Spring Has Sprung

I feel like I always start my blogs the same way. So, just for the record, 'yes, it's been a while since I last wrote'... and that's because surprise surprise- I've been really busy.

I just got back from Sydney today. My fleeting 5 day stint was awesome. I'd reccommend it to everyone. It's the perfect compressed amount of time to catch up with everyone you want to see- especially if you throw in a wedding in there as well so this will include all family friends and extended relatives too... 5 days isn't enough time to get sick of or annoyed with anything, because I knew I'd be leaving so soon anyway, I just went along with the ride and enjoyed every minute of it. Seriously! I was thinking about it on the plane- how much fun I packed in to 5 days! And I'm so impressed with myself for combatting all signs of jet-lag.

In case I didn't make it apparent when I was home, here are just some personal tid- bits I'd really like to mention: First of all, it was really great to see everyone. Michelle, your new apartment is great and I look forward to seeing you and Itzik here in 12 weeks (and how many days and minutes left now Michelle?); Jord, thank you (and your mum) for your wardrobe and the fun times, as always, and I also look forward to seeing you here in the Holy Land in roughly the same amount of time; Deborah, I was very happy to farewell you- and I mean that only in the nicest possible way- it's about goddamn time!! I hope you enjoy your year away in South America and I look forward to reading your exciting blogs- so far they're excellent! Keep it up!!! The karaoke was great fun, Oh, and I also hope you packed more than 4 undies in the end, and they better be cotton, misses! And go with the rectangular soap dammit! Alex, I don't know if you'll be reading this any time soon, but the wedding was lovely, and I hope my manual driving lessons paid off and you're enjoying your well-deserved honeymoon. Can you email me some photos soon? Ta. And congratulations Yula once again for your job on the Trans-Syberian Railway! Maybe you should also consider keeping a blog? And Kim, you are Kimberlita afterall!

Okay, well- I'm sorry if I didn't mention you personally, please don't be offended.

Sydney was great. On my flight on the way back to Bangkok however, I somehow got into an argument with an antisemitic German guy who told me off for speaking too loudly to the Aussie guy next to me. The Aussie guy wanted me to teach him some nice things in Hebrew so he could impress his 'Israeli lass' who he would be meeting in Bangkok, so being ever the teacher that I am, (I tried to ignore the fact that he 'reckoned his English was a bit of alright' to get a job as an English teacher, even though on his landing card he wrote nationality: "Austrailian".. yes those damn 'i's can be confusing, I agreed with him...)I was making him repeat things after me and writing them down and showing him some of the alphabet and stuff, and then we got talking about Israel and news coverage and the culture and about his Israeli lass (haha) and it was a nice, pleasant conversation and the plane was pretty damn empty. After about 20 mins or so, this German guy turned around and started accusing me (not us) of rudely imposing on his peace and quiet by talking so loudly. He said I had no respect for the rest of the passengers on the plane and why was it that he had to hear everything we were talking about as if we were yelling in his ear. Of course I decided there was no way I was going to appologise since I know I'm not a particularly loudly spoken person and this guy was totally out of line, considering he was sitting 3 rows infront of us. So I pointed out that the plane was practically empty- and buddy, he could move- which he didn't like. I also told him he could put his headphones in. Didn't like that either. I then told him I was only sorry that he was so sensitive... that didn't go down too well either.. I was on a roll, but he kept bloody attacking me, so some of the other passengers sided with me and told the guy we weren't being particularly obtrusive or rude or loud or anything... so he got up in a huff and walked away cursing something about bloody Israelis and 'Jewesses' acting like they own the whole world. He left his glasses on the plane- Which I noticed, but stayed shtoom...

Anyway... that was fun.
Since I've been back, I've unpacked. (My suitcase lock was cut open and Israeli customs totally turned my bag upside down & inside out. Great.) Eli won't be home until some godly hour in the morning because he has a wedding gig tonight in the North. So I went to a cafe with my friend Rachel- who worked with me as a teacher at Wall Street, but left there 3 weeks ago. She's a freelance writer now for Time Out Tel-Aviv magazine, so we got free drinks at the cafe and excellent service, thanks to her coz she was doing a review for them. In fact, we had a big farewell party for Rachel the week before I left where all the staff went out to a really awesome bar on my street. (my fellow teachers and boss)

What else? After I met up with Rachel, I walked through the famous spice markets next to my house along Rechov Levinsky, to buy some Louisa tea leaves and some of the juiciest sulatanas I've ever tasted. I stopped in to pay a visit to Yossi, my fave spice man who always invites me in for his 'special tea' and date sandwiches. When I say date sandwiches, I mean, literally, he cuts a big fat juicy date in half, puts walnuts or almonds in the middle, then gives it to me like a sandwich. Today he made an excellent rose tea with pine nuts and Sapphire. Jordana, it was the same one he made us when you were here. But for some reason, it tasted more special this time. After that, I did some grocery shopping at the markets, then I came home and stopped by Nissim- the weirdo juice guy who works across the street from me. He gave me a freshly squeezed pomegranate juice. Mmmmmmmm... That reminds me, Dad: That's what you should do with all the left over pomegranates from the wedding. Juice em!! Nissim showed me a huge scar he has down the whole side of his abdomen from a blue shark attack in Eilat 30 years ago. Geeeeeeezzzz....

The construction in my street is almost finished. Hurrah!!!
(this is the horse and carriage which makes its way down our street all the time selling fruits and vegetables and making a racket... our place is literally where the tractor is in the background) Finally we have a sidewalk now! Ok, this excites noone else except for me I think. So enough of that. Ummm... here's a photo of one of Eli's gigs where he performed in a play for primary school kids who sat mesmerised. Either they were mesmerised by the actress, the musician, or the funny blonde goatie on the dark-haired musician:

All in all, Sydney was really great. It feels good to be back here again though.

***I'm posting this a day late, because I wanted to upload a couple of photos but for some reason I'm unable to do it, so I'll add them in later on. Work today was fun. I brought taboo with me ;)