Week 3 - January 27 - February 2

Sid left early Sunday for his second and final week in Sar-el. I had plenty going on to keep me busy.

Most of the week was very cold and rainy. Typical for this time of year, and of course rain is extremely important, but it gets in the way. I should have brought one more layer of warm clothes. I was also busy with office work, which filled a lot of my time.

Sunday I felt like a housewife, which convinced me I'm not cut out for it. Laundry, straightening up, etc. No disrespect to housewives, but it's boring. The reward was attending the second lecture in the Reincarnation series.

For something completely different, on Monday I was part of a photo shoot. My krav maga friend Shefa is now an instructor and she wanted to put together some publicity photos. Because she works at a gym that has a religious clientele, they wouldn't let her use photos with a male attacker. No, it doesn't make sense, but those are the rules. I met her Monday afternoon, along with the photographer, another friend. We did some outdoor shots in a small park downtown, where it was windy and cold. Lots of fun. From there we moved to the gym where she works for the indoor shots. The three of us wound up having dinner together, and for dessert I went to the first of a 3-part lecture series called Absolute Power Corrupts Incrementally. Fascinatng.

The City of Jerusalem went on strike this week, from Sunday to Wednesday. The fight was really a pissing match between the mayor and the finance minister over where funds for the city should come from. The mayor wants an official Jerusalem budget, the finance minister wants to continue allocating funds from the general budget. The first department to strike was sanitation. There's nothing quite like garbage not being picked up, especially around the produce market. The sanitation workers spread the garbage along the light rail tracks, which meant the trains couldn't run. They also lined their trucks up along the major roads in the city, blocking off one lane which effectively made the streets one way. This had a big impact on transportation as well as sanitation. The next move was for the kindergarten teachers to walk out. This proved to be the turning point. In a country where both parents work, this was a real hardship. It took the intervention of Netanyahu to end the strike so both parties could save face. The issue hasn't been resolved, but at least everyone's back to work.

I finally got back to my ceramics class this week. I was warmly welcomed, which is always a good feeling. This time I actually enjoyed the class and was able to complete a small sculpture.

My soldier boy came home yesterday afternoon. His time at Sar-el was rewarding, but he says this is his last time. Of course he said the same thing last year. We went to yet another lecture last night called Genesis and the Big Bang. The title is what pulled us in. The lecturer is a renowned nuclear physicist who explained that there are no discrepancies between biblical time and geological time. 

It was way above our heads. Fortunately the talk was recorded.

Tonight we are having our first Shabbat guests, and tomorrow night we're having a birthday for my Israeli daughter Yafit who turns 44. I've been busy cooking, so I guess the housewife thing is unavoidable.

Shabbat shalom from Jerusalem,

Peggy and Sid