Tel Aviv Diary - December 18-22, 2013 - Karen Alkalay-Gut
December 18, 2013
Where did the day go? After a morning at Hematology I had little energy to expend on email and internet, but even that is not justified. Ezi, who helped with the filming of the program that may be already edited and back online by now at the U-Sophia Site, got me up bright and early to join him. My only value is that i get to take the blood samples to the lab, get through some paperwork, and crack endless jokes that are only sometimes funny. Few patients reacted with belly laughs at my suggestion to Ezi to squeeze the IV bag to get through the treatment faster. But all that is beside the point. The hospital is seething with gossip about the big scandal uncovered that some heads of surgery there have become so devoted to foreign patients who pay privately they may have been pushing the local patients back in the queue. That isn't exactly the case, because these foreign surgeries bring survival money into the hospital, and that money is necessary for the treatment of the local patients. But some of the doctors may also have been lining their pockets with Euros. And that does raise a few ethical issues...
But to continue. Although our leaking pipes are temporarily fixed, the three pipes next to them are due to burst at any moment, and we do not dare move everything back to its place or paint the ceiling or anything that would bring order to our home. Even as we speak Ezi is meeting with the co-op board to discuss the issue. Our insurance will only cover pipes that burst, not pipes that are about to burst...Why is Ezi up there before the co-op and not me, you ask. Because he went.
watch the papers tomorrow for news about the upcoming show Una Selva is doing
next Saturday: Here's the Haaretz: http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/anglo-file/1.540587. There's also some poetry of mine in another place in haaretz. Let me know if you need links. December 19, 2013 Whoops, no. wrong link in Haaretz. That was for the last concert. And the poetry isn't out yet. And the University of Sophia is still being edited. So don't rely on me for reliability. It may still be cooler than usual, but everyone is out in the sun. we sat in the balcony at Papa's this afternoon and watched the world go by. I was with a three-year old so my perspective was a bit different, concentrating more on cars and trucks then, say, gender profiling... Still, by mid-afternoon i suddenly realized it had cooled down and i was so involved in how the green station wagon was parking i didn't realize i was chilled to the bone. the three-year old too. So I am remaining in bed with the news - and it doesn't look good. the peace talks are almost shot, violence is growing in the territories, and there are rumors of more snow. And all this talk about boycotts of Israel. My only problem with boycotting Israel is that there is a small difference between racism and defense. It's not that we're nice people and all that, but that there is that little element that somehow isn't figured into the equation. December 20, 2013 We had lunch until the sun went down - sometime around 4:15 p.m. I watched the sun hit the treetops just as we finished our coffee at Dubnov 8, after an afternoon of bathing in the warmth like a salamander. Dubnov 8 is one of those places where all kinds of people hang out on Friday lunch time - my friend Sarah told me long ago she goes there and so do so many of the people who used to go to the Writers' House or to Dizengoff on Friday afternoon. But we are usually too involved in getting things ready for the Sabbath to just relax. This week was so hectic, however, and last week was so cold, we jumped at the invitation.
For the Hebrew speakers, my piece about Yeats' grave came out in Haaretz today "a href= "http://www.haaretz.co.il/literature/poetry/.premium-1.2192611"> here . For my English friends, Una Selva's single "That Coat" came out today. The launch is next Saturday night at 10 at Tmuna. Make reservations. Have I said nothing about the 60,000 refugees? It's because I'm trying to ignore them like everyone else here. Why? Because I am ashamed. I am ashamed of how we are behaving like 'the boat is full.' December 21, 2013 On our way to Ace in Shfaim todat (Yes, we are still complicated by the leaky ceiling and the damage and the need for further repairs) I declared that we absolutely MUST join a political party. Any one but the one in power. And maybe we can't go to demonstrations any more but we can certainly help out bring people to the awareness that we all have the responsibility to change the government. Get to the old age homes, bring people in to declare their opinion, whatever it is. Make people realize we are going to hell in a hand basket carelessly woven by a mad leader. December 22, 2013 From now on the days will be getting longer for all of us! I don't know anyone who enjoys the early evening at 4:30. But i've been listening to Ronen Shapira Bach and it is so amazing. How someone so talented escapes being a star I'll never figure out.