Friday, 14 October 2016

I got up a little late this morning and so went for a somewhat shorter walk, stopping on the way back to buy challah at the bakery, of course. I took a few pictures, including today's pic of the day, a view of Aqaba at just the right time to catch the golden glow of the very early light, long before sunrise:

I taught 5 units of Berlitz lessons today: 9:00-9:45, 10:00-11:30, and 11:30-1:00.

I had a large salad and a vegetarian shnitzel for lunch. I also had some baklava and cookies for dessert.

I was pretty lazy in the afternoon and even took a short nap in my chair, but I still managed to get the weekly chores done.

In the evening, I lit candles, drank a little sweet red wine, and ate some challah to welcome Shabbat.

Afterwards, I took another walk. It was still quite hot out, and there was very little breeze most of the time, so I didn't walk as far as I might have otherwise. I did take a few more nice pictures, though, mostly of the moon, which is nearly full now.

I walked a total of 6.3 kilometers today.

I'll close today with something different. Pascal, my cat, likes to lie on my desk, and sometimes this results in him "typing" on my keyboard. Sometimes, this has caused trouble, like when he changed the name of something on my desktop, like one of the hard drives. Usually, I left Chrome as the foreground application, with a page that basically accepted no input. However, over the last several days, I've left a Google document open in Chrome instead, thereby recording his keystrokes. So, without further ado, here's Pascal's blog entry for this week:

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Thursday, 13 October 2016

I got up a little later this morning, but I still went out for a fairly long walk, taking a few pictures.

I was scheduled to teach 6 units of Berlitz lessons today, but that last lesson (2 units) actually turned out to be a no-show: 9:15-11:30, 2:45-3:30, and 4:30-6:00.

I had a salad and quesadillas for lunch today.

After my last lesson (I only had to wait until 5:30 until leaving the classroom), I went for a nice walk around the big loop. I took several pictures, including today's pic of the day, a nice view of the Red Sea, Aqaba, and the nearly-full moon from the hill behind the hospital:

I walked a total of 8.9 kilometers today.

Wednesday, 12 October 2016 (Yom Kippur 5777)

I slept well last night and woke up early. I didn't hurry to get up, but I did eventually and went for a slow, leisurely walk around the big loop. I took quite a few pictures, including today's pic of the day, showing a 24/7 convenience store, which is almost ALWAYS open, closed:

A little later in the morning, I went out for another walk and took many MORE pictures, mostly of kids and adults playing, walking, and riding bikes in the streets. What fun!

In the late afternoon, I went for yet another walk, taking even more pictures.

In the evening, after the holiday ended, I decided to break my fast by eating breakfast -- that is, I ate pretty much a standard (for me) breakfast, only adding a little bit to it.

In summary, this was a very interesting Yom Kippur for me -- perhaps the most interesting ever. I really felt the spirit of the day, at least as it is here in Israel.

Perhaps the most surprising thing was something I observed first thing this morning. At 5:30-6:00 a.m., there were groups of young people (teens and maybe 20s) gathered on the kikars (both the one nearest me and the "traffic light" kikar further down Argaman). Some groups were single-gender, but many were mixed. Most if not all the guys were wearing kipot. All the groups were conversing in the usual lively Israeli fashion. I have never before seen anything like that so early in the morning. Here's a pictures of one of the groups:

I had decided at pretty much the last minute to fast this year, but I nevertheless had a very easy fast. I only felt slightly hungry a few times. I did drink LOTS of water, though.

I walked a total of 11.4 kilometers today.

Tuesday, 11 October 2016 (Erev Yom Kippur)

I got up rather late this morning but still went out for a fairly long walk. I took a few pictures, including today's pic of the day, the early morning sun behind a palm tree just up the street from where I live:

The WIZO House was closed today, of course, but Fay graciously invited us to her house, where we met at 11:00. I think all of us who showed up really enjoyed and appreciated the conversation. I walked down there and about half way back home, taking the bus the rest of the way.

In the late afternoon, just before the start of Yom Kippur, I prepared quite a large meal for myself: a salad (with added tomato, bell pepper, seeds, and nuts), a vegetarian shnitzel, beans and vegetarian weenies, and cottage cheese. I decided just this afternoon to fast for Yom Kippur, so we'll see how that works out.

Right at the start of Yom Kippur, I went out for another fairly long walk (though slightly shorter than this morning's). It was really fun, because there were hundreds of kids (and even adults) out with their bicycles. For the whole 25 hours of Yom Kippur, there are only a VERY few cars out on the roads (mostly for emergencies), and so the kids can ride their bicycle, skateboard, roller blades, and assorted other vehicles freely in the streets and play on the kikars (the roundabouts). I walked almost the whole time right out in the street and took lots of pictures. Here are a couple of representative ones:

I walked a total of 11.2 kilometers today.

Monday, 10 October 2016

I had somewhat weird dreams last night, got up late, and didn't go out for a walk at all. I felt okay, though.

I took no pictures today, so today's pic of the day is one from several days ago. See if you can figure out what this says and where it was:

I was scheduled to teach 9 units of Berlitz lessons today, but one 2-unit lesson turned out to actually be a no-show: 9:00-9:45, 10:00-11:30 (the no-show), 11:30-1:00, 4:30-6:00, and 7:00-8:30.

I ate quesadillas, a salad, half a yellow bell pepper, and a few cookies for lunch.

After lunch, I relaxed and even napped a little in my comfortable chair.

I walked only 0.01 kilometers (10 meters!) today.

Sunday, 9 October 2016

I got up very early this morning and went for a nice walk around the big loop, getting back home by around 6:30. I took a couple of photos, including today's pic of the day, a view of the Red Sea, Aqaba, and the mountains behind the latter quite some time before sunrise, as seen from Harim Road near Nakhal Shakhamon:

At about 7:25, I left again and walked down to the Astral Maris Hotel to meet by friend, Joanne, from LA, who had invited me to breakfast there. I knew her from my BCC (Beth Chayim Chadashim) days and hadn't seen her since moving to Israel. This is her first trip here. It was really nice to catch up with her!

Joanne and her wife and another couple from Norway that they've been traveling with were all flying out of Eilat this morning, so I walked them over to the airport after breakfast. Then I walked up to the bank, to the Maccabi pharmacy, and to the pet store. Unfortunately, the latter did NOT have any mice today for Goldfinger. :-(  Then I rode the bus home.

By then, I was pretty tired, so I sat in my comfortable chair and ended up napping for about half an hour. Lunch today consisted of a cucumber, a tomato, a vegetarian shnitzel, and some cookies.

Later in the afternoon, I took the bus down to Ice Mall, where I had some frozen yogurt and hung around for a short time. Then I caught the bus back home again.

I walked a total of 12.2 kilometers today.

Shabbat, 8 October 2016

I got up quite late this morning and so only went out for a very short walk. I still took a couple of pictures, though, one of which is today's pic of the day, the sunrise from Canada Gardens:

I just relaxed during the morning, and then I had my usual eggs and rice for lunch.

After lunch, I got a small start on the second movement of my symphony. It's not a lot, but it's important because it's part of getting past writer's block (yes, composers can get it, too).

In the late afternoon, I talked for a while with David's sister in Ohio. She had a fairly difficult week but is okay.

In the evening, I went out for a very nice walk around the big loop (with some variations). The breeze made it especially pleasant out. I took several more pictures.

I walked a total of 7 kilometers today.