Bank Account

Wooooo this morning started very badly, I have no idea how My Beloved got himself out of bed, or even into work, my eyes looked like I had gone ten rounds with Tyson, and the day trip out with Amy had to be shelved, I'm sure I was still drunk when I went to the Business lounge around 11, and I bypassed breakfast this morning, I really didn't feel like seeing it twice...

I took an age to blog and even longer to get my tongue to work, Natalie just laughed at me, as I sat nibbling pretzels, why is it when your under the weather all you want to do is eat rubbish. My Beloved came home lunch time, and I'm glad to say he was decidedly rough too, we went to the Leumi bank and opened an account, Natalie had set us up with a contact, and we sat through a gruelling 40 mins whilst the account was opened. I have no idea what we have signed up for, I do know we will be getting an ATM card, and for this we pay 45 shekels, if we wanted two it was 45 shekels each. The lady from the bank is called Sandy and she informed me of all the charges, and unfortunately she did this whilst My Beloved was paying in some cash to open the account, which means I have no idea what she said, retention of numbers is not my strong point. Sandy also gave me a few Hebrew tips, the funniest of which is this

Who (hoo) is he

He (hee) is she

Me (mee) is who

I really have no chance of learning this language, especially when people call you Mammy as a term of endearment, and thats for either male or female, I just thought every time I heard Natalie say it she was talking to her Mother!

I left My Beloved to go back to work and I headed to Bruno's for pizza, oh it was lush and really is a great tonic for a hangover, I wouldn't say its a cure, but its definitely a tonic.  I popped around to the house and just as I arrived so did my new dishwasher, it is out of customs and in the living room, its not getting fitted until Thursday, but at least its here.

I sorted out the washing, and also picked up the beautiful mask I had purchased for Halloween last year, Amy and Scott are going to a Masquerade Ball and I have said Amy can borrow it, it took my an age to find it, mainly because I had hidden it away in the wardrobe and couldn't remember where. I took it and the washing back to the hotel and had a wee snooze until My Beloved arrived back from work.  

My Beloved has spent most of the day trying to figure out how to bring his contacts across from his iphone to his new Galaxy, had he sorted his contacts as I told him when he first got his phone this would not be an issue but you know what these men are like. Any way I sorted his phone for him and had a little play, now I'm an Apple girl through and through, but I have to say I rather like his snazzy little phone. We ate in the lounge tonight and it was rubbish all the way, I know I'm going to suffer in the morning, but sometimes you just have to eat rubbish, and today was one of those days.  Wes blames me for his 'hellova day', personally I blame him, that boy from Tennessee is crackers.

We were tucked up in bed very early, as the recovery process was slow and painful, and the only thing to sort it out was sleep.

data and shekels

This morning I had to settle for yoghurt and walnuts again, ekkk no cappuccino either, I think when we move out I’m going to start making yoghurt myself and then I can buy my own fruit to go in it.

I went up to  the Business lounge to blog, Amy was in and we chatted, Scott and Amy enjoyed the football match last night, although they left before the end when Maccabi Haifa scored, they watched the rest of the match on the TV, and were quite relieved they had left as some of the Jerusalem fans were taken away in handcuffs, not good.

I finished my blog and then headed to the apartment, washing, washing, a woman’s work is never done, so when I arrived at the apartment, the painter was in, he was lucky he didn’t get the full wrath of my anger, he was smoking in the apartment, but I got that sorted, I just told Nelly and she said she would be speaking to him. I put the washing on and then went in search of Nelly again. Nelly was in the penthouse, and she gave me the tour, oh I want that penthouse, it is lush and set on two floors, its beautiful. The lady definitely has style and it shows in her house.

Next stop was Ruthie’s house, here I was given coffee and a Ruthie and I chatted about children, and Yon Kippur and when we would be moving in.  Ruthie has told me I can pop in anytime, and if I need anything just to ask, how nice to know I’m going to have such friendly neighbours.

Nelly and I walked up the street, Nelly was needing cigarettes, and I was needing bottled water for the iron, I’m not trusting this desalinated water for my iron, and even less for my clothes, its alright washing them in the water, but ironing them with the steam iron is just not going to happen.

I got back to the apartment and the washing was ready for hanging out, I decided to try my new hanging tool which is attached to the wall outside, it works quite well, although I had to watch that the longer shirts didn’t whip back and catch the wall, so smalls back, shirts front, I then did a little ironing and sorted through the smalls.

I do not believe what has happened, it is unbelievable really, you would have thought that moving would have cured it, but it hasn’t, it’s not like I have left the door open or anything, safety first in Israel, the signs are everywhere, from when you enter a car park and your boot has to be checked, to getting your bag checked at the malls.  But it has happened, and I have looked everywhere, I just don’t understand it, the fecking sock monster has followed us to Israel………… I now have 5 socks with no partners.

I walked back round to the hotel as I was needing lunch and said goodbye to Nelly, hopefully that man will not be smoking in my apartment again, grrrrr.

The afternoon passed quickly, and lunch was a blur of onion soup, not the best, not the worst. 

My Beloved was once again in Herzliya today and didn’t arrive back until almost 7pm we showered and changed, tonight we are having a little Reception party in the Lobby of the hotel, it’s a thank you from the Hotel for our custom, all the guys are coming, and Enzo who is Haliburton but we won’t hold it against him.

