on Ghingis Kahn and the memory of a great woman

 

It is sad when people get sick, especially those whom you are close to.

 

I don't remember my grandfather on my mother's side, he died when I was 2 and a half , and I was never close with my grandparents on my dad's side. But I am close with my grandmother on my mom's side.

 

My earliest memories of her are somehow forged by real memories combined with what I was told. I vaguely remember going with Neti to Tel Aviv. We went in the big taxi, we went to the bank where my granddad used to work and visited the safe room. My grandma always told me that they all loved me at the bank and gave me treats. Well at the time I was short (very short for my age) blond and cute (today I am simply not tall, not blond and cute is debatable). One other trip I recall in those days was to the amusement park on the 1st floor of the Kolbo shalom building, they had a small park which is closed now and has been for years. She lived in Azur at the time in a small apartment in a big complex. One thing I definitely remember (and should forget) is an event occurring on one specific night.

 

Peeing my bed. I assume I had more cases but I recall just this one, and it happened at my grandmother's house, she never yelled , just replaced the sheets. I must have been 4-5 at the time, not later, since later, she moved to Ra'anana.

 

my grandma  was a very good cook, known mostly for her chocolate cake, but I remember chicken soup , schnitzel, mash potatoes and things which I never liked, for example borsht, sour green pepper or Mamaliga.

 

I recall her taking me home after kindergarten, since she lived minutes away. I always liked being there, listen to her telling stories. In the past she never told much about her past, it's been years where she would stick to the same subjects about the past and only revealing more things in the last year.

 

She always knew god would take care of us like he did her in the awful days of the holocaust.

 

I probably have more memories from those years without being sure at what year it actually took place.

The next one is a confession.

In general I was a very good kid but once a year I had a bad event (not every year, but 3 out of the six in elementary school).

This was on a weekend probably. My parents were abroad or on holiday and I was staying with my grandma. One afternoon I was at school with some other kids, some of them older (7th grade, I was 3rd or 4th) and hung around, till they began throwing stones at windows at the school, breaking them. I don't really understand why I joined but I did, and remember breaking some windows (with my excellent shooting skills , I probably didn't break the windows I was aiming at, but that didn't change the result). Some one squealled and I was called to the principal's office and I was supposed to pay 50 shekels (which is less then price of windows at the time. Lucky I wasn't older, I believe they wanted to have the older kids brought on juvenile criminal charges, I don't know if they did or not.

So I was supposed to pay up, and I didn't have allowance at the time, so couldn't even cover up my crimes, lucky I was at my grandma that week, and in tears (not uncommon for me in those years) I went into her room and asked her for the money. She laughed, calmed me down and gave me the cash. To this day I don't know if she told my parents or not, but I will know the answer will come soon (since my parents receive this blog!!!).

 

She used to put on records, and our joint favorite was Ghinghis Kahn, we danced for this one in circles. I wanted to honor her at the wedding with this song, but she didn't feel up to it, too bad.

 

During the 7th grade I moved to junior high and her house was on the way from our house to the school, and many times after school I went to her house. I guess I enjoyed the attention, and didn't want to be home. That year my parents divorced and thought I don't remember them arguing till they actually broke up, I must have sensed something and stayed away.

 

The above part was written 2 months ago when I came back to Israel after my grandmother's stroke

 

It was hard seeing her then, with no movement on the right side, she was already barely walking before, her sight was fading well before that which was the main reason why she chose to not live anymore, she used to read a lot, in the last years she switched to biographies and books on philosophy , I think Sartre was her favorite. She was a reader, a thinker , a debater, till the last year she kept up to date with current events, culture and was very knowledgeable with history, a very educated woman , speaker of 5 languages (Latin, Romanian, German, English and Hebrew).

 

When she was recovering from the stroke, all I could do was talk to her and hold her hand, she tried to talk back but was unable too, I was told she spoke little on some days when she felt strong, but I was not privileged. Going back to the US was hard since I believed I would not see her again. This last year before the stroke we spoke on a weekly basis and I was always sad after the call thinking this may be the last time, her goodbyes were longer, she kept verifying that I was happy with my choice to move and that I had a happy home, that was the most important thing to her, Us.

 

She always spoke of the miracles of her life, but she didn't give much details, she didn't want to make us feel sad. I know some details , but not all.

War world 2 was raging and the Germans occupied Chernovinchi in Romania of those days. It's good that she lived in Romania, the Romanians did not cooperate with the Germans like the pollards or Ukrainians. But the Germans found out about her and family. They lived on the 3rd floor, when the Germans came they looked for Janet (the real name)or Neti (the nick name), but the neighbors knew of the other name so they skipped her. The terror they felt is something I can only imagine, since capture was likely death. They lived, my grandparents and her cousin. They survived, my grand dad and her cousin are buried in the same cemetery,  it was her wish to be buried with them, that will take place tomorrow.

 

Her family had a factory for buttons, funny enough, who would think that you can make a living making buttons, but I guess you can. I wish I knew more so this story will not have so many gaps.

Her best friend Berta was taken by the Germans. One day in 1942 she came back from the camps, and they night they decided to flee and cross the border to Russian occupied territories. They were captured at the border by Russian troops. They let them go (back, not through) only with heavy bribes , but they tried again the next night and succeeded, making it to Bucharest.

 

If you ask my grandmother which is worse (for her), Hitler or Stalin, she would say Stalin. She was not hiding in the 3rd floor all the time, they were free but with day to day danger of exile to Siberia, a probable one way ticket in those days. She told me about a day when they were walking in the street without papers (they had them, just not on them, much like me) and were stopped by a few soldiers, if you are caught without papers then you are automatically considered a spy, or worse and sent to Siberia, one of the soldiers asked them to get out any piece of paper from their pockets and examine it, that paper was not a passport, just a random piece, the soldier examined it and let them pass. She was unable to say if that soldier was Romanian, or Jewish or why he didn't bust them when he obviously could, reason unknown but that was another miracle in her book.

 

For 19 years they waited in Romania till they were allowed to leave (it happened when comrade Stalin finally died) , even then it was almost impossible. The paper work is difficult, and it's enough that one clerk doesn't like you and you cannot go. Someone whom I don't know tried to prevent them to leave and filed a complaint, a sure thing to get you to remain. When they checked the papers the complaint was filed on house number 14, while they were in 13 or the other way around, this simple clerical error saved their lives and they were able to finally depart. She considered this another miracle.

Even then things were not that easy, my mom recalls the crossing- she had 2 skirts, the border crossing guard checked them and found 2 skirts, and told them that you are allowed only one, and took one (for his kids), my mom was 7 at the time- today this thing would seem inconceivable, but it's still happening in many countries with a lot worse things taken, we learned nothing.

 

My grandfather was a pharmacist by education but a lawyer by profession, don't ask me how, they did things different then.

 

NetIQ had a wonderful surprise after the war, when her family crossed to Romania and reunited in Bucharest, they brought her dog Fifi (a white Samoyed) with them, ever heard of a dog surviving world 2?

 

When they came over to Israel in 1961 things were still hard, they went to Ulpan in Ashkelon, then moved to Giva'at shemuel where they lived in a shed, but it was close to Tel Aviv and my grandfather found a job at the bank. Hard but free of persecution and every day fear of walking down the street. The Lived in Azur from that point on till around 1983 when she moved to Ra'anana where we lived.

 

She was always strong, she was always sure of her convictions, she disliked Shimon Peres and liked to debate politics with my brother shai. She did not like Obama either.

 

One thing she always had was chocolate (1 (of the many) causes of my weight gaining. It's the same regular chocolate we have today but it was in the form of triangles, each with another drawing of some cartoon on it. I used to melt I next to the heater and suck it in , just before it oozed to the floor… treat, I did it only there, don't know why.

