Architects and Neighbours

This morning I was up sharp, sorted through the house and organised myself for the day, I made arrangements with Amy for tomorrow, and was meeting Celia at 1pm today. I blogged and sorted through some paperwork that was dearly needing my attention.


Then I took myself off to the beach to meet Celia, I was a touch early so when I jumped on the 132 and the driver didn't know where he was going, and I didn't know what to ask for, because Haifa Mall wasn't ringing any bells with him, so I paid my shekels and took a ride on a bus going somewhere, but not necessarily where I wanted to be, I had a sneaking suspicion I had used this bus once before to travel from a road I had ran out of path on, its a miracle I had the right bus, the right numbers and I'm heading to Haifa Mall, the bus driver really needs to learn his route.

The view from Celia's apartment

I popped into the mall and had a quick peek around, then I headed to the next bus which would take me along towards the Leonardo apartments and Celia. I arrived and was told which floor and which lift to use and arrived at Celia's door, she was in the shower when I arrived, as I say I was too early, and the corridor to her apartment was sweltering, I phoned her and she let me in, all wet and soapy.  We chatted whilst she got ready, and then we were off, Qiryat Eliezer for some retail therapy, Celia showed me around the shops that she had discovered on her travels, and we looked at handbags and shoes, and dresses, and shorts and skirts and tops, beautiful colours and wonderful prices, it turned out to be the same shopping area Natalie and her mother had taken me too.


Then it was time for some tea, we have a wonderful coffee machine at home, but since I was unwell I have hardly drank coffee, so Celia ordered a Latte and I order Tea with nana leaves, nope its not some old Grannys leaves, it is mint leaves known locally as Nana.


We drank our tea and coffee in the sun, but goodness me it was toasty, I had to turn to face the sun in the end because I was back to that burning flesh smell again, we asked one of our waiters where we could get beef stock cubes from, and he assured us we would get them in the supermarket, Celia wasn't convinced, and after we bought our bacon from the Russian shop she was proved right.  So no stock cubes to be found. I have managed to track down the chicken as mentioned before, but beef is very elusive and I can assure you I am not spending all day doing it the old fashioned way. So the search will go on, although I have got two friends bringing me in a heap when they come back to Israel. I would have them sent over but knowing my luck they would get stuck in customs.


Getting back to the bacon, the lady in the store showed us the bacon, and my initial thought was thats not for me, she then showed us a second piece, and ok its not lean back, or straight forward but I bought it anyway, I now have to decide what to do with it, because obviously its not slices, so me thinks I will be making soup and carbonarra with it.


Celia and I said our goodbyes at the bus stop, luckily for me she had handed me some heavy duty bags prior to leaving her apartment, as I was weighed down with groceries, I jumped on the 28 which took me straight back up to The Carmel and home.  I unpacked and just looked at my purchases, and thought what the hell am Im going to make with this lot.  I decided on chicken, I used half a stock cube and placed it in my newly purchased disposable tin foil dish, I love this disposable lifestyle saves on cleaning for sure.  I only used half a cube because being more difficult to get than bacon, I need to eek them out, and get myself to either Isfiya or Wadi Nisnas to stock up, get it stock up. I then threw together a salad using the herbs I had previously purchased, one being coriander and the other unknown, but it does smell good, and I think it could be dill, maybe..


My Beloved arrived home just as I had finished making the supper, so I threw the chicken in the oven, covering it with foil to avoid my disastrous oven burning it to a crisp. 40 mins later and dinner was ready, the chicken was lush as was the salad, although My Beloved has asked for warm salad next time, as the cold kills his teeth.....


We settled in for a quiet night, which with My Beloved's phone is not easy, or the little ping of the emails, then we got a call from Itzhak, would it be ok if the Architect came and looked around our kitchen, he forgot to mention the neighbours would be coming along too, they came in said hello, and looked around the kitchen, Hebrew was tooing and froing, and then they were gone, the new neighbours will be moving in sometime in August, but what Itzhak did say was he and Nelly would be moving in tomorrow, hooray.

I forgot to mention, when we were driving the Little Princes to the airport we had stopped at a gas station and lo and behold cheese puffs, I bought 4 bags, just in case I needed them for a hangover, one can never say never, they cost a fortune I might add, but they are the best cheese puffs I have ever tasted and they are huge.