So R had her birthday, and my brother and his family came to dinner. R baked chocolate cookies (S said they were better than hers), and E made chocolate balls. S and I gave R a simple camera to replace an earlier cheaper one that had already broken. E gave R nail polish, while A gave a plain wooden box for R to store her nail-polish things. (R will enjoy decorating the box as well.) My brother and his family gave R a gift certificate a music store. They (my brother and his family) left early as my nephew had to go to work. He works as a replacement usher in a local movie theatre complex.

The longer time goes on, the less his kids and my kids have in common. From the fact that his kids don't seem to eat the food at our place to the cultural differences (dress, interests, and so on) that come from growing up in a religious environment vs. growing up secular. We'll keep on inviting them, but it's getting less pleasant.

I saw Hogan's Peter Pan on DVD. It's definitely closer to the book than Disney's. It was interesting to seem some of the Australian actors roped in to play minor parts. In particular it was good to see Stork (Bruce Spence). (He was also a voice on Finding Nemo, and he appeared in The Matrix Revolutions (which I haven't seen).)

S was sacked and she doesn't know if it's good news or bad. Although the decision was not entirely surprising, as S was a part timer and they were having difficulty finding temp staff, I'm not sure how they expect to replace her. S thinks about being available for this vacation, for the move in January and for E's Bat Mitzvah next year.

A local girl drowned in a different pool then the one we go to. I didn't know that we knew her (she lived just around the corner) until the local paper had a picture of her. A and another kid had teased her once in the park. The drowning is a scandal, because the girl went there with an older girl and the pool has a lifeguard. Neither of them noticed that she was in difficulties. The lifeguard has refused to undergo blood tests for drug use.

A swam 6 laps of the pool breaststroke, before starting to play. Following him in the water to make sure he was safe, wore me out (I'm not really a swimmer, too inefficient in my strokes, always preferred backstroke to the crawl). He even did a few strokes of butterfly (I don't think he's been taught that). Here's a piece of trivia: when learning to swim in Oz (and in the US) the crawl is taught; when learning to swim in Israel (and in Europe, I believe) they teach the kids breaststroke.

General Blog Stuff

The WeatherPixie was missing for a while. Apparently the WeatherPixie site was down for a rewrite. Well it's back now, but I've added to Wunderground to "double source" the weather information.

I registered my blog with Blogwise. Maybe more people will find this page (doubt it).

I have also approached Ringsurf (Webring site) to restart the defunct ilblogs (Israeli blogs) ring.

Well A finished his basketball camp. But we didn't get to see if there was an improvement in his play. In the game before the parents, A didn't get a chance to touch the ball. True he ran hard, up and down the court. On the defense side he blocked the same boy, who also didn't receive the ball. On attack he moved to the right side of the keyhole and was always too far from the action. Of course he wasn't the only boy who didn't get a chance. The young kids had already decided who could get the ball and who couldn't.

In comparison, the trainers vs. the best kids game showed a lot of sharing. The best kids side had 1 basketball professional, who kept the ball moving to the different kids. So all the kids had opportunities to score. And score they did, losing only by 2 points.

We are already thinking about what A will do for after school activities in the coming school year. English of course, but everything else is up for grabs. He's still too young for scouts and if he learns karate it would have to be with a different teacher than the girls have. S asked him if he would like to learn to play an instrument. S would love all the kids to learn. (R learned for 2 years before stopping). He said yes, to my surprise and to S's relief. Still I want him in a active activity as well. Do we try another basketball group, within the school or without. More discussion between S and I will follow (don't worry, we'll include A as well).

R and I had a couple of long walks. One with E to look at the house and one with just us two along the bypass road. Apparently the walk with E and R caused R to be upset with E, and I didn't notice. I just thought they were talking. R saw it as E always saying something against what she said. We discussed the fact that we haven't decided which room will be given to which child. (If they can't agree among themselves, we'll decide using a double lot system. That means having two piles of 3 papers. 1 pile with the 3 names and 1 pile with the 3 rooms. Then you select one paper from each pile until all the rooms are matched up.)

It was R's secular birthday on Shabbat. We celebrated with a cake. Next Shabbat, we'll celebrate her Jewish birthday.

A has finished his swimming lessons, and now E starts hers.