 

She always liked dogs and after fifi in the war came bonny for about 12-14 years. When bonny died, she was about 70 and didn't want another dog, but Jacky came along and she used to walk with him and I think this activity kept her well in shape. When Jacky died 10 years later, she said that at age 80 she was too old for a dog , but we didn't listen and Bamba came along. Bamba has large ears, and they seemed larger when she was a pup, so we said she looked like Dambo, my grandmother with a slight hearing problem heard Bamba and the name was chosen. Bamba is now an aging dog and we contemplate what to do with her , what is her next home (ours is optional).

 

She always assumed she was weak, she was worried about her heart but in the end we found her heart was the strongest. She gave up on life a few months ago, she didn't eat in over a month, and very little before that, she didn't drink in the last 2 weeks, refused to take meds, she refused to live and that is hard to witness, but her heart endured. The doctors were amazed by the fact that she still lived, this morning at 11:04 this morning her heart couldn't cope anymore and stopped as well.

 

Her health is a strange barometer for me, about 10 years ago, my parents were abroad as well and she was sick. She caught a rare virus called the Nile fever infection. Rare and very harming for the elderly.

Some months before I returned from my major trip aboard (NZ, Australia and Nepal) and returned at my skinniest weight in all my adult life, in the best of shape and mood (no money thought, spent it all), I was also completely in control of my coke (coca cola) addiction, I was training, doing good. Then in July, I tore my ham string muscle, very painful and I had to stay in bed (couch) by I still kept my weight and was in control.

Then she got sick, It was a very nervous evening while we called the paramedics , she was not speaking ,mumbling and we didn't know what happened, we followed her to the hospital and that night I couldn't stand it and drank coke (for me the effect is similar to a drunk going back to drinking), all my walls collapsed and in a year I gained so much weight and hit an all time high, my official reason for gaining was the hamstring injury, inability to run, but that was not it. She got sick, I got worse, it took her a couple of years to recover fully, it took me longer to control myself.

 

A few months ago I was studding Russian and was training to bounce myself back from my surgery over the summer, I was also again in control of my weight, which was not low but was receding slowly, the night I heard of the stroke, all activities stopped. There is no logical reason for such an effect on me, but it has. Now I need to learn to control myself bounce back, go back to lean, I know she would want that.

 

I have seen dead people once before, not in a funeral that is. It was in the army, the day I got shot myself (I was lucky) but I didn't see them die, that happened today.

I saw her this week, she was very weak, she couldn't even mawn, but she recognized us, I held her good hand and she squeezed it and she smiled, she was unable to do much else, but I knew she was happy, even in her state.

Today we we're called around 10 am, and ran over to her house (the next part is unpleasant, feel free to skip ahead) and she was choking. She had a pneumonia for the last 2 months, which got the better of her in the end, because she refused her meds. Her lungs were filled with liquid and her throat as well, and she was choking on these fluids, her eyes were glazed and seemed to stare at nothing, she couldn't move her hand, she was dying and too weak to cough.

We knew she chose to die, before the stroke she called my brother shai who was in Paris and willed him to put her dog Bamba down to sleep if she died, thinking no one will take as good of care of her like she did, this is the one wish of hers that we will ignore. Only after she did that and gave my mother her notebooks, only then (and this is after a stroke!) that she allowed them to take her to the hospital, after that she gave up.

So, knowing what we know, we didn't help, it's the most difficult thing I had to do is not help. I always try to think of others before myself, and for me not to help is hard, not to help my grandmother live, I don't know how I managed. It took her over 30 minutes to slowly choke to death in front of our eyes. In between she stopped breathing for 30 seconds intervals, then took a deep breath and kept choking, she did that 3 times, so hard to watch.

She took her last breath at כב בטבת תשעא    December 29th at 11:04 am.

 

Mada (emergency services) came later, but we asked not to resuscitate , the doctor came over 3 hours later to call time of death, the police came (routine thing) and then she was taken to the mortuary and she will be buried tomorrow in Rishon, next to her husband.

 

I hope they read blogs in heaven, I hope she meets god, I know she wanted to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh Boy

It happens on rare occasion that I get complaints on the blog,

comments yes, more questions yes, spell check corrections (too many), but complaints are rare!

 

The issue was writing on green beans before the house, I don’t get the complaint, green beans are obviously a more important event in the large scheme of life.

 

But you asked, so let’s focus on the apple house.

 

It became officially ours on Tuesday November 9th. Which was the anniversary of our 1^st weddingJ

Our documents were signed on Friday, but a special courier had to pick them up from and drop them off at the court house for registry purposes. If you like you can get insurance for these 3 days, just in case something happens to our payment, the courier or random acts of violence for the other side’s agent. You pay an enormous amount and they ask you for another insurance right at the point of signing, most annoying. We didn’t, and we started imagining what can happen to our payment (it’s a non transferable check, but today’s criminal are sophisticated, I must have seen something like it in a movie). To verify that we indeed got the greatest house, my co home owner still looked at more houses!!! We already bought it… crazy, but now we had an option of tracking down that agent or putting oil in front of the courier motorcycle and prevent delivery, see how a simple need makes you have criminal thoughts? Oh, of course there is a courier fee, why shouldn’t it have that fee.

 

In the end the courier and the agent remain alive, unharmed as far as I know and the document reached the court house and apparently got processed since you can see our names on the official web site.

 

I never thought I would own a house, I like to be mobile and a house seems so permanent, but now the deed is done (literally).

 

This is a 2 story house , 4 bedrooms on the 2^nd floor; our room with the master bed room and enough closet space for co owner to be happy and a light in the middle of the room (the previous apartment did not have this feature!!!) which makes me happy. Another bath room for guests, 1 bed room is becoming an office, 1 is a guest room (which has no guest bed at the moment) and 1 future use room (which has no known purpose at this time, and despite the subject of this blog, has no plans at this time). Oh boy is a term used in the show ‘Quantum leap’ just before something happened (to me that something was the complaint).

 

There is obviously stairs to the 2^nd floor.

1^st floor has a foyer (few years ago I didn’t know what a foyer was, now I do) and 3 stairs lead to the kitchen\ living room. The living room area has high ceilings which makes it look larger (at least, this is what I was told). Part of the living room is a shaggy carpet and the other part is carpet floor, just like the kitchen.  The kitchen is the main attraction in the house. Everything is built in, the ovens (2 of them) the dish washers (2 of them) the fridge (1 of them), the faucets( 2 of them), the sinks (3 of them), the electrical cooking area (1 of them) the vents (never had vents before in the kitchen).

The only one not build in thing is the microwave (we are most disappointed with this fact), next to the kitchen there is a small dining area and next to it the everyday living room, which is more or less where we spend our afternoons, since it has our only regular, not flat screen TV. From this room you can get to the back yard that has a deck, a shed, lots of grass, trees, squirrels, bird house, a kids play area (slides, swings etc..but no one to play on it). Not much to tell on the back yard since its covered in some sort of cold powder most of the time lately. We have a guest bathroom on the main floor, a utility room for the not built in washer and drier, a big garage with a ping pong table that is unopened since the cars take all the space, a long drive way with grass in front, an apple tree and a frozen vegetable garden.

There is also a basement with 3 rooms, 2 with wall to wall carpets and one storage area; all 3 rooms are way under used at this point, one room has a whole in them , more on that in a later blog.

 

Ok , enough about the house, it’s the experience that matters. So let’s move on to moving day.

 

For a while before I was gathering boxes at work in all shapes and sizes, with some padding materials for the many fragile items (all the little souvenirs I have), few weeks prior I thought I did almost everything, except the kitchen and some miscellaneous items, those items took forever to pack, but in the end everything was put in to a box, bag, suitcase, basket or others means of transport and were ready. A few days before we called the moving company asking them to come an hour early, they agreed, told us “let us worry” and “it will be ok” so of course we worried and assumed everything is not ok, they came at the original time since the dispatcher didn’t notify the crew or some other excuse. The guys who came didn’t look ready for work, they were kind of slow and we wanted to hurry the process (and save money) so we took a big trolley from the building and unloaded most of the boxes ourselves and placed them down by the truck. Moving is hard! My back, my knees and my hip were all sore at the end of the day, but it’s a great work out. Inna and Igor were there that whole day, carrying, loading, unloading , so thank you both for the amazing help. The delivery guys took a part the table, couches and the bed and all the other large items, and also loaded the truck. After that we went to get the ping pong table from Igor. This table was not in use for years, and so far has seen no action at our house.

