28 October 2012

I got up quite early today and got good exercise. I did my stretches in the sunny pergola near the big kikar instead of in my usual spot which is now shaded by one of the tall buildings at that time of morning. It's cool enough in the mornings now that the warm sun felt better than the cold concrete.

This morning I discovered that we had no hot water. It wasn't just that cold water came out of the hot tap. Oh no! Instead, NO water at ALL came out of the hot tap! So I had to call our landlord, and he came over within an hour or two. By mid-afternoon we had hot water again, although he still has to fix a problem with the water supply to the kitchen sink. He said he'd do that tomorrow, and I'm confident that he will.

We ate lunch again at Greg. David had tortellini with mushroom cream sauce, and I had their "Home Fries Salad". It's kind of an interesting combination: hot potato cubes coated with chili matok (spicy hot, sweet) sauce on a bed of greens, carrots strips, cucumber slices, and a few sprouts. The sauce seems kind of Thai (though this is Israel, so it's not that hot), but potatoes are definitely NOT part of Thai cuisine, I think. Anyway, it makes a good dish!

I saw more Muslim women today than I have in a long time. Those who are religious cover their hair in a way that's different from religious Jewish married women, so that's how I know they were Muslim. Other than that, I really can't distinguish Jews from Arabs very accurately. There are some Jews (like me, for example!) who really don't look at all like Arabs (although I have seen some surprisingly European-looking Arabs). But some of the mizrakhi and sephardic Jews look very similar to many Arabs, at least to me. In any case, I would estimate that the majority of the customers at the mall today were Muslim, and this is a city that has only a very tiny non-Jewish minority. The reason for this today? It's a Muslim holiday: Eid al-Adha, the "Feast of the Sacrifice", which began Friday and continues through Monday. Most of these people were probably Arab-Israelis from other parts of the country doing what Jewish Israeli do during our holidays. Some may even have come over from Jordan, although I have no way of knowing much about that. The most humorous thing for me was sitting there watching a young man, presumably Jewish, who runs a kiosk near Greg selling mostly kitchen gadgets, demonstrating one of his products. The product? A cloth to cover ones head, like a maid might do. What was so funny? He was demonstrating it (on a mannikin head) to women wearing Muslim head coverings, who, presumably, know very well how to do such things. In any case, they seemed interested. So, go figure!

This evening we had an appointment with the eye doctor for David. The doctor needed to fill out the form from the welfare office so that they can submit David's application for a t'udat iver (an ID card to show that he is blind). It will be a long process, but it can't start without this form, so this was an important step.

After that, we found a place that does passport photos, and both of us got some made. David needs two to submit with the form the doctor filled out, and we'll both need some once we finally get around to applying for Israeli passports, I'm sure.

Finally, we drove up to Yotvata and treated ourselves to ice cream. We still have several 2-for-1 coupons that they gave us when we toured there back in the Spring. They're valid until the end of the calendar year.