June 22, 2015
We have returned from a day long jaunt to Cyprus. Both ways the flight was delayed and there are miles of airport to walk. But what a great country. All of our time was spent in the area of Larnaca which seems so friendly and peaceful. Great simple food, beautiful scenery, wonderful people.
It was wonderful how much at home we felt, even though we haven't been there in 35 years. First off Larnaca looks like Tel Aviv a generation ago - beautiful and quaint. More tomorrow.
on the beach we had a wonderful dinner at Kalamaki bar. The food was just like home, and the punch came when I asked the waiter to surprise us with his best dessert and got: The next day we went to the most hightly recommended restaurant in Larnaca, Zephyros
More expensive, more unusual, but just as tasty. The reason we went there was to see the land Arpad Gut acquired back in the 30's. We missed Panic Ensemble's concert in Prague, but sometimes you have to do other things. Anyway here's a link to one song I wrote about my late mother-in-law: Flying
June 23, 2015 Tough day. I seem to have forgotten all the Arabic I learned and failed reading out loud miserably. Almost everything else went wrong too. June 24, 2015
Panic Ensemble has returned from Prague with a great feeling. Their shows were packed and they autographed hundreds of disks. Here too they had great success. But their wonderful singer, Yael Kraus, has to go back to the US and make a living. I'm devastated. we're still getting over all our traveling and now we have before us the famous "White Night" of Tel Aviv - all night free events. who has energy for this? Tel Aviv demands a great deal of energy. June 25, 2015 We begin our preparations of White Night by resting up for it. Actually this is a much more important day for us because it is my daughter's birthday, my step-children are here for a visit, and the weather is perfect. Our visit to Tel Aviv's white nights was too early - we went before nightfall. Even the shuk closed as early as they could so they could get out of the city before the big traffic jams. At five minutes to seven we went into a shoe store and the salesman whispered to me "sorry, darling, my father just closed the register. Do you have it in your heart to forgive me?" Four ladies hungry for shoes... I guess he was hungry for culture. I'll have to wait for the morning to find out what it was. June 22, 2015 So we missed the action - so what. there is so much action on the streets here all the time. most of it good. Here and there at a red light some clowns come out and juggle. there's less interactivity than there was in the past, but it's the people that i care about, not the food or the gay parades. What do I have on the docket today? the usual - exercise with Smadar in the morning (we call her the Marquise de Smad), shopping, a meeting with my broken-hearted publisher about the tuesday evening program at Gaash, a few phone calls with Panic Ensemble and Sharon Moldavi about details, and then a house full of grandchildren playing football around my china. That's it. Tomorrow is a dail long heat wave, so we'll hang around here and maybe get ourselves together. And then back to the usual week. I'm hoping it's all that quiet at least.
The boat going out to Gaza today might not disturb this quiet I'm planning. I hope they manage to bring some helpful stuff to the poor people there - some stuff that will not be used against us again. We seem to be getting together with Hamas politically and these strange bedfellows are very tentative so i'm hoping this flotilla to Gaza really doesn't blow things up.