 

We drove to our new place and heard that a neighbor came over to introduce himself, I missed it. We started unloading and putting the boxes in the right place by the instruction of General alla. Dina and Aaron joined the work force at this time (with a most welcome Pizza), thank you both as well. The unloading was some much quicker than the loading, with more people to work and less distance from apartment to truck. Together we reassembled the shelves (my IKEA shelf is a survivor of 3 places, impressive). The delivery guys assembled the bed, Igor assembled my chair. And the process was complete with a big (possibly undeserving) tip for the delivery guys.

 

Our amazing support crew went to their homes and now we had to un box. We did the kitchen first while I was trying to focus on the souvenirs, it is important that they would feel home too. One piece drowned in the process. A figuring of a Viking on a boat, a gift from my dad broke, the Viking is no longer connected to the boat, but other than that, survival rate was very high.

 

Now most of the souvenirs are where they should be, pictures are hung, the kitchen is done, most of the basement is organized, the clothes are all in place and the house looks and feels most livable.

 

What we like about the house is that everything in it is quality; the fancy light dimmers, the built in kitchen, the alarm system (detector on every door or window, motion sensor, glass break indicator, 2 fire sensors, CO detector), very good windows, quality carpeting, blinds IN the windows. The previous owners invested a lot, and we were lucky to get this house. However…

It was time for home ownership 101.

 

Neither of us owned a home before and we are quickly finding out the costs.

We just got the electric bill L, we had visits from 3 security companies, they are now checking the house for Radon gas (answer in 3 months), our water froze yesterday and we had no water for an hour, which is more critical at the time since you don’t know the water will return in an hour. We already called the chimney guy (oh yes, we have a gas fire place and chimney) to help us close lid. We already took care of a mold in the attic, improved ventilation there to prevent mold, cleaned the gutter (we have a gutters guy) but the main cost is going to be water proofing the basement.

 

We had 4 companies each with a different solution, each saying the system of the others is not good, each giving conflicting info, making promises and we are unsure of the proper company and process to go with, this will be a tough decision, but come spring, someone will be digging.

 

Recently the weather was bad, so so so much snow, and so far we are not paying the plowman but we are plowing ourselves, it saves very little, its hard work, but so far we manage. We have one shovel and we take turns shoveling, we even have pictures to prove it, all the rest of the street uses the plowman service, we would probably join them at some point.

 

I managed to get home before completing this, will report more on the house at some point

 

Cheers for now

 

 

 

 

 

The Dragon, the Witch and there is no wardrobe

Obviously not affected by Narnia in any way (just finished the 5^th book and well prepared for the movie coming up in 2 weeks) I am heading out of Wales.

 

I woke up late and for the 1^st time this week , did not have an English breakfast, but drank the remains of a shake I bought at the store yesterday.

 

The hotel would not hold on to my luggage and told me that the tourist office can hold it for a charge. I prefer walking around with the suitcase for hours rather than spend 3.50 on a stored luggage, even if it is uncomfortable, so I walked in the freezing morning air to the Cardiff castle. The main street which looked amazing and full of life at night , looks grim in day light. I pay the castle fee, get my personal audio guide and lucky me, they have a place to store luggage, for FREE!, so I leave it there and start touring the castle. It has a small Norman keep in the middle surrounded by a moat (no Gators) that I cannot enter, it is closed due to the ice. The stairs are limestone so the salt can melt the ice but damage the ancient stones so I walkabout, see the trebuchet, walk in the huge walls, see main house which is a small museum, watch the exhibition of the firing line which is the development of the welsh soldier through the years, they fought in many wars under the supervision of the English from Russia, south Africa, India and other locations, never getting the glory. You’ve seen how Edward the long shanks treated them in Brave Heart (they were the front line on the English side, the dying side)).

 

After an hour and something at the castle I proceeded to the national Welsh museum and went through it in 25 minutes. Lovely porcelyn, pictures by Monet, various drawing of ancient nobility are not my style,  I did delay a bit in the archeology sections, watching some ancient beast. They have dragons everywhere here, it’s on flags and statues, I don’t know the significant of the dragons in the Welsh heritage, but I also saw a goat and a horse on the main symbol of Cardiff city hall, so the goat is also important here, but I still don’t know why.

 

I walked out and grabbed noon breakfast at a German sausage stand and walked the booths to find a gift for my travel agents for our 30 months anniversary a few days ago. The issue is money, I don’t have any, I spent some of street food , which is cheap but good, spent some on the castle ticket, but without an ATM code I am kind of stuck. Most stores accept a credit cards but the booths to not. I step in to a booth (not knowing yet that I don’t have enough) which sales authentic Welsh things. I like some of the items and hope travel agent would like them too, then I start rummaging again for cash, go through all my pockets and I have barely 1o pounds with about 20 hours to go, it’s not a lot. The gift is more. The saleswoman looks like a witch, dressed in somewhat rags clothing, shabby hair (not that mine is any better), but if you see her in a dark night, you would think of a witch as well). The thing is that not all witches are bad. For example, the good witch of the West, or the North in Oz. I don’t know why witches got such a bad rep. well this kind witch who is also the maker of these items sees that I don’t have money, suggests that I would by it later through the web site (that does not accept credit cards either), than she does the most incredible thing and says she would give me the item and I can pay later after I get home, she does not take my address, email or any guarantee, out of pure kind ship and trust,  who does that? So I got an Osh with the witch, also told her about the ticket angel from yesterday. Go to love the Welsh. If you are ever in Cardiff, go to high street, and check out the last booth on the left (facing the castle).

 

And that is it, on the train now, I don’t have a book for the next 3 hours, so I will get some sleep and check the country side,

Next challenge is finding a hotel in London with no internet and dealing with a tube strike, returning home tomorrow to finish unpacking the house

 

cheers

 

FW: Invitation to view gil.even's Picasa Web Album - 2010-11-18 London and Wales

I will tell you about the mustache later…

 

You are invited to view gil.even's photo album: 2010-11-18 London and Wales 2010-11-18 London and Wales Nov 26, 2010 by gil.even View Album Play slideshow Message from gil.even: These pictures were sent with Picasa, from Google. Try it out here: http://picasa.google.com/ If you are having problems viewing this email, copy and paste the following into your browser: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=gil.even&target=ALBUM&id=5544663563353127153&authkey=Gv1sRgCLOomdzz85ySaA&invite=CPv3_MYN&feat=email To share your photos or receive notification when your friends share photos, get your own free Picasa Web Albums account.

 

on Kiwis, trains, tickets the millennium

Welcome to the Millennium Stadium!

Few hours earlier…

 

The time was approximately 4 PM when I arrived to the Wales capital, Cardiff. Totally unprepared I had an hour and 10 minutes  to get tickets to the game, find a hotel and get some cash.

Wise travelers such as myself are suppose to think ahead, unfortunately I am not such as myself and found myself with under 15 pounds, no ATM codes, with a suit case to carry in a 0C temperature.

 

I passed by a few people who sold their ticket but I didn’t have the cash, so I went to the stadium which is just minutes from the train and was not surprised to find that it was sold out, this Is a huge game and I was still a this point undecided who I was supporting. I always loved New Zealand and the all blacks are amazing and I know nothing about Wales (except that it is a country!!! A principality actually).

