As I really don’t want this blog to become political or controversial, I think I’m better off not posting anything for now. Back soon, I hope!
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My daughter, the singer
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Multi-tasking
“Multi-tasking” is a word that originated from the computer world. As I have belonged to that world for a long time, I probably knew it before it became common parlance. In that sense, it doesn’t really mean that a computer performs several tasks at once. It means that the computer performs one task at a time, but can hop between the tasks so quickly that it appears to us to perform them simultaneously.
Do humans multi-task in the same way, or do we really have the ability to do more than one thing at a time? I think the answer is the latter – up to a point. If women are considered to be better at multi-tasking than men, why am I so bad at it? I think that’s because I’m too busy thinking about what other people think of me. I multi-task even before I try to do something else as well.
Anyway, that was just a preamble to telling you that I’ve been reading two books at once – in the computer sense, that is. A chapter from here and a chapter from there.
One of the books was The Dark Threads by Jean Davison, about the true and awful years during which the author was misdiagnosed as being mentally ill. I was very moved by this story and might devote another post to it.
The other was a pocket novel. Pocket novels are (or have been up to now) romances with happy endings. They enable readers to escape from the real world and lose themselves in a world where everything comes right in the end.
The two books couldn’t be more different and complemented each other perfectly. I was able to escape from a real and frightening world whenever I wanted to.
I remember school teachers telling us not to start reading a book before finishing the previous one. I can’t remember why. Perhaps they thought the first book would probably remain unfinished.
Do you multi-read?
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A letter to an old house
I got this idea from Mimi’s blog. (And by the way Mimi is a very talented artist.)
Dear 75 Hall Lane,
For 23 years I knew no other home. For 21 and a half years I lived in you, leaving only for nine short terms at university. Always, I returned to your cold, stone embrace – comforting but lonely.
For ten years, I had the little room, squeezing my games into the floorspace between the bed and the wardrobe, opening out the bureau desk to do my homework. After my brother married, I moved into the big room. I wallowed in the space but felt lonelier.
You changed over the years. A knocked-out wall, fitted furniture, central heating. Outside, you metamorphosed from an almost country dwelling, your tranquility broken only by the occasional passing train, to a noisy, suburban house, bordered by main roads and topped by a motorway.
We’ve met twice since my parents left, but I haven’t seen inside or behind you. Your walls have been painted white. Your front garden has been concreted over, the pink hydrangeas gone. One time I saw a Christmas tree behind your front window, where my parents would have been embarrassed to light our Chanuka candles.
I can’t say I miss you. The house I live in now is bigger, has a larger and more beautiful garden and is quieter. Besides, the life I lead now is much, much better than the one I lived in and out of your confines.
I hope your current occupants are happier than I was then, and that you share their happiness. I’m far away from you now, but I haven’t forgotten you.
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A-Z Challenge Reflections Post
The people at A to Z Challenge posted some questions to help reflect. I’m using them as my brain has gone into hibernation following the long month of April.
How did your journey through the alphabet go? Did you meet new bloggers with similar interests? Are there any you would like to feature and share with others?
Some bloggers expressed an interest in reading about Jerusalem. Of those, J.C. Martin was the most vocal.
What were the highlights for you? (lowlights too…we want to hear it all)
The highlights were the comments. Lots of lovely comments from friendly bloggers. Lowlights? I don’t think so….
Did you enjoy posting daily? What was your biggest hurdle? What was your easiest task?
I tried to photograph every place I mentioned. Sometimes time got in the way, but mostly I succeeded. Describing the places was quite easy, as there is no lack of information out there.
Was time management an issue? (I know, silly question, when isn’t time management an issue – but, it is worth reflecting on)
Er… yes.
And what about your content – did you have a theme or did you wing it? Was it easy to come up with ideas for each letter, or were some harder?
I had a theme and plenty of choice for most of the letters. The only hard one was X. I cheated a bit there. There was one place I wrote about and scrapped at the last minute. I was afraid the stories surrounding the place would turn out to be too controversial.
How about commenting – did you stumble upon lots of sites still using word verification? Did this prevent you from leaving a comment? What worked for your blog?
Most sites were easy to comment on. My problem was finding something to say. I read a lot more posts than I commented on. I didn’t visit enough blogs – it was hard to find the time.
What will you do different next year? (Yes, you are doing this next year, you know you are, even if your brain is telling you to run for the hills – it appreciates the exercise)
I’d like to say I’ll schedule all my posts in advance so that I have more time to visit other blogs, but I doubt that will happen.
What pearls of wisdom do you want to share with the Co-Hosts of this event? (We would love to hear from you and know what you think would make this awesome event even better)
Thank you for organising it. It was fun.
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Four’s Company?
Hubby and I have been married for a long time. In fact we’re just coming up to another anniversary – 34 years.
