Honey I'm Home...............

Well what have I been up to since my last blog, well let me tell you, I have been badgering a very busy man into doing his exercises, sometimes without success I have to say, we have had a few nights at the Dan Accadia, Herzliya and we have been house hunting with Ido our lovely real estate manny. We have been back in Israel a total of 20 days and it feels like we haven't had a holiday at all.

And yes we are on the move again, we haven't even been in our apartment in Haifa 6 months and we are having to leave it, we told Itzhak and Nelly Monday evening that we are moving and I think Nelly was as disappointed as I was, we had such a giggle with them Monday that I will really miss them, I would definitely recommend them as landlords.

So today we have been given the green light for the house we want, it was a bit touch and go for a while, but today it all came together, we are currently waiting for Ido to call us, can you believe he has been so selfish as to take himself off voluntarily into the army for a month, really I ask you................

The house is on a complex which has an outdoor pool and the houses all back onto the pool area, well except ours and next door as we have a little culdesac which means no one walks past our back door, wooohooo privacy haha. 

There are a few expats on the complex which may or may not be interesting for us, some live there, some including our right hand neighbour come over from the UK three or four times a year, our left hand neighbour is Israeli and apparently (as the right hand neighbour Jeremy informed me) uses the house around 42 weeks a year. I had a good old chin wag with Jeremy when I went around for a second visit, it was after initially seeing the house with My Beloved and Ido, I decided over lunch to go back and get another look, when we had first been taken aound we had gone in back entrance through the garden and pool area, this gave us a very odd feel for the place, so I decided to investigate the area myself and find the front door, that was when I met Jeremy and his lovely wife, he gave me the low down on the place and the people, and took me around the front of the house.

The house itself is on three levels, the ground level being the living room, dining room and kitchen, with a boom room!! this is what they call the bomb shelter in Herzliya, they may well call it that in Haifa too, but I have never heard it called that and it did make me smile. Anway the house, so the house has just undergone a fantastic renovation so everything is brand spanking new, including the three ovens! why would you need three ovens I asked on our third visit, and I was told for entertaining, I am hoping that is not obligatory.....
First floor has a master bedroom with ensuite, and then a further bathroom and two large bedrooms, on the next level is a another bathroom and another bedroom. All the bathrooms are new and sparkly, as are the beds and all the furniture, the house has never been lived in since it was renovated and the furniture is beautiful.  The dining room table is massive and seats around 10 people, more if everyone budges up.  So now we are waiting to find out our moving date, we will be leaving all our beautiful furniture that we lovingly purchased for our apartment in Haifa for the two guys who have taken over My Beloved's position, and they better look after it, because I will hunt them down...

My Beloved is doing great after his operation and has leapt back to work. although being office based is making him lazy shhhhh don't tell him I said that. As he is working now in Herzliya the days are again very long, mainly due to the fact that he has to be at the morning meeting for 7.30am and if you leave any later than 6am as I have mentioned before it will take you nearly two hours to get there, and getting home can be equally as difficult, we have been informed that we now have to stay in Herzliya through the week to avoid unnecessary traveling, this is until we move into our house, I can't see that being a hardship as long as we stay in the Dan Accadia and not the roach infested staff house they have on the Marina, thats a whole other story, and one that still makes my skin creep.

First Day Home

After a wee snooze till 1pm we got up and started sorting through the rest of the washing, it was like Wong's Chinese Laundry at The House of Mather.

Late on we decided we better get some supplies as we had nothing in that could resemble a meal, we had lots of bits, that even if you threw them together would not make a palatable meal, so shopping trip to Isifiya it was as being Shabbat everything else was shut.

Shopping done we headed home, My Beloved got his head stuck into his computer and I had the Olympics on whilst I made the soup.  We spent a pleasant evening catching up on the events of the day, the gold medals, the competitors and watched on the edge of our seats during the Omnium, or at least I think that was what it was called, great to watch though real nail biting stuff. We went to bed very tired and with a little trepidation as My Beloved is going back to work tomorrow, three weeks before he should be offfft......... lets hope he behaves himself and I don't have to scold him when he returns....