The boredom of the summer vacation has hit my girls already and the passing of the days seems to assisted by the renting of movies. So far the girls have seen Legally Blond and Legally Blond 2. I was surprised that R had selected Legally Blond, but I found our that she had seen the sequel. (S and I had seen the movie ages ago, and despite herself S enjoyed it.) R then hired Legally Blond 2; I presume so E could see it too. (S and I also enjoyed watching LB2.)

A finally was awarded the sweat bands that the trainers give out to a player in each of the groups at the end of every day (it's taken till the last week of the camp). When I went there on Friday, A looked very eager to get them, but the trainer for his group awarded them to another player. Well he got them yesterday, and he was proud enough to wear them today to the camp. I don't know how much use they'll get, as today is the swimming day.

Swimming day at the basketball camp leads to another issue. Young boys can be cruel to each other. A changes into his swimming costume at the pool, other boys wear their costume under their clothes. So other boys have been making fun of A's penis. There's nothing anatomically strange or wrong with A's parts, so what's their problem?

The last week at work felt really tough. Long hours, tight deadlines and busy sources. We did it, but my next series of deadlines seem worse.

So!

We went to see Shrek 2 on a Friday, before the girls went to Scout camp. We wanted the whole family to see it together, but the major trouble was to find a theatre that would show the movie in English at a reasonable hour. The local theatre was showing both the dubbed Hebrew version and the English language version, but the English language version was showing only late at night. This meant we had to drive to the next town and suffer a lower quality theatre and sound. But it meant we all got to see it together and we were still able to bring in Shabbat early as is our want.

A is enrolled in a basketball camp in a local sports hall for the first 3 weeks of the summer vacation. Not that we expect him to become a champion, but if it raised his confidence and teaches him necessary skills for the game like dribbling, passing and shooting, we'll be pleased. It seems to be a good place and A is happy going there each morning. Apart from basketball, they also take him swimming.

R spent from Sunday to Thursday at Scout camp. E from Monday to Thursday. Before each girl left, S braided her hair with multiple single braids. (In the end R's braids only lasted 1 day, but E's lasted into the following week.) On Monday night at midnight we got a call from R. E had lost a lens from her glasses. S was livid at being woken up and basically told R never to call at midnight again unless someone was dead or on the way to hospital. Next morning R rang me to tell me the same thing. I told her that when we came up for Parents day on Wednesday, we'd bring up a spare pair. S forgot that T, Ella's friend, would be going to camp on Tuesday, so we missed an opportunity to send the glasses with her.

Parents day was a difficult thing. We were supposed to arrive before 7 in the evening, but A's swimming lessons would only end at 6. Then we had to pick up pizza to take to the not-so-starving, but pizza deprived, daughters. We picked up the pizza and arrived at 7 in the evening, caught the last bus to the campsite gates from the parking area, tried to make sense of the map of the campsite and then promptly took a wrong turning in trying to find our girls. After giving them the pizza, they basically walked us out of the campsite and we walked back to the car as the last bus back to the parking area had departed. So much for Parents day.

One of the features of the scout camp are the (stake, rope and sackcloth) gates each troop builds to its individual area. This year they weren't as good as previous years, but a Sphinx stood out as spectacular.

This is also the first year when the Southern district had 2 religious Scout troops. (Up till now, my daughters' troop was the only one.) The organizers put them next to each other in the camp ground and sent both of them to a school for the fast of the 17th of Tammuz so that they could be in an air-conditioned environment instead of being out in the summer heat of the campsite.

On the Thursday evening (after the girls had returned), S and I went to a meeting to discuss the building needs of the high school that R attends. They currently have several classes in the municipal library, which they have been asked to vacate. this year they will have to spend about US$250,000 on building and next year even more. Each year they also have to raise money to make up the deficit from the money that they get from government sources. It's a great school and they are trying to get people to raise donations. I decided to see what I could do in Australia. We'll see if I have any luck.

On Shabbat, my aunt from Australia (visiting Israel for a week) was having lunch at my brother's place and we were invited. Although it was great to see her and talk to her, one of the issues we wanted to talk to her about was raising money for the school, but she wasn't interested.

After Shabbat, S and I went to a synagogue meeting of "concerned" members. What were the issues?

1. Well, on several Shabbatot, vandals had been setting fires to papers in the school, including the notice board of the synagogue.
2. The noise levels from talkers during Shabbat services are excessive.
3. What would be the subject of the next serious of lectures that one guy was arranging?