 

I asked a couple on the street how much they want and they say ticket face value (65 pounds) which I don’t have. At the time my super sweet travel agent was attempting to get an ATM code and try to get ticket to the game as well.  Cardiff center is small and lovely, but it’s cold and I walk around looking for a bank or something and I spot the Money shop, I go in with 28$ and shekels and ask if they would change it, dollars are easy but not enough. I am sure the Welsh has never seen a shekel in their life and the clerk is looking at the bills like they are forged, scans them , goes to the back and check with the manager and comes back with an approval, so now with all my changed cash I have 60 pounds, now the question is how to get the other 5, should I sell my blood?

 

I walk back on the main street to Cardiff which is full of Christmas lights, similar to London, the main street Is closed to traffic and it’s fun to walk, but I am in a hurry trying to find the previous couple, they are not there, I walk around a bit and see no one with tickets, then I spot a guy holding tickets but he has his hands at the bottom like he is trying to hide the fact that he sells tickets, he has more than one and I think it’s either stolen , forged or criminal in some other way, I quickly decide that a person hiding their wares is a crook and those holding tickets up are legit. Half a minute later I spot a couple of guys holding a ticket. I go to them and ask how much they want, they ask how much I am willing to pay. So I get out all my money, tell them this is all my money and it’s not enough, I don’t even have money for food and this welsh angel, takes out 20 pounds and gives me the ticket, I was shocked, I tell them this is my first rugby game (as a fan) ever which is true, we have a brief conversation and I depart with tickets in hand and money to spareJ.

 

I can’t get a hold of my travel agent, but no time and I had out to the Millennium stadium which was 2 minutes walk from there, my back pack and suitcase are searched, then I pass by the gate and I still have some thoughts that perhaps the ticket is a fake. Of course I go in by the wrong gate and walk around half this huge stadium, then climb up the 6^th floor with the suitcase and then walk up to my seat and a man sits in my seat. Fish&Chips I say to myself (you cannot say Fu*k any more , in the US they say “Fudge”, “Poo” and other such things instead- so I britishied it), lucky the guy is just sitting in the wrong place , we swap seats. I now face the challenge of sitting with a suite case and a loaded back pack on a stadium seat, lucky the seats are high and I place my back pack under my neighbors seat and the suit case under mine, not comfortable but issue resolved.

 

This is one of the largest Rugby stadiums in the world and lucky that it’s roof can be closed, and it is closed, and now I am super hot from carrying the suit case 6 flights of stairs and rushing from point to point and now I can relax and enjoy the stadium. The stadium is full of the Welsh red shirts and although I have seats on the top level, it looks close, both teams are warming up and a singing group of about 50 singers all dressed like gentleman are singing various songs which the crowds are familiar with. For some reason the guy in front of them holds a goat, a life white goat, I forgot to ask what is the meaning of this goat. Its game time.

The All blacks are introduced, then the welsh and the stadium if filled with lights and fires and all sorts of effects, after that it’s time for the Hakka. If you are not from the British commonwealth or never knew about Rugby then you probably don’t know what the Hakka is. The Hakka is the New Zealand Maori war dance and the All Blacks team does it before every game as a means of getting inside the other teams head, it’s their trademark (and it works usually), the crowd is aware and the noise at this point is unbelievable, from my vantage point on the 6^th floor and facing the All Blacks from the rear, I am unaffected, perhaps the Welsh player are.

 

The game begins, and the Welsh take a quick lead with a conversion kick, but the Kiwi’s own the field and score a quick try, and the first half ends with the All black not by a large lead only because they missed some kicks. Their main kicker, after his only good kick of the 1^st half broke the world scoring record for national teams, all times#1 , it’s like watching Federar break the Sampaers record of grand slams and I was here in person!.

Oh, right after the ticket angel, I had money and purchased a Wales official game scarf and decided to be on the Welsh side today, so I was totally in the game. Rugby is a game of simple efficiency, if you do the basics right, you win, the Welsh missed some tackles and made bad passes and thus were falling behind. But 2 good kicks towards the end of 1^st half and they were close.

At half time they introduced a former rugby player who is about to attempt to be the 1^st to climb the 7 peaks in one years (these are the highest mountain in every continent). My neighbor told me a bit about Wales, Daffodils are the official flowers and many Welsh are dresses with large yellow flower hats or full daffodil body suit, many color their faces and do all the crazy things fans do. I begin to get cold and find the only good thing about having a suit case with you and get out my coat.

 

The 2^nd half opens in a crowd roar and more fire effects. The Welsh are doing their best and score points with kicks but it’s not enough, it seems the All Blacks score when they feel like and whenever the Welsh get close, they attack in full force and score easy tries, the game ends with the expected Kiwi triumph but the Welsh to manage to score a conciliatory try at the end, and I had a great experience.

 

I head out to the city (2 minutes walk) and now the challenge is to find a hotel. The reason I left London is the rugby match their and the fully booked hotels and here it’s the same, while I was in the game my sweet travel agent had called all the hotels in the city and nothing, no rooms!. I walk around and check at the Marriot which is full, Alla has called all city hostels, full as well, I spot the Travelodge and they say its full but they give me the number of the switchboard of Travelodge since there are few more hotels for this chain in Cardiff. And lucky, they have room (very expensive room, not rooms) and where? At the same hotel I am at right now in front of the counter while they are telling me that there are no rooms, software cannot be trusted!. So while I try to book with the switchboard, another guy next to me is calling and the counter is saying that only one of us will get the tickets! Crazy faulty system thing. I race on with the operator and finally I got it, possibly the last in the city.

 

I put my stuff away , dress warmer and head out to Cardiff city. I love this place from first site, the city center is small, and no cars are allowed so it’s great to walk in the freezing air, but there is not many place to go to I see Cardiff castle which is closed at this time, there are tons of Bars and I enjoy the music but do not enter and a large number of kebab places, and I decide to eat traditional food, so I go to the next store who sell fish and chips , but also Kebab (which is actually Shwarma) and I guess it’s a sign, so I order chicken Shwarma, they do it differently here, the Pita underneath, with the meat on top covered with sauces (Chilly and Garlic for me), which makes it a very messy dish. When I eat, it gets messy, no matter how I eat (I am sure travel agent is agreeing with this), so messy becomes extra messy and I look around for napkins and there aren’t any, I go to another shop and no luck, how can there be food places without napkins, in a nearby star bucks I go to the help yourself stand and.. no napkins, I spot a clean napkin on the floor and decide against it, then spot 2 clean napkins on a table that just finished eating and take those and sneak out of the store while happily wiping my lips and sauce filled hands. I cover the main streets of Cardiff in as short time actually walking most street twice and most alley ways, see the Eye Of Cardiff, the Castel, the City Hall, a big church, all from the outside and enjoy the surroundings full of people in Welch colors, an hour and a half I cover the entire center and had back to the hotel.

Tomorrow I plan to visit the castle, see the many booths on the main boardwalk which were closed tonight, perhaps see Cardiff bay, then head back to London (where I don’t have a hotel) and try to do it while the tube staff is on partial strike!!! I think I may try to get to a site on the way to London, hope I get there

 

Cheers from the last room in Travelodge, Cardiff, the country of Wales.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the last train to London

 

Hey chaps

Don’t have much time, since the battery is low and there is no plug on this blasted train.

I am headed for a new countryJ,  I always like discovering new country, and my destination is wails.  Some might say whales is not a country, so I had a debate with a fellow called O.G who I found is a welsh person and he had a debate with his friend, I don’t know the other lad about it, that other lad wanted to see 30 countries by his 30^th birthday, and they decided that Wales, Scotland, Ireland and northern Ireland are separate states , I agree (since they have a national soccer team). So it is decided by a vote of 3 and the council of the welsh that country number (I think 41 or 42, need to recount) is just an hour ahead.

