Hello,
Well I haven't done a blog for a couple of day's and already my pessemistic buddy Doon has predicted I'm bored of it! I was disappointed I couldn't upload more pictures but am still considering stumping up for the full version where I can post pictures galore...UPDATE, got full version hence pictures!
There hasn't been too much joy in the Hughes household this week due to ill health. On Thursday night Jo-Eva started vomiting and had a temperature of nearly 40c...after an unsettled nights sleep the fever relented but, until this day she has got chronic diahorreah. I took her to the doctor on Sunday and she was diagnosed with acute gastroentiritis. She isn't allowed back to the nursery until the diahorreah has passed so I have been at home with her and have missed all the Ulpan this week.
Last night the inevitable happened...Daddy started puking and running a temperature. Here we go. Since then, until this very minute, I have been unable to keep anything in my stomach for more than 10 minutes. It is quite something when you drink a cup of tea and then squirt it out your arse while it is still warm! Soda water comes out bubbly!!!!
It's a bummer (excuse the pun) that we are not feeling good (Keren is so far unaffected) as we are in the middle of another Israeli holiday. Today is Rememberance Day for all the soldiers who have died since Israel was formed and that is followed, tomorrow, by Israel's Independence Day (independence from the British Mandate). Every apartment in our street has Israeli flags flying outside for Independence Day. Tonight everyone goes out onto the streets and there are firework displays all over the country and tomorrow (bear in mind our family stomach family dilemmas) everybody goes to the park and does bbq's. I am hoping that another 12hrs will be enough so I can tuck in and replenish my body with nutrients!
As I type this Keren is having a nap while Jo-Eva is playing with her new best friend...Tzavit. She is 20 and lives next door to us. She is a Leiutenant in the Army but is home for the holidays. Every time she comes back from the Army she brings Jo-Eva a present and happily takes her off our hands for half an hour! She also lends me her nagila. She grew up in the house next door and remembers Keren's grandfather (who's place we now live in) giving her sweets when she was a child.
I spent 2 days this week trying to open a bank account. I first went to our nearest bank and after explaining myself was told the computers weren't working and I should try the bank across the road. I did and was also told the computers weren't working. This seemed a bit suspicious. I returned the next day and approached the Manager of Bank A, this time he told me that I am not entitled to open an account because I am not Israeli. I challenged this and very quickly he retracted that statement and went back to "the computers aren't working"...come back in a few days. I went to the bank across the road...same thing. The reason for this is very clear, customer service is appalling in Israel and the bank clerk basically cannot be arsed to have to sit with me, talking in English and filling out dozens of forms when she could spend her time moaning to her colleagues. Finally I went to Bank Hapoalim, a further 5 minute walk from where we live but a much larger bank and after 90 minutes I managed to open an account. I would list the following places as examples of where you see the darker side of Israeli life: Bank, Post Office, Road, Doctors. Anywhere involving a queue...things get ugly very quickly!
My local football team, Bnei Yehuda, are in the Israeli Cup Final. When I say local, I mean their ground is about 100m from our place (just behind my Ulpan). If they win the final they will qualify for the UEFA Cup for the first time in their history. My friend Lior has got me and Danny tickets for the match which is being played in the Israeli National Stadium a week today.
OK, I gotta scoot to make dinner...not that I will feel much benefit from it! I hope to have signed up to the full version of this blog site by the next time I write so I can bombard you with pictures. And just as I have typed this paragraph a very wierd thing has happened. I heard a noise and looked round to see a cat running for the door with a piece of the fish I took out of the freezer for dinner!!
Yalla....