So we went for a little snack at the lounge before the Reception and then went to join Graeme, Dave, Grant, Callum, Andre, Byron, Ravan, Enzo, and Wes, if I have forgotten some one it’s due to alcohol intolerance, we enjoyed a very nice evening with Natalie and the CEO from the Hotel, then the bad times, we went to the Irish bar and it went down hill from there, there was shots being passed and whisky being drank, chips being stolen and chilli vodka burning your throat out, I have no idea what time we left the bar, but I'm one happy Mumma that I don’t have to go to work in the morning……………………….

Data and shekels - when I eventually managed to get an English speaking Orange person, I was told I had plenty of data and the text they sent informing me I needed to recharge my shekels was in fact a mistake, clever ploy though getting you to panic buy for fear of having no data..

Wash and Dry

Today I was once again disappointed at breakfast the cappuccino machine is busted completely now and still no melon, what is occurring, yoghurt and walnuts is just not doing it for me, I set up my blog, although initially after completing my blog I lost the whole bloody thing, I was raging, but I settled down and re-wrote it again and added the lovely photos from our day trip.

The hotel is full of football players today, Beitar Jerusalem FC are staying with us just now, they are playing Maccabi Haifa, I also found out Maccabi Haifa are staying at the Dan Panorama so Haifa is busy, busy today.

I filled one of our wheeled cases we bought with our Wedding Vouchers and set off for the house, the case was full of dirty washing, today is the day I get to use my new washing machine and dryer, so exciting! When I arrived at the house the workman were in once again, today the air-conditioning is being sorted, I said hello to the gents and set about doing my first wash of the machine, I wasn't allowed to put clothes in on the first wash, just allowed to clean the machine, so I set it on a  quick wash, checked for leaks and left the machine to run its course whilst I went to the supermarket and looked for a clothes airer. The airers they had looked a little cheapy chappie so I decided to wait until I could get to Kiryat Eliezer and check out the stores down there.

I found the special floor cleaner Dina had told me about, having taken a picture of her bottle, I walked around the store with my iPhone checking for the correct image.  I bought a bucket and other bits and pieces, and then went to the wine store, wall to ceiling wine, thats my kind of supermarket, I found a nice Sancerre for when we move in, eventually!!!! I got back to the apartment, the floors were still dry and the washing machine had finished cleaning itself, so now I'm ready first load of darks going in, I chose the setting I wanted, although I was looking for 30', couldn't find it so settled on 40'. The lights were on and the water was filling my machine, now although the outside of the machine is all in English the booklet is all in Hebrew, so I think its going to be trial and error with this machine, unlike the dryer, which comes with English and Hebrew instructions, which is a good job really, because the little acorn symbol mean't nowt to me, neither did the little feather, but having read the instructions, I now know acorns for cotton, feather for delicates, simples!

I washed down doors and door panels and pottered around until the first load was finished, I then sorted out the things that would go in the dryer and the things that would go on my old airer, I have never used dryers for my clothes, I like my clothes the size they are, this is why I have done hand washing at the hotel, no danger I was going to put my smalls and trousers to the Laundry I have seen the way some clothes come back and I don't like it very much.

The new fancy tap in the kitchen is plumbed in, although it has no drain outlet yet, Itzhak is waiting until the dishwasher arrives before he plumbs it in, unfortunately the dishwasher is stuck in customs, let hope its here soon because using a tap with a bucket underneath it is going to be a pain in the bucket.......

I left the house and headed back to the hotel, Natalie and I chatted and once again she is looking for Hebrew lessons for me, I was once again re-sheduled for Berlitz and I was none to happy, I am desperately wanting to get talking Hebrew. I chatted with Amy in the lounge, herself and her partner are going to see the big game today, the stadium is walking distance from the hotel, although down hill.  I had a chat with Lou Lou and saw Lydia on the video app, she was so cute all dressed up in her pretty dress and shoes.

My Beloved who has been in Herzliya all day arrived back at the hotel around 6.30 pm and we decided that tonight its Japanika for us once again.  I wonder what we ever did before we found sushi, oh yeah I remember we cooked pfffft. We walked to Japanika, and ordered our meal, once again half way through we were given a freebie, and it was delicious, the trouble is we thought we had ordered enough, but it appears enough, just isn't enough with these guys.

We left Japanika and walked to the phone shop I put more credit on as I had received a message in Hebrew that apparently said, 'you need to load data', now I did think this was odd as I very nearly, almost remembered that I had been given 5G the last time I phoned, but what do I know so I put on 100 shekels and tried to phone, to no avail, they were shut for the day, so first thing in the morning I have to call and transfer my shekels into data.

We walked to the apartment, I needed to get the clothes from the dryer, obviously My Beloved's, we then decided in our infinite wisdom that the fridge and freezer door should open from the right not the left, so we found the necessary tools and started in about the screws, we got both doors off and were trying to re-hang the door, the door wouldn't fit, how does that work, its the same door, we pushed we shoved we poked and prodded, but the door would not fit. So we had nothing more to do than put the screws back to the left side and leave the doors opening from the left, it passed an hour............................

We walked back to the hotel and My Beloved called the Little Princes from the lounge, but not before I knocked his beer over as I breezed past with my jacket flapping.  Youngest Prince is under the weather and has the Doctor tomorrow, and Eldest Princes is busy ordering new clothes for her trip to Israel. The are both off to see the Wanted this week in Aberdeen and are very, very excited, so we are hoping Youngest Prince is feeling better for the concert.

Rosh Hinakra

So today My Beloved's alarm went off, unfortunately for him he wasn't wanting it too, some people wont listen, 'turn off Saturdays', but no that is too much like hard work, so he was woken at stupid o'clock. We breakfasted together, not happy like, its Shabbat so no cappuccino for me. We went to the Business Lounge to blog and check My Beloved's mail then we headed off on our travels.