And you know that you can’t just come to the place, you must do something of importance, so in about two and a half hours I will go to the Cardiff stadium and watch my 1^st ever international rugby match between the local expecting defeat Welsh side V.S the impressive New Zealand All Blacks (one of the top 3 teams in the world) so this is an experience worth remembering, filming and blogging about.

 

So let’s recap the last few days.

 I arrived , wait , let’s go a day back.

 

Monday after noon I was about to go to the Cleveland airport, and lucky my remembering wife commented that the flight is not from the Cleveland airport, thus saving me another flight story (and yes, again with Delta), so we drove to Akron and had a smooth flight to Atlanta and from there to Heathrow.

Ok now we are in London, Tuesday at noon.

Took the Tube to Hammersmith, then walked to the hotel. It’s a novelty here, people walk, they don’t walk in Cleveland, just last weekend we drove from one store to another in the same shopping complex, how American is that!!!!, so I like the walking part. It was cold , but not too cold.

I freshened up, wore my best clothes (the actual wedding pants) and went to work. The first day was a prepare day and since the staff doesn’t work in the evening unless they have to, I had an early evening, but so tired from the flight that I crashed early, woke up at night for an hour then slept through.

The next morning I was happy to find an English twist to the breakfast, with sausages and eggs (instead of the usual bacon and eggs in this hotel chain, and crausons ( I know its misspelled, but what is the right spelling , can’t find it with the spell check tool) instead of rolls. Then walked to the hospital for a long upgrade day, upgrade days are the worst, you don’t know what to expect only to expect that something would go wrong. Something did, 90% of the work was finished in an expectable delay with obstacles solved, but one issue remained (unsolved till now!!!). so went back to the hotel at 2 am and ate nothing but meat pie (this is my version of local cuisine), came back at 7 am.

Before coming back I had an English breakfast,

This time I wasn’t as excited to find sausages and the roll which I cannot spell, don’t get me wrong, its good, but I like to try new British food. This day was shorted and by 10 pm I went back to the hotel after having a meat pie that day.

On the road back I passed by a Lebanese shop and had myself a Shawarma , I had high hopes of a middle eastern place, but it was late, the meat was dry, the humus was in low amounts, the garlic sauce was very garlicky , and I enjoyed every biteJ.

Next morning, Thursday already and I have yet to see a bit of London, since Hammersmith is a city suburb of some kind without any real tourist attractions other then Bars. I did discover that 90% of woman are dressed in short skirts, and sine I freeze in my pants, how they do not, the trick is the nylons, they all wear some form of tights in all shapes and colors, and the skirt acts as the 2^nd layer. I was not cold below the knee since I have the high sock now, but my thighs are freezing, in short, I need a skirt. Londoners are smokers, it is very noticeable and every one drives on the wrong side. I was scared a couple of times by seeing a car with no driver, till I look at the passenger holding the wheel.

This is my 2^nd time in London, the last was 15 years ago, and it was my last vacation before the army, I was in a different mindset, to see and experience everything. I am more serious now and focused on work.

On Friday morning I woke up and had an English breakfast with exactly the same ingredients, and spent the rest of the day trying to solve a problem and very much felt like this would never end, every time a hurdle was met, another came, it was ridiculous, with lap tops crashing, new errors, software that does not want to be installed, I blame bill gates and expect a refund.

Later that day (after going to a Turkish place and really enjoying a quality Shwarma). We reached the last hurdle and found, and we discovered that the (some) of the problem lay in a simple network port miss configured, since this type of thing needs to be handled by IT in the facility, we waited for them and I spent the time by reading Narnia (there is a Narnia movie coming up). And left at a reasonable time of 7 pm. I felt I was working too many hours this week (not unusual about the many hours or the feeling of working too much) so I decided to hit the city.

I discarded by nice clothes and wore my Gil clothes and snickers and went out bravely without my pouch to the Tube and was on it around 8 pm, the last tube ends before midnight so I had to plan my time carefully and not miss out. I arrived at half eight (that’s 8:30 for you non UK people) to St.James station, I had a basic tourist map and started to walk fast, since it was cold and I still didn’t have a skirt.

Right away I noticed the blue lights of the Eye of London, it stood out above everything. But it was still far away  and I started by passing by the Scotland yard , sorry the NEW Scotland yard and took a photo next to it and checking if any sloth is watching me do it. (btw, Scotland is the only country in the British isles that I have not visited, passing by the Scotland yard does not count, perhaps if they interrogate me) from there I went to the Westminster Abbey which was closed at this time , like most place I would see this night, but it is very impressive at night, you notice more things when you travel alone and you notice more things at night. Like the many clocks on the buildings, Big Ben is not the only one, Trafalgar square had 3. Ben was saying that time was running out so I moved on, watched the lights on the Thames and walked by the river , passing the Great Obelisk and the Sphinxes, and unusually dragon like fish statue on the many lanterns. And always the Great Eye is watching.

I passed the Hispaniola ship and proceeded towards Convent Garden which looks remarkable at night, with the Christmas lights, huge starts and apples (wait for photos), most impressive, but time was short and I moved on through the crowds (it is Friday night) to Leicester square  and was surprised by the half price tickets signs in every corner, I moved on to Piccadilly square and from there on Regent Street which was full of huge Narnia signs and lights till oxford circus and proceeded to Totenham square back to Leicester square to Trafalgar square (with the many clocks) and paused there to look at the square from the wrong side.

In Piccadilly I think I took a photo of a guy taking his own Osh photo, never took a strangers Osh photo before, but here I took the photo of the square from behind, you don’t see the faces on the status, but Big Ben is very obvious in the background. It was already 11 and I decided to plow on, so I walked through the Mall. I never knew why the big street in Washington is called the Mall, now I know, it’s because the English have this street, but I still don’t know why the English call it the Mall. It was dark at the Mall (it’s not a shopping mall and it is night). I walked by Buckingham palace and the queen did NOT invite me for tea, how rude of here, I could have given her wedding tips, help arrange the invites, I am now experienced in that sort of thing, but she chose to ignore, so I moved on till I reached wellington Arch and back to the last Tube station.

Oh while in the Mall (it’s a wooded area) to ladies which were peeing in the woods , ran out to their parked car, not an important event, just not something one would expect so close to the rude queen.

Got on the tube at 11:30, the tube was full and too girls in the next cart decided to have fun and do faces through the windows. On the windows they have 2 stickers, with a narrow gap in the middle, so they would stick their faces with the slip just for the eyes, it was kind of funny so I took a video. I managed to be back in the hotel precisely at midnight. Full of cramps and feeling great.

 

This morning, I woken up, packed and had an English breakfast of the same unchanged menu and went to the hospital for last check, the last problem is still unresolved but it is up to IT to fix, so I had a decision to make. London is full, no hotel beds (in a reasonable price) out there since there is a big rugby match with England facing Australia, so should I spend the day tracking a hotel and walkabout London or do the unexpected. At one point I felt like I was way to serious in the last year and decided to stop and enjoy myself.

So I took the tube to Paddington station and now I am on the train heading for Cardiff, I found out about the game on the train which is full of hopeful welsh lads heading for the game. I have no hotel for the night, only 15 pounds and no ATM number (I do have credit cards so no worries) and no specific plans for tomorrow, but what the hack, it fun.

 

Oh, did you know that there is no pound symbol on the English keyboard,  they Call it the Has sign but whatever the name , it is not there, they also don’t have the At symbol, so I have no idea how they email each other, I have to Google At symbol to find it and copy it to an email , forcing me to be creative.

 

The country side is lovely with green hills, lots of gray ships and the occasional black ship, some mobile hamburgers in their pre burger form and white frost on the low rolling hills which makes an interesting combination with the green fields below.

 

That’s it for now, I still owe you tails of the new house and the move itself, but that will come at another time.

 

Cheers from the welsh border.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

on green beans and other unusual things

“Maybe you should try adding butter to the green beans”, I was shocked to hear myself utter these words today.

