Trip to Israel, Dec-Jan 2012-2013:

First week in Tel-Aviv:

Tuesday

My parents left for their field on Tuesday morning and we walked to

Iulia Zeltzer’s home. This was a good chance to start my hunt for local graffiti,

which is my hobby when in the city. We stopped on the way to buy a cake

and biscuits.

Another hobby is photographing the beautiful (though sometimes highly neglected) Bauhaus buildings

When we arrived at Balfur street we were amazed to see the condition of the Zeltzers’ building. In the last two years it has been under heavy renovations and currently looked like it has

been bombed. The street was exceptionally noisy as 3 or 4 other buildings were under the same heavy renovations. Hahgoot, who

was starting to shut down anyway due to the regular sensory shock of the Tel Avivian street, was starting to get highly

agitated.

Indoors it was a bit better (it also helped that Iulia, who has been living in close proximity with the builders in

the last two years and even stores their equipment (!), shouted at them to go on a coffee break while we got

settled in). Hahgoot calmed down a bit thanks to a train set, but was very rigid and negative, and refused to

eat.

Iulia and Morel tried some of my mums homemade pickles, from veggies grown in their field.

Iulia broke her hand practically minutes after finishing a phone conversation with me a few days earlier (she was dusting the book cases while talking to me on the phone, then put the phone down and the shelf with the heavy art books collapsed straight onto her hand that was holding the dusting cloth. Unbelievable...) she was coping quite well considering her arm was in a cast... She said she

kept forgetting she broke it as it was a new thing...

We had a nice lunch, with Iulia’s famous dumpling soup.

Iulia was impressed by Alma’s good appetite and soup eating style...

The renovations constantly go on at every hour. It has been a chaotic two years...

Bottom left: one of the tenants wrote poetry on the wall.

Hahgoot was finding the constant banging and noises very disturbing and after a few hours when we had to go back

downstairs she froze and refused to move so I carried her down the stairs while Iulia and Morel helped with Alma and the pram.

The walk back went OK – Alma had a nap and Hahgoot helped me hunt for graffiti

At night it took till 11 pm to settle the girls to bed. Alma was especially difficult as she threw Hahgoot out

of bed... So I announced the new bedtime routine: Hahgoot shall read in my dad’s bed, under his very

heavy blankets, and even fall asleep there if desired, while Alma falls asleep on the sofa bed.