How Was It For You? - Seder R2BC

We more or less followed the agenda laid out yesterday. I popped out to the synagogue service stretching down the road below me at 5 m intervals, by stepping out onto my balcony.

I finished cooking and laid the table for our seder with the matza and the seder plate full of the symbolic foods needed for the service. I was particularly proud of burning a carrot instead of the usual burnt shank bone of lamb. It symbolizes the pascal lamb and the shape suggests that God brought us out of Egypt with an outstretched arm. The carrot did the job admirably.

At 8.30 we went outside to sing Ma Nishtana (why is this night different from all other nights?). I thought it was a building initiative but turned out to be the whole of Israel! This is my 1st Reason 2B Cheerful. I wrote about it on face book...

I am crying with emotion. The whole of Israel went out onto their balconies at 8.30 and we all sang Ma Nishtana together. You could hear it loudly from all over Jerusalem. The singing echoed through the hills. And then we all shouted Chag Sameah Am Yisrael! (A happy festival to the people of Israel!) It was wonderful and also heartbreaking that we are in this situation. So many people I know have died (friends and relatives of friends in England). And yet tonight the whole country sang together and were uplifted for 10 minutes. Chag Sameah!

DD and I then ate our dinner. Suddenly I heard loud singing from the stairwell. The two apartments on the floor below were holding their seders in their hallways with their front doors open so that they could do it together.

My next-balcony-neighbour, Esther, threw over
The Hogwarts Haggadah (seder service book)
for DD. It's a lot of fun. Full of points of interest
linking Pesach to Harry Potter.
Thank you Esther. We loved it!

Our seder started at 10.30 (8.30 English time). My B-i-l is a doctor and working long shifts atm so an earlier start wasn't possible. And then we zoomed.

It was amazing for two minutes. So this is my 2nd R2BC. The 12 of us who are usually together were in five different homes. And during the seder other family members zoomed in from other seders to say hello. As I said, it was all very exciting for about two minutes and lovely to see everyone, but not the same as being together in the same room.

It all got a bit complicated as I couldn't hear clear instructions. There are three matzas and you use different matzas at different times. Zoom keeps switching to the person speaking the loudest. At one point I was asking, "which matza do we use? Are we eating it with the parsley or with the bitter herb? DD stopped me.
"What difference? Do what you like." She was right. I drank the fifth cup of wine even though we were only officially on the second cup out of four.

My nephew in charge of tech kept muting everyone to try to keep with the programme. In effect this meant that at times we were singing to ourselves. My brother, who works in IT, and S-i-l claimed technical difficulties and took a long furlough. By the time the festive meal (for them, we'd already eaten) came round at 10.30 (12.30 am for us) we'd had enough and we didn't go back for the second half with the songs at 1.15 in the morning. I felt a bit depressed so I ate the potato salad I'd made for today's lunch (DD doesn't like it) and went to bed.

As they have another seder night tonight (only for those outside Israel) and unlike yesterday, I've had a restful day, I might join them for the second half tonight. This will be my 3rd R2BC. That I don't have to sit through the whole thing this time and that we can see everyone again.

The R2BC linky is on Becky's Lakes Single Mum. And may I take this opportunity to wish all my Christian friends a very happy and safe Easter. xxx

Twas The Hour Before Seder

Ready for Seder a deux

Pesach starts in just under one hour. The Seder Night, tonight  in Israel and tonight and tomorrow night outside of Israel, is ironically going to be all topsy turvy for us. Ironic because the word means 'order' alluding to the specific order of doing things. You can read about it here. 

Before I get into tonight's seder, I want to answer my question from yesterday. Is it possible to spring clean my whole home in one day? The answer is no. Two days? Possibly when I was 25 but not now. By half way through the second day (today) Hurricane Pesach Cleaning was degraded to Random Friday in April Cleaning. There are things which didn't get done. Does it bother me? Yes, a bit, but now that I'm almost there I will do those things over the next week. Three days and I would have nailed it. 

Now for this evening's programme. At 18.45 my building is doing the evening service from their balconies. Then everyone will go inside and start their own seder (but not us). At 20.30 all the neighbours are coming out onto the balconies to sing Ma Nishtana together (see below). That concludes the communal part of the seder at this end. 

Ma Nishtana means 'what's different?' Traditionally the youngest present sings the song comprising of four questions about the evening, each starting with the refrain: Why is this night different from all other nights? The next part of the seder is answering the questions. This year everything is so different I think it's fitting for us all to sing it together. 

Our seder is starting very late at 22.30 because we are zooming it with my family in London where it will be only 20.30. My B-i-l, a doctor at Northwick Park Hospital, is working 12 hour shifts and can't guarantee to be ready any earlier. 

The 10 - 12 of us, depending on who's going zooming where, will be in five different homes this year. So DD and I will probably eat our festive meal before it starts instead of in the middle as usual. We'll go and amuse ourselves during the 'intermission' and come back for the songs at the end. 

It's been pointed out that this year is the closest seder to the original seder night in Egypt the night before the exodus. On that night the Israelites were told to stay indoors while the final plague was wrought upon the Egyptians. In fact, the whole of Israel is on real lockdown tonight. From last night we weren't allowed to leave our neighbourhoods and tonight we aren't allowed to leave our homes. It's to stop people visiting each other for the seder. We won't be daubing our doorpost with the blood of a pascal lamb though. 

For those not as lucky as I am to be able to zoom with family tonight, there are full seders on tv and other streaming platforms. 

