Shiva highlights

Up to 24 men in our lounge doing their morning prayers with their white prayer shawls and tefillin-a haunting beautiful sight.
One of my dear friends going up to Clive and shoving homepathic remedy down his throat while he sat on the traditional low chair.
His friend coming down for the day from Leeds to pay her respects.
Cakes, cakes, cakes and biscuits-I have turned into some sort of mother Channukah handing out cakes to all and sundry.
Realising how lovely it is having so many visitors.
Simply stopping for a week.
Having people bring food all week and not having to cook-I tried to convince a friend she would grow as a human being if she would take on cooking for us on a weekly basis-she would have none of it.
My husband deciding to take on saying Kaddish for his Mum 3 times a day-shis means being at shul with at least 9 other men.
One morning when we had 9 men getting the neighbours teenage son to come to make up the minyan (group of ten men) this meant 9 men in suits and one half awake teenager in a dodgy yellow tee shirt.
Doing serious amounts of knitting
Getting back to normal-tele!

Sweet and sad

Israel, see above, was an amazing experience. We stayed with Hannah on her kibbutz which was a real milestone-staying at our child's home. It was lovely to be in Israel with someone fluent in Ivrit. We went to the wonderful market at Akko originally built by the Crusaders and found amongst the smutter beautiful glass balls that now hang in the garden, saffron, incredibly cheap embroidered cushion covers and stunning coffee. In the Akko market is a hummous resturant that people will cue to get into-they sell tea, coffee, coke and 3 types of hummous with various vegetables and pickles and pita. The food is almost thrown on to the table but is really lovely.

The daughter's new boyfriend is lovely and incredibly tolerant-the first time they went out she made him get changed. He cooks beautifully in this lovely simple Italian way-interestingly no onion in his tomato sauce.

The kibbutz is beautiful we has a meal with Joseph's kibbutz family-their home overlooks the hills of the upper Gallilee and to the left is Lebanon-all the homes have a bomb shelter.

The elderly members of the kibbuts all have golf carts and all 18 year olds get their own flats.

Everyone sorts of gets dressed up for Shabbat dinner but they also serve pork-all somewhat contradictory.

Hannah will be working with problem children in a boarding school preparing them for the army as her army service. Ah karmic revenge-she will be dealing with vile teenagers having been incredibly vile herself.-I will probably enjoy it all too much.

Then we found out that Clive's Mum was very ill and she passed on Shabbat. We were due to come home on Sunday anyway. The family had problems getting the death certificate and Jewish tradition requires we bury as soon as possible.

This meant finding out at 11am yesterday that she was to be buried at 2pm on the same day-I have never got food ready so quickly. Clive is sitting shiva at home. People were amazing -between the post levaya eating and the prayers at 8pm soup for everyone in the house appeared on the stove. Endless cups of tea were made and dishes washed-I have loads of meals in my fridge already and more cakes and biscuits that a small shop.

Clive is up and down but at times like this I realise how precious community is.

Election party

I will not attempt to write about the Barak Obama win-writers with far greater skill than me have written far more profound words than I ever could.
Last night we went to the Democrats Abroad party in a Bar/Resturant in Trafalgar Square. Ironically spending the evening with a load of Americans made me feel incredibly homesick even though I have spent very little time in America. Why? Like NZers Americans happily talk to strangers-such fun.
There were 2 english chappies there having dinner who did not know the party was planned for that evening. They were grumpy and sarcastic-sad sad. However this was not the norm-many of the Democrats there said that they were really touched by the number of english people who congratualted them on the election result.
Three of us abandoned knitting group for the night-such is the sacrifices of historical events

It has been far too long

The Holidays are over and it is time to get back to writing. I will try to blog twice a week.
Startitis and bus rides
I went on a fabulous Knitting workshop for my knitting course in Bournemouth. I met readers of this blog which was truly inspiring. Owing to what is known as 'planned works' on the rail but should be known as 'planned chaos' I took the bus home. I have decided it is just like knitting-beginning the trip is great-you sit back warm and relaxed enjoying the front seat view. But dear readers it changes-boredom sets in exacerbated by the complete closure of the north bound M4, the bum turns to concrete and all you want to do is get off the bus. But you can't-it is a matter of hanging in there till one arrives at the genteel surroundings of Victoria Bus Station. So it should be with knitting-no matter how traumatic the mistakes I will finish things, I will resist the call of the new yarn and that particularly appealing pattern.
Once I saw myself as a one project girl how this has changed. I will now complete the following before I begin anything else:
Gila's blanket
My socks
Hannah's socks
Hannah's jumper
Clive's socks (my son refuses to allow me to knit for him)
My scarf/mitten thingy
The sock wool cushion cover
The pink silk cotton wrap around begun last winter for the summer that has now gone.
I feel a little overwhelmed by this all.
My honorary American night
Anyway tonight is the American election which is a good excuse to knit.
Then Wednesday night I am going with some of the American women in my knitting group to a Democrats in London event to celebrate/mourn the election results. This is because of obsessive interest in the election and my commitment to The West Wing-all 7 series were obsessively watched.
Let us see what happens tonight

The waiting for the computer sock

That little egg timer on my computer drives me bonkers-it seems to take for ever. I have found a solution and am now calm and zen like whilst waiting for my computer to do connect to what ever it is I am waiting for. People I knit-I put a sock on my desk and with the greatest of ease I got a sock knitted in what used to be frustrating down time. I am not a naturally enthusiastic sock knitter but I love hand made socks-this seems a wonderful solution.

What did we do Saturday night?

After Shabbat went out did we:
1. Go out for dinner
2. Go to the theatre-something new and interesting.
3. Go rent a DVD, buy some lovely cheese and nice salads and settle down on the couch.
4. Or did the husband whilst muttering to himself about 'assignment', 'exam' and 'finances' practically dive into his office.In the meantime did I face the fact that it was very nice of me to offer to cook for friends for Yom Tov on Tuesday night, but that the reality is that Motzei Shabbat was the only conceivable time I could actually find time to once again chop onions and crush garlic.
Why did God in his wisdom squash all these Jewish holidays into such a short space of time?
When will the husband give up his non meat eating? If he can eat a fish I really don't see why we can't bung a chicken in the oven occaionally.
Next life I shall be a lesbian Buddist nun with an especially nice begging bowl.

The stash for sale

My local Help the Aged charity shop had some interesting looking yarn in the window. Inside the shop was even more yarn;half knitted projects even some still on needles, faded yarn, an old pattern and loads of odd balls. Yep someone had died/gone into a home and this was the stash being sold off. It was incredibly sad SABLE (stash accumulation beyond life expectancy) suddenly did not seem such a good idea.
All of this and Rosh Hashannah/Yom Kippur got me thinking. What do I value in the long run.
Knitting especially for my daughter and husband (my son is not all that keen on my efforts).
Friends Although I loved my mega watch of The West Wing-now all watched it was the the meals we shared over Yom Tov I really enjoyed. Especially cool was the meal with me Clive and a table of women. Clive coped but seems to now view the life of Utah polygamists with sympathy rather than envy.
Cultural stuff I am a lazy arse but when I get to Art galleries, BBC audience events etc I really really enjoy it.
So for the new year-knit, socialise and get out more often.
The thing is all of this can be so cheap-I have a range of super cheap recipies, lots of events are free and I do have a stash to use prior to my death.