The GPS was set for Rosh Hanikra and off we went, route 4 all the way, well after we found petrol that is. So we drove in the sunshine through the roads of Israel on our way to the Israel/Lebanon border and Rosh Hanikra. We arrived without incident and paid our shekels for the cable car down to the grottos, firstly we decided to watch their video that gives you information about how the grottos were made by Mother Nature, about the animals living around the area and the explanation of the British tunnels that were quarried during the 2nd world war. The Tunnels took a year to build and connected Haifa, Beirut and Tripoli in Lebanon, 15 bridges were also suspended along the route of the railroad track. In order to prevent the Lebanese taking passage with arms into the territory, fighters of the Carmeli division of the Haganah blew up the bridge suspensed above the big grotto in March 1948.

After watching the video we took ourselves to see the grottos, made thousands of years ago, they began with underground shocks which created the gaps in the rock, this was penetrated by rainwater which melted the chalk rock creating the beautiful phenomenum that we found today. We had been warned to wear wet weather gear because of the sea crashing through the grottos, but today was a glorious day and very little swell, and we were roasting. The grottos were beautiful the colour of the water was a reflection off the algae in the water and on the rocks, the blue was stunning, the rock formation itself, had purples hues again this was due to the algae. We wandered through, around up and down, and eventually came to the end of our tour.  We then walked through the tunnel connected the cliffs to the main promenade and basked in the sunshine, fishermen were out with their rods, there was golf carts and bicycles for hire, and there were golf carts type buggies that you peddled.

We took the cable car back to the top of the cliffs and headed for the souvenir shop, I have mislaid my keyring from home, so I know have a lovely one from Israel to keep my new hoose keys on. We left Rosh Hanikra and drove south towards Acco, we arrived there and eventually found a parking space, then we wandered around the old port area, watching and listening to the sounds of the people, shouting and calling, there was fish for sale, and some kind of bean thing, it was cooked in a big paella type dish on the harbour side, and what I find really funny is that people will walk past, put our their hand and just take one, I have seen thing in supermarkets, one guy actually tasted each dried fruit and nut whilst I was standing there, nobody bats an eyelid, but although I was quite interested in these bean like things, which were around the size of a flat chestnut, I just wasn't brave enough to steal one, what if all the other people were actually relatives of the vendor, and as such allowed to steal his wares, I might get stoned, or worse still abused in Hebrew.....

We were going to take our lunch in a very famous restaurant in Acco, I punch it into google and it said it would take 2 hours to walk from where we were or 20 mins in the car, luckily when we got back to the car I decided to check again, I found the name of the street, and off we set, it turns out that where we were in the harbour is on one side of a wall, and where we needed to be was on the other side of the wall, I think google was sending us via Tel Aviv, so five mins later we even managed to find a parking space, and we arrived outside Uri Buri. We had a little while to wait, so decided to call the Buba Daddy and Mumma we chatted with them and caught up and then walked around to Uri Buri.

My Beloved and I decided to share a starter, and it was Rare red shrimp in a chilli and lemon marinade, this dish was a ceviche and it was deliscious, the sing of the chilli infused with the lemon made your taste buds sing, for our main dishes we orderd Crab with cream and seaweed for My Beloved and for myself it was Sea Wolf with chestnut and pumpkin puree, the Sea Wolf was so lush and meaty, for fish that is and the puree was heavenly and so very light. My Beloved said his Crab dish was the best meal he has had since arriving in Israel. I knew it was good because our meal was a very quiet affair, the only other time I see My Beloved that quiet is when he eats Dairy Milk, he sits it on the roof of his mouth and waits for it to melt, if I’m really fed up with his banter I buy him a large bar…..We finished our meal with a Homemade Berrie sorbet and it was so nice that we didn’t feel stuffed after our meal, but we were full.

We headed off to Kiryat Motskin and to Dina and Yefgeni's or Zyeni as Dina calls him, only to find out it was in fact Zheni's birhday, we were treated to Zheni's favourite cake, made by Dina and we passed a lovely few hours in their company, Dina's parents were also there and had bought cakes, home made, I can see I'm gonna have to start baking again, Dina's parents are Korean and speak no English so Dina was our translator for the day. Zheni had been given a guitar by Dina’s parents, and Dina and Jason gave him a stunning new bike, which also has a child seat that slots on and off the back, he is so lucky Kiryat Motskin is so flat, no danger I would get a bike again, not on this mountain.

We eventually took our leave and headed back to the hotel, the boys were in the Business Lounge and Grant was looking decidedly green, something to do with Irish bars and late nights, we chatted and My Beloved caught up with his work mails, then we headed up the street for phone credit, we by-passed all our favourite watering holes tonight as we were both so tired from our adventure to The Grottos of Rosh Hanikra and Acco and an afternoon with friends, so bed time it was one, two three, zzzzzzzzzzzz

View from Rosh Hanikra, you can just see Haifa in the distance

this young man allowed me to take his picture hooray

 

the furthest tip of land is Haifa from Rosh Hanikra

The twin towers from Acco

The rest of the photos can be found on facebook

Scrubbing

This morning I was early for breakfast but still I missed out on the melon, I will be speaking to the chef I think, I decided on grapefruit instead, and it was huge, so I cut it up into about 20 millions pieces and devoured it. Natalie arrived and sat to drink coffee with me, not bad seeing as it's her day off, so she is in from 8.00 till 12.00.