This will be my last blog for a little while, things are changing and I need to get abreast of the changes so my concentration will be else where, I will be back in a week or two so keep on reading.


My little blog has only 24 more visits before it reaches 10,000 views, thank you to everyone of you for reading and following in the daily grind that is my life, the Beloved and I could not believe the amount of comments we had about my blog when we were over in the UK, very humbling when so many friends and family enjoy reading your rants.

2011  just after our Niece Maisie was born

The Happy Housewife

Pamering with Lou Lou

Our morning was spent sorting through clothes, Lou Lou and I swapped a few dresses and such like, this is the usual turn of events when we meet up, but I have to say normally its a one way transactions, but not today.


We left the house and headed to Bluewater for our pamper treatments at Molten Brown, My Beloved waited for us patiently at a coffee establishment and then it was lunch time, full English all day breakfast for three please, ohhhh and it was lush. We very nearly left the restaurant and went for cake at a little shop I had spotted earlier but I managed to control myself and refrained from stuffing my face any further.


Back to Lou Lou's to finish our bags before leaving for Heathrow around 5pm.  We had an amazingly quick journey to Heathrow, even with being caught in traffic just before the airport, Lou Lou dropped us at the departures and as My Beloved was back on his crutches we were checked in straight away, although My Beloved can walk without his crutches, the amount of travelling we have been doing has taken its toll in his posture and he really needs the one crutch just to stop him limping, its not that he isn't fixed, it's more a strength issue, but he will get there very, very soon.


We headed for food at Huxley's and then found our flight was delayed by one hour, so we had no more choice than to play scrabble, the trouble is we are now becoming so used to each others play that its all tactics, the game was unfinished when the call to the plane was heard and we folded the travel board away for another day.  Again first in the queue and escorted to the plane, we took our seats, I have no recollection of taking off just being very rudely woken up by the fat boy next to me, he had to be fat, why else would he bash my elbow three times with his side, well that was me awake for the rest of the journey, and I had no more to do than watch the second half of The Avengers, what an ace film I can't wait to see the first half........


We eventually arrived home to Haifa sometime around 8.30am bags unpacked, washing on and then time for a snooze, oh how I have missed my lovely comfy huggable bed.

Leaving again

We woke very late for a change and neither of us wanted to get out of bed, but as I hadn’t eaten in the last 30 plus hours my belly had other plans, so we showered and headed to Celebrations for lunch, whilst there we watched the Olympics on the TV, the rowing was on and we watched as our British ladies rowers received their gold medal and then watched the men’s races.

After lunch it was off home and for a quick catch up with Olly and Manda before we dropped Manda at work, then it was coffee time with my ladies, once again at Celebrations, I met in with Shona and Sandra and we had a girly afternoon catching up with each other.  The time passed so quickly and soon My Beloved arrived to collect me and take me home.

The Little Prince’s were collected and we drove to Inverurie to meet Manda, Tony, Dave and Elaine for a meal at Via Roma, we had a lovely meal, the wine flowed and the chatter was endless, Lainey telling us how she hates to be touched, Tony and his Muscles and Manda trying to decided about 50 Shades, turkey thighs and fat bellies, and Christmas, we had a ball, our evening ended with luscious desserts and we waddled out of the restaurant and drove home.

We eventually went to bed and I had another sleepless night, I had ran out of energy to keep tapping my foot and stop My Beloved from snoring……..

Wednesday 1^st August

Early start, the bags were finished and loaded into the car and it was time to say goodbye to Manda and Olly, Tony had his goodbye the previous night as he was up early for work and I knew I wouldn’t see him, I will miss little Olly singing to himself in the mornings, its amazing how happy the sound of a singing baby can make you.  The journey to the airport was quick as the traffic was low, and we dropped the car back to the car park and headed for check in, the boarding passes were printed and we were on our way through security, My Beloved set the bells off for the second time this trip, and just as we were collecting our things we had a tap on the shoulder and someone mentioned a full body search, luckily for us it was Hamish who happened to be walking through the airport at the time with some work colleagues, a little disconcerting as he is a fire fighter at the airport and I really didn’t want my plane delayed.  It was lovely to see him if only briefly, we have seen only half the people we wanted since arriving in the UK, but at least I will be back in September, I may catch up with the other half then.