So that's it. Thoroughly surreal and, in a way, interesting. I wish all those celebrating tonight a happy and safe Pesach. Chag Sameach! 

Spring Clean In A Day?

Fresh produce from Kibbutz Alumim

Like Tim Urbans' famous TED Talk about procrastination, I had plans to clean my apartment for Pesach, one room a day, over the course of a week. Similarly my Instant Gratification Monkey took the helm and I was steered away from cleaning and towards other important things like Facebook, WhatsApp, You Tube, Netflix, and Sky News. Until I realized that there was only one full day until Pesach starts on Wednesday evening and the Panic Monster woke up.

This was the plan: Fly Lady Shmylady,  I was going to do the whole thing in a day. Get up early, give each room one hour on a timer, as I've done before, and then go round at the end finishing off.

This is where it started to unravel: My fruit and vegetable order from the kibbutz was supposed to arrive yesterday. (Btw, it wasn't produce for export. Exports went as usual. It was the school lunches contracts that left them with a mountain of spare produce.) They didn't give a time so at 7 pm I texted my friend whose son was organizing the deliveries and asked if I should be worried. The answer came back that it should be soon. Fine with me. At 10.30 I called her. They were running late. Meanwhile I'm also texting with other friends in different neighbourhoods and monitoring who had received and who hadn't. In the end there were only two of us left. At 1.45 am I got a phone number. "Oh we've finished for tonight, it'll be early tomorrow morning."

This is the first time they've done anything like this. My friend's son is about 25 and his right hand man was another friend's son aged 19. There was a huge learning curve. I went to bed.

Obviously I wasn't up at 5 am to begin cleaning. But after coffee, making DD a plate of fruit so that she'd not bother me for food for a few hours, and checking social media, I was ready to start at 10.30. And I increased the time for each room to 1.5 hours to be realistic. This is Spring/Pesach cleaning after all.

I started in my bedroom. I moved furniture and was confronted with the fact that we've not stayed in Israel for Pesach for years. But I took my laptop with me and put on Neil Diamond. "I am I said, to no one there, and no one even replied, not even the chair." Well that was true at least - I tried it.

At 11.30 the vegetables arrived. Woohoo! So I had to take the time to put them away. It would have been silly to fill the fridge before wiping it down so I half cleaned the fridge as well. And then I had to post all over Facebook and WhatsApp that I'd got my order and thank everyone involved.

Back in the bedroom Neil had left the building and Abba was up next. The timer went off but I was owed time so I nudged it on to 12.30. But at 12.30 I'd not changed the bed clothes. You can't clean a whole room and not change your sheets. So I stripped the bed, put everything straight in to the washing machine (apart from the one pillow case that got left on the bed), and remade the bed. FINISHED!

Except that I had to bring yesterday's three loads of laundry in from the balcony to make room for the sheets. It was still slightly damp in places. I'd have liked to leave it outside for a few more hours but time and Tide wait for no man so in it came. I flung it all over my bed to finish drying.

And then I had to sit down for a bit. Also the battery on my laptop was about to run out. Obviously I have plug points in my bedroom but I took it as a sign. DD asked for some lunch. I told her take a tub of cottage cheese and scoop it up with crisps. "Yes chocolate for dessert is fine."

So now it's almost 2.30 in the afternoon and I've done only one room. But I'm not done yet, or even done in. Onwards and upwards.

R2BC - The Pesach Edition

Place names for Seder night. 

We went to London for Pesach. I try to keep our travel plans off social media until we've returned home but it doesn't usually work very well. Anyway, lots of reasons 2B cheerful from our holiday. And lots more R2BC from other bloggers over at Becky's Lakes Single Mum.

1
Seder Night
We have two of them. Both a lot of fun. DD was in charge of making the place names for the table. The photo shows what she made for the first night. Thanks to my friend Janet for the idea - hieroglyphics for the exodus from Egypt. The first activity of the evening was to work out who was who. It's actually quite easy when you know which names you're looking for. We kept ours for bookmarks.

2
Chihuly at Kew Gardens
The Best Day Out! Thanks for taking us Doreen. This will get its own blog post so no photos on this one.

3
Fashionista
After years of refusing to wear anything but sweat pants, leggings or shorts with a t-shirt, DD surprised us all at our semi-annual trip to Primark and H&M. "I think I need to change my style," she announced. She then started picking out pretty summer jump suits with delicate shoulder straps and frilly off the shoulder 'sleeves'. I steered her away from the less practical ensembles. I am not about to iron frills although my iron may have to come out after 10 years in the cupboard. And we live in the Middle East so protected shoulders are a must in the summer. Still, it was so much more fun to buy a range of pretty clothes for her.

4
Fit Flops and Skechers
I always wanted Fit Flops. When they first came out my mother asked me what gift she could bring when she came to stay. I asked for Fit Flops and she brought me a pair of flip flops. Soon after, my sister asked me what I wanted as a birthday present and I asked for Fit Flops (I didn't realize the price at that time). Then she forgot about it and I didn't like to remind her (or maybe she already knew the price). I finally bought myself a pair - years ago, but I made the mistake of buying the ones without the thong. I thought the thong would be uncomfortable for every day. Stupid me. The other kind only came in dowdy designs. They were comfortable and I wore them to death but I didn't love them. After that I discovered an Israeli make that I wore for years (Ben Ami) but they're now more expensive than Fit Flops. So I finally bought my thonged Fit Flops in John Lewis and I love them.

I also discovered Skechers sports shoes. Thanks Marilyn for the recommendation. I'm never going back to other trainers and neither is DD.