For most of that time, we shared a bed – just the two of us. Now, we still share a bed, but we’ve been joined by two others.
He recently got an iphone. Now he listens to things on it and reads things. So it has joined our bed. And the other day I decided that if I’m ever going to read the books that have accumulated in the kindle application on my laptop PC, I’m going to have to take PC to bed with me.
So now we’re a foursome.
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Nostalgia
It’s a feature of getting older. We look back more. That’s not surprising – we have more to look back to.
Today, Rosalind Adam tweeted: Today’s date is the old Police HQ number Whitehall 1.2.12.
It was something we often heard on the radio: “The police are looking for….If you know of her whereabouts, please contact your nearest police station or dial Whitehall 1212.”
Rosalind’s tweet triggered tweets about nostalgia and had me singing a song that’s popular here:
I couldn’t find a translation. I suppose that means I’ll have to do it myself.
I knew that you’d come
As the evening comes you lie in wait
And give me an old hug
NostalgiaWhat we’ve forgotten, you’ll remind
Washing my memory with light
Taking me back
NostalgiaTo beautiful days
When we still had places to go to
We watched the sunset
We promised we wouldn’t changeBut then time passed
And wanted it different
We look back and rememberI knew that you’d come
Exactly when no one is here
And stroke my hair
NostalgiaDidn’t it used to be better
Or is it just the present
That looks so pale
Nostalgia
My folk dancing instructor, Boaz, created a lovely dance to this song, which is why I know it so well.
And talking of nostalgia, in one month from now, it will be exactly a decade since something very special happened to me. I want to celebrate it on my blog, but haven’t yet thought of a way to do it. Hopefully, I’ll think of something by then.
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This post is unlike all the others
What makes this post different?
- It’s not about any topic I’ve mentioned before.
- I’ve always avoided politics and this is political, although all the political parties, as far as I know, are on the same side.
- By writing it, I admit that my country is not perfect. (More about that below.)
But:
This is an important issue, one that needs to be talked about and tackled. So I’m doing my bit. For those of you who don’t live here, I want to make two things clear:
- Most of the ultra-orthodox Jews are against this behaviour.
- Segregated buses run on specific routes and usually there are regular buses on the same routes. I’ve never ridden on one. No one polices the segregation; it is done by mutual consent.
Now read this.
This problem is at least as old as the state. Successive governments have turned a blind eye to it and let it mushroom, giving in to demands of the ultra-orthodox in return for support in other areas.
Why is it hard for me to admit that Israel is less than perfect? After all, no country is perfect. Why should Israel be any different? Because, when you feel the world is against you and believes all the lies that are bandied about, you want to counteract that with the good things, of which there are many.
I expect to be back to normal in my next post.
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Mnemonics Competition – Answers
Congratulations to Sarah Pearson, who worked out that
Rejoice heartily, your teacher has measles (Music)
is a way of remembering the spelling of RHYTHM.
No one got the others, which were, admittedly, harder:
LADPOCS (Geography)
is a list of factors affecting the weather: latitude, altitude, distance from the sea, prevailing winds, ocean currents, clouds and rainfall, slope of the land.
BODMAS (Maths)
This is the order of working out a mathematical expression: brackets, of, division and multiplication, addition and subtraction. In other words, if you have to work out 2(4×6+2), then you first multiply 4 by 6 (=24), then add 2 (=26), then multiply the whole thing by 2 (=52). Which doesn’t seem to be in the order of BODMAS, but it made sense at the time!
King Henry’s daughter makes delicious cream meringues (Maths)
This one I’m sure of: kilometres, hectometres, decametres, metres, decimetres, centimetres, millimetres.
“But Miss, what if it’s grams and not metres?“
Then it’s: King Henry’s daughter gnaws delicious cream meringues.
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Mnemonics Competition
There’s a competition in this post!
Today’s word for the day on Facebook Scrabble is ADJACENT. The definition is: near, next to. I immediately thought back a thousand years to English lessons, where we had to recite:
Abundant plenty
Abundant plenty
Abundant plenty
Adhere stick
Adhere stick
Adhere stick
Adjacent next to
Adjacent next to
Adjacent next to
I can’t remember what came after that, but I did once. Reciting these definitions definitely helped to improve my vocabulary.
There are a few other things I remember learning at school. Like “M-I-double S-I-double S-I-double P-I” and “N-E-C-E-double S-A-R-Y”.
And these:
LADPOCS (Geography)
BODMAS (Maths)
King Henry’s daughter makes (/gnaws) delicious cream meringues (Maths)
Rejoice heartily, your teacher has measles (Music)
So, there’s the competition. Do you know what any of those things in red mean? The first person (people) to tell me in the comments will get… I don’t know. But I’ll think of something.
People who were at school with me (you know who are) are not eligible to enter.
Moral: when all else is forgotten, it’s the mnemonics that stick.
Miriam Drori, Author 