S had been upset that the previous lecture series had been devised at a time when the issue of "women in the synagogue" as a lecture was just starting and the alternative subject of the lectures (something on the RaMBaM (Maimonides)) took away the ability of people to organise on that subject. So the next series will be on "women in the synagogue."

Shabbat evening was also my weigh-in day. I've reached my target weight (yeah), now all I have to do is stay there.

After one's birthday one is permitted to ramble.

As a person who doesn't know what he wants, I'm probably very difficult to buy for. I don't expect a gift from my wife; with her it would be nice just to go out for dinner without the kids.

My brother (and his family) gave me a book "The Monk who sold his Ferrari." Just what I need a book on philosophy (it's not even Jewish philosophy). I will read the book, but it's not high on my priority list. I suppose it makes a change from T-shirts with inane phrases.

R went out and bought a couple of items: a multicolor striped ribbon necklace for my cellular phone (she thought my Motorola one from plastic was too plain) and a tiger hair band (perfect for Purim).

Work remembered my birthday a couple of days late, but its gift (given to all employees on their birthday for the year until the end of July) was a picnic blanket and a discount coupon for massage that I received over a month ago as its validity was also till the end of June.

There's a guy who goes to my synagogue whose daughters have been in same year (if not the same class) as R since kindergarten. He wants me to make a donation to the synagogue in conjunction with him. Since he doesn't normally recognize my existence, when he approached me after Ma'ariv at the end of Shabbat it took me so by surprise that I told me to ask me when I'm at home. I suppose I really should follow it up with him.

Our guest on Shabbat was an Aussie (G and his family) that I've know since University. (He says before even then at some Soviet Jewry demonstrations.) (G entered the first year the same year I did. G was good at what he did and finished in the minimum time, not like me. He went on to do research, got married and had a stack of kids. Now we live in the same town, and occasionally have Shabbat meals together.) After Shabbat lunch, we were sitting together on the couch going through R's bat-mitzvah photos. His wife (an Israeli) commented that we were sitting too close together. Well it didn't bother us; Australians are comfortable at that distance, but it bothered her.

Thinking about things. Am I a class-ist? Or do I just have higher tastes??

The son (Z) of that friend of mine (G) had his Bar-Mitzvah on Shabbat before Lag B'Omer. The reception was on Lag B'Omer.

So what was the Bar mitzvah like? Well, Z is supposed to be a genius, but there's little scope for genius while reading from the torah. He started reading the torah portion very nervously. In the crowded synagogue, it was very difficult to hear his performance. I only noticed the congregation correcting one mistake. (In other words, he did a highly credible job.) Another friend (also from Oz) led the additional services with some of his original tunes. (I couldn't see him from where I sat, but the tune sounded like something he would of created.) I thought the tunes were good, except for a few places where the key changes needed a bit of work and 1 place where it was forced. (To bad I was dumb enough to tell him that.)

The kiddush (small reception) after services was sex divided and there was very little I could eat and drink on my diet except for salt fish and soda water. I heard they had some bad luck looking after their 30-something guests, but otherwise I did little talking.

To get to the reception the next day, I had to cycle home early from work so I could shower and be there with the family as close to the 5 PM start time as possible. We were a half hour late, which was fine from the point of view that they hadn't started, but not so good as we ended up sitting right next to one of the speakers of the sound system. The music was loud. I sat with my family and and another friend from Oz (C). (C was one of the group of people I hung around with a couple of years before my aliyah (immigration to Israel). I especially remember one time when we were sitting in the grass in Centennial Park.) C and I talked a lot, but every-so-often we couldn't here what we were saying over the noise of the music.

And so to the point. The whole reception was low-brow and not really enjoyable. G's a long term friend and I really should have been into his happiness, but I couldn't get over the surroundings.

It was a late night for everyone Saturday night. A went to bed late because my late-father's cousin who missed my niece's Bat Mitzvah turned up at my brother's for dinner. It mean that S, A and I walked over half an hour to my brother's apartment at the tail end of a sharav (heat wave). So we stayed until after Shabbat went out (after 2030) so we could get a lift home. As it was A may have gone to bed about an hour late, but he got to bed way before the rest of us.

