Tu Bishvat. It’s supposed to be a time of tree-planting. Unfortunately, the country is still covered in snow. Jerusalem has three snow plows. Two of them stopped working the first hour. The third just disappeared, and no one can find it. Typical Israel.
In the gans, the kids celebrated the holiday by gathering lots of fruits—brought in by the teachers, who also gave each child a plant. We heard from Ben’s teacher that he’s misbehaving in school and also getting his best friend Cobie in trouble. So I had to have a long talk with him about that, reminding him if the teacher doesn’t like him, she can make his life hell. Meanwhile, Little Miss Hypocrite is so sweet at the gan. And then she gets home!
Abe and I did celebrate his birthday by going out to a French/Moroccan restaurant, the Marrakech, where I had onion soup and shrimp Provencal. Delicious. On Saturday night we went with friends to Jaffa for dinner and then to the Cave, a nightclub, where there was a show. First gypsy violin music, then a dance band, finally Yaffa Yarkoni came on. Great, as always. We didn’t get home until after one, which didn’t stop the kids from waking us early the next morning.
What’s all this about Richard Nixon? We’re having trouble following the news here. (Watergate happened without us.)
It’s funny that my mother in the US is complaining about the price of meat. I know Americans eat meat at least once a day if not more. Here, not so much. And it’s not only because the beef is so bad. Cheese and eggs are big. I serve a lot of bacala, which is basically frozen cod. It’s quite good. Unfortunately, because of the weather, people are actually buying eggs on the black market. And everyone is worried about crop failures due to the cold temperatures. I’m sure we won’t starve. I hope.