we've come a long long way

where were you 10 January 1995?
i was on a plane to Israel making the big A.

hard to comprehend but somehow I'm coming up to my 10 year aliya anniversary.

in the words of fat boy slim, "we've come a long long way together through the hard times and the good."

and i'm here to tell the tale - not originally a tale of rebellion,aliya is a pretty acceptable and even expectable move for a modern orthodox young woman in north west london, but somewhere along the way, israel has allowed me to discover stuff about myself that i think might have been left deep and buried had i not made the move.

so the big anniversary essay is not in this posting but i'm starting to think about it.

i think it was triggered by yesterday's shabbat walk from nachlaot to the old city, through ben yehuda. this calm and easy walk physically, evoked much emotionally in me as i was confronted by a ton of nostalgia and a detailed backdrop to my life that felt as if it was from decades ago but really only dates back to the last ten years. amid all these spontaneous trips to rehov memory i couldnt help compare my path with that of where i now really call home - jerusalem.

sounds poncey i know but its actually really incredible to me. we share lives that have been shaken unpredictably but we also share re-emergence on the other side, stronger and more alive.

this analogy may only make sense to me (and no-one else) unless i choose to explain it further. i will try and do that in the lead up to the "big day"but for the moment all that seems proper is to continue the song and say

jerusalem - "i need to celebrate you baby i need to praise you like i should"

and one more thing.... take 2

oh my word too much vodka

does any body else think that globalization has become too much when three italian tenors are singing american tunes in china (see star world for details)

just a thought

LG

ps i am drinking water its just taking a while to have an effect

sometimes you just have to

its nearly 3 am and i just want to say that nothing beats a night out with the girls.

i really need to drink water but before i do can i just say that i',m v grateful for fabulous friends like gabby, sharon and keren who dance like mad with me at places like yuko bar (near moshav ora). tonight was just what i needed and made me realize that i really am v happy with how life is going even if i am still rather single. tonight i was able to stave off the advances of horny young students -- take the compliment and leave the smut (and my dignity in tact).

for the record, yaniv who is studying criminology at hebrew u didnt blink when i said i was 25. wehay - i still got it even tho i have a threshold of a two year old (all i drank was 2 red bulls and vodkas but then again in this f%$&ed up economy the vodka is cheaper than the red bull and bar men have no idea of measures)

there;s nothing like being a bit drunk but happy in life for throwing your energy out there and saying praise ye the lord.

no amount of stimulants cant make me enjoy myself if deep inside i'm not happy so i guess i am at the moment.

for this i will be very grateful

one day at a time

time to press publish........

ps this is what happens when your computer is right by the door and always on.

couldn't have said it better

to be fair, while failing to update my blog recently i have at least been democratic and also neglected to keep up with other blogs.

in the midst of a little catch up reading i've discovered a new blog who links to me (why thank you). i dont know who nushyman is but his (or apparently its hers as well) recent post has just saved me the effort of writing.

say hi to nushyman and find out why some israelis are our own worst and morally bankrupt enemies.

ode to women in black (apolitical)

reasons to be cheerful while living in israel

number one: i get to see non holy broadway musicals performed in the holy language

on mondaynight i went to see chicago the musical in tel aviv. translated into hebrew by translator extraordinaire ehud manor, directed and choreographed by british conniseur ken oldfield and starring local icons rita and riki gal, it was rather fun.

real aficonados will wax lyrical about rita's performance as roxy (rough equivalent of a musical with bette midler - it was a gay man's dream) i actually found her a bit whiny preferring new comer maya dagan who like most israeli stage actors can also be found (soap) starring on israel tv.

what most impressed me though, was the international level of professionalism which is so lacking in other aspects of israeli life. although i've only ever seen the film, my impression was that barring the obvious language differences, the production was identical to any other production world wide. i particularly appreciated the intentionally minimalistic set which featured the orchestra sitting 0n stage taking an active part in the narrative and had most of the cast dressed in skimpy black numbers which served to effectively forge together the atmosphere of both a jail and jazz club.

of course this last effect was slightly diminished in the israeli version.

for while in other countries such costumes come in stark contrast to every day wear, here in israel a little black off-the-shoulder-off-the-thigh-off-the-midriff is standard fare for a club, shopping, a bar mitzva, an interview, work... well anywhere basically .

