Tel Aviv Diary: Karen Alkalay-Gut

Nothing like Tel Aviv in pleasant weather.  The amount of ogling and conversation that takes place – even in a bourgeois shopping center like Ramat Aviv G – is surprising.  I know – I am one of the oglers.  Even in this heartland of middle class snobbism, I manage to meet old friends and the occasional kind stranger. In bad weather you meet only the people you arrange to meet, but on nice days everyone is outside. 
It was a lab test that brought me to the shopping center, at 9:45.  I was number 602. When I got to the reception window I asked, “Were there really 601 people before me today?”  The receptionist answered “We always start with number one.”  And yet I was out by 10:15.  And free to shop.  The results came in at 3 in the afternoon on the internet.  The doctor received me this evening, and I’m on my way to wellness.