good byes and arranged to see them tomorrow when they will show us another neighbours apartment to get another view on styles, these people are so friendly and good humoured, I think I'm going to like living next to them.

We were dropped at our hotel, we could have walked but it was raining and Lily made Issac move everything around in his car so we could get in, Lily has offered to come furniture shopping with me as she knows the places I should go, so I think that will be some good girl time. Google has some competition and her name is Lily and she is French.

We spent a quiet night at the hotel in the Business Lounge, we were both still tired from our night out so we decided to get any early night, we only managed half of Mrs Brown before the lights were turned out and the ZZZZZ's were hit.

Bomb Shelter

So today I took myself up to the Business lounge for some water for my protein shake, this is what Im reduced to after eating too many desserts this week, it took all of 2 seconds to drink and I was still left with an empty belly, so not a happy chappy.  Antibiotics started now, so hopefully the ear infection will take a hike, and the Labyrinthitis will settle, and I will no longer list or feel like I have a hole in my scull.

So today my first appointment was at 9 am just along the road in Yefe Nof Street, I was met by Asher Cohen and we went into an apartment together, now initially when walking down the steps to view it I was a little apprehensive, but the place was amazing, but unfortunately it had no balcony, no verandah and no outside space, so we said our goodbyes.  I wandered back to the hotel and finished off a few things before taking myself on a trek. I decided today that I would check out another route downtown, and I walked around the back of spoons and headed for the first of many flights of stairs, the route I find was very direct, and even took me through what I believe to be the Arab quarter, at one point the road I was on turned into a market of sorts with meat and vegetable shops on both sides, the place was very busy with local people. From here I wandered around the Port area, finding the restaurant we were at last night, and a few other places we have been told about.  I then wandered up to the German Colony and received a phone call from My Beloved, I told him where I was and mentioned that I feel like a cross between a Travel Writer and Bridget Jones, My Beloved said 'yes, but with smaller knickers', I had no come back from that comment.

I found myself a cafe in the German Colony and decided I had better have lunch, so I ordered a salad of Roquefort and walnuts and a soda, now when the salad arrived it could have fed at least two people, and came with a loaf of bread, there was no danger I was going to finish this salad, but I made a good attempt. I left the bread on the board and completely ignored its whimpering.

Oh dear god, I had no sooner had my food delivered than a young couple arrived with child, I thought I could hear an English accent, his not hers, turns out they are over from Southport a place I moved to when I first got married, and the womans mother lives here but is currently in Hospital. The wife is originally from Ukraine which would account for the none English accent. So we started chatting and I soon discovered my tolerance to irritants has not dwindled any since I moved to Israel, blah, blah, blah, blah on and on, this young man would even cut off his wife's conversation to either correct her or tell me something he obviously thought was more interesting. Time for a quick exit, so I said my goodbye and left.

I decided to walk back up to the hotel, it took me 40 minutes, not a long time really, but considering it was straight up and all steps that meandered the mountain, I was knackered by the time I reached the top, and in need of a freshen up, before meeting with David for house viewing.

David and My Beloved arrived at he hotel around the same time, and we all got into the car and headed towards our first viewing, which turned out  to be our last viewing, we have found a new home, when we turned into the apartment parking we were both smiling, we had actually seen this apartment from the road previously and had both said, now that would be a nice place to live. We met the owner and builder Issac who showed us around what we hope will be our new home, contracts have to be signed and sealed first. Once that is done we will have our very own bomb shelter, in Israel all new builds have to have a bomb shelter by law, so bedroom 4 is also a bomb shelter.

We left Issac and headed back to the hotel both very happy with ourselves, arrangements had been made for us to meet the boys and head to Sleek for a meal, and a drink or two, which turned into at the very least three.  Having been good all day with food, I ordered Carpaccio and Whisky and soda, I believe I must have consumed all of Johnny's Black Label, he was willing, I was thirsty, bad combination, but I do love a generous man. 10.30pm and the place became manic, as is usual and getting to the toilets was quite a feat, staying upright was near impossible, squeezing through the crazy mob took an amazing amount of agility.

Time for bed, I think it was nearly 1.30 am before we got to our beds, but hey its Shabbat again, which can only mean one thing, day off for My Beloved.

Money Talks

20 shekels

So I couldn't get out of bed, but was still up and at it at 7 am, breakfast was fruit and yoghurt, I'm trying a new approach, cos I really don't like scrabbled eggs when they have been sitting for a while, or have a crust. After writing my daily blog I headed out for a walk around the streets again, luckily half way down towards Western Carmel I noticed the black cloud headings over, and made a quick detour to Greg's for coffee, thank goodness because the heavens opened.