without wishing to sound too prudish i do think that israeli women wear unnecessarily restricted amounts of fabric. there has to be a limit to how much ventilation you need in an outfit. its easy to become oblivious but every now and again something happens to reminds you that no, its not so normal. once i was in a jerusalem cafe with my mother and a good friend and my mum lent in and whispered in classic mother type stage whisper - "dont look now but i think those women behind us are on the game!". my friend and i turned subtley and after viewing the scene for a good 5 seconds pointed out to my mother that no these were not ladies of the night, israeli women just dress that way!

i kid you not. and its not just the minimalist nature, its the colour too. a few years ago, on a work holiday with the ministry of health i was amazed by the group of secretaries who managed to go camel riding, jeeping and hiking all wearing the same type of black outfits that they wore to go out to eat and karaoke in later (and i'm not referring to footlockers special range of clothes for the late night gym freak)

lets face it, women in black in israel isnt just a political movement... its a way of life. for many israeli women the only part of their body which isnt black is their hair (its naturally black so they dye it red!)

anyway israeli fashions aside i still enjoyed the performance and heartily recommend it. i just feel that i should warn you that you may find it harder to be engaged in a scene with scantily clad women singing in sinister chorus about how they crudely did away with their lovers if you're distracted by the fact that you're sure you recognize one of them from kupat holim... or perhaps it was the bank!

so much to blog, so little time

.

isnt the brain is an amazing thing?

after nearly a month of self-confessed absolute blankness, where I actually thought that i'd finally exhausted my lifetime quota of new ideas (you know just like those days when you wake up with a sore throat and you literally can't imagine ever having a larynx that wasn't carpeted with wall-to-wall sandpaper) , the last 2 days have been chocka with -- ooh must write about that -- kind of feelings.

so here goes.... but i'm rationing them now in sensible joseph-famine-type style

not yet

thanks for the concern guys

just still a bit blocked (creatively rather than physically although with the freezing weather of jerusalem i'm sure a cold is just round the corner)

maybe its the fact that i've performed 4 times in a month which is normally my yearly average. my body cant really handle it.

i am (alas) talking comedy. i have another two dates coming up in 2 weeks time (again comedy) and i'm beginning to think about my proposed open mic tour of new york for this summer.

i'm getting into the big fish in small pond or small fish in f&^%ing huge lake dilemma in my head. huge fear of failure or worse mediocrity makes doing nothing a real option.

and then theres the new job which while showing lots of wonderfully positive signs still actually needs some attention and effort.

so i feel a little bit guilt ridden re: lack of blogging. not sure why -- this blog thing is a voluntary thing after all. would probably like to just write introspective self obsessive stuff but feel need to be funny.

well i've obviously conquered that issue

ttfn

LG

don't know why

but have been uninspired to write...

dont blame yourselves as an audience

i trust i'll be back soon, just popping in to say hi

happy festival of light (or as it six days in and countless doughnuts and latkes later happy festival of heavy)

LG

no comment

wow i've never had so many comments for a post before - and four from people i dont know at all. that was really exciting.

so jdate/dating is something everyone finds funny - it's comedy's lowest common denominator du jour. or to put it SAT/GRE style:

ripping off jdate is to young adults as toilet humour is to the british public

or something like that
thank god i never had to take those types of exams. no - my academic abilities were assessed by the good old british essay.

jdate is laughable, discuss

anyway onwards and upwards although i do feel the need to say a couple more things connected to my last post and then that'll be it i promise

1)apology 1 - i'm not into creating a dialog in comments so thanks for writing and dont think lack of response isnt lack of appreciation, its just me. you see its not just for comments. i also have a terrible habit of receiving e-mails from people who i really like, reading them, smiling at them, getting that warm fuzzy feeling... and then never writing back. i do mean to, i just forget or dont find the time to write properly. whatever, you get the gist.

2) amendment 1 - the guy mentioned in the last post does not (as far as i'm aware) work with me. he was at my office cos i work in that kind of place that everyone in the anglo saxon community ends up visiting at some point or another. he could have been interviewing for a job, who knows. so no i won't see him regularly around the corridors but by the law of jerusalem probabilities i'm sure i will meet him again! (and no i dont work in CSM)

3) amendment 2 - apparantly that really was the standard jdate reject letter. i'm not sure if that makes me feel worse, better or just as pissed. i would say that it was a good sign that in x years (for x read quite a few) i'd never been sent it before but it does open up a bit of a pandora's box on dating etiquette: eg is it better to ignore rather than be polite?; can clicking one button to send an automated response actually be classified as being polite?; if an educated, intelligent and charismatic woman writes to a man shouldn't he at least have the decency to write back in person?! oh well.........