Green beans, why did I even try to eat it? In the world of vegetables there are many I never tries or tried so long ago that I don’t recall why I don’t like it. But I gave it a try and, I am still alive. Texture like potatoes but a lot greenier, it has potential with a lot of salt, butter and perhaps a chicken on top of it.

 

2 days ago I held a check in my hand, the largest I ever carried and actually gave it away! , you need to give money if you want to own a houseJ

5080 Stansbury drive, solon Ohio, forgot the zip code (previously known as the apple house), is now officially ours. We get the keys in 2 days and after some minor repairs we will be moving in in 2 weeks (anybody interested in helping out?).

We were actually looking for some lane, not drive, after watching Wisteria lane, but we didn’t find any so we took the lovely house on this drive.

It began snowing yesterday and snowed the whole day, didn’t stop, the 1^st snow on many to come, winter coming, way too soon, so this morning I went to see how the house looks with the 1^st snows, and the street was all white, and serene, I took some photos of the house with the trees ready to hibernate and not a single apple on the tree.

One of the neighbors stopped on the way to introduce herself, which was nice and friendly, I live in this apartment for over 2.5 years and don’t know a single name, but here I have not moved in and already met 2 (too bad I forgot the name of the 1^st). Tammy said that 3 house away there is another Israel couple. Boaz somebody, so that is a very nice to know, she pronounced it like boeeez, but they can’t say my name right either.

 

It is amusing to sign the house contract, other than the transfer of the check. You have to pay courier fee, survey fee and a bunch of other crap fees and you hear terminology that you never hear elsewhere like funds in escrow and encroachment, which makes you feel dumb that you don’t understand these terms to the fullest, I will try to learn them by our next house purchase, somewhere around 2038.

 

Today we went to a short nature hike with a naturalist (also known as a park ranger) in the part of the metro park closest to our new home. The purpose of the hike was to learn about animal signs and hopefully see some wild life. We learned about the various nuts and the crazy squirrels that eat them. We spotted several squirrels, a wood pecker (that was busy packing against a tree), deer poo, signs of buck (male deer) rubbing against a tree, deer tracks, deer trails, a beetle, understood the two main kind of oak (did you know that black oak is actually a red oak), squirrels nest (did you know squirrels nest?), and heard an interesting cries of a young owl or hawk, we couldn’t make out the exact species (we meaning the park ranger, I cannot tell the sound of a hawk from a panda bear).

We also learned a bit about mushrooms, and learned to spot the most risky one. If you eat it, you get sick for 2 days, then you get better for 2 days, then you need a liver transplant! So not worth massing with. I don’t like mushrooms in either form so I am quiet safe here (and yes I did try mushrooms lately and bhhhhhhh)

 

Went kick boxing yesterday, and this was the 1^st real active lesson I took since the surgery. Kick boxing has some kicking, but I am not allowed to kick high yet with my left, so I kick high (high for me means not really that high) with my right , and then low with the left. Punching I am allowed so I did. This lesson is aerobics and fun, but I left it with a cramped (right) leg. The difficult last month and a half took a toll and loss of focus on diet and I quickly gained most (but not all) of what I lost, so now the focus is back on and the avalanche was blocked. It is very depressing to know how easy it is for me to rapidly gain, I must be more disciplined than I am today.

 

 Not long ago we went to a an funny version of the 39 steps, I was expecting a drama, but this was funny with the best ever use of props. They ran on the train, got chased by a plane and drove a car, and it all looked so real, but with using only a few ladders and basic props, this was truly amazing and the actors changed rolls on stage with amazing speed and grace which was unbelievable.   A most recommended play.

Around the time we saw an Israeli movie in the Beachwood Israeli movie festival. It’s nice living here where ties to Israel are strong. The movie was about a sumo club in Ramle and I found it very original and entertaining, go see (from the video store by now). I have seen several movies lately but not one of them is a must see, too many OKs. We saw the Town, after I heard the story with an audio book. The movie was fun (not a must) but I don’t understand why will you change the ending of the book for such a drastic change, I want give out spoilers here, but the ending is completely different.

 

Recent events in my family (I will share on those at some point) and work (I try not to tell about work stuff here) on top of getting married, buying a house, having a surgery seems to make me more serious. Alla today was thinking about a party here and I was telling her to focus on the house first, this kind of thought would never cross my mind before, it troubles me , but am I growing up? Scary!!!

 

This summer and fall went by too fast and without too many interesting things, I couldn’t do much with the surgery, and I am still limited so approaching dog sledging trips, ski trips and even just running are on hold, but they will happen again as soon as I am allowed. So I have some time to plan other types of event, will tell you about it in 2 weeks. 2 days away  from my 1^st wedding anniversary (the 1^st wedding…) cant reveal the secrets…

 

Cheers from the 2^nd day of winter

 

p.s- on the way back from the nature hike we saw about 5 deer…. Not one on the hike itself, go figure.

 

 

 

my name is gay

No, I am not gay (not that there’s anything wrong with that). I did how ever tried to use automation to settle an interesting point.

Whenever I am introduced to someone and say “my name is Gil” , people here different things. The most common is Ian. Now there are programs that transfer voice to text, so I decided to see what the phone will say. 1^st attempt read “my name is gay” which caused lots of laughs, not by me or any gay squirrel that happened to be nearby (the non gay squirrels were mute as well). Attempt number 2 returned DAN, and #3 was DUDE, don’t ask me how.

 

2 days ago I boarded a flight to Chattanooga, TN- since I have not flown for work reason in a while, I was out of shape.

 It started with barely waking up for the flight, leaving home without essentials like deodorant or my wedding ring!. Arriving way too early to the airport, not taking a book in my book bag, which means I lost precious reading opportunities on the shuttle (about 30 seconds), check in (no time), security (1 minute to 1 hour depending on the airport), waiting for boarding (could be hours) the walkway to the plane (minutes), the hated wait in the plane and the taking off and landing periods (which the lap top must be turned off). So many moments just gone.

In security I forgot to empty my bag from the big stuff and had it taken away (regular size tooth paste), a bottle of water. Lucky my shaving cream and perfume were not big enough and I managed to keep those. I also had a banana! That was left there for a few days and smelled accordingly, my bag still has some banana residue odor.

 

The flight itself was rarely uneventful, fell asleep for most of the flight, same thing on the 2^nd flight. Considering this was delta through Atlanta, it’s a miracle.

Got my car and drove to the city. Most of our accounts are in small towns, remote, so I rarely research the place it self before I go, unless it’s out west. But this is a city and right away I liked it. It has a huge river with lots of touristic river boats running through town, small hills in the beginning of the fall, great weather (I brought a coat, and happy I didn’t need it).

 

The 1^st night I was told of a pasta place which is not a chain, I drove to that point as confirmed by the map and the GPS and couldn’t find it. So drove elsewhere, parked downtown and decided to walk back up and try again, since I was sure I was right there. 15 minutes later of walking I arrived , it was so nice just to walk in the warm night air (can’t do that at Cleveland right now, too cold). And I arrived to the place I was by car and started exploring.

Usually here m you see a restaurant from a long way because of the Neon signs, but this complex, which is actually 3 places who share their merchandize were in the dark. They had lights, but dim like any other house, which is why I missed it the 1^st time, you had to know where to look.

I ordered my regular Carbonara  and they gave me before a plate of fresh bread with a deep sauce plate made of olive oil, parmesan and something else, which I didn’t recognize. I was tired and hungry and the (big) plate of fresh bread disappeared. I ate 2 bytes from the pasta and took it to go.

 

On the walk back I passed by the “Ice Cream show” which mixes ice cream with fruit and stuff in a similar way to frozen yogurt. I tried to be creative and mixed chocolate with strawberries, the result was somehow sour, and I ate it slowly on the walk back to the car and went to sleep.