10 shekels

I have finally got to grips with the money, if it's bronze it's an agorot and they come in 50, and 10, if it's silver it's a shekel, they come in 1, 2, 5's and if its silver and bronze, silver rules and it's a 10 shekel, then we start with notes, imagine my surprise when handing over a 20 shekel note and getting a 10 shekel coin back, I thought I had been robbed. I thought it was like a 20 pound note and I wanted a tenner note back, but seeing as 20 shekel is worth £3.42 it was highly unlikely.

I hopped out of Gregs and took myself to Habank for lunch, they make a lovely carpaccio and they have great staff and sky Tv, with pretty pictures - well I don't speak Hebrew remember. Just finished lunch and My Beloved called can I meet him at the hotel with his laptop security chain - so off I toddled back to the hotel, luckily for him I had packed it in my cases, especially as it's for his Mac and it could very well have been traveling sea freight just now, crisis over.

My afternoon was spent between having too much caffeine and not enough caffeine in my system, this is always a predicament I find myself in these days, the too much is because phooooor the Americanos are strong here, you have to ask for Americanos or you will get Arabic and that stuff will kill you, and the gritty bits take forever to sink, and if not sunk they get in your teeth.  The too little is when I take myself off for a walk and my levels deplete to such a degree that only intravenous Americanos will revive me, such is the life I lead.  People used to ask me what I did with My Beloved being away so much, well the answer is drink coffee, now instead of sitting in Celebrations with the possibility of meeting a friend, I sit in Haifa, with the possibility of meeting new friends, simples, but at least here I get to utilise the wifi for free.

No houses today, but I have one lined up to view tomorrow morning, again its just along from the hotel, on Yefe Nof Street. My Beloved has a friend, who knows a man, who is a Doctor, I now have antibiotics, I had to phone Turriff Medical centre to make sure I had the right stuff, so had a quick chat with Lisa Fraser who was on reception, it was lovely hearing the Scottish twang again. So now I'm killing that infection, and hopefully will stop listing to one side.  We were due to hit the gym last night, but here we are again the weekend is upon us, and it shut at 6 pm My Beloved didn't get back until 5.30 due to traffic and road closures, so instead of the gym we took ourselves of for a walk around the streets, its a great way to find your way around. There are so many roads that are connected by steps, or little paths, we were also checking out the housing round about.












After speaking with Natalie this afternoon I had three new restaurants to try out, so I mailed the link to My Beloved and we decided on Hamanal 24, we took a taxi to the port and in doing so went past the biggest cruise ship I have ever seen up close, it was huge and beautiful all lit up like a christmas tree. Our driver dropped us off and we walked through a paved area to the restaurant. After nearly gatecrashing a function that was being held downstairs we were directed upstairs to the restaurant, the setting was  beautiful, and the style was rustic italian and the food gourmet. We had a lovely waiter who kept us right, and can you believe, just for a change started talking football to My Beloved, you can take the man out of Newcastle but he will always find a friend to speak about Shearer to. Each course arrived and was met with excited eyes and dribbling lips, we shared each course, well almost!!! Red Drum fish for my Beloved, and Roast Veal for myself, then Goose Leg in Red Wine, and for myself Sea Bass with coquilles St. Jacques, it really was amazing, we finished the meal with a dessert each of which was to die for, if you can imagine a ball of chocolate bigger than my fist, with a vanilla cream and jasmine ganache which was poured over the Chocolate thus melting the top to reveal the fruit hidden inside. I was in chocolate heaven. My Beloved's was equally impressive a Chocolate and cherry trio over pistachio marzipan, strawberry ice-cream and sour cream, the ice-cream was stupendous, but with both dishes although we ate every last drop it was still a shame to make a mess of such a masterpiece, but we did it guilt free.

Our taxi driver was very quick witted and sharp and we were speaking about our meal, and I taught him my favourite saying, taught to me by a grippy Yorkshire man, who guarded every penny like his last, and it is this 'Buy Cheap Buy Twice' I have even taught this to the Little Princes, there is a time for cheap and there is a time for the best, and our meal was the best I have had in Haifa, and the best My Beloved has had in all the time he has been traveling to Israel.

Madhouse of Alvah facts for the Day

Elijahs Cave can be found at the bottom of Mt Carmel,

many important events in the life of the Prophet Elijah (9th Century BC) are said to have happened in this cave, Tradition has it that Mary, Joseph and Jesus found shelter in this cave for a night on their return from Egypt

MSC Magnifica