5
Family Wedding
My brother got engaged. He's been with his fiancee for over three years so she's already a part of the family. And so we thought it could continue forever. They surprised us all by getting engaged and we're now waiting to hear when the wedding will be. Mazal Tov Michael and Alyson! xxx

Holiday Guilt

Sunburst from the Chihuly exebition at Kew Gardens

Believe me, it's a thing. It starts before the holiday with things to get done before we leave. Be up to date with work commitments (prep and grading), paperwork (taxes, paying bills, filing, etc...) and cleaning the apartment. The time gets shorter and shorter and we leave for our holiday with work unfinished, paperwork in a pile on the desk, and a whisk round the apartment with a lick and a promise. I should have managed my time more efficiently.

There is also the social media dilemma. I don't want to announce, even in emails, that we will be away for two weeks and thereby implying that the apartment will be empty. Of course I could mention my sumo-wrestler cousin who will be house-sitting with his two mastiffs, but that's like protesting too much - a transparent ruse. So I keep quiet and feel terribly guilty that I'm going to disappear from the blog and people might worry that I've been run over by a bus, or worse, lost interest in writing. Thank you Margie from Toronto, for your concern. I do appreciate it under my guilt. And sorry, sorry, sorry.

The truth will out of course and friends write on facebook, "will you be in London for Passover?" I try to ignore these questions but I feel guilty.

And then my friend's mother suggests we meet for coffee over the festival and I would love to see her. I was the recipient of her hospitality, kindness and wisdom as a teenager and it would be fabulous to catch up. I PM her that I'll call her daughter when I get to London. And other friends whom I'd also love to see, message me and I get all future President of America and I cannot tell a lie. But I arrive in London and I don't call them because I remember that I have a 10 year daughter who doesn't want to catch up with all my old friends over coffee and also doesn't want to spend her whole holiday playing on Gandma's computer while I'm doing said catching up. It's a sad situation - guilty if I do and guilty that I don't.

I get lazy about blogging sometimes but I vary rarely miss a Reasons 2B Cheerful post. A week before the holiday I wrote on twitter to the regular contributing bloggers, that I'm sorry I'm always late with mine but I don't usually have time to get to it before Saturday. A couple of the others also said they preferred Saturday and so it was decided to change the R2BC day to Saturday. Then I disappeared for two weeks without telling anyone even though the move to Saturday was mainly because of me. Guilty.

Whilst in London we went with my cousin to see the Chihuly exhibition in Kew Gardens. It was absolutely stunning and deserves its own blog post. Later that day my cousin posted her photos on facebook and tagged me. I accepted the tag without thinking of the consequences and the cat was out of the bag. "Oh, I see you're in London," wrote Mich from Mummy from the Heart (one of the two R2BC hosts). "I wondered where you were?" Sorry, sorry, sorry, I should have told you.

Of course I did intend to write some location neutral blog posts while I was away but with limited computer access and the fact that it's much more fun playing kalooky and watching endless recorded episodes of Escape to the Country until 1 am and then getting up too late to accomplish anything in the mornings, I didn't blog. Moving back into my mother's house brings with it a certain amount of teenage behaviour and the associated guilt about wasting all that time.

About wasting time. We love being in London. We love the weather, we love the parks, we love the supermarkets, we love the tv, and we love shopping in Watford. We also love a day in London proper (as opposed to the suburbs where we live) and other outings like Kew Gardens, Legoland, the theatre, etc... But we don't have a driving urge to visit loads of museums and monuments, or even to be out and about every day. This holiday involved celebrating Passover which revolved around delicious meals at my sister's house with all the cousins and other guests (including two Seder nights), and a lot of going round to people's houses for tea, coffee, or a light supper. We're a bit grounded as we don't eat out at all during the eight days of the festival. But we're in London! Just visiting for a short time! I feel so ungrateful and lazy that we don't make the most of all that culture and entertainment on our doorstep for a short time only. But we don't. This is why I will probably never be a travel writer and another source of guilt.

We travel home on the early morning flight from Luton that requires getting up at 3 am on Sunday to go to the airport. I don't bother going to sleep the night before. We get home at about 5 pm because we're just in time to hit the rush hour as we enter Jerusalem. I then have to go out to the little supermarket around the corner because we've no food in the house. I make some supper for DD, tell her to put her dishes in the sink when she's finished and to turn off all the lights when she goes to bed. I go to bed at 7 pm and leave her to it. She hates it when I do that. Guilty.

I wake up at 11 pm with a dehydration headache. I take a paracetamol, drink coffee, and then drink a large green tea because the coffee didn't seem to work. I can't sleep. I read until 3.30 am, sleep for 3 1/2 hours and turn up for my first day of school exhausted and, actually, late. Guilty.

That night I fall into bed at 7 pm again. Now I've done this to DD two nights in a row. Guilty. I ignore the phone when it rings at about 10.30 so my mum doesn't get to tell me that my brother is engaged. I read it on facebook the next morning. Guilty. I still haven't unpacked and it's now Tuesday. But I have four hours of teaching at college on Tuesday afternoon so I need to prepare those lessons rather than unpack. Guilty. On Wednesday I after school I should have graded all the papers that came in from online courses over the holiday. But it's Holocaust Memorial Day and I want it to be meaningful so I make DD watch a movie about Anne Frank with me. Then I tell her that it's not appropriate to play on the computer or watch You Tube on this night so we both go to bed. On Thursday after school DD has gymnastics until 7.15 pm. We get home at 7.30 and there are three weeks' worth of emails to deal with so no grading tonight. Guilty. Today is Friday and I have to do some grading before Shabbat comes in as we don't work tomorrow. But I will unpack tomorrow - only six days after we came home. Guilty again.

