It is difficult to continue the day thinking about packingproblems after reading the morning's newspaper. The captured soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev are supposed to be "given back" by Hezbollah after exactly 2 years of captivity, July the 12th.

In exchange Israel will deliver Samir Kuntar who participated in an attack on an Israeli family in 1979, and murdered three Israelis: a 28 year-old man, his 4-year-old daughter, and an Israeli policeman; the man's 2 year-old daughter suffocated as her mother tried to quiet her crying. He was convicted in the same year, he received four life imprisonment sentences and has been in Israeli prisons ever since.

Hezbollah still doesn't want to tell the families of the abducted soldiers wether their sons are alive or not, it will be a surprise.

Karnit Goldwasser, Ehuds wife, who met Olmert yesterday told him while shaking his hand ; I've been fighting for two years, and I feel that in the end, even if I won, what has it all been for? So I can shout 'Hooray, I'm a widow'?"Her husband was only 21 years old when he got kidnapped.

Let's all pray for a miracle.

The house is almost empty now...

and so is my head and body. J came to pick up furniture Saturday afternoon, the livingroom is now completely unfurnished.
My earache is unbareable, how did I catch this? In Sweden when it once happened my mother told me to put a garlic in my ear, this was a long time ago, before I realized a mother could be wrong. I spent a day with a garlic clove and it didn't help at all, it worsen- probably the clove was too big.... Yeasterday when I googled in Swedish about otitis I found out that people are still doing that, a progress though, today they crush the clove...In Sweden they don't need doctors, except maybe for cancer, but then, often, it's too late anyway.
Well, I'm not really Swedish anymore having lived half my life abroad so I'm on antibiotics and cortisone. Although it's written that the cortisone contains an active ingredient which may yield a positive dope test I am unfortunately as exhausted as yesterday. I was counting om 50 mg of Cortancyl to clean up the upper floor, I'm still in bed waiting for the energy kick!
The washing machine just broke down, instead of feeling sorry for myself I try to think that the moment is pretty good, we where going to sell it and I'm happy we didn't have the time to do it, it would have been very embarrasing to sell a machine that broke down after a week, or once we've left!
Meanwhile I'll do my laundry at our cousin's place, where leaving on Wednesday so it's not really a problem.
I have to be fit tomorrow!

We are now 12 cubic meter lighter!

I fell much better than yesterday, I even had a moment of euphoria around noon when I went to buy pizzas. I can't believe where doing this!!!!!

It was mouving to watch the truck leave, both me and my husband had tears in our eyes. The dream is so close that we can almost reach out and touch it.

I spent about an hour cleaning up after the movers left and then I realized we forgot a box with Swedish crystal. All Swedish girls have Orrefors at home and I am not an exception.

Well , we'll bring the box with us in the plane.

Saturday J is comming to pick up furniture, then the house will be almost empty. We'll stay here until next Wednesday. We are going to put the beds at the garbage at wednesday night when the "garbage police" have left for the day. There is no way we could put them inside the Nissan Micra and bring them to the gipsy camp -but- if you don't come to the gipsies, the gipsies will come to you.

Thursday morning the beds will probably already be gone since the garbage is checked every night. The au-pair put out some of her stuff yesterday and it didn't take more than 15 minutes before everything was gone. It's amazing, I wonder if they hav spies?

Exhausted

So, what could I tell you today. Am I ready? Are all boxes done? Noooo Are the movers comming tomorrow? Yeeees. I feel it never ends, the children are everywhere, touching everything.

A few months ago, in a moment of weakness, I promised my son to organize a farwell party. G*d I regret. The aupair is leaving Tuesday, school will be over on Friday, Wednesday is the only possibility... When son number two heard son number one was inviting his friends he started begging to invite some of his friends. I'll make them play football in the park - even if it's raining- and I even think I will feed them there. I really though he had forgot about it...

Good morning!

Nicolas said in the Knesset yesterday that we will have to split Jerusalem, give the territories back and that he loves Israel. There is a big difference today in the relations between France and Israel, comparing to Chirac's mandatory, but could it possibly have become worse than that?