I went to the Business lounge to write my blog and as usual got chatting with another guest, another American and this gentleman was talking about the areas that he has visited since he started working here, he also had a great map of Israel which I have been trying to find for ages, and lo and behold he went and got me one, so now I'm the very proud owner of a map of Israel, the whole of Israel not just Haifa. My new American buddy explained about Rosh Hanikra a place almost on the Israeli/Lebanon border, so that is where we are going tomorrow, that and Acco or Acre again its one of those places with numerous spellings for one word.

I finished my blog and headed up the street, I needed cash for Itzhak as I had none when the delivery guys arrived yesterday so Itzhak had lent me the money, how many Landlords do you know that lend you money, not many I bet.  I walked to the bank, got very confused with the ATM because it asked me what denomination of money I wanted, how do I know, just give me the cash, so I ended up doing two transactions because I knew that I wouldn't get asked the denomination question on the lower amounts.

I then purchased a little book so that I can keep it in my bag for Hebrew words, and a couple of bottles of water, being dehydrated and unable to drink the water is not good, apparently you can drink the water, but who wants to drink cloudy water, not me. I walked to the apartment, and once again began cleaning, you would think the place was filthy but it isn't, it's just the floors that need cleaning, you know from the dust and stuff, took me three attempts to clean the floors today, I couldn't get to grips with it at all, until I realised I had to clean with the squeegee moppy thing, then wait until it dried to buff them up to gleaming.  I cleaned the door and doorway, again it's just the dust from the work that has been done. I decided to stop as I had cleaned and buffed enough for one day, and it was nearly 2 pm, well past feed time, so I headed to Mandarin for a Quinoa salad again, washed down with their lovely Americano.

I topped up my phone credit on the way home, and my phone guru was in the shop today, minus his stitches, last time I had seen him he had unfortunately had an accident with a cupboard, and gashed his head, he was telling me he had to wait 3 hours for the Doctor to take them out, me I think I would have used my own scissors!

My Beloved was in reception when I arrived, and we chatted with Sharbel, who has told me that his name means Sing to God, and what do you know he is a singer at his church and local Choir, he actually invited us to eat with his family tonight, they will all be dining at the hotel in the VIP room, we politely declined as we have things that have to be done, and this is their family time, Sharbel is in the middle of his religious fasting period just now, and we do not want to impose on their evening if this is their time to fill their stomachs and celebrate with the family.

We took ourselves up to the Business Lounge and sorted through mail and bloggy stuff, then we headed for the shower, tonight we are heading to HaBank for supper, before we left we went in to say hello to Sharbel and his family, and what a lovely family he has too, we met Joseph (Dad), Mum (who is and English teacher), four sisters and one soon to be brother in law, we made pleasantries with the family and said our goodbyes.

We had a quiet night in HaBank and only one bottle of wine tonight, supper was Lasagne for My Beloved and Chicken salad for myself, no desserts, no shots, just a sensible night.  We were both very tired and decided to watch the last episode of Mrs Brown, the one with the three twins, hilarious! we laughed ourselves to sleep, snorting at Mammy, that WoMAN is crackers.

Flying Cats

Offff, little bit jaded this morning after all that wine last night, breakfast was a disappointment, because I was up a little later, well it wasn't that I was late waking, it was that I was very slow in everything I did, so when I got to breakfast they had ran out of melon, my yoghurt just wasn't the same without it, the cappuccino helped though. I chatted with Karen who had been looking out for me yesterday so that we could go out together, the trouble was I had been cleaning and didn't have the time.

I took myself off to the Business lounge to catch up on my blog and chat with Natalie, I now have a list of all the classes at the Dan Panorama, I just need to check out the monthly charges.  We chatted whilst I blogged, I received a call from Berlitz asking to change my appointment to Sunday, this is the appointment for information on Hebrew lessons, why they couldn't just tell me over the phone I don't know.  Another guest and I struck up a conversation, her name is Amy and she is American, Amy is over here with her partner for two months, her partner is working here and Amy is seeing the sights of Haifa. I left Amy as I had to feed my body before the bed was delivered.  I walked to Japanika and ordered take-away sushi and Edemame mm mmmm, and walked to the apartment, halfway there I received another phone call from the delivery guys, my bed would be arriving in 30 minutes.

I arrived at the apartment to find Itzhak and an electrician busily working there way through the lighting, and Nelly was in the gardens planting flowers and shrubs. Itzhak showed me all the things that were getting done, and all the things that would be done in the next few days. Happy days my bed arrived with two gentlemen who put everything together at an amazingly fast speed, so now we have a bed, two bed side cabinets and chest of drawers and a mirrored unit, and I still have heaps of space in the bedroom for a chair I have my eye on.

Nelly popped up to see my bedroom furniture and she approves, she helped me position the chest and mirrored unit because I couldn't decide the best place for them, then we set about cleaning up the apartment, I swept through and we sorted the empty boxes ready for taking downstairs, xmas decorations were moved to the warehouse, and then I washed and squeegeed the patio, by this time I was gasping for a drink, I went to tell Nelly and Itzhak and told them I was popping up the road for a drink but Nelly rescued my parched throat with a huge bottle of diet coke, the trouble with drinking fizzy is the amount of times I had to stop what I was doing to use the powder room, but at least I wasn't feeling so dehydrated, although I don't know how because I think I could have saved a heap of time had I just poured the coke down the toilet......

All the bedding and towels are now in the wardrobe, remember this thing is huge, not long enough for dresses but masses of shelving. My Beloved met me at the apartment and we set about removing all the packing from the last few boxes, we have now only our chest of drawers from home to sort and then all the packing and paper wrappings will be gone. My beautiful pictures and canvases are all unwrapped, The Turra Coo picture Buba Mumma and Daddy gave us is looking good in the living room, I can't wait for the rest of the furniture to arrive so I can organise everything and get the canvases and paintings up on the wall. We made a great job of clearing everything up and getting a little organised in the chaos of our belongings, and then My Beloved started to look pale and sickly, HE WAS HUNGRY, so we drove back to the hotel took our showers and decided tonight it was steak time.