Such a little word yet it generates so much anxiety.

R2BC - General Good Stuff

The Beresheet Space Lander aborted and with it went my Reasons 2B Cheerful this week. And the political party I voted for - Gesher - didn't even pass the threshold to get one seat in the Knesset. Otoh, we got to the moon (first country to crash on the moon. Hooray, a first!) and we still live in a democracy which is a huge deal.

So with the R2BC linky over at Mich's Mummy from the Heart for the month of April, here are mine for this week.

1
I Didn't Know This
I found out that they take polling boxes to women's shelters so that the women don't have to go out in public if they can't. Also, in every city there is a safe polling station for people who feel threatened by going to their local station in case they meet a dangerous ex, family member, or previous attacker/abuser. How amazing is that? To know that your vote is important when you're perhaps feeling at your most low and vulnerable is truly a wonderful thing.

2
If At first You Don't Succeed...
The first thing everyone involved in SpaceIL said after the failed moon landing was: Next time.... We are delayed, not defeated.

3
Holidays!
The Passover (Pesach) school holidays have started. DD is out and about with her friends - mostly in the park on roller blades but also in each other's homes just hanging out. What's new is that I don't have to take her or supervise. She makes her own arrangements on her own phone and off she goes. Fantastic!

4
Fling Open The Windows
The rains have finally stopped for a while and we can throw open the doors and windows to begin spring cleaning (we call it Pesach cleaning) in earnest.

5
Fun In The Supermarket
The Pesach foods which have to be separated from the normal foods, are in the supermarkets. It's fun to walk around my local super and find the shelves in complete chaos. Nothing is in its usual place, food groups are split up and put wherever there's a space. It's kinda fun.

That's it for today. Have a great week y'all.

R2BC - Why I Probably Won't Be A Travel Writer

We made the papers. Well, one paper. 

We arrived in London late on Sunday night (after midnight late) so we were in no fit state to hit the ground running on Monday morning. I didn't even make those all important phone calls to friends to ensure that I get to see my friends while we're here.

My mum suggested we go to shopping with DD and get all her shopping done. She lives equidistant from Watford and Brent Cross shopping centres (right in the middle of the 142 bus line). So it was either Primark and a light, airy shopping experience or H&M and claustrophobia. We chose the former and went to Watford (although by car not on the 142).

DD was kitted out in Primark so we only had to go to M&S for the obligatory cup of coffee and slice of cake. On the way out DD noticed the menu displayed above the counter with a photo of the fish and chips. "I didn't know they served meals here," she said. "If I'd known they serve meals I'd have ordered a meal."

On Tuesday DD's cousins came round to play. They're 17 and 20. They horsed around with DD for a while, showed her how to find her place at Hogwarts via the Pottermore website, and then left her to it while we played Kalooky.

Wednesday was supposed to be our big day out sightseeing and exploring London. It was pouring with rain. We hung about the house all morning and eventually, in desperation, I took DD to the cinema to see 'A Wrinkle in Time' and out for pizza afterwards. (Incidently, including a detour into Waterstones, this little outing cost more than kitting out DD for the summer in Primark.)

On Thursday I went to my sister to help her cook for Passover while DD helped Grandma bake cakes and biscuits for the festival.

And yesterday was the first of two Seder Nights. We finished ours at about 1.30 in the morning and DD stayed over with her cousins while I came home with my mum. We are going back again later for the next and final Seder.

It's been a very slow week and not helped by the constant and often quite violent rain. But I ordered some books from Amazon Prime which amazingly really did arrive the next day, so I've been happy enough. And it takes the best part of a day to get through the Daily Mail that is delivered to the door every morning.

Talking of deliveries. We also get The Jewish Chronicle. This week's paper provided some excitement (apart from the long overdue tackling of Jeremy Corbyn and co) in that I had an article in it. It's also in the online version so here's the link.

So these are my reasons 2B cheerful this week. A lazy week near London in the rain. And this is probably why I'll never be a travel writer. As well as being #rubbishphotographer I'm just far too fond of hanging out. I feel no urgency to rush around seeing everything and visiting museums. I like watching the weather from the kitchen table armed with a cup of coffee.

Apart from the JC article and Seder Night, the most exciting thing to have happened is that we finally finished the giant bottle of Johnson's Baby Shampoo that was bought for my first visit with DD nine years ago, when she was four months old.

Now I must go and make some of those phone calls before we get on the plane to go home. And you are invited to visit the R2BC linky on Mich's Mummy from the Heart. Happy Easter and Passover from a decidedly wet London.

Different Smugs - R2BC

Already dreaming of my matza brie

1
Pesach and Spring Cleaning
Today we broke up for the Pesach holidays. Obviously Pesach cleaning takes over from teaching but the beauty of it is that you can start at 9 am and not have to leave the house at all instead of getting up at 6.45 and running out the door at 7.30 am.

I've said it before but in case you weren't listening or have forgotten. Pesach is the festival of Passover in which we celebrate the exodus from Egypt. Part of the ritual is spring cleaning which is elevated to a religious level by requiring one's home be spotlessly clean as we enter the eight-day festival. This is a good thing as you want to spring clean anyway so making it a requirement ensures that you get it done and then you feel smug.

At school the children all helped to clean the building. Have you seen those Japanese videos of schoolchildren cleaning? Well it was like that. The school lunches that are delivered daily were sandwiches and we all ate outside.

