grilled

we started yesterday off with the city council, and i was glad to discover that it wasn't because of language difficulties that i didn't understand them last time, it's because the rules are bloody stupid and they're cheating the population of this city as much as possible.

and they lost all of spot's documents, so instead of requesting to see them again, they simply added a whole bunch to our bill. amazing.

we chilled a bit at cafeneto (nice doing that on a weekday morning), and then started on the horror story that is bussing to the base. i told the kid to buy his team marshmallows after lunch, like i used to :)

i basically got there in time to check mail, go to lunch, graft a little before a little unit get-together, graft a little more and then get the hell outta there.

i went to the bank, sorted out a whole bunch of things. including ordering a cheque-book. it feels so... grown-up.

i visited the mongoose's ex, then met up with spot and a friend of his for supper and coffee... at the cafeneto, of course. sunshine was there for the first time in ages, and it's the first time she's seen me with my new rank. we chatted for all of two seconds (actually, spot did most of the chatting) before we bolted; i don't know what *i* think as far as she's concerned. :S

i found the marshmallows the kid had bought on the table when i got home. eh?! i left him a rather harsh name-calling voicemail.

i got dressed, then bussed through to SxS's place. grootbek was there, we went to pick up ru55 (and eat too much south african chocolate), and then come down to tel aviv :P

we ended up at molly bloom's, and it turns out that they make extremely good apple pie. afterwards i got a ride home, showered and hit the sack.

i had an NDE this morning, i woke up groggy and went to the bathroom - i was feeling a bit asleep so i put out a hand to the wall to support myself, and i totally misjudged the wall and almost landed teeth-first on the toilet bowl (seat-up, and i'll bet porcelain's more painful).
that got my eyes open, and flashes of "what if?" (like swallowing broken teeth, or falling sideways and being stabbed in the neck with a toilet-brush, and helplessly spraying blood all over the bathroom) going through my head make a great start to any day.

when i got up properly, and had made coffee and screamed at the kid a little (i'd intended that to be in good fun, but i was still a bit out of it and it just came out mean; i think i properly upset him), i jotted down everything up until the previous paragraph and then went off with spot to do a quick shop before scrambling to do all the things that needed doing.

i pulled out my wallet to pay, but it didn't contain my credit card. quick panic and double-checked pockets, but no dice. i had *just* too little cash to cover the shopping, so spot used some of the money i loaned him to help out. as i walked outside, i realized where the card went.

i'd left it in molly bloom's. in my search for the slip i was supposed to sign amongst all the other slips (another credit card was used and each one produces three of the damn things) and change, i'd missed it and walked out. that's never happened to me before, and it couldn't have happened at a worse time:

a) i thought i'd woken up early enough, and on the way there was reminded that last night we switched from daylight savings time, and it was an hour later than my watch and clock were reporting.
b) other bank branches (same bank) are unable to determine whether an account number is valid, so i couldn't draw cash.
c) my bank branch is closed on fridays. and really far away besides.
d) the kid was at work, spot didn't have enough cash to loan me (although i took a twenty back from him for the bus).
e) molly bloom's doesn't open until 14.00 on fridays (and it took a while to figure that out, they've pasted a pamphlet over their posted opening times) and i needed to be at yogi's at 14.00.
f) i hadn't sorted out a gift for yogi, and i hadn't sorted out gifts for my relatives for monday (no pressure, no pressure...)
g) i'd just been shouting at the kid for doing something stupid, and leaving behind my credit card was exponentially worse than misunderstanding a marshmallow directive.

the only plus side was that while i was walking around the area (to molly bloom's, to the bank and back) i finally pieced together a couple of chunks of tel aviv that i've been familiar with but unable to connect on the map in my head.

i got dressed, took a bus and a walk to yogi's parents' place, and spent a really nice afternoon gorging myself and chatting with all my friends that i only ever see at gatherings. it really is like family. the only weird thing is that just this morning my mother was making noises about me settling down and having kids, and for the first while after i got there so many friends were rocking up with children that i began feeling bad about not having brought my own.

the weather was great, the company excellent, the food most satisfying both quantitatively and qualitatively. an irish friend informed us that apple pie isn't irish.

around 5pm i got a ride back to tel aviv. i shaved my head this week, and getting sunburned with short hair is really silly and really painful. so i now have mild sunstroke. go me!

i got home, put on a hat, and managed to convince the kid to come with for the mission. we had a nice walk, i got my financial independence back, we detoured and had coffee at movieing, rented two movies (a scanner darkly and underworld), and got ice-cream on the way back home. i had a cone filled with a flavour that incorporated hel (cardemon), green-tea and orange vanilla with orange strips, and it was devastating.

we've just watched a scanner darkly, and as messed up as i am i couldn't nod off - it's a fantastic film.