Happy Valentines

This morning I woke quite early, gave My Beloved his valentines gift, well actually I told him where it was , I didn't actually get out of bed he had to get it for himself.

On entering the breakfast lounge I was presented with a red carnation for Valentines, unfortunately so were all the other guests, there were chocolate hearts laid out on the tables and serving tables, it was nice to see all the business men walking from the restaurant with their red carnations.

My 3G has been turned back on, and I had 4 missed calls from Orange last night, the last one around 11.30, they may not sleep but I do. I started my blog in the Business Lounge which was freezing, I almost shut the window until I realised there was a man dangling out the opening cleaning the windows, he was attached to ropes and pulleys, but that didn't stop me being freezing.

So today I didn't really have a plan until I spoke with Natalie, oh by the way my massage for my neck is booked for tomorrow morning @ 10, the lady is booked to come to my room for deep tissue work, please god I hope it works, just reading a book is driving me nuts, and sitting on the computer is even worse. Anyway back to what I will be doing, I spoke with Natalie about garden furniture and BBQ's and she recommended ACE so I headed for the Grand Kanyon. I have now discovered how to find out the buses I need and their times, egged.co.il. Why you call a bus service Egged I'm not sure, its probably the English translation of the Hebrew word. So I needed either the 23 or 28, the 23 leaves from the Carmel Centre and the 28 leaves outside the hotel, that is if you can get the bus driver to stop for you, so I walked to the Carmel Centre and waited for the 23.

Using the buses is a great way to see around Haifa, they meander all over the place, and into areas I haven't walked yet. All the roads loop here, they loop all around the mountain, but quite often they don't actually loop down, its just a warren of loops. I arrived at my destination and started to look for ACE, this isn't easy in Grand Kanyon, I have terrible trouble with this Mall, there are three floors I think, but it still takes me forever to find anything, I think the frustration comes from the escalators, they don't connect to each level, so you end up on one floor but have to walk to the other end of the level to find the up or down, I eventually found ACE and they have a couple of great BBQ's, they also have outdoor furniture and canopy's, but I think I will try and visit one of the other branches because this was quite a small store.

I found a great Asics store, with lots of pretty new trainers in, I found another body shop store, and of course I found the coffee shops too. They have an Apple store too, its called iDigital and very, very expensive.

Whilst sipping my Americano I received a photo from Mumma Hud and as you can see the little man is just adorable. Shame I have to wait till July to meet him. I read my book for a while, hooking it up on the sugar sachets so my neck wouldn't become irritated, it didn't work it was irritated.....

When I decided to leave the Grand Kanyon I thought ah this will be easy just hope on the 23 and bing bang bosh I would find myself in the Carmel, luckily for me I might not understand Hebrew but I'm a listener and the first two buses that arrived were not for me, apparently they were going to Merkazit Ha-Mifratt, I have no idea where that is so decided to wait, I am just so glad the Israeli's are so verbal or I would have ended up there, where ever there was. Ha-Mifratt does ring a bell with me, but the Merkazit I have no idea.

The bus arrived and I bought my ticket, found a seat and settled in for my journey. I arrived back in Carmel Centre in no time and left the little bus, but before going back to the hotel I decided I would have a frozen yoghurt, I love the frozen yoghurt shop, its right next to the ice cream shop, but I'm preferring the yoghut, I took the sugar free yoghurt and walked back to the hotel with my cup of yoghurt and my spoon supping all the way.

Something similar

When I returned to our room, I puddled around tidying up and then decided on a toilet break, I walked into the bathroom and was faced with a lovely bouquet of flowers from My Beloved sitting in the sink, which was full of water.

Later on I walked around to the new place and had a nosy around, its so exciting but I almost felt naughty walking around, the workmen are still in place just now, and their tools were sitting at the entrance, the gardener has been and the weeds are all gone. The wardrobe is up and in place, there are still a few things to be finished yet though. I fiddled with the fridge because it is so lush, and had a peak inside the oven.  Itzhak explained that fortunately the washing machine has an English manual, something they have just started doing, because that could be fun otherwise, my smalls would be extra small, and my whites could be black if I use the wrong setting.

View down the Bahai Shrine toward the German Colony

I took the long route home, and walking down towards the beach, now don't get me wrong I was no where near the beach, but that was the direction I was walking in, there were lots of runners out, it's the first time in Haifa that I have noticed so many runners, Tel Aviv the runners were everywhere, I had wondered where they were in Haifa, now I know they wait until it's dark.

I have discovered something today, I was speaking to a lovely older gentleman in the Business Lounge and I asked him to explain the 'Merkazit Ha-Mifratt', apparently in Hebrew things are different, we would say 'beautiful woman' in English, in Hebrew I had it explained they would say 'woman beautiful', it's no wonder I get confused, so I think the 'Merkazit Ha-Mifratt' is actually The Central Bus station.

I hope all you lovers have had a wonderful day, and those of you single pringles I am sending love and Hugs