We ate in Barbarossa, we shared a starter of Salmon with a teriyaki dressing and salad which was so light and refreshing, we then ordered the steaks, I took a sirloin steak, which was actually two steaks when it arrived, this was accompanied with Bulgar mixed through with mushrooms and was delicious, My Beloved chose the Fillet Medallions with mashed tatties, and once again the tatties were light and fluffy, we have yet to figure out the difference with the tatties, they are completely different from the Scottish tatties we are used to, the colour is creamy, but with a hint towards a buttery colour, and the taste is really light, I am over the fact that I can no longer get neeps, because I have found things that I can replace them with, but I can't get over these Israeli tatties, they are lush, and as you may know I don't eat tatties as a rule. Van Gough Vodka Double espresso shot to finish off, and a Chocolate concoction dessert, and if you sipped the shot and ate a little of the Chocolate concoction at the same time, your tastebuds were tantalised in such a way that when the last spoonful was finished you just wanted to lick the plate.

We walked back to the hotel and managed to walk past the Wine bar 107, and the lobby bar, even though Ran gave us a lovely greeting, we headed to the Business lounge and My Beloved checked his work mails and then we headed to bed, both very tired.

Oh yes, I nearly forgot, on the way back to the Hotel we saw a flying cat skimming around the trees, we have these in Scotland and we had them in our garden in Turriff, but hells teeth we call them bats at home, and they are small and black, this thing was the size of a cat with wings, and My Beloved informed me we have them at the apartment, let me tell you if they try and take up room space in our building I will be using one of the many guns I see around the area and shoot the buggers, I have no idea what the animal flying cat protection league would say, but I really don't care either...... and apparently there are 32 varieties of them in Israel too.

Aliyah - Going Up

Aliyah -  (Hebrew) 1. "Going Up;" refers to immigration to Israel or the holy land, a term in use since the dispersion or before, and referred to in the book of Ezra. 2. One of several waves of immigration (Aliyot ) in modern Zionist history.


This morning I woke around 7 am I have no recollection of My Beloved leaving as I had slept so heavily, I think it may have been the massage yesterday and the massively long walk the day before, I made myself presentable for breakfast and took myself off to the restaurant. Whilst eating another guest started to chat with me, her name is Karen and she is of indian descent, and comes from San Francisco, herself and her husband are here on business, we had a chat about the places to visit in the area, and I told her about the bus service as she has tended only to walk in the Carmel area, and there is so much more to explore just on the outskirts.


I organised my blog and whilst blogging I received a phone call, our bedroom furniture is ready, it will be delivered tomorrow between 2-5pm, hooray, now that means we owe Pinhas a bottle of whisky for getting it here in double quick time. So tonight the final payment will be made and then tomorrow afternoon I will be waiting all housewifely at the apartment for the delivery men.


I then set off for the Carmel centre I had just arrived outside one of the many coffee shops when I decided to call Buba Mumma we had a lovely chat and caught up on things going on in Turra Toon and Carmel centre.  My Bubaliscious is eating jars of food now, and growing up fast. Buba Daddy has a new job, but has been put out to grass mean time. Ahhhh I love to speak to them, the line being so clear makes it feel like they are only next door. Buba Mumma got her itouch only Lou Lou left all her details on it and Buba Mumma turned it off again as she didn't know what she should do, I told her to get Lainey to sort it out and restore it to new and then start it up, soon we will be able to Facetime with the Fullwoods.

My Beloved called and set me chasing a goose, and a wild one at that, I had to go to the apartment root around our paperwork looking for a Virgin, now this is a rarity all over not just where we are, I then had to look at the unopened boxes to figure out the shapes of the things inside and find the correct box which would contain our papers from home. Bingo first box, but it had no Virgin statements so My Beloved had to phone the UK and speak with an adviser to sort our his Virgin account, the trouble with going paperless with all things banking is that when you need details you have to rely on your knowledge base, and My Beloved has one hell of a knowledge base, but obviously not on his Virgin account.......


Seeing as I was at the apartment I decided to utilise some of those lovely cleaning products I had purchased yesterday, I set about the new floor to ceiling wardrobe, I cleaned the insides and then preceded to fill it with clothes, the wardrobe is amazing, BUT it is also amazingly short in all the wrong places, how can you have a room length, floor to ceiling wardrobe but no long hanging space, I believe most Israelis are the same height if not taller than us, so how can this be, do they fold their dresses and jackets........needless to say we need another wardrobe to make up for the shortness of the one we have.


Once I finished putting all the clothes away, un-ironed I might add, there is no danger I'm re-ironing those things until we need to wear them, I locked up and headed back out as my stomach by this time had decided that it was needing some food. So I headed to Mandarin, the place I was stood outside when My Beloved sent me chasing a goose. I ordered lunch and today I decided to try something different, so it was Quinoa salad, with cranberries and pickled lemon slices, cucumber and corriander it was amazingly fresh and tasty, and the Americano's, yep I had two were lovely. I had a quick chat with the Demonic One and then walked back to the hotel, well nearly I had a quick detour via Berlitz which is a company for teaching languages, I have an appointment for tomorrow to speak prices.