R went to an end-of-school-year seminar in Jerusalem, so we invited EJ (a cousin, E's age) to stay the Shabbat. They (E and EJ) stayed up until after the lights went off on Friday night. Saturday afternoon they both went to a neighbours to be with there younger children and then they went to Scouts together. They got back from Scouts just after we got home Saturday night. I took EJ home and E came for the ride. It took about about an hour and a half before I returned, and E fell asleep in the car on the way back. It was difficult to wake her up, but she was the second to bed (2300).

R was expected to leave Jerusalem about 2200, as they weren't leaving the moment Shabbat went out. It takes about an hour to get home from Jerusalem, but when it was getting closed to midnight and the bus still hadn't arrived. S was getting anxious (and therefore I didn't need to be). We rang the teacher, who was on the bus, who said that they still had a lot of drop-off places to go to before they reached Rehovot. I kept on telling S to go to bed, but that was a waste of words. R didn't get home till after 1 in the morning. And S and I went to bed after her.

There's an old joke (probably not very funny) that goes: Girls bring light into the home. Why? Because the parents stay up late at night waiting to them to come home.

The next day of course when I come home from work, everyone is tired.

R brought home her end-of-year report. It's all in Hebrew and I want to discuss it with her. She plays the "I don't want to" game, so I play the "evil nasty father" game. I forbid her to go to Scout camp until she is willing to sit with me on this. I know she has a great report, but I want to understand the negative comments as well. And then I want her to think how she could do better next year.

S tells me that E was equally if not worse behaved, and the threat should have been at her. I said that I didn't have to deal with E, I had to deal with R. Is it too much to ask that occasionally when her father asks her to do something, R would answer "Sure Abba (Dad), with pleasure"?

This morning I had an unusual experience. For the first time, I received a call from work on my cellular phone. It was from our office in Japan requesting a manual urgently. There are people in our office who are always getting calls on their cellular phone, but for me it is the first time.

"It's my (Hebrew date) birthday and I'll cry if I want to." Never really got used to a Hebrew date birthday for myself, though we celebrate the Hebrew date for the kids.

The wig issue has really caused a big shake up in the kisui rosh (hair covering) religious female community in Israel. What's the wig issue? A major country of supply of real hair for wigs is India. But apparently the people who grow the hair that is used for wigs use the hair (before selling it) as an offering to their pagan gods. This using of the hair in pagan rituals, makes it prohibited by Jewish law for Jewish use and a decision prohibiting wigs from Indian hair was made. Now anyone who has a wig made from Indian hair has to burn it. Well, wigs made from real hair are really expensive, so burning them hurts. But also the real-hair wig market dropped completely and the current market is now for the previously less regarded synthetic hair is picking up. But some groups have abandoned wigs completely in case people think that they might still be wearing a prohibited one. It was interesting to watch some of our neighbours and friends suddenly wearing scarves and other head coverings.

My weight loss has reached a total of 19.5 kilograms (43 pounds). I had almost 2 months of constant weight, before my weight dropped due to three days of sickness, during which I could only take in liquids. I actually went down to my target weight, before rising again once I recovered. Fortunately, not all of the weight came back.

On the 3rd day of the sickness, I had to go with Ariel on a school outing to the Hulda forest. S had gone with E the day before, and she couldn't take more time from work. The outing consisted of a number of activities, including crossing on ropes, group tossing of a large ball and traveling on a flying fox (trolley or cable ride for you Americans). Although I felt weak, I had a good time.

During a work outing to Ein Gedi (next to the Dead Sea), I managed to lose my cellular phone for the 3rd time. It fell off my belt when I got out of a workmate's car never to be see again. By the time I realized it was missing, it was no longer answering when I rang it. I'll never know whether it was stolen or run over by a truck. (The first time I lost my phone, it was stolen. The second time (at the beach), it was returned by the finder.) Now I wear my phone around my neck and not on my belt. The work outing was poorly arranged with too little organized activity, but we finished in a Cochin restaurant (which only takes groups), which was really interesting. Along with the distinctive food, we were told stories of the Cochin Jewish community.

We've made the second last payment on our new place. The last one is made when we get the key. The people we're buying from have started building. We've seen the walls of their basement.

My niece had her Bat Mitzvah. It was just a catered party in a hall. Nothing "spiritual" in it. Boring except for the people I got to talk to. My brother had a video of his daughter made up from stills and home videos, but it was just too long.

