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.