 

Next morning I enjoyed a micro waved pasta leftovers and it was very tasty. Lunch with hospital staff at a place overlooking the river and mountains (this place is 20 minutes away from the start of the Appalachian trail, I was tempted to start it (only takes 7 months to complete, no worries).

Las margaritas (they call it Las Mas) has the same band playing live music every Wednesday for 20 years, lucky it was a Wednesday and over spicy chicken breast cooked with pineapple and oranges! Which was nmmmmmm, I listened to some country music and knew some of the songs (and I didn’t even know they were country).

 

Today’s lunch was a Danish from a vending machine since I am in a van headed for Atlanta to catch my flight

So the route today will include

Rented car returned to the airport, a local ride to the shuttle depot, a 2 hour shuttle , with blogging opportunities (sorry I didn’t write for so long) to the hated Atlanta, wait, plane to charlotte, more wait, plane to Cleveland, shuttle to parking lot, car home, elevator and finally home- 13 hours on the road

 

I have some more things to write, but typing here is uncomfortable ..will try later in one of the waits..

 

Cheers from somewhere in Georgia

 

 

some food related items

“Believe me when I say to you
I hope the Russians love their children too”

the above lines are from a song by Sting

 

I am returning to the debate on eating in Russian, as I progress with my studies

So he Ect (eats) she Ect, they Edat (also eat) but I EM (eat)- how can a verb change from ect,edat to Em??? , no it doesn’t make sense. I need to find the Russian equivalent of Avshalom kor

 

After few weeks of constant good results on the scale, had my 1^st set back last Saturday, but no one’s fault but mine, the holidays, travel and most important things, lack of self discipline took their toll, and though only ½ ponds more, still it’s time for action, not even a full yom kipur feast helped (or maybe it did , and the elevation would have been more without it?), who knows.

Hoping by next scaling to be back on track.

 

We have been doing a new activity lately, house hunting, and perhaps its finally over. Each house we see (and not immediate hate) has a name based on obvious features so after seeing the

Yellow house, lake house, inna house, the next to inna house (none of these house is the house of Inna), old lady house, smelly house, 1941 house and cripple house, we are trying to get the apple house- I will tell you all about it once we get it, we made an offer and waiting for the sellers.

 

I went to some events recently

The 1^st was the taste of Cleveland- an annual event , in which various restaurant open food booth and have you try items that are cheap in the restaurant for more…

In the past, in Israel I would go to these events for the food, here I go for the music. This time it was train.

I freely admit that I didn’t even know there was a band called train, and did not research you-tube before going to the show, but it was a free show which was highly promoted, so I figured it can’t hurt. So for the 1^st time since coming here, I took the train down town to see train. Since this is a food fair, I tried some but not over did it (I was a good boy that week), I only tried 2 dishes which were ok and enjoyed free haven das. There was some unknown warm up band with nice songs that I didn’t know, and still don’t know the songs (or the name of the band) after the show. A few hours later , the train finally arrived and its was a great show. I don’t think they have enough songs to push a whole main attraction, so they made every song as long as possible. The singer went to the audience, brought dancers from the crowd to the stage, caused the crowed to sing back to him, and do all the tricks bands do, ALL of them, he did in in an elegant way though, I discovered that I actually knew 2 songs and enjoyed singing along.

 

Next morning, the annual air show occurred (all these events were on labor day). The day before I was told about some hill that you can sit and see the show for free. So I went to this hill and witnessed 2 hours of the show. in the beginning 2 world war 1 style by planes did impressive tricks, loops, side loops, up loops, down loops, cork screw sideways, downwards, upward, and even cork screw while appear to not move at all.

The only problem with the free tickets I had (since I was on a hill overlooking the place) is trees, usually I like trees but in this case they were in the way and I couldn’t see the runway. But the sounds was unmistakable, the roar of engines was very loud, something fast was coming…and a few seconds later a Jet of some kind (I would guess F something- like all American jets) flew over and turned just in front of us (turn top gun style) he showed off for a while and flew somewhere else. They had some parachutes shows and later some world war 2 single wing planes doing more tricks, after that the entire hamula was having a labor day cookout.

Lots of good food , very good ribs. I cooked my usually chilly Gili and a 2^nd dish of apples with honey (it was 2 days before rosh hashana). I know my chilly is good, just never though its worth getting hugs.

Not kidding, I was hugged because of it, which was very odd.], I don’t think its that good, nor that any dish is worth hugging for, or maybe we should change and hug good people who cook? Since a hug is a better thanks then saying, hey good food.. strange idea, may not work in restaurants.

 

Rosh hashana came and I made my traditional chicken soup, never had a cooking tradition, I do now…

 

Last weekend we also went to Cuyahoga falls for a Octoberfast, yes I understand its still September, but I don’t schedule these events. So we went to try some German food. Amongst the german dishes you could find some authentic dishes like the Greek Gyro, Italian sausage, cream puffs, French fries, oh I think they had some German food as well, we tried to stick to german, since that was the purpose of octoberfast. The problem was the rain, it poured and we had short pants and no umbrellas. In one of the festival tents they had some very gay germans (I mean happy germans, I have no clue of their orientations) dressed in authentic clothes dancing unique dances, never seen this type of dancing, its not that far from irish dancing but has more slapping of your on tight, it was quite entertaining, we didn’t stay long on account of the rain.

 

This weekend we went to the art museum, and we did not know about a festival (have I told you this city has tons of festivals), this was the chalk festival.

It’s a very interesting form of art since whatever you do vanishes in the very common rain, I guess it like sand castle and ice sculptures, so we walked by and lots of people are painting with chalk on the floors surrounding the Greek status. At first we were surprised by how they manage to find so many chalk artists, then we found that you can be an artist too.

 

Let’s go back way too many years ago to my 1^st art class on 4^th grade. With teacher rachel F. I never knew this teacher before, but from my brother, I heard that her name was something else. Being very naïve I had no reason to mistrust the name ( I am still naïve am I may still fall for such tricks). So 1^st lesson comes and we draw train tracks heading to the horizon. I finish the drawing and go to Rachel’s table, hand her the photo for grading and say “tzif tzif , here is my painting” – for those who don’t understand Hebrew, this means something like tweaty bird.

Rachel answers with a very high pitched voice “I thought I saw a pussycat”, kidding, she actually says in a high pitched voice “my name is not tiz tiz, its rachel” . I finished that class with a low score, not because of this event, but because I can’t draw.

 

Back to very recent past, it was time for my 2^nd attempt in artistic career. We purchased some chalk and received our dedicated square of pavement and started chalking. It’s kind of a nice activity, but I quickly found that I am just bad in dimensions and sizes of eyes and those kinds of things that make art look like the thing they look like (stolen from h. Simpson).

So I drew something.

Later that day we had dinner with the family and I showed the result. The 1^st comment was “did you drew this dog?” in astonishment tones. I would be great if I had only drew a dog, since I haven’t, my new international artistic career is once more over before It began.

 

Too see the amazing drawings, go here http://picasaweb.google.com/gil.even/20100919ChalkFestival?feat=email#

 

 

Photos from the apple house ( no we don’t have it yet, but we have a counter offer, negotiation continues)

http://picasaweb.google.com/gil.even/20100918AppleHouse?feat=email#

 

 

 

 

have a happy sukut

 

 

 

 

where is the C?

My 2 main promises this year (to myself) were weight loss (on it, or better to say off it) and learning Russian.

 

Well tonight I started with promise #2.

 

30 minutes in and my teeth are broken, this language is hard. I know what you’ll say, even 2 year old in Vladivostok know Russian, but I won’t believe it till I go visit there.

 

Started with roseate stone, which is a language learning program. Kind of interesting the way they do it, they first say words and make you repeat, then very interactively make you guess the words, complete letters, and the software “hears” how you (I) pronounce and does not continue till you (I) get it right. And you are graded as well. so far I am a B student I think on my 1^st lesson.

