YOM HASHOA

At 10:00am on Yom HaShoah, throughout Israel, air-raid sirens are sounded for two minutes. During this time, people stop what they are doing and stand at attention; cars stop, even on the highways; and the whole country comes to a standstill as people pay silent tribute to the dead.

Let us all think, just for a second, of a child, a mother or a grandfather who was killed, only 65 years ago, just because he was Jewish.

Sunny but freezing cold!

It's fantastic to walk on paths without being afraid of meeting Jack the Ripper or Jack the Raper. It's like a huge postcard or a painting, flowers everywhere, it reminds me of Sweden around midsummer, same smell of fresh leaves and flowers. The gîte is romantic and very nice decorated as you can see, when I get rich I'll buy a house in Golan and decorate it like this, or maybe in Zichron Yacov...

We had a nice day, no biting sheep but "we" managed to break the plastic slide in the garden, why do they never listen to me?? We're getting the bill tomorrow.

They called from a real estate agency in Israel , they had appartements to rent in a wonderful place just close to the sea, I know where it is, and it's not wonderful at all. If we've waited until now we might as well wait until we get there don't you think? No use to rent an appartement on pictures a week before going!

Rainy and cold

or fresh air and beautiful dark sky, it depends on your mood and how you see things. This place is fantastic, the children have fed the lambs with feeding bottles and while I was busy taking pictures of drops ( see pic above), son number two got bitten by a sheep. How did that happen? Have you ever heard of agressive sheep?

A long time ago, when I was young and careless, I used to work at the Perfume museum in Paris. The "consierge's" (carekepper's) dog always slept in front of the museum, no-one really cared except the Americans who felt very upset seeing a Husky sleeping in the sun( she looked awful in the heat)

The dog hated tourists and once bit an American student. The student's teacher freaked out and said she was calling the police, threating with court. The carekeeper didn't speak good French and no English at all ( in Paris they are all Spanish or Poruguese), but understood it was serious and got her son's healthreport with all vaccinations since he was born, showed it to the teacher and told her with proud in her voice that there were no danger of Rabies.

The teacher calmed down and left the place with her bleeding student.

I didn't ask for the sheep's healthreport but called my best friend A who is married to an Irish, he would know sheep better than anyone!

Well, according to him nothing to worry about, still he thought that it was v e r y strange to get bitten by a sheep... According to A he was whispering something about people living in big cities not fitting in on the country side...

In spite of this, the day was wonderful and I'm looking forward to new adventures tomorrow, hopefully under the sun!

Off for some rest!

After a week with big dinners and sweeping we all deserve some calm and are leaving for Auvergne ( although it's yom tov today, I know)

Auvergne is a volcanic region in the center of France with beautiful nature and very nice people, winter time you can ski and during summer there are lot's of backpackers and families going there for peace, quiet and fresh air.

We've rented a Gîte, an old house, far away from civilization, with sheep and cows as neighbours.

Tomorrow morning I hope we'll find a "boulangerie" to buy a fresh baguette or two, or four, I long for bread now!

Be ware of the sun girls!

Spring is here, the sun is back and it's getting warmer and when the sun comes back after winter the French get crazy, honking cars, whisteling and shouting after women in the streets, asking young girls if they would like to have a coffee. Today on the radio someone gave the scientific explanation to this phenomenon. Someone actually had the idea of putting a duck under a heating lamp for a few hours a noticed that the duck's testicules swell up visibly!

The theory is that the same things happen to men...

Don't let them stay in the sun too long!

Chabat Shalom all of you!

Getting crazy...

Today I called a French girl in Israel who has a real estate agency in Tel Aviv, I never told you but we're actually looking for a shop to rent. She didn't have a shop but a beautiful appartement in Raanana to rent from June-her own. Five rooms, partly renovated with a teerace. I've been to Raanana twice but to be honest I was disapointed, did I go to the wrong places or what? I see now, googeling, that Raanana is claasified as one of the most beautiful towns in Israel with great schools and huge parks ( well, I knew about the parks, my friend "K" already told me)
Two questions to answer..
1. Aren't there too many French in Raanana? If there are, we will not learn any hebrew.
I remeber last time we went to a resturant on the main street, they all spoke perfectly French...
2. Isn't it sad to live so far from the beach? I dream about waking up in the morning, early, before everyone else, put my sneakers on and go for a walk on the beach...
We will try to check that out in a few weeks...

So happy to be Jewish!

Rice, potatoes, potatoes again, vegetables,eggs and rice again, and crumbs, kilos of crumbs... this is how you can resume pessah when the sedarim are done.
I love it though, it's facinating that we're celebrating the Exodus from Egypt, reading texts about it although it happened more than 3000 years ago.
That's what makes lots of people criticizing judaïsm, there is no place for changes, no wiling to modernize the texts of the Thora or our rituals, year after year, decades after decades, centuries after centuries we say the same prayers and celebrate the same festivals without any changes- because it's written we should.
For centuries women have probably been sick and tired of the matza crumbs too, when I say nothing has changed I mean nothing.
It's amazing, I'm so happy I'm Jewish and I'm so happy I have children to make it continue to the next generation and even though I'm ranking about the crumbs I'm happy I'm sweaping out matza crumbs instead of bread crumbs this week.

Would you trust and make peace with someone like this?

"We have discovered how to hit the Jews where they are the most vulnerable. The Jews love life, so that is what we shall take away from them. We are going to win, because they love life and we love death."