2
We saw where babies come from.
During the mass picnic, someone suddenly cried, "Look up!" We all did and saw a whole flock of storks doing a fly past. Israel is on the main flight path for many migrating birds as they fly from Europe to Africa in the autumn and back again in the spring. It was an amazing sight. I am not a twitcher by any means. To me bird watching is about as interesting as watching other people play golf, but you could see their long necks and wide wingspans as they carried all the little babies in bundles tied around their beaks.

3
National Assessment Tests....done.
Yesterday we had the Grade 5 Meitsav in English. It's like the SATS, a national assessment test that everyone hates. Thankfully this year we we're not on the external examination list, unlike last year, so we could give the exam ourselves and mark it ourselves. The marking is quite complicated with points for relevance, verb conjugation, word order, use of pronouns, spelling, capital letters and full stops, etc... And try doing this for 30 questions times the number of students. Anyway, I stayed up late last night and got all my meitsav papers marked and all the record pages filled in. Smug was not the word when I waltzed into school this morning.

So if I can just get this place cleaned I'll be smugged to the hilt (and ready for a fall?). I'm joining the Linky over at Mummy from the Heart for the final hosting of Reasons 2B Cheerful for March.

Reasons 2B Cheerful - London In The Spring

We went, we saw, we celebrated Passover, we came home. And we had many reasons to be cheerful.

1
DD is old enough to appreciate a day out in London.

2
She had her first ever ride on a boat.

3
My sister took DD to Kidszania. I wasn't with them but it sounds amazing. And we've saved a fortune in careers counseling as she now knows, having gained a civil engineering degree from Kidszania University for a bridge made out of drinking straws, that she wants to be a parcel delivery person. Another day she tried out being a bus driver at the London Transport Museum and a witch in Covent Garden. But postwoman was the best.

4
We saw pigeons and ducks in the park but the squirrels were too fast to capture on film. DD: "I'll keep a spot on my eye for one because I'm a good looker." :~)

Linking up with R2BC over at Lakes Single Mum.

@RubbishPhotography by Midlife Singlemum.

I Cannot Believe I Did This

You've seen the photos of DD on her pony ride in England. Well here's the truth behind the pictures. Reader I cannot believe I did this.

Last year when horse riding was the bee's knees

When we were in England last year we took DD to Aldenham Country Park. It's not huge like some other farm parks but it has everything we need and it's only ten minutes in the car from where my parents live.

There is a farm where you can feed the animals, a petting area with rabbits and lambs, an adventure playground, a lake with ducks, and pony rides. Last year DD loved the pony ride. It's a pound a minute but five minutes didn't seem like very much time so we paid 10 pounds and bought her a 10 minute ride.

She didn't stop talking about it for months. And asking, 'can we go back to the farm one day and go on a horse again?' If it hadn't been the end of our holiday we would have found more horse riding for her before we left. Having said that, I was also mindful of not encouraging an expensive hobby that we can't afford.

So this year we went back to Aldenham, obviously, and had great fun feeding the animals. Of course I bought DD a 10 pound for 10 minutes ride on the pony and while we were waiting for our time, she expertly climbed round the adventure playground three times.

Ponies are DD's thing at the moment. My mother bought her a My Little Pony toy (which also cost 10 pounds) and it instantly became her BTF (Best Toy Forever). She found My Little Pony on my parents' wall-to-wall cable package and watched it at every opportunity. And every time we popped into Sainsbury's for my mum, we had to go to the toy isle to check if the My Little Ponies had got any cheaper. Funnily enough, they never had.

Last year we loved it

Anyway, back to the story, After the third go round the adventure playground I suggested we stroll down to the paddock to be ready for our pony ride. DD didn't want to go. "I've changed my mind, I don't want to go on a pony."

"What?! You loved it last year. Why not? You talked about it for months. I've paid 10 pounds for the ride and I can't get my money back. Don't be so silly, we're going. I've bought the ticket and we're going. You can't change your mind after I've paid for it....."

DD: "I don't care, I don't want to."

Now this child is not afraid of being on a horse. She was just enjoying herself so much on the adventure playground that she didn't want to leave. I couldn't promise her that we would return to the playground after the ride as we were with my friend who needed to go home. That was another factor, my friend Danielle who had so kindly driven us there and spent the whole afternoon with us, had been a bit 'surprised' when I bought the pony ride tickets at 3pm and the next available time slot was 5.30. However, she graciously agreed to wait so that DD could have her ride.

I was furious, I was stymied, I had five minutes to come up with something. That's when I heard myself saying it. I am not proud. This was not my finest parenting hour.

I said, "If you go on the pony ride I'll buy you another My Little Pony toy."

Think about it. I actually said that if she accepted the expensive treat I'd already bought her, she would get another expensive treat as a thank you from me. I still can't believe I said that but I did.

DD, beaming triumphantly, skipped happily to the paddock for her pony ride. In semi-shock I listened to her babbling on about whether she was going to choose Twilight Sparkle or Shuttlecock Fluttershine to go with her Pinky Pie.

This year it was a means to an end

She climbed on the horse without a care and did her once round the big field at the back. She didn't not enjoy it but she wasn't overly enthusiastic about it either. It was a means to an end and the next day we popped into Sainsbury's and bought Twilight Sparkle with three sets of detachable wings.

