The Big Hummus Experiment - the Results

As promised, that's what happens to hummus after being 54 hrs outside of the fridge. The pics are courtesy of me, whereas the state of the Hummus - Lufthansa...



Can you see the amount of oil in the product? This experience (experiment) convinced me not to consume industrialized Hummus anymore. If possible...

In case you are not quite aware of the texture of an industrialized Hummus, you have to know how Hummus looks like before the 54 hrs adventure.

The Big Hummus Experiment

Have you ever wondered how long can frozen Hummus last?

I might have an answer soon enough!
Yesterday I was flying back to Dublin with Lufthansa, via Frankfurt. Due to the stormy weather in Frankfort, there was 1 hour delay in my flight. That leaves me with 30 minutes between my flights and when we landed I had to walk (couldn't run with the heavy carry on I was carrying) to another terminal. Luckily, few minutes later, when I found the nearest departures list, I discovered that the flight to Dublin was delayed by 20 minutes.

After boarding was completed, the captain announced that we are waiting for another passenger, whose flight was delayed and she was making her way to the aircraft. It should take another 20 minutes.

After she arrived, the captain announces that now we have to wait until the airport's snowplows (there were about 40 of those) will clear the snow from the runway and this should take another 15 minutes. After sleeping for half an hour I woke and realized we are still at the gate.

Eventually we left Frankfurt 1.5 hours later than scheduled. We landed in Dublin airport just after midnight.

I felt pretty lucky after queuing for 1 minute at the immigration and I was happily heading to the luggage belt, presuming my luggage will turn out first, since it probably was amongst the last ones to be loaded.

But I was so wrong... 30 minutes later I discovered that my luggage wasn't even on the plane. After a quick and not so thorough investigation by the airline agent, I was told it will arrive in Dublin in the next morning flight.
At this moment, almost 24 hrs later, it still didn't arrive.

What does it have to do with Hummus Experiment?

My flatmate just loves good Hummus. Can I think of a better Christmas present? Yes I can. But I thought to myself why not taking with me a whole kilogram of Frozen Hummus? By the time I arrive in Dublin, it will stay cold. If only I knew...

So... Have you ever wondered what it looks like when Hummus is out of the fridge for 2 days (hopefully) or more?
Thanks to Lufthansa, who were even worse than Ryanair yesterday, I might be able to tell.

Stay tuned to find out about the finding of this experiment.

Alice in Wonderland or Notes from a Christmas Party

On Friday we had the annual Winter/End of Another Great Year/Christmas Party.

Here are some of my observations from that party:

1. At the bar, while waiting for a bartender to serve us, some girls, who made so much effort in order for them to look astonishing that evening, started drinking the leftovers from the glasses that were left on the bar, while trying to keep stable and balanced (unsuccessfully). Did I mention that we had to pay for our drinks this year? Does the word Recession rings a bell?

2. When I was dancing with my Croatian (girl)friend, the guy who was dancing next to us started bumping into us whilst dancing (pretty hard!) just in order to make a pass at us. I was just ignoring him. Some might think of me as a snob or antisocial. However, I do think that he could just start dancing with us or start (some kind of) a conversation. Just say something (you can call me old fashioned if you like). Anything. Even a weather talk works here, it's Ireland for Christ's sake. The weather is always interesting. It's much more dynamic than working in Google. Seriously! You may also say something about the DJ and the band if you like.
Anyhow, at some point my friend started dancing with him for a while. All this while, by the way, they just said nothing. Except for apologizing every time he bumped. That's the only thing that came out of this guy's mouth the whole time I was around.
I'm abandoning my Anthropological duty for a moment just to make an opinion: What an odd way to come on to girls...

3. An Israeli girl was dancing all night with a Swedish guy who had the most original ,I must say, opening line: "Hi, I'm Sven and I'm Swedish. Since I'm Swedish I support the Palestinians".

4. A married guy held hand and hugged his colleague every time I bumped into them. The morning after the party I came across him and his family (wife and daughter) catching a taxi. That's what happens when living in the Google ghetto...

5. A young guy was happily dancing (in my opinion, he was the cutest drunk in the party), shouting: "Wawawiwa". Yes, just like Dova'le Glickman in Zehu Ze. Apparently, he was imitating Burat (Sasha Baron Cohen, remember?), who was saying it in the movie 'Burat'. We were also dancing together, for a while, until we hit a girl with drink. He then became serious for a moment, apologizing to her (and so did I). After a whole