My Beloved arrived back to the hotel and we took off down to the furniture shop to finish off our bill ready for delivery tomorrow. We took the whisky for Pinhas but he was not working, so we will have to deliver it another day. We ate in the Business lounge, and I was so reminded of home and a 30th Birthday party and garlic, the hummus was saturated in garlic and it made it very hot, and very tasty, but it reminded me of the home made garlic mayonnaise I had made for Buba Mumma's 30th which was fiery hot with garlic.


We decided to take a walk to the apartment and I showed My Beloved around his side of the wardrobe. We set about the walk home and for some strange reason we could not get past the Lobby bar, it was like we were trapped, our bums were quickly glued to seats and eventually we had to stop fighting the inevitable and start drinking.  We were served by Ran and he is a young man of 21, and three weeks out of the army, such a knowledgable guy for someone so young, the people of Israel are a very knowledgable people and passionate about their Country, it makes you feel very proud to know them. Shabel was on reception tonight and has been teaching me Hebrew words again.

מצע = bed (metah) (f)

קשה = hard (kasha)

Poor Ran was bombarded with questions and he answered all that we had, he explained Israel by sending me a video link which I will add to my facebook, its a very powerful 6 minute clip.

Hebrew Lessons

This morning I met up with Natalie who was a little under the weather, alcohol is nobody's friend, I think I knew this some time ago, but no one likes to loose a friend, especially a dear friend, that has seen you through your good times and your bad.

I breakfasted with Natalie and we chatted about alcohol, friends, love and Hebrew lessons.  Natalie is now on a mission to find me Hebrew classes, we have discovered that if I was emigrating here to change my religion to Jewish then my lessons would be free, but this one particular place charges you if you don't change your religion. I think I will stay Church of England and pay the 3000 shekels.

Natalie had arranged for her Mother to collect us, today we are going shopping for cleaning fluids, we drove to Kiryat Eli'ezer and I was shown the best places to buy my cleaning implements and fluids, for just a few shekels. I know have all the necessary fluids to wash floors, clean glass, clean clothes and make them smell lush.  Lush is a word that does not translate in Hebrew and I keep being asked 'What is Lush', and I reply with its a Geordie word used to describe something brilliant, amazing, beautiful and or gorgeous.

Kiryat Eli'ezer stadium

I had my lunch at the Hotel and it was vegetable soup, when it arrived it was cold, now being in Israel and not knowing all the traditions I thought I would just check, and the waitress was devastated, and quickly whisked away my soup and returned with it piping hot. I had a quick chat with the Demonic one and then it was time for my massage, the shoulders and neck are still tricky although much better than they had been, so Arin was coming to beat me again. Dina called and we had a chat about my hike home from her house yesterday, she is still thinking I'm crazy. There seems to be a theme running here.

Arin arrived at 1.30 pm and set about my treatment, we chatted about her two children, who are one and three, and about marriage and passed a very pleasant hour, although having you face squashed in a massage couch does make for difficulties when speaking. I took I long bath after my massage and made myself all pretty again, eventually the table mark left my face and I was ready to face the world again.

When My Beloved arrived home we needed to go to collect our bar stools, so we set off in the car and everything was crossed that we wouldn't end up in the tunnel again, and miraculously we arrived in front of the store unscathed and in good humour.  We collected the stools set them into the back of the car and now we were homeward bound, homeward to our new apartment to deliver the stools and the cleaning fluids and have a peek around to see what has been done since we were last in.  We couldn't see much sign of work, although the electric box had definitely been played with as the door was open........

Because My Beloved had bought the lads back from the Port I was unable to do my little surprise for him, so the take away Japanika that I had planned in our new apartment with the new bar stools on our new breakfast bar went by the by. We ate instead in Japanika at their bar, although I must say the next time My Beloved decides to order noodles it had better be at a table, not having enough space is not good when using implements of torture, those chop sticks could remove an eye and after My Beloved stabbed me in the head with his I took the hint that he was trying to tell me something, trouble is I still have no idea what it is......

Natalie arrived in Japanika as we were finishing, she was in to collect her take away, it must be part of the recovery process, where as My Beloved always has Chinese and a beer at around 6 pm after a hangover, maybe in Israel it has to be Japanese and Saki...

We walked back in the cool night breeze to the Hotel and our room, My Beloved left me reading whilst he went to the Business Lounge and checked his mails and spoke with the Little Princes, I have no recollection of him arriving back, well not until I woke at 1.30 am, I must have crashed and burned.

Poka (Pah-Ka)

So this morning I woke early ready for my day out, I breakfasted early and worked out my route for the day. Blog done and off I set, the bus 132 took me to Lev Hamifrats, I then hung around for a while waiting for the 52 to take me to Kiryat Motskin, the lovely bus driver and I finally worked out where I needed to be and off we went. Thankfully I had my trusty iPhone with the goggle maps and could track my little blue dot. Unfortunately the bus driver forgot to shout for my stop, I realised where I was and jumped off the bus, walking back Dina called to say she would meet me down on the street, and then I received a phone call about the bed we had ordered.  The trouble is I should have stopped walking because by the time the call was ended I was past where I needed to be and had to turn back, but all was well walking towards me was Dina and Jason, they walked me back to the apartment where we sat and chatted about life in Israel and life in the Ukraine and many other things.