-- Hizbullah General Secretary, Hassan Nasrallah

Enchanted by Amy...

I think the world would look different if we could hear Amy Winehouse's soft voice in the background constantly...
They called from Israel twice today about uninteresting appartements first and in the afternoon I got good news, this time I don't beleive them, we'll buy a tent and start our new life camping on the beach.
With Amy Winehouse in the background everything is going to be coooool...

Chilling out...

Someone told me to be ware of the יצר הרע (yetser hara = evil inclination) who sneaks around when you're cooking for the sedarim and also to chase it away afterwards when everything is finished and it whispers in your ears - pssst, next year - don't do it , they're not worth it.

I am exhausted but I loved listening to my father-in-law praying and my husband was so happy to sit next to him that I try to forget how tired I am and who didn't even say - thanks for inviting me for four evenings at your place ...

I'm happy that there was no terrorist attack in Israel during the Seder, one year a terrorist dressed up as a jew and blew himself up in a hotel in Netanya killing children, parents and seniors in the middle of the prayers.

Tonight I'm having a glass of white Yarden wine with my husband, the children are quiet, the tv is on and I'm finally relaxing.

Done with the cleaning!

aaahhhhh... back to life after three days with the hoover stuck to my right hand, I will sleep well and tomorrow morning I'll start the cooking-frying-baking part.

The house is cleaner than ever, and we're 100 kilos lighter than a week ago. I've thrown and given away books we never read, old keyboards, clothes, two boxes of tiles, the flexibles I told you about, etc etc.

When I was going through the "first drawer" ( that's where we put everything from chewinggums to cheques) I came across the quote from the furniture mover company and realized that I had remebered the wrong figure. It wasn't 800 euros for 14 cubic meter but 1400 euros for 8 cubic meter. Thats expensive for lamps, books and photos...

Hag Saméa'h all of you, Happy passover, this year we will feel special when we say " next year in Jerusalem"...

Spring

This winter I thought; when the trees are in bloom we're almost gone, now they are but I still don't feel like it's close. I have divided the weeks that are left into sections.

First there is Pessah,

then we're going to Israel,

then A is comming,

then we're selling the house

and theeen...

we're leaving!

We have decided to sell all furniture before leaving since it's more expensive to send what we have than to buy brand new furniture at IKEA for example. One of my friends wants to buy what we have, "tack J"!

Bringing a car to Israel seems VERY complicated and is, according to many people, something to avoid, so we'll have to put an add for the car, but it's a little bit too early, we still need it.

Next week I'm going through the children's toys, I'm going to give lots of things away to the rabbi's wife who is in contact with kindergardens in the area. I'll also give and throw away shoes, winter-clothes, boxes with worthless things like wires for example, it's incredible what you can find in a garage...

A beautiful concert

In September a violin concert will be held in Jerusalem, just in front of the Kotel by the philharmonic orchestra of Ranaana and 60 children.
The children's violins have all sad stories to tell, with one thing in common, the Shoah...
One belonged to a little boy who loved his violin above all.
Motélé, only 12 years old ran for his life with his violin in his arms, when the nazis entered his village. All alone the little boy joined a group of opposants hiding in the forest.
Discovered by the nazis while playing his violin in the village, he was invited to play in front of them once a week. The little boy put explosives in his violin case and after a few months he had brought enough to explode the nazi HQ.
Motélé was killed later on by the Germans. His violin was taken care of by one of the opposants who later on, when the war was over, moved to Israel with the violin in his suitcase.
In September Motélés violin will be played by a child of his age, together with 59 children with 59 violins they will preform Hatikva.
We will try to be there.
Please take a look at this video:
http://www.guysen.tv/violon.php

Chatter

Ok, I admit, I have an obsession about finding an appartement. Friday before Shabat I got a phone call saying that the appartement we wanted to rent from May has already been rented. I tried to sound balanced, if I show them I'm panicing the price will increase "by magic", I'm sure.
We need a back up plan if we don't find an appartement in the neighbourhood we want so I spent my evening reading Wikpedia...I still don't know where to search but I have learned that an average salary in Hod Hasharon was 13,326 shekles while in Netanya it's only 6,217 shekels. This kind of information is very important and it raises the question; Do they earn money because they live in Hod Hasharon or do they live in Hod Hasharon because they earn money?
Well, my pediatrician's wife put her son in the basket team because she wanted him to become tall... u n f o r t u n a t e l y he didn't grow up to be twice as big as his parents, life is cruel...
Next week we're starting the Pessah cleaning, it will do me good.
Chavoua tov! Have a nice week!

Indifference looms larger than chains

As French authorities are making great efforts to liberate Ingrid Bettancourt from the FARC I can't stop thinking of Guilad Shalit, another French citizen held hostage.

Ingrid was kidnapped by the FARC in 2002, today she is suffering from hepatitis and is closer to death than life itself. I'm holding my breath, hoping that the efforts will pay and that she will be surronded by her children as soon as possible. As for Galit, I wish and pray that the Israeli and French government will act soon and not wait until he is dying to try to liberate him.

Guilad was only 19 years old when he was captured by HAMAS in June 2006, his only crime was to be in the wrong place on the wrong time during his military service.

Too much...

There are a too much "maybes, perhaps, probably, might and laters" in my daily life. Without these words everything would be perfect.
Still no sign of a flat.
I feel like I'm going to have a nervous breakdown.