2007_10_01_archive

MORE THIS 'N' THAT

My televisions haven't been working properly. One died - nothing to do

about that - it was the first color TV we bought about thirty years

ago - served us well and has now gone to its eternal rest. But the

others have been cutting out in the middle of the programs - all of a

sudden two new TVs are dying too? Whom should I call - my service

provider "YES" - or the TV repairman?

Neither, as it turns out. There is some kind of ship out in the

Mediterranean whose signals are interfering with our cable company.

Did you ever hear of such a thing? To make it up to us "YES" is giving

us - for the next two weeks - free first-run movies. Whooppee! But it

doesn't do me any good as I am going abroad for the next two weeks.

"THE HOLIDAYS" are finally over - whew! Absolutely nothing gets done

here - it's always "leefnay ha chag" (before the holiday) or "acharay

ha chag" (after the holiday). The post office virtually closes down

operations, my money changer went on vacation (I need to get some

euros), my hairdresser went away, almost all offices are on half-day

schedules, my hairdresser went away, and it is impossible to drive in

Jerusalem. And my hairdresser went away!!

The religious come from all over the world to spend "The Holidays" in

Jerusalem. People who don't drive all year long are renting cars for

the holiday period. Then we have "marches" - The March to Jerusalem,

The Blessings of the Cohanim (Priests - jewish ones of course), the

cars whose drivers can't see where they are going because the schach

(the fronds used to cover the succot (temporary dwellings) is falling

down over the windshields - and on and on and on.

Last week Ros (with an s) came back from her trip abroad. As she has

lived here even longer than I have, I asked her what restaurants she

remembered from our early days here. ( Remember the last blog I

wrote?) So as we were having dinner in the Black Steer - which she

remembered used to be the Pundak Motza back in the days when - she

remembered a whole lot of other restaurants to add to my list - Beni

Dagim, HaShipudia, Shipudei HaGefen, Rama, The Georgian which then

became the Marrakesh, Mama Mia, La Fontana, Ha Tzrif, Savion, an

Indian Restaurant whose name no one seems to remember on Rehov Yannai

- but everyone remembers was there - and whose owner was called Flower

Sillamon, a Chinese Restaurant at the top of the windmill next to the

Kings Hotel, and Kerem.

By the way, in my last blog I gave the transliteration for a dish

called "Jerusalem Mixed Grill" as meiourav. Myra - my expert on Hebrew

pronounciation - says it should have been meyorav. I stand corrected.

And now I'll say goodbye for the next two weeks. Roz (with a z) and I

are going off to Barcelona and Bilbao for a holiday. That's what I

needed the euros for and why I can't take advantage of the "YES" offer

of free films. Our trip sounds really exciting - we've planned all