a VERY happy independence day!

wednesday:

my commander walked into the office in the morning, and stated that the mission for the day was to do nothing. i think that was cool. it would've been cooler if we'd succeeded, but nevermind - it's the thought that counts.

we had a ceremony, and then got to leave. i stayed behind, had a really unnecessary bought of unpleasantness with the mongoose (resolved), and had an awesome thai lemon chicken lunch.

it was a sucky day. 50% because it was the memorial day for fallen soldiers, 50% because the weather was ugly - hot, humid, cloudy, and generally menacing. i got home, and spent the afternoon lazing in bed, reading. listening to sad songs on the radio.

in the evening, the weather cleared, and the country began celebrating its independence. i had a long, hot bath (my back has been killing me), then a cool shower (the weather was still slightly uncomfortably warm), got dressed, and walked the loooooong way around to the lizard. i still got there 10 minutes earlier than planned. i like living here :)

the mongoose and i started off the celebrations with drinks, then i walked to rabin square. crazy amount of people, great fireworks, and a brilliant rock concert (the lead singer from eifo hayeled). afterwards i made my way back to the lizard, chilled for about an hour or so - there was loads of eye-candy, so no complaints.

yesterday:

we decided to go from the lizard to the enormous rock concert in rishon lezion. we knew they weren't selling tickets anymore, so we worked on a story to tell them at the entrance to make them feel sorry for us. no need - we ran into a scalper on the way. paid half price too!

met up with the mongoose's new girlfriend and her friend, and made our way into the crowd.

the concert was INSANE. the average age was about 16, thousands and thousands of kids, but the atmosphere was great. we walked in when hayehudim were still on, and EVERYBODY sang along. not to mention that their stage performance was simply fantastic.

we saw muki, and then dag nahash, but it wasn't as good a vibe... it's a hard act to follow. we left about 6am, had breakfast at "nuffies", which was good, and then i got dropped off at home. i got to bed around 8.

i woke up at 12, got dressed, and walked to the train station. i somehow got from there to our friend in pituach's place, beer in hand, for a brilliant braai. i just got back now, actually... not only was it a good braai, but also a semi-reunion for my first class, two ex-flatmates, and a whole bunch of friends i haven't seen in ages. we spent the entire day lazing, talking, and playing frisbee (there were over 100 people there - and it was a friends-only do!), and after cleaning up played some serious texas holden. and, for the first time, i DIDN'T lose all my money ^_^

waiting for hot water, then showering, then getting down to some serious sleeping.