53 days before leaving...

We are all sourrounded by winners and loosers, it's true, some people just succeed in everything they start and some people fail, again and again. Two weeks ago I heard someone saying that the winners would, in front of a huge problem, try to divide it into to small, solvable problems while the looser would do the contrary - transform lots of small, solvable problems into a huge promblem without a solution...

I try to act like a winner, I try not to loose foot and advance slowly but surely. We are moving out of the house in the beginning of July. The container with the stuff we're bringing is leaving France at the end of June, furniture, machines etc, that are going to continue their lives at J's place are too, their trip will be shorter though.

This comming week I will have to start going through the children's toys, books, photos etc. I will also, most probably, end up knife threating my husband in order to make him sort out his tools, and throw away flexibles, old keyboards, his first cellphone etc that are kept in a furniture called "Knut" in the garage ( yes, it's IKEA)... He has aready tried the -"We're bringing Knut, we could just scotch the drawers... "

The man from the "Mover" cancelled our appointment and is supposed to come on Monday, the second is comming on Tuesday, I'll choose the cheapest.

One problem at a time, and not think about all as an overall picture...

We have entered a busy month, fortunately my "half" is comming for a few days with her children and husband, it will be a nice break and lots of fun. A last visit to Disney, Parc Asterix and barbecue evenings with a glass of cold rosé...

Chavoua tov all of you!

Good morning world!

Today on he radio, and also in the newspaper we learn that a marriage in the north of France has been cancelled because the bride wasn't virgin. According to the custom, the bride's and the groom's respective families where waiting downstairs when the groom went out from the bedroom saying the bride wasn't bleeding- there were no bloodstains on the sheets, the bride was immediately brought back to her father.

As the marriage was based on a lie, as the groom didn't want to marry a girl with a non existant hymen the French judge decided to cancel the marriage...

I didn't know women had to be pure by ( European) law when they get married, and I know, since I was 14 that lot's of women don't bleed the first time. In this particular case the young girl admitted that she actually have had sex before, she lied to her future husband which is never good but should that be a legal reason to cancel a marriage ?

I don't agree, I am not a feminist but this makes me out of my mind. Imagine how many marriages that will be cancelled in the future for the same reason. Should women who marry this kind of culture go through a medical control before their civil wedding, refunded by the social insurance, why not?

I hope this cas will provoke a reaction, this kind of decision should definately not be encouraged by French law!

Blonde thoughts...

Today at the supermarket in front of the toiletpaper I put he biggest pack in the caddy and then I thought- how many rolls do we really use a week? counted the days that are left, started to smile, put back the big pack and chose a smaller, still smiling.

Time goes so fast, I start to feel that we have lot's of things to do and not that much time.

I also feel like I'm saying goodbye to Paris. I see things in a different way. In Pigall the other day I went down Rue des Martyrs where I used to live and lot's of memories went trough my head, I remebered how it was to be 20 in Paris...it feels so far away, like another life. Paris has changed a lot the last ten years, a lot, or perhaps it's me...

I've spent 19 years in Sweden, 18 in France.

I hope that I will spend the rest of my life in Israel.

10 reasons...

So why do we really want to live in Israel? In spite of the fact that we think it's our country and that it is almost a duty to live there, here are the top ten reasons...

1. The natural style of the Israelis and their shameless curiosity.

2. The country is absolutely fascinating, historically speaking.

3. Mac Donald's is kosher ( I knoow, not all of them)

4. Shabat, people are not afraid that the neighbours will hear when they recite the kiddush, sometimes when you're walking on the street you can hear prayers through open windows or doors.

5. The mix of people, 80 languages are spoken in Israel!

6. The food, the chocolate cakes, the falafel, the humuss, the eggplantmayosalad, the limonana...

7. Jerusalem - there should be a law that oblige all human beings to go there once in their life!

8. We believe in the country, in the economic growth, in the Israeli's capacity of transforming a piece of sandy land into an eldorado.

9. The playgrounds, there are playgrounds everywhere, the place is a pradise for kids !

10. In Israel Hezbolla'h and Hamas are terrorist organizations and nothing else.

Go Boaz!

My Swedish roots are still there, for sure, I'm watching the Eurovision Song contest with a bowl of Ben and Jerry's... In Sweden newspapers have followed the event for a month now, making comments about the Swedih singer's concurrents and forecasting winners and loosers. No doubt, Sweden will win, like always. Tomorrow the newspapers will write racist comments about the eastern countries, like always, it's because of them Sweden doesn't win.It was much better when they didn't participate...
Well, I got the impression that it was quite a big thing in Israel too, even if I don't understand everyhing I could clearly and very often hear the word "Eurovison" on the radio.
Boaz is cute, he makes me regret my youth, and the song is nice, he deserves a vote!
Imagine he would win, half of the countries (at least) would boycott next years Eurovison song contest and start militating for Gaza to participate!
Chavoa tov!

There is still time to vote!

Back in France

and only a few hours of sleep. I feel strange to be back here again. The trip calmed me down a lot and gave me strenght. I now know that the only fear I need to have is money. Life in Israel is great, if it wasn't for gaza and hezbolla'h the place would be called paradise... If we manage to survive on our salaries life will be great!
I showed the pictures of the children's new school this morning, my elder son was just interested in where he could play football during the breaks! He doesn't seem to be worried about anything at the moment which is quite amazing to me. Son number two has spoken about the slides in Israel the whole morning, they are absolutely awesome... I will start my prepared, pedagogical speech once we're there, nobody is interested in language barriers, for the moment.
Only 64 days to go!

Paddeling on the Jordan river

Yesterday we took a break from IKEA and dirty kitchens and drove north. We had lunch at Tiberias, the city at the Kinneret lake. I haven't been there since 1996, it has changed a lot but I still don't like the place. I can't pu my finger on what's wrong, it's just not nice.

After lunch we continued north, passed Kafarnaum and took road 888 which I think leads to Golan if you continue, after just a kilometer to the left we stopped and rented a canoe. The Jordan river was quite shallow but there was enough to paddle.

It was forbidden to jump from the canoes into the river and we where not allowed to stop and swim on our way, the trip was about 3 km and at the end there was a bus waiting for us to get us back to the car. Since Israel is south of Belgium everyone jumped from the canoes into the water as soon as the instructors where out of sight. The water was perfect and there where little waterfalls all along we really, really enjoyed it! The place is called Beïtsaïda if someone wants to go there...

Before going back to the hotel we stopped at Zikhron Yacov and had dinner, the sun was going down, the sky was all pink and we had a nice bottle of wine in a resturant on the main street. A perfect end of a perfect day.

Today I'm back to reality cleaning the kitchen...