An interesting thing is that they make you write the words, the on screen Russian keyboards is weird, so many weird fonts, it looks like a mix of Latin and thai – which is probably is (if not thai, Indian, or Mongolian).

 

Now my huge vocabulary is boy girl man woman eat drink run read write cook he she them…all that in 20 minutes, with this rate I will know Russian in aprox 137 years.

 

Oh, the C

Ect is eat but edat is eating,  I know soma languages change verbs when moving from singular to plural- but what happened to the C- how did it change to D- the worlds works in mysterious ways.

 

OH peXNt Blog

 

Cheers

 

the other INNquisition

You probably seen movies or heard stories about the various tortures of the inquisition, well it continues today.

Imagine a large metal device with ropes attached to it, they place you on an unstable pink ball, tell you to maintain 1 leg in the air, while being tied to the metal device and having to pull down on the ropes.

Or they lay you down on the floor and tie your leg to the same metal device and pulling on it.

Other instruments of torture include standing on something very unstable, on one leg while bouncing a heavy ball on a leaning trampoline, walking the “monster walk” while your legs are bound together.

 

But apparently they call this innquistion physical therapy

The more astonishing issue is that its working

Its 6 weeks after my surgery and I am finally walking normal, the limp is gone, crutches are gone, chest pains are gone, calf pains are gone, things are looking better, though my activities are forever limited, which is still kind of depressing, need to completely change my goals.

Last year I aspired to do a triathlon, after the half marathon , but that plan is out.

So goal for next summer is a long bike race, and perhaps a long swim (though I am not allowed to do breast stroke yet)- will see what will be allowed and what not, hoping orienteering is still ok (next year)- I will have to consider my options when winter ends, till then keep doing the self torture… it’s not as bad as described above, it’s actually very creative, the usage of random devices to get you body to do a certain ‘good for you’ movement instead of other ‘bad for me’ moves.

Thanks Inna for getting me back on my feet.

 

Last weekend Alec (my brother’s in law father…does that make him my father in law? Probably not) well had his 70^th birthday and it was held at the Russian room.

I heard about this party room before but never been here, I was kind of suspicious about food, here I always find something to eat that I like, in the beginning I would find 1 item and stick to that, but since then, I think the family has modified their menus for simpler stuff (thanks all for that) so it’s better for me. But this was an authentic Russian cuisine, but I was happily surprised, at least 5 things that I liked a lot, must be a record.

It was a fun event, lots of speeches, live Russian band, dancing. I danced as well, which I didn’t think I would so fast, and it felt great. True I was mostly standing on my strong leg, but still, dancing is dancing.

 

The weekend before we went to a Romanian festival. There are lots of local festivals here by the various communities, each does its own thing. We tried some Mamaliga(didn’t like it), Romanian kabobs, and some other delicacies. There were also life Romanian bands (from Romania!) with some nice live Falk music and the people danced (we didn’t), we didn’t stay long but it was a fun lively event. I am half Romanian , but didn’t recognize the music, the other half of me is polish, the polish festival is coming up within a month, will see if the pirugy is any good.

 

 

Well that’s it, nothing interesting lately, started going to the gym , with the limited activities I can do, but so far the 9 day hospital stay and the diet after that resulted in loss of 10lbs J and the way down continues, so nothing in life is all bad.

 

I hope to resume more fun activities soon, labor day activities are coming up (including genesis and led zeppelin cover bands), we’ll see what we’ll do

 

cheers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a moment in the light

Still at the hospital, doing better again, a few hours after sending the previous entry it got bad again, I guess blogging is a hazardous activity.

 

It started with stronger chest pains again, always on the right side, the doc said my pathways to the lower lobe of the right lung and not reacting, so I had a chest X-ray  (yeh, another new test). The pain levels were like 2-3 days prior which was odd since I was doing so well up to this point. I took my first pain med, I didn't take any pain meds since day 2 after surgery, but I took it mainly for the headache and slept a while and woke with worse pain in the chest, the highest all week, this was now about 10 PM and I asked for the attending doc. This nice doc annoyed the nurse greatly and after a long debate agreed to come "when he had time". Nurse Natisha was agitated about this guy so I was already resentful before I met him. He finally came in saying that PE should not cause chest pain, funny because PE is what I have and chest pain is my main symptom this past week. After long debate, he didn't want to have me checked, refused to call the vascular guys, he was very anti, I took 2 Vicodins now for pain and Ativan which is a muscle relaxer and suppose to help me sleep. Pain was slightly tolerable again but still high.

Sensing something is not right Alla called for the Calvary and Inna and Rita (Alla's sisters) came by. The doc wouldn't even speak to Rita, a fellow doctor, he had to be coursed. This was around midnight.

 

Around 1 the unexpected happen. It started with cramping of the extreme right side of the stomach, which is the area where the lower lobe ends, at first it was annoyance and strange and quickly it became unbearable.

 

I was barely breathing. Actually was breathing in a pace of more than a breath a second, each very rapid and very very painful. I could no longer control my breathing and couldn't even call for help, lucky I was not alone and Rita called the nurses while Alla on the phone called in a "code blue".

True I was not in a true code blue situation since I was breathing, but it didn't matter, I was in a major distress.

The entire code blue team came by , the room was stuffed with new faces. The pain was horrible but I was fully alert (I wished I wasn't). I recall the staff member on the left side actually disappointed that this was not a code blue and dropping something on the bad, for the 1^st 2 minutes, while I am twitching in my bed, they tried to identify who called in the code blue (no one admitted) and tried to get an IV line in (they took it off the day before).

Alla and Inna were not kicked out of the room and stood behind the aprox 10 staff members who were there, I couldn't spot Waldo anywhere.

I was still twitching like crazy and struggling to breath, I forced myself to relax, by not breathing, trying to pause between breaths, it worked a bit and the pain decreased from inferno to just plain hell. They still struggled with the IV, the head code blue nurse entered the IV and went through! the vein, there went that attempt, and I was asking to put the IV in the elbow area, not in the palm. I was given morphine IM – a shot to the hand, the problem with this route is that it takes a while to kick in, but hell was nearing over at this point, now they tried the iv , in the arm below the elbow joint, which finally worked, they took some blood for samples, then more morphine to the vein, which reacts fast, and pain became tolerable once more. This whole episode took about 10-15 minutes, the worse I have ever felt. The issue was not over yet, I still didn't know why it happened, but the morphine was taking more and more affect (thanx god), I had another chest x-ray, in bed this time, they have a mobile device, but they had to put a panel behind my back and that hurt, and another echo cardiogram, also a mobile device, which hurt. After that, blessed sleep took over.

 

Had another CT in the morning, this time I came prepared, took Zofran to counter the nausea and more morphine since CT requires lying down and that I bad. Even with the morphine it was very painful in the chest but bearable, no nausea.

The good news is that it was not another blood clot(shark), but results of the current one. Because of the clot, lung tissue receives no oxygen or blood and dies(necrosis), and that is painful, I was told this is the exact pain that heart attack feels like, since there too the tissue dies, but my heart is good, no damage there.

I will have a scar in the lung but should not suffer in the future because of it.

 

Since then pain is decreasing greatly and almost as good as Thursday morning. I have a "coach 2" device, which is a breathing trainer, forcing the lungs to work to get air in to the bad lobe (אונה) , and today its beginning to work again which is great progress.

My INR (מדד קרישה) reached 1.9 yesterday ( I need 2-3) and today it went down L , so my Coumadin dose will increase again today, now it looks like a Tuesday Wednesday discharge, I have been here too long, but we went on a long walk yesterday and over all I am doing much better, and will get off the crutches completely today or tomorrow, so the hip is doing well.

 

That's it, no other special occurrences since Thursday, don't want any again.

 

Oh, the light thing, I saw a white light, but it came from the lamps, I was dark in the room before (1 am) so when they opened the lights to full I couldn't fully open my eyes or move my hands to cover them, nothing more…