Kangaroos up north

So this post is really a practice article for an article that Marc and I are planning to send into the Sydney Morning Herald or something. With the photos of course. Basically we would like for an article to be published that tells what life's really like in Israel during this crazy period, so that our families will stop worrying!

Let me just say first off that my life in Jerusalem hasn't changed at all. Not on a practical level anyway. The only place that anything is affected, for me personally, is in the general psyche or mood of myself and the people around me. A few of my friends and a lot of my friends' friends are in the army up in Lebanon. An Aussie Oleh was killed last week. Kids in Nazareth. Hundreds of innocent people in Lebanon. It's all pretty heavy and horrible. For the most part though, from what I can see, Israelis are supporting their country and her efforts to defend herself, but they just want it all to be over really soon.

Anyway so last week we took some shlichim that are heading to Australia shortly to ... Gan Garoo. Yes that means 'Garoo Park'. Funny eh. Thought we'd show them some Aussie flora and fauna. So there we were, 2 hours north of Jerusalem in a so-called 'war-zone'.... patting Kangaroos! Looking at the Kangaroo gift-shop, looking at Lorakeets, Gallahs, Cockatoos... and the whole time all Marc & I could talk about was how good our article for the SMH was going to be.















Marc & Me in the gift shop















Marc & Me with the Kangaroos!


So I guess it's time to write that article... coz this clearly isn't gonna cut it...

All photos courtesy of Marc Dunn Enterprises. Sincere thanks from the editor.

Ok so there's a war...

So I've been trying to avoid having to mention what's going on in the North of Israel and the South of Lebanon... hoping it would just blow over... but it seems like that's unlikely to happen. I don't want to get into politics or military tactics or international opinion here. I just wanna let you all know that I'm safe in Jerusalem. All my family that lives up north have come down to the centre of the country so they're safe too. Whilst I do support Israel's right to defend herself, I just genuinely hope that this can be over as soon as possible with as little loss of life as possible.

The war hasn't affected my life here at all... still same old. Had another changover of flatmates... I now live with 3 boys who all speak German - Martin, Marc & Kieran. Brilliant. They're gonna have meetings about leaving the toilet seat up in front of me and I won't understand. At least the average age of the apartment has raised from 21 to 24. Nah I'm just kidding I'm really excited and happy and all good. Tonight I am apparently going out into 'nature' somewhere to a bit of a bush doof (in Aussie terms). Should be fun. Start my new job in about a week hopefully - definitely a good thing coz I've had quite enough chill out time methinks.

That's all for now folks... email me...

Checklist for the beach

Today I went to the beach at Akko with my family from Nahariyah. Maybe this is just my family, but let's take a look at some possible checklists of what one should take to the beach in different countries...

Australia:

- towel
- sunblock
- water
- combination of the following: music, snack book, ciggies, maybe some sort of sporting equipment like a ball
- beer

England:

Haha

New Zealand:

Probably similar to Australia

Israel:

- towels
- blankets
- chairs - one per person
- umbrella - one per person
- tables (!!!)
- full meal in 5 eskys
- dessert - obviously
- plates, cutlery, serviettes, cups
- 2L (chilled) water per person
- juice
- beer
- sunblock (assortment of SPF's ... ranging from literally baby oil to 45+)
- aloe vera for after you get burnt but aren't ready to leave yet
- nargila
- bats and balls
- change of clothes

Like... seriously... wtf?? We had to make THREE trips from the car! And then once we had it all set up, someone decided our location was no good, so we moved EVERYTHING, including the table that was by then set up with a full buffet style meal. I seriously could have survived in the wild for a month with all the stuff that they brought!

Dunno what my point here is... I just make observations that I think are at least vaguely amusing - I don't think I'm qualified to start analysing them just yet!