Splitting Jerusalem? In one way it's already split, I never go to the eastern part. I think that peace feels very, very far away and that it is impossible to just get along with a terrorist organisation, how could you trust them?

Well, from now on Israel is no longer alone, France is by their side - it's an amelioration

In French newspapers and on the Radio they are analyzing the fight between 15 Africans and Rudy, a 17 year old Jewih boy, that took place saturday. Rudy has just woken up from his coma and the journalists are now trying to sort out if he was attacked because he was wearing a kipa or not. The same day another jewish boy was attacked with a machette by a group of Africans according to "Le Parisien".

Paris is a beautiful capital, you're welcome to visit but please try not to look too Jewish, it would be interpreted as provocation, at least in the northern areas.

Maybe Nicolas should take care of his own occupied territories before Israel's...

High priority

The days are getting shorter and shorter, the nights too.

The list of musts is still very long so I have decided to start with what's most important.

Today I'm going in to the JA with our passports, next time I'll hold them in my hands it will be d- day. I have also spent about an hour at our kosher supermarket picking out nice French wine bottles. very hard, I felt all the Pomerol, St Emillion and St Estephe were screaming ; "Pick meeee" I finally chose 12 bottles, a few of each, two rosé and two white Chablis, 2 L of Boukha Bokobsa ( -WHY did you only take 2 L???) and two jugs of ArichA's Harissa ( The BEST).

Now where ready to leave!

It's funny, as I fill up the boxes and the house gets emptier I feel almost sad. I think I have t go through a kind of a mourning period before I can enjoy it. I don't feel sad to move, this is what we dreamt about for such a long time, I feel sorry we didn't take the decision before. Life is so precious, every day counts, I've been fed up living here for years...
I am so scared we will not be able to make it there, that I will not find a job, that my husband will not succeed with his new company. I try to think what to do if it really doesn't work and I have no solution. I will not bring back the kids to this part of France, this morning we woke up hearing on the radio that a 19 year old jewish boy was attacked in the street yeasterday. He is, according to the radio, seriously wounded and the reason he got attacked was anti-Semit.
As there is no other solution I guess we will jus HAVE TO make it.
What is the tehilim for parnassa?
31 days left...

Great and less great...

My husband just sold the car! He brought it up to Normandy where a family waited, really excited to get their first - almost-new-car.

Now husband is on his way back, by train, and wife is in the kitchen prepairing the couscous and sallads for tonight and tomorrow.

Little by little we're sorting things out...

This morning the truce was supposed to begin, 10 minutes ago, in Haaretz we can read that 2 Israelis were hurt in a shooting attack near Ramallah while hiking. Truce means Palestinians can continue as usual, sending Quassams and kill Israelis and Israel is not allowed to answer the aggressions --or peacetalks will freeze.

*Sigh*

Our mini break is over. My A has been here with her family and it was great thiniking about other things than problems and time and furniture and boxes. Now they're gone. I wish everyone had a friend like her. Saying goodbye was horrible, my heart still hurts to be honest, I hope we will be able to see eachother soon again, I pray to G*d Ryan Air will start flying on Tel Aviv!
When I had waved good-bye and came back into the house again I started to think about the comming weeks.
The movers are comming in 8 days!
J is picking up her furniture in 10 days!
The aupair is leaving in 12 days.
We're leaving the house the 4th of July...
My biggest problem right now is where we're going to put the beds when we leave the house, I will keep them until the 4th in the morning, could we dump them at the gipsy camp ( which is not too far? We're not allowed to put them with the garbage because it's too big. Impossible to do it during the day, the garbage house is "guarded" by a very nice but incorruptible guy from the Ivory Coast... hmmm. I'll tell you which solution we will chose.
Throw them away in the middle of the night and sleep on the floor or the Gipsy camp...
I will have to start making lists with things to do, otherwise i will forget everything.
This afternoon we're going into Paris, actually we just realized we can by taxfree now that we're leaving, very interesting...

yawning

Yesterady we spent the day at Parc Asterix. Going on a Rollrer coaster is better than sedatives, I felt sooo relaxed afterwards, I screamed so much that all the stress went away...I should go for a ride every day before leaving.