Lou Lou collected us from the airport and whisked us home, we spent an evening with the family, all my lovely nephews, Krista and baby Lydia who we introduced to Gummy bears on you tube, the funny thing was she started to dance just like Olly, she has the arm movement down pat.  Dave and Denise arrived and we chatted whilst watching the Olympics and then it was time for everyone to leave, Dave and Denise promising they will be over probably sometime in the New Year.

Olly

We have had a very busy time in the UK, and unfortunately with family being at different ends of the UK we have spent a lot of time on the road, and we have logged many miles on the hire car, but it was worth it, my favourite moments have been the family BBQ at David’s, shopping at the Metro Centre, the family wedding of Craig and Silvia, the family meal at Lou Lou’s, and our meal out with good friends and the Little Princes the night before we left, everything else in between has been great but these were my favourites, oh and of course staying at Manda and Tony’s and listening to Olly singing in the mornings and dancing to Gummy bears that was just heavenly.

I found the cure for snoring

The morning was a right off but being dropped at Inverurie train station and the sun coming out was the start of a very good day, I met in with an old friend by accident whilst sipping my cappuccino and we chatted and made arrangements to meet up when I return in September.


The train arrived and I took my seat heading in the direction of Elgin, the journey was an hour and ten minutes and ran by at quite a sprint, I amused myself playing on the ipad.  I arrived at Elgin but unfortunately having told my lift I would be ten minutes later I walked up the road, little did I know that my lift would be twenty minutes after the time I should have arrived, but it was a sunny day and I stood around in the sun shine and waited.  Eventually my lift arrived, James and Lauren had unfortunately been having a tiff prior to meeting me and the air was pretty thick I almost chocked when I got in, Amelia was her usual cheery self and was completely oblivious to the mood of Mummy and Daddy, thankfully.


James dropped us at the circus and we purchased our half price tickets and took our ringside seats, excitedly looking around at all the trappings needed for the show.  EEEEEEE I love the circus, as long as there a no animals, them things still traumatise my night time sleeps, never will I forget the stench of the animal circus at Danson Park in my pre teen years YUK!


The lights went down and the stars of the show arrived to loud music and even louder clapping, the clown, the acrobats, the juggler, the trapeze artists and more, all in their spangley outfits, we ooo'd and ahhh'd at the spectacle that unfolded before our eyes, especially when the man trying to stand on his stacked tins failed not once but twice, poor lad looked very nervous throughout his performance, but I have to say he was the only one. The clown entertained us through the interludes and made us laugh when he cried, and sad when he picked on the audience, but all good fun, and a great time was had by all.

We left the circus and made our way home, I should have taken the train right then, but no I decided to go back for a coffee, big mistake, I couldn't get a taxi to take me back for my train, and the next train was two hours later and would have me arriving in Inverurie at 11.30pm pffft, I eventually managed to get a taxi that would take me to the bus stop, and the 305 notorious only because of the time it takes to get from A-B, I eventually managed to get texts to my beloved by standing on my head with the phone out the window and using my toes to type, as long as I stayed in this position full service was resumed, My Beloved would collect me from Cullen so I jumped on the bus after the taxi driver dropped me at the bus stop, and an hour and a half later I was in Cullen.  Had I stayed on the bus it would have been two and a half hours to Turriff, no thank you.


On the bus journey home I entertained myself by taking pictures of the view across the Moray Firth, the sunset was extraordinary and the time flew by, just like being on a train but flying not sprinting.

And so ended another lovely day with my Daughter and Grand Daughter, cant wait to seem them again in September.


Having fallen asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow I was rudely awoken once again by My Beloved's snoring, I lay there and raged, and raged, until I could take no more, I found the cure.  For all my friends out there if you tap your foot or hand or even your Beloved's head it interrupts their breathing rhythm, not enough to kill them but enough to break the snoring cycle, and wake them up when they have to respond to the foot tapping, feign sleep and they think your dreaming, it worked a treat..........