Since then I've been going over it in my mind. Whilst I'm happy not to have an expensive and potentially dangerous hobby on my hands, and whilst I don't resent that I bought DD one present to keep (not including books and clothes) from our holiday, I'm still struggling with it. And since then, I've been giving short shrift to changing one's mind. "You said you wanted shnitzel for supper so that's what you've got." "You told X you wanted to go to her party so you have to go."

There, I've told you. 

Pre-Pesach Leftovers Recipe

At Pesach time we run down all the food we have in the house. You can keep sealed packets and frozen stuff but I like to use up all the open packets. We start using things up a few weeks before and it's a nice feeling to know that all the storage jars get washed out at least once a year. :~)

What do you think these are?

They are everything I had opened in jars in my food cupboard, fridge and freezer, made into rissoles and a kugel.

2 cups of polenta
1 1/2 cups of red lentils (soaked)
1 cup or orzo (cooked)
1/2 cup of  porridge oats
1 onion chopped
Half a bag of frozen broccoli
1/4 bag frozen spinach
About 100g of butter
Some cooking oil
Salt
pepper
curry powder
2 eggs
2 cups of milk

Saute the onion in the butter, cook the orzo, cook the broccoli, thaw the spinach and drain, mix it all together.

Pour into a well oiled dish and bake for about an hour until done for the kugel. Here is the kugel. Cut it into squares and serve with salad.

Make the leftover mixture into small patties and fry. Also serve with a salad, with or without ketchup.

A Week From The Store Cupboard

Everyone here is winding down their store cupboards before Pesach when we eat special foods and nothing from the previous weeks. We are going away and I would like to not spend any more money this March. So for this week we will be living out of the store cupboard, fridge and freezer. No buying any more food until we leave (when I may have to pick up some things for the journey).

I last went shopping on Monday. We have firm (and 3 overripe) tomatoes, cucumbers, and a small cabbage, 4 avocados, about 12 small potatoes and some onions. 6 oranges and 2 apples. One litre of milk (or slightly less actually), 200g of butter, 2 tubs of tomato puree, 9 eggs, about 300g of cheese, 2 x 250g tubs of cottage cheese, an assortment of frozen vegetables, one block of tofu, 4 frozen corn and tofu shnitzels and a full bag of frozen vegetarian sausages, a big box of cornflakes, 7 pittas in the freezer, 4 jars of pasta sauce, 2 tins of tuna, and unlimited dry groceries (oats, pasta, lentils, sugar, etc...).

Here are my cupcakes. There are chocolate-chips inside.
(I know you know what cupcakes look like.)

I just used 2 eggs and 150g of butter (and flour, sugar, etc) to make 30 mini choc-chip cupcakes. DD will take one of these to school with half a pitta and cheese every day for breakfast which they have at 9.40. She then gets a homemade (by the afternoon program lady) meal of meat or fish with a carb and vegetables for lunch.

I have coffee for breakfast and leftovers for lunch, and I am dieting.

Today (Friday) - It's already 4.30 and for supper tonight we will have tomato and lentil soup (made with the onions, overripe tomatos, tom puree, and lentils), roast potatoes, avocado/tom/cuc salad, and 2 corn shnitzels (DD).

Saturday morning - Me: Coffee, DD: cornflakes, cupcake, apple juice, an apple and an orange (whatever she wants from that selection).

Saturday lunch - Cabbage salad, Tomato/cucumber salad, potato latkes and cottage cheese, cooked green soy beans (endamame?).

Saturday evening - Soup, homemade felafel and salad.

Sunday (a school day) supper - pasta and pasta sauce from the freezer, salad, cottage cheese (DD prefers the cottage cheese to the pasta sauce). Fruit for desert (apple and orange).

Monday supper - stirfry vegetables and tofu with ptitim (orzo), salad, cottage cheese. An orange

Tuesday supper -  Tuna salad in pitta, salad, roast ptotatos (I dice the potatoes into small cubes and they take 20 minutes in a hot oven with a bit of oil and salt). An orange.

Wednesday supper - Soup made from all leftover vegetables, vegetarian sausages, roast potatoes, salad. An orange.

Thursday supper - Leftover soup with any open pasta or orzo, salad, 2 corn shnitzels (DD).

Friday brunch - Vegetarian sausages, roast ptotatoes, salad (DD), Soup and omelet with cheese and onion (Me).

For the journey - Tuna salad in pitta. Cupcakes. I will buy some crisps for DD, and a couple of apples - we'll be in London by dinnertime.

Not very adventurous or exciting - I could make vegetarian shepherd's pie with a lentil 'meat' bottom layer, or tuna potato cakes, pancakes and silan, a potato or vegetable kugel, but there's no point because DD likes nothing better than her salad, some 'chips' and some cottage cheese for supper.

Let's see if I can manage this. I'll let you know on Thursday.

Several Weeks At Once

There used to be a fridge magnet that said: I try to take one day at a time but sometimes several days all throw themselves at me at once. That has been what this week was like for me - several weeks at once. Here's the lowdown...

1. Work, obviously, and I was teaching right up until this morning. Except that one of the courses I teach had a deadline today including two papers and a one-to-one meeting with 50 students. You can't have the meeting until you've done the papers. But you need the last paper passed before you can go on to the next paper. No problem, only about 20 students had uploaded their papers and I was on top of it.

Then suddenly, woosh! Another 20 students sent in both papers at once and all wanted their meeting this week! They also needed their papers graded in order to continue on to the next paper.

2. I have friends who own a holiday apartment in Jerusalem. When they leave on an early morning flight I go in to throw their sheets and towels into the washing machine as they don't have time. After the washing's done I hang it up and then go back a couple of days later when it's dry, to put everything away. They left this week of course, on an early morning flight.