Yesterday night we went to a huge bat mizva in Paris.

I think answered more than 200 "Hi how aaare you, so when are you leaving" and smiled to about 200 more " aaah voilà l'Israelienne!!!" (I don't have to translate that, do I?)

I feel we haven't slept for two weeks, the problem is that even when I go to bed early I don't, so I might as well go to bed late, at least then- I sleep, even if it's not much.

The movers are comming in 9 days and I keep on opening the boxes I have finished because I need something inside.

No- it's not me on the picture, I look much less sophisticated when I'm tired...

Thank G*d for

Ebay...
We sold our freezer today. Incredible, what was the chance to find someone not too far to buy a huuuge freeze box? Not too far because the buyer is supposed to pick it up.
A couple of Africans bought it, they will send it to Mauritania... what an exciting and unexpected destiny for a freeezer!
The car is still looking for a a buyer. Someone called a quarter to eleven to night asking for more photos from inside the car- no problem, it's spotless!
The guy lives in Normandy and would love to buy a Ford Fusion, internet is fantastic...I'm ready to go there with the car and return by train, I will feel so relieved when we've got rid of the car.
Chavoua tov all of you!

This morning I met the Rabbi.

I think we have the most friendly, understanding and sweet Rabbi that exists.

All Rabbis should be, you might think, well they aren't, there are good and less good Rabbis, and mine is the best.

He asked me how I felt and I answered that we where wobbeling between euphoria and fear.

He smiled and said; "you're afraid of the delivery".- Don't worry, it doesn't hurt...

I think that was a very good comparison. We've created a dream together. We've fantasised, and dreamt about what it will be like for over a year.

Suddenly, when the D- Day is approaching we're afraid that it will be below our expectations or that we ( this time the pain will be shared, he, he) will not be able to stand the pain of labor.

Our child is an abstract dream becomming reality and the delivery will probably be longer and more painful than a real childbirth.

If the result will be up to our expectations, I'm willing to take the pain, even without epidural.

Shabat shalom!

Heard on the radio this morning...

A Japanese customs officer, eager to show the effiency of his sniffer dog team, put 142 gram of raw cannabis in a randomly chosen suitcase at Japan's Narita airport.

His snifferdogs failed to detect the cannabis and the officer could not rember in which suitcase he had but the drugs...

Anyone finding the package has been asked to contact customs officials.

Aching eardrums and sleepy eyes

I would have loved to update with " I've finished packing and we've sold the car" but I haven't and there is no sign of a car-buyer...
Yesterday we went to a wedding, a real Tunisan wedding, with great oriental food, a Tunisian orchestra with darboukas and the" snake charmer instrument".
For a stranger it must be incomprenhensive that there are North Africans on a Jewish wedding. The fact is that from the first note the dance floor was full and people sang along in arab. It's very common, there is almost no Jewish Tunisian wedding without "Haramt ahebak"
I feel nervous about the car, I really hope we will manage to sell it, there are 230 cars like mine ( same brand), waiting to change owner in France.
Mine -of course- is outstanding... different from the others... blacker, shinier, cleaner...euhhh...

Chavout and Ruth's Meguila

Ruth is an important woman to all converts and I can't resist pasting in her beautiful words to her mother in law.

"Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me"

Hag Saméah!

44 days and counting

We have finally got an answer regarding the fees for bringing the car. It's very, very expensive and really not worth it. We put an add friday afternoon and someone called this morning. I hope we will be able to sell it quickly, we could rent a car here until we're leavning.

The rest of the furniture will be on sale on Ebay, what a pity I'm not Paris Hilton, I could have sold "Knut" ( see previous post) for a fortune...

My husband's family is comming with us to the airport when we're leaving.
Imagine 600 nervous people , with 60 kilos each in luggage, parents, sisters and brothers saying good-bye, crying, at 3 o'clock in the morning... I warned my mother-in - law on the phone today saying it might be a little hysteric and not at all like the nefesh b nefesh film I sent her by email... Well, they want to come anyway and that's really sweet I think, they live far away.

