Move-in Madness

"Fully furnished"

Yah Raaahhht!

I suppose I am spoiled. Ok, I believe I deserve to be treated like a princess. Anything wrong with that?

But when you are told by the Relocation Department that you don't need to bring anything except "your clothes and any personal items that will make your place feel more like a home", you hope that at least that means that there will be drinking glasses, a shower rod and curtain, and a desk at which you will be able to park your computer for the 2-6 hours of meetings you have every night.

But maybe I am stretching it to believe that there will be a mirror or even some storage place in the bathroom besides the 2 inches of level space adjacent to the faucet, or on the tank behind the toilet. Or maybe I am complaining if I want light fixtures aside from bare bulbs hanging from the ceiling. Or an ironing board to go with the iron they did buy me. Or cold water along with the hot water in the kitchen sink (with gloves on, the scalding is minimized). Hey - I have hot water!! What am I whining about?

Then there's the light switch that triggers that breaker to trip, but then takes the whole apartment down with it. Or the electric blinds (cool huh!?) where up is down, and down is up. Or beautiful ceramic tile with smears of grout hardened in ugly brown patterns.

Of course, if one expects the whole bathroom to get wet when you shower, then it makes sense to not have a place to put the toilet paper. After all, it'd get wet too, and who wants to use wet toilet paper.

Drapes? Nah, we know that the inventory list says that there should be drapes, but the aura of darkness instilled by the solitary-confinement prison cell appearance of the light-blocking shutters is by far better for the soul than any wispy fabric hung from a cold iron rod.

I think I laughed (or cried) the most when I talked with the landlord of this brand new apartment. I had been already planning how to convince him that he needed to install additional counter space, in the form of a bar that wrapped around to close off the kitchen from open view of the entering world, and provide much needed additional counter space. (I am messy when I cook. Princesses can be messy and no one should complain.) He proceeds to tell me how the original plans had a disturbing low wall and counter around the kitchen, and he made the builders knock it out. He likes it OPEN! Hmph, I bet he never cooks either!

Apartment View

We finally moved in!

The view is still beautiful, especially early in the morning (when these pictures were taken), or late in the afternoon, just as the sun is settling down into the water. Now I need to hang up my hammock on the deck.

CHOCOLATE

Chocolate is the Eighth Wonder of the Natural World.

The afternoon of our tour up North, we didn't really have lunch. We had chocolate. Though, maybe "did" chocolate would be a better description.

We went to a small shop in an industrial section of the town, and entered a large room where chocolate is the teacher.

The facilitator started her business in the late 90's when the stock markets and the tech companies went flat. She eventually turned her small operation into a workshop instead of a factory, with all sorts of groups, kids to the ancient, stopping in to get their hands dirty.

She and her daughter set out dozens of bowls of toppings and fillings.


But first we had to taste the pure stuff.

The owner says that one of her favorite groups so far was from a visit she made to a hospital where she worked with several anorexic women. I'm glad to say I don't suffer from that disease.

Ewww... Chocolate covered truffle gooooooop....

Careful attention to detail.

The term "gremlin" comes to mind for some of these little beasts.

Tour de Israel

My work team took a day off and headed up to the cooler lands up north, to Zichron Yaakov. (Here's a fairly comprehensive article about the region.)

We ate breakfast in an old winery that was converted into a restaurant and visitor's center.




Breakfasts in Israel are an odd mix of foods... Cucumber, tomato, feta salad; scrambled eggs or very flat omlette; variety of cheeses, soft and semi-firm; fish, usually salmon, sardines, or whitefish; and breads. Because of the kosher rules, do not expect meat. (They put fish and eggs in the "non-meat" category.

After breakfast, off to find out more about the region and get our history lesson about the 19th century Baron Rothschild, whose money and entrepreneurship grew the region into a large developed area. Then a brief walk around town.




Ceasaria isn't far from the Zichron Yaakov region, and the Roman influence is still around. The more adventurous part of our tour was a visit to the site of ancient cisterns the Romans built to get water into thirsty, bath-happy Ceasaria. We climbed down one of the 7 shafts, and splashed through the hand chiseled tunnels in an inch of water, then 2 inches, then 5, then 8, then up to my knees, then my hiney.


Course, that was all before lunch, so I'll finish up about our afternoon next blog.