Jason sat at the table and told me I have beautiful eyes, three and a half years old and a charmer already, Dina had to translate for me because Jason speaks only Russian. Dina had prepared us a lovely lunch a traditional Russian soup dish, and salad, we had home made bread and cake, poor Dina is unable to eat the bread and cake as she has recently been diagnose with Celiacs disease, and is still in depression over the cakes. I spent a lovely afternoon with Jason and Dina, but the time had come for me to leave, I set off on foot as I felt I needed to walk off some of the lovely food. I used my iPhone and the blue dot and followed the railway line, back to Vulcan junction, then carried on, what I didn't realise was that I had actually slipped onto route 22 and not route 4, this was ok until I ran out of path and was left with one of two options, 1/ walk back to the road and catch a bus, 2/ continue along the motor way and eventually get back to downtown. Just over two hours later I made it to down town and the Carmalit subway, my feet were whinging by this time and the seat on the subway was sooooo comfy.

I made it back to the hotel and My Beloved was waiting there with Mr. Wilson, Dave, Callum and Grant, they all thought I was mad, as did Mark when he arrived, as he had been watching with My Beloved on the find me app and they had been tracking my blue dot.  We had a long chat in reception before deciding to go our for something to eat.

We walked to Sleek and settled in for the evening, Classic Shrimps, Veal Carpaccio, Chicken dishes and more were all ordered, each course as usual arrived with its own loaf of bread, we had bread on bread, followed by more bread. We spent a very pleasant evening chatting about where everyone came from, and life in general.

Our breakfast bar stools have arrived and we have to collect them tomorrow, now that will be fun trying to get My Beloved on the correct road. I have no idea how I'm going to get him there without actually smacking him in the head, or maybe even banging his forehead of his steering wheel........:)

Poka (pah-ka) Goodbye in Russian, I'm needing to learn Hebrew but today I was learning Russian with Jason and Dina.

New Bed

This morning I was still full from our meal at Minna Tomei but it didn't stop me having my daily dose of natural yoghurt and melon. I was well rested after my lovely sleep and feeling refreshed and ready to take on anything the week would throw at me.

I had a long chat with the jolly guard this morning, not the same guard whose photo I took with the glock, this guy is a little rounder, but he does have a glock too. We chatted about London, bombs, family and psychopaths as opposed to sociopaths, a strange combination but the gentleman is a fountain of knowledge and I'm now looking for a copy of East of Eden to read.

I need a bed and today I am determined to find one, I left the hotel after asking my jolly guard directions, the answer was not short, and involved another Israeli guest, the conversation was all done in Hebrew, and finally I was told I need to get the bus to Vulcan junction, this would be easy if my pronunciation of Vulcan was the same as the bus drivers, but I have to say, he was not phased and simply said, I'm sorry I'm not understanding, we eventually worked out the my Vulcan should be woolkan and my ticket was purchased.  The lovely man even shouted Woolkan when it was time for me to depart the bus.  Unfortunately the journey was to no avail, there was no bed to be found, well not one I like anyway. So after a spot of lunch and a quick chat with Mumma Hud I was back on the bus to Check point.

Now Check point is huge, and when I got my bearings I headed for the first of many stores, all of which are as a rule very cleverly disguised as grey blocks, or as My Beloved said 'a compacted rabbit warren of breeze blocks'. Simply Wood just didn't do it for me, and a number of other stores I found, although nice were on the expensive side.  But, hallelujah I found a bed store, I found Paul who is really Pinhas, and he showed me around his store, three floors, and beds upon beds, upon beds, so we carefully checked out each floor, sometimes twice, and then I said I would return with My Beloved. After leaving the store I phoned My Beloved and asked him to meet me, we agreed to meet at Cinemall as trying to get him from where he was to where I was was a logistical nightmare. On the road back to the Cinemall I found a store where they sell breakfast bar stools and made a note of their closing times, then I headed to Cinemall where I sat and had a lush drink of hot milk, now in the bottom of this lovely drink was two chocolate bombs, and oh they were so good, once they eventually melted that is, now I'm not a great milk drinker, but I have noticed there is a slight difference in the taste of milk here, but hey when you put chocolate in anything it's gonna taste good.

Kishon Port in the distance

So I waited for My Beloved and I waited, and I waited, it turns out that he had left work early, but once again he had listened to the GPS and she had once again led him on a merry dance, I am now under the impression that the new road system here is not on her radar and something possibily needs updating, because to get from Kishon Port to Cinemall should be quiet an easy task, but not with GPS, she sent My Beloved husband on an hour long trip through the Carmel tunnel again. So having left work reasonably early, it took him an hour to get to me.............. When we eventually me My Beloved asked if we should take the car, going on recently events I thought we had better walk. We walked across the intersection which took an age, and then first stop was the breakfast bar stools, hooray we have sorted and ordered and they should be here in a week. Next stop the bed shop, now this took a little longer, because although My Beloved is a great shopper, he does get easily bamboozled, and he was shown one bed to many, and in the end having been up and down the three floors in the department store, the lovely Pinhas eventually bought the catalogues up to the beds we were undecided on, to save My Beloved walking once again up then down.

Eventually the deed was done, we have a bed, hooray - delivery could be as long as a month or as little as two weeks, we will just have to wait and see.

We walked back to the carpark and took the car on its homeward journey, we ate in the Business Lounge, My Beloved was catching up on work that he had left so he could find a bed, and I caught up on the post with Lou Lou.

We popped around to the house when we had finished to measure a few bits and pieces and then headed back to have a quick chat with Natalie before we headed to dream land.

Wedding Gifts

This morning My Beloved and I had a lovely long lie, the first real long lie together since we arrived. We breakfasted in the hotel and set out for our new hoosie, we parked the car and seeing as I was feeling a little shady, and I don't mean Slim Shady we walked to Bruno's for pizza, two pieces later and a Peroni for My Beloved and we felt strong enough to face the boxes we needed to unpack.