Personal nonsense

Tomorrow morning when I wake up (B-h), I will be 37 years old.
As I wrote to my friend, I will be closer to 50 than to 20...
I don't like getting older, it reminds of that we're not here forever.
Here are my resolutions for my 37th year;
I will stop buying Sweet chili Doritos and eat them up in the car, far away from my chips- obsessed children ( it must be genetic), to celebrate that decision I did it today, again, but for the last time...
I will fold my clothes on the shelves in my ( new, big Ikea-) closet, even when I lack of time.
I will start working again, I've been a housewife for 5 years now.
I will never, ever again wake up with a pimple on my nose or in my front because I'm a grown up, a mother of 3 and because women over 36 never have pimples (even after a bag of Doritos.)
At 37 I will fulfill a dream.

Shabat shalom!


Shabat shalom all of you.

That's it!

Today "Madame *Balagan" entered our house, she will stay with us until the 4th of July.

I feel like I'm on top of a rollercoaster, to excited to step off, to afraid to scream.

We've started our aliyah...

* chaos, mess.

Mum is going mechouga...

You know when you're driving the car and your husband is beside you telling you what to do, how to turn, where to turn, to drive faster...

Imagine you're tired ( sick child who woke up at six when you went to bed at 1 o'clock) add some hunger, and a dispute about where you're going to eat...

Today I did what many women have thought about but never dared to do...

...I pulled the handbreak on a zebra crossing, in the center of Paris, stepped out of the car, took my hanbag and left my bad-tempered husband alone in the car with the kids!

AAAAAAAh! .

I forgot my cellphone inside the car, which emphasized the effect, and spent a nice afternoon in Paris.

When I came home they were all very happy to see me.

The Iron Lady

I really admire her. Goldas Meir's ( z"l) face and look fascinate me, a woman out of the common, with a life out of common.

She was born in the beginning of the century in Kiev, according to her biography one of her first memories were of her father boarding up the front door in response to rumors of an imminent pogrom, I guess that kind of childhood harden your personality...

The Family left Russia for the US but Golda, together with her husband and sister decided to settle in Palestine in 1921 when Golda was 23.

Imagine what a step to take, today we can study a country's economy, follow its political life daily and even learn the language before taking the step, I doubt they could 87 years ago.

Golda started her new life picking almonds in a kibbutz and became the first female primeminister in Israel and the third in the world (after India and Sri Lanka) in 1969.

I love reading quotes, here are some of Golda's best;

"Peace will come to the Middle East when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us."

"Above all, this country is our own. Nobody has to get up in the morning and worry what his neighbors think of him. Being a Jew is no problem here"

"We do not rejoice in victories. We rejoice when a new kind of cotton is grown and when strawberries bloom in Israel."

"I never did anything alone. Whatever was accomplished in this country was accomplished collectively"

"There were no such thing as Palestinians. When was there an independent Palestinian people with a Palestinian state? It was either southern Syria before the First World War, and then it was a Palestine including Jordan. It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country away from them. They did not exist"

Let me tell you something that we Israelis have against Moses. He took us 40 years through the desert in order to bring us to the one spot in the Middle East that has no oil!

Have a nice day!

Fallafel in the Jewish quarter.

This afternoon we went to Marais and had a fallafel at "L'as du Fallafel", its a nice area in Paris where the Gay and Jewish community live side by side in perfect harmony.

In 1982 terrorists threw a hand grenade into the Goldberg resturant in Marais and then went down Rue des Rosiers shooting.

6 where killed and 22 seriously wounded.

The special French antiterrorist unit investigated and a few weeks later they found explosives and guns in an appartement in Vincennes...

Ready to know who the appartement belonged to?

The Irish nationalists.

Nooo, there is absolutely nothing strange with that. Irish nationalists hate Jews. I know who you had in mind but no, no, no, you're being simple minded!

Well, later on it emerged that the explosives found in the appartement were actually put there by the police itself...

They never found the real culpable, a tricky case...

The fallafel was very tasty and the home-made lemonade too.