it doesn't FEEL like sunday...

yesterday:

there are certain birthday presents which are awesome, fully customizable, and available only in the US. giant suck.

after a sweaty blade back i hit the shower, and came out dizzy. we picked up a coke and a slab of chocolate on our way to the cinema, which helped. running into urchin was a surprise - haven't seen her in ages!

we watched the king's speech, and it really is awesome. i'm sure that most of the humour went over all the israeli heads around me because they're not aware of just how uptight the british can be, and that's in the present tense :P

we did ze sushi for dinner, eating tons of it. and i drank quite a lot of sake. i was exhausted when we got home, with a big belly (okay, i can't really blame one meal for that) and passed out almost immediately.

---
the incredible heat! two days of heatwave, and i can't decide if i'm loving it or not. my day began around 8am with phone calls to the city council, eventually giving up and missioning off to visit them in person. the guy i spoke to asked if i really think i can change things in the "wild west of israel"...

then i visited the police station, where my attitude was laughed at again. both parties referred me to their main branches in jerusalem. great.

i was pleasantly surprised to see a column of cars waiting patiently (not hooting, at least) for a garbage truck. the guy performing the slamming of the bins was taking his time because he had a cellphone nestled between ear and shoulder... that's a bit wrong, isn't it?

i then had another police chat when i walked past a cruiser whose engine was running. at least for them it makes sense to do it.

herzeliya: the chocolate melted, the coffee had some milk in it (even though i'd asked for none). and mmf was too busy to see me, so i spent an hour or so sorting out student union bureaucracy and playing with iphone camera apps, eventually leaving (in a rush) when i realized that i was going to be late for my physio appointment and offending mmf with a badly formed question when i asked about next month's paycheck.

only i hadn't checked my physio appointment properly, and arrived about two hours early. so i met up with pg and we had lunch at haronson. good food! a woman with a pram bumped it into me and apologized; i would've preferred not being bumped into at all. then her large friend stood up and for a minute his bum hovered way too close to my head for comfort...

israelis and personal space, not quite what i grew up with.

we went home for a perfect (very short) pseudonap, then i headed out to the bus to return to the physiotherapy.

---
the pram in the middle of the aisle of the bus i'm used to. still shocked by, but used to. it's the woman's other children at the back of the bus that bothered me - the one with her face covered in pizza tried to forcefully share her slice with my shirt, then threw it to the ground (roughly) and continued to harass the other passengers.

how do i know i'm in a first world country?

---
the electro-therapy was staggering, but the face-pads wouldn't stick to my beard properly (oops) so it was less traumatic than usual. the physiotherapist gave me some good advice regarding exercise, though... i think it's time to lower my standards and return to taekwondo.

i came from there to work, and my mind's been a mess since i've arrived. i did get something done, but my heart's just not into it. and i've still got stressers like my seminar to keep me distracted. gonna go get some exercise now, then see if i can kill that shit off before the holiday officially begins.