Tel Aviv Diary - September 9-13, 2013 - Karen Alkalay-Gut


Tel Aviv Diary - September 9-13, 2013 - Karen Alkalay-Gut

September 9, 2013

Do I get an electric bicycle? Big question. Certainly not before Yom Kippur. That's when the rush is on and the prices at their peak. But with an electric bike I'd be able to keep up with Ezi. So many bike routes in the city, so many riders... so many accidents, so many injuries.

September 10, 2013

In the morning I wheeled a carriage through the streets of the city, and wherever i went i checked the baby, because it smelled as if I should be changing her, but then I realized, no. It's just Tel Aviv.

Ugly, dirty, smelly in some areas - it's such an amazing city. From the Rothschild museum we walked through the gardens around Habima and the Mann Center. It's still being redone, but it is gorgeous and ugly at the same time. When he was in high school Oren had to do a biotope of the tree in Habima garden. What he discovered about the tree was that there was a homeless man sleeping there every night. That's nature in Tel Aviv.

September 11, 2013

Assad's birthday today. He really got a nice present.

September 12, 2013

It is important this year on the day before Yom Kippur - if you have not begged forgiveness from everyone you might have hurt - to consider what games and movies you have at home to entertain you for the long 24 hours. Your usual entertainment of bicycling will be off limits because of the worst heat wave ever. Most people I know stock up on food today.

Of course if you fast, go to synagogue, pray, review your sins, you have other things to do.

As for me, I combine the two. Suffer, think, review, etc. and stock up.

September 12, 2013

Omer calls this afternoon and says "If I have hurt you, I ask your forgiveness." He's 3. The entire idea of righting wrongs between people before Yom Kippur may well be universal. After all, even Assad seems to be - maybe only seemingly - to be compromising somehow. Maybe not. But of course the big problem on Yom Kippur is righting wrongs with God. I wonder how Assad will do with that.

To Karen Alkalay-Gut Diary

contact: gut22@post.tau.ac.il

To Karen Alkalay-Gut home