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.