All our wedding gifts have arrived in one piece, all our electrical's are also in one piece, it appears so far that we have only one breakage, which I mentioned was a gift from another life. We tore open our belongings and arranged them in no particular order, most of the kitchen is organised although I'm sure it will be reorganised before we are settled in, it wasn't easy cleaning sides, and cupboards with no hot water, but we managed.

We unpacked the eldest Prince's bed and our Christmas tree and decorations, the decorations will be placed in the warehouse ready for next year. Before leaving we locked all our electrical's and personals in one of the bedrooms, only because the workmen have still to finish off, and we would prefer that temptation was removed. We left and headed to the hotel three bottles of water later and the cotton wool mouth disappeared.

I snoozed in the afternoon as My Beloved set about his expenses, having not kept on top of them since we arrived it kept him busy long enough for me to re-coup my strength.  We decided on Minna Tomei for our supper, we started with Dim sum for My Beloved and  Beef skewers for myself, once again Giselle was our waitress and she was great fun, after our Little Minna's as they were called Giselle recommended the Tom Yum soup, so we decided to try it, and it was lush, its a hot and sour soup with chicken and comes in a huge bowl for sharing.  My Beloved had decided he WAS having Beef Vindaloo today, so having eaten his first two courses he ordered, I chose a chicken noodle dish, and both arrived, the noodles in my dish were heavenly, just what I needed, My Beloved's meal arrived on its tray, there was a vegetable dish, a lentil dish and the rice and beef and it was very nice, it wasn't Vindaloo heat but trust me knowing My Beloved as I do this was probably a good thing.  Now we were both feeling stuffed at this point and refused the dessert menu and the hot drinks, but once again as is the Israeli nature Giselle had other ideas and presented us with a dessert of crepes, bananas and Jasmine tea. The tea was great after our big meal, but My Beloved was struggling with his over full belly, and was groaning loudly. I ignored him, if you will order fried Dim sum and spicy food don't come crying to me is what I was thinking, but my eyes were smiling.......

We walked very slowly back to the car, the trouble with doing all the walking I have been doing since arriving is that My Beloved has one pace, and it's not mine, I now have trouble walking with him because he is always ten paces behind me, now this is his rightly place, but it makes conversation difficult. The car was set for Yefe Nof and homeward bound we headed.  We finished our iphone scrabble game with My Beloved beating me this time, then drifted off into dream land, My Beloved on his back as his stomach was still to full for any other sleeping position.

A Few Pics I stole from Facebook

Eating soup

The Demonic One

Snow White

Stormy Weather

Today was advertised as stormy, with 100% chance of rain, and high winds, well for a change we got exactly what the advert said.

I spent most of the morning in the Business lounge chatting away to a gentleman from Dallas, we spoke about housing and restaurants and funnily enough the best burger he has ever had in his life was here in Israel, it was from Meat in Meat out and he recommended it highly, I don't like burgers much so although a little tempted I doubt I will try it.

I took myself out into the wild weather for lunch, the guard asked if I had stones in my pockets, and when I started to walk the wind was so crazy I was being forced into a run, every time I lifted one foot to move forward the gusts of wind blew me so hard I was running. I ate in Japanika, but decided to go for coffee elsewhere when I had finished, I took myself to Gal's bakery, now this lovely little bakery is set back from the road, and it has an outside and inside eating area, the facility is attached to the bakery and I can only describe it as a lean-to set in amongst trees. I ordered my coffee and sat with my ipad reading the latest Alex Cross book, now when I say latest I mean latest to me, I'm still convinced I have read this book, but I have decided to work my way through the series anyway. Whilst sipping my coffee the table opposite started to giggle and jump up from their chairs, the wind had increased to such a frenzy that the rain was being forced through every crack and crevice and unfortunately for them the roof above them was leaking, I felt a few drips myself and when looking down, I noticed the rain getting in under the garden door, time for a quick exit.

I ran through the rain to HaBank who were themselves having issues with water, again the driving wind was forcing it through the closed doors, but I knew I would be shower proof in HaBank as they have apartments above them.  I once again sat and read my book, spoke with My Beloved who was getting an early finish today and waited for a break in the rain before heading back to the hotel.

When the weather cleared enough for me to dash home I returned to our room and set about the smalls with the soap powder, that sorted My Beloved turned up and we decided to check out our belongings, we need to make sure nothing is broken, so its open the box time.

The first box opened contained a huge ornament that was a gift on my 30th birthday during another life, and it was bust, it was a shame but I wasn't overly distressed.

So far any wedding gifts we have opened have all arrived safely, thank goodness, some of the arrivals are pictured below. We only have 68 parcels and we have managed to open 8 so far. We had to stop as My beloved was needing fed, so we locked up the house and headed back to the hotel.

HaBank for supper, I decided on The Trio of fish and hold the rice, but could I get green beans with that, My Beloved had the seafood risotto, we were both delighted with our dishes, my trio was shrimp, calamari and grey mullet, the mullet was anything but grey, and came coated in nigella and sesame seeds it was lush, we washed it down with a large bottle of Pellegrino oh and a bottle of White of course. Tonight we were being very good and no dessert was eaten, we even managed to decline a second bottle of the White stuff too.

Unfortunately our new best bar man works in the wine bar, which happens to be next to hotel, so we didn't get to the hotel as quickly as we had expected, My Beloved just couldn't walk past the entrance, I had already walked past mainly due to the need for a toilet stop, My Beloved reminded me the wine bar does have a toilet, that was all it took, one little toilet and the 2nd bottle of wine was bought. At least we remembered leaving the wine bar tonight, but I think we were burgled through the night, our room was trashed when we woke, but nothing seems to be missing.