Well, I know I should have written earlier, but work has been giving me a ton of pressure and I probably have a lot to catch up on.

So where to start? Being me I'll go in reverse order.

Well last night, the whole family went to see "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." This is the first time I've got to see Harry Potter on the "big screen." (This is also the first time for A, but for him we thought he was too young. He would have been too young again for this movie, but he's heard the whole book on cassette.) I liked the movie, except . . .. They chose to explain very little. Who were Moony, Padfoot, Wormtail and Prongs? If you hadn't read the book you wouldn't know. How come Lupin knew the Marauder's Map was a map? Again, no clue in the movie. Why was Harry's Patronus in the shape of a stag? No clue in the movie. R was upset that there was no sign of Cho. E didn't like that the movie was so far from the book. In comparison, for me, the added scene (** spoiler ahead **) where Harry sees Peter Pettigrew's name on the Marauder's Map was very logical within the movie. I look forward to the release of the DVD.

I like quiet in a synagogue. So on Shabbat, when a guy brought his noisy kid into the synagogue, I said nothing for a while. None of the Gabbai'im (synagogue officials) did anything. When the child continued to make noise during the Torah reading, I asked the guy to take his kid outside. Instant uproar. "How dare I talk that way to a guest." I make my points by pointing at the person I'm talking to. Big mistake. The guy, who had been talking to the "guest" all through services, grabbed my wrist hard (the marks stayed on my wrist for hours and I still have a scar from his finger nail) and then accused me of trying to hit him. Others came to say how bad a person I was. One man came not so much to my defense, but to quiet the disruption. Afterwards, the synagogue was a little quieter. I must say I'm considering leaving the synagogue, but if I do it will be a time of my own choosing. At the end of services the president of the synagogue got up and complained about the noise and said it was the responsibility of people to tell their guests to be quiet.

R and E performed with the rest of the girls in their karate class performed at a women's-only benefit for Agunot (women whose husbands refuse to divorce them). S went with them, and she told me that the girls performed very well.

I want to finish up now, so I'll wrap up for now. One last thing, A has been swimming in the pool since his "sinking." We've booked him (and E) to have more swimming lessons during the summer holidays.

Today's Lag B'Omer and the air is still full of smoke.

For those not in the know Lag B'Omer (the 33rd day of the counting of the Omer period from Pesach (Passover) till Shavout (Pentecost)) is traditionally celebrated in Israel with bonfires. (Sort of like the Queen's birthday in Oz, before bonfires were banned). S, A and I went to the bonfire at the synagogue. E had a bonfire with friends from Scouts and A with friends from school. The only problem was that with Lag B'Omer coming after Shabbat, the bonfire couldn't start till 2030, 2100. The synagogue do was nice enough, but the food was ordinary and I was ready to leave after showing up. However A had a good time playing. S had to leave at 2230 to supervise E's group. And I had to go to R's group a number of times to help out with their barbeque. They had difficulty getting the charcoal hot and they didn't bring any suitable cooking implements (what I call weapons of destruction).

Last week had a couple of moments. The monitor of my computer at home is acting up. A least I think it is the monitor. The picture isn't stable and goes to black screen often, (I obviously need to get this situation fixed.) so anyway I couldn't read my mail. I knew I had to go on a Wednesday to a cemetery for a stone raising. So I went last week taking taxis and walking. Of course, for the man who wouldn't check, the actual event happens this week.

Friday, after my normal chores and lunch, we went to the pool. (A risky thing to do before Shabbat comes in time-wise.) S went off to do laps (R stayed at home). E went to the deep end to play and A also went to the deep-end. He jumped in and started to swim towards the shallow end of the pool. About a third of the way there, he forgot how to swim and started to panic. I had been watching him outside the pool at the pool edge, so when he started to sink, I dived in (one of the best surface dives I've ever done, considering that I dive terribly), swam to him, and pulled him up out of the water as he was going down the first time. He was very upset. The life saver at the pool hadn't noticed his difficulties. S comes back and tells me that she had thought about A forgetting how to swim, but hadn't told him or me about it. It took me about 24 hours to get over the shock of having to save my son from drowning.

E gained her green belt tonight. Apart from any of the other things she had to learn and research, she also had to get kicked. She's worried about this for about 2 years. And tonight, she did it all. Great one E.

Pity she then got in trouble when we got home for not preparing her backpack for school the next day,