Tel Aviv Diary November 18-22, 2008 - Karen Alkalay-Gut

Tel Aviv Diary - November 18-22, 2008 - Karen Alkalay-Gut

November 18, 2008

I've tried, but I can't go without getting my hair cut and highlighted. So this morning I looked at the pile of work on my desk and called Vital. He certainly helped me get rid of that nasty lump in my wallet, and gave me the opportunity to see how hairdressers are coping with the economic situation. Guess what. Business is booming. The worse it gets, the more women need to look good.

And now, back to the work on my desk.

November 19, 2008

When Oren cut his leg on a falling bottle in his flat, he found himself in a pool of blood within seconds. Fortunately, the ambulance men from Magen David Adom stopped the gushing - first by giving advice over the phone, and then by bandaging it temporarily. Once in the Emergency ward, he was put immediately in a bed and treated, but the Magen David men came by minutes later to wish him well. They were both Arab.

Oren was released after an operation and is recovering. We'll have to find those guys and thank them.

The whole event was pretty exhausting for the patient, but for me it was totally debilitating as well. The basic principle of the emergency ward is that you have to have someone to watch out for you. Someone's got to get a blanket, some juice, painkiller, to keep an eye on the doctors, the blood, etc. So even though I wanted to talk about Michal Heiman 's exhibit at the Helena Rubinstein Museum, I'm wiped out.

By the way, we spent yesterday evening late at Pappa's and Ezi had the fish and I had the schnitzel. Five stars. I didn't ask Joan about her food because by the time she ate I was half asleep.

November 20, 2008

It is difficult for me to admit. I've written this sentence and erased it a few times already. But I have to say it: I WAS VERY HAPPY TO SEE THE QUEEN AND OUR PRESIDENT TOGETHER TODAY. The Market fell apart, there was a four hour traffic jam on the Ayalon, Hebron is burning, I almost got hit by an old lady while I was in the orthopedic store buying a cane for Oren, and my cellphone turns out to be broken, but Peres and Elizabeth together made my day.

Yesterday in Haaretz we were happy to read that there is finally a bit of recognition for the local ceramic industry that disappeared a generation ago. I have a little title that was made by Elspeth Cohen in the fifties. It rests next to my toothbrush and I look at it every day - dancing figure holding a bow - very spare and yet happy. Like the times then.

Is it Nimrod? Is it Elspeth? Is it Bandi? Is it me? It's just a little tile and yet I have conversations with it all the time.

November 21, 2008

So Sarah died, and Abraham left everything to Isaac anyway. And even though he only left some presents to his mistresses, Ishmael came to bury him along with Isaac. What a story! This is absolutely my favorite chapter in the bible. I mean the way Rebecca fell off her camel when she saw Isaac for the first time, the way the slave who did all the matchmaking isn't named, the way Abraham buries his first wife at the age of 127, takes a mistress immediately and has a whole bunch of kids with her.

What would he say if he came out of his grave and saw Hebron today?

November 22, 2008

What a day for a fast cooking cholent! It started out sunny and warm, and became a rainy saturday by 12. So if you got the cholent going then, you'd have comfort food for a nice late and lazy lunch.

The crows were telling each other it was going to rain in the late morning. They were hysterical. They were prepared.

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