 3. I'd volunteered to help set up The Yedidya Bazaar. I could have cancelled on them but it's not nice to do so and I really wanted to help anyway. So that was 5 hours of free time swallowed up.

From inside the new guest bedroom

4. The sliding doors on my new dividing wall were fitted last week but the carpenter didn't finish. So he had to come back on Wednesday to put up the pelmet and paint the doors. Messy work, takes the best part of the day, and requires clearing up afterwards.

It was worth it as the wall and the doors look great - Thank you Kobi Haas (the builder) and Chaim Gottesman (the carpenter) - but it did mean that no Pesach cleaning could start until Wednesday night.

A peek from the new corridor

The new corridor with the doors shut

5. We are going to London for Passover (Pesach). I'd not managed to rent out my place this year so I was just planning to lock the door and go. Then, just this week, a friend of a friend asked if she could rent my spare room. It's not as big a business as renting out the whole place to a family who need all the bedrooms, but you do need to leave it clean enough for Pesach. I'm not even done yet and we leave tomorrow afternoon.

6. Packing - not even started.

Today I (along with every mother of young children in Israel) had to send DD to kindergarten at 7.30 am with a hard-boiled egg, a boiled potato and some lettuce for their practice seder. Go to the holiday apartment to put the dry laundry away and set the alarm (I don't leave it on with laundry drying as it inevitably falls over and sets off the alarm, usually in the middle of the night). Be back home to teach from 9am to 10am. Go to the post office to send my teaching cheques for March to the accountant which I couldn't do earlier as I was waiting for today's student to pay me. Go shopping for food for the plane (were're flying no-frills). Pay some bills and order travel insurance online. Collect DD from kindergarten at 12. Afternoon spent cleaning and getting the spare room ready. I'm almost finished (not really).

As I said, several weeks at once but tomorrow we move in with family and a full cast of supporting adults. Hooray!  I may or may not blog while we're away so have a Happy Pesach and/or Easter and I'll see you on the other side.

Tidbits 17: The Passover Story

It's that time of year again. DD is learning about the story of Moses and The Exodus in kindergarten. Her teacher swears that she understands everything in Hebrew.... If she says so....

DD: Moses saw a bush with flames but it wasn't burning, you're right?
Me: You're right. Then what happened?
DD: Someone started telling him things.
Me: Who was the someone?
DD: I don't know. I think there was someone standing behind the bush.

DD: God made the water turn to blood. Then Pharaoh's daughter had to quickly come and get Moses out of the river because it was all blood.
Me: You've got the story a bit confused. I'll tell you the whole story from the beginning.

DD: They got 10 plagues. Blood, frogs, lice, hail..... *sighs* I love the 10 plagues.

DD: Moses put his stick down and it turned into a snake. Then someone else did it. It's magic like when [Uncle] Charles takes sweets out of my ear, you're right? But only if I'm a good girl, you're right?

DD: Pharaoh was very happy because he had slaves and they built things for him and he didn't have to pay them anything.

DD: I know why we eat matza. Because when they were running away they didn't have time to make bread so they ate matza and it happened on Pesach so we eat matza on Pesach.

DD: What was the last plague?
Me: All the first born boys died.
DD: But only the boys, you're right?
Me: Yes, only the boys.
DD: Phew! Lucky Aviva's not really a boy.
Me: She's not a boy at all.
DD: She's like a boy because she likes to play football and wear trousers.
Me: Well she's got two older brothers so she's not the first born anyway.
DD: Phew! Lucky!

DD: It all happened a long  time ago, you're right? So everybody from the story's dead, you're right. There aren't any bad people in Egypt now, you're right?
Me: Ummm. Yeah, right.

Matza Brei

Obviously I had my matza brei on Pesach (Passover) but I was so out of the blogging loop that I forgot to take photos of it. Can you believe that!?

Before leaving Jerusalem for London, I had had to buy a packet of matzas for DD's mock seder at kindergarten. Also, I rented out the apartment here during Pesach. So when we returned there was a fair amount of leftover matza in the cupboard. I managed to get through most of it with butter and/or cheese. Maybe one or two with butter and jam. And then I was down to the last three slices. I took the opportunity to return to matza brei so that I could share it with you because it's one of life's pure pleasures and, for many of us, the ultimate comfort food.

Matza Brei

Ingredients
Slices of matza (the big ones)
water
one egg per slice of matza
a splash of milk
salt and pepper
a generous knob butter for frying

Method
1. Run your matza under the tap for 3 seconds to wet them but don't make them soggy.
2. Beat the eggs, milk, salt and pepper in a bowl (like for making an omelet).
3. Melt the butter in a frying pan.
4. Break the matza up over the pan and drop the pieces into the hot butter. Stir and fry over for a minute. You may have to add lots more butter.
5. Pour over the egg mixture and cook like scrambled eggs.
6. Turn out onto a plate and add more salt and pepper to taste.

Variation
There are those who prefer their matza brei made like an omelet and they may even season it with sugar like a pancake. Others can't resist adding fried mushrooms or onions to the mixture but, imo, you can't improve on the basic pure matza brei. I would advise you not to play with the recipe.

Warning
Everyone has their own family matza brei made to Grandma's traditional recipe. Everyone thinks that theirs is the best and the original. Don't get drawn into arguments about this - keep your cool and be secure in the knowledge that mine is the best and the original.

Invitation
I invite those with different matza brei experiences to add them in the comments below.

The 1st Time in almost 4 1/2 Years And It Was Fantastic!

So we went to London for three weeks. I watched a lot of 'Escape to the Country' which my Mum records several times a week (and I managed to find it on cable in the wee morning hours as well). I saw some friends and managed to get out with them for a coffee or a quick smooch around the shops. Lots of family time as there were five festival days over Passover. It was all very low key.

Why so low key?

1. The weather.

2. Both my parents were ill. I've since skyped with them and both are completely recovered (thanks for asking). I do have a photo of both of them asleep in their chairs but they'd kill me.


3. I got an email from the people renting my apartment in Jerusalem. The bathroom had sprung a leak, they had called in an emergency plumber who'd fixed up a temporary solution but, bottom line, all the pipes are corroded and everything needs replacing. None of this was news to me, I'd just been ignoring it. However, as I could no longer do this, I was now terrified of spending any money in London. (More about this next week - it's all sorted with some parental help.)

4. DD spent time with my sister and her family without me. They took her bowling, to The Science Museum, the park, on trains and buses, out to lunch... She had three teenage cousins (and their friends) at her beck and call. She stayed over at their house for two nights on her own - first time in almost 4 1/2 years. My brother-in-law finished both nights in the spare room while DD climbed into bed next to my sister.

I had a ball. I should have rushed up to Town to view art galleries and exhibitions, or gone shopping on my own. But I didn't want to. I wanted to get up late, read the papers, have a long coffee for breakfast without interruption, watch Sky news instead of CeeBeeBies, no responsibility, no one climbing on me, wanting me to play, arguing over getting dressed... I did go out with friends on both days and had lunches in grown up places at grown up paces. I went to bed late and later without fear of being woken up before I was ready. In short, it was fantastic. Thank you M, C, E, N, and Th.

Blessing My Daughter And Bletchley Park, Part 2

Bletchley Park

Yesterday I started the story about the Friday Night Blessing I give my daughter every week right after lighting the Shabbat candles. You can read it here. I wrote about how I arrived at this particular blessing and about the friend who gave it to me. This friend has always been into doing the cryptic crosswords in the paper and enjoys a regular weekly scabble game with friends. In short, she's a word puzzle person. So it was no shock to learn that her father had been one of the codebreakers at Bletchley Park during WW2.

A matza picnic in the drizzle

Jump back (or should that be forward?) to Easter Sunday in rainy London. DD and I were staying with my sister and her family for the Passover holiday. As Monday was a bank holiday, that was the day we were going on our Matza Ramble. In the old days this meant a ramble in the countryside including a matza picnic (as we only eat matza instead of bread for the week of Passover). We tend to go with other families so that the children (and we) have friends to play with. And over the years, we've become less rambling and more National Trust. In recent years we've gone to Greenwich, Hatfield House, and Knebworth.

It was almost cancelled this year as the weather forecast was heavy rain throughout the day. As phonecalls were exchanged, bowling and a movie were suggested. DD is three so I was seeing our day out with the family rapidly disappear. Another suggestion was everyone come over with board games and we'd have a games day. I couldn't see DD playing Risk somehow. Luckily someone came up with the idea of Bletchley Park - lots of indoor interest and a bit of outdoors if the sun came out.

I was so excited. I wanted to look up my friend's Dad. We have a personal connection to him after all. When we arrived, I realised that I only had his surname and there were two Goldbergs listed. I happened to have my friend's daughter's number in my phone so I texted her in Israel: At Bletchley Park, what's ur Grandpa's name? Two minutes later I got my answer: Joshua David Goldberg. He's in the Japanese Room.

Joshua David Goldberg standing centre

After securing some babysitting, I ran to find the Japanese Room. It was in Block B where we'd come in, upstairs. Reader I found him in the middle of a group photo. They were amazing these men. They were given six months of intensive Japanese and then they had to crack codes in it. Even to read it was a challenge because, as they showed, the written pictograms bore scant resemblance to the printed words.

I stood and looked at the photograph. I wanted to tell him that we use his blessing and that my daughter shares his birthday. I wanted to tell him that it worked as both his daughter and his granddaughter grew up to be good big girls. Instead I told the man and his son who were standing next to me, "I know his daughter." They were (or acted) suitably impressed. I felt a bit silly.

While I was upstairs in B Block I went to look at the WW2 kitchen and living room at the end of the corridor. I love things like that. I also liked the 1940s Post Office, the corner shop, and the vintage toy, clothing and household goods exhibition.

The older children enjoyed a children's guided tour. The vintage cars and other wartime vehicles we also a hit. Some of the adults got engrossed in the stories about the various spies. DD chased a cat and liked the playground.

The main attraction is the Enigma machine itself. The first computer, that took up a whole room, was fascinating. I know it was fascinating because everyone disappeared inside while DD and I ran around in the rain and waited for half an hour for them to gradually and reluctantly emerge - and that was only because the place was closing.

Back To The Blog

Whilst we were away I took loads of photos and mentally composed a blog post for each set. I couldn't wait to share our holiday online. However, having returned to Jerusalem, I am now finding it hard to muster up the motivation to get back into blogging. I probably just need to jump in and start swimming. So to get me (re)started here are a selction of pictures from England - mainly of DD with her cousins and grandparents.

We had a lovely time and DD thoroughly enjoyed having her three teenage (male) cousins at her beck and call for two weeks. She's not stopped talking about her cousins and her Grandma and Grandpa. So thanks for the hospitality and the babysitting and the new sandals for the summer (Mum). I will write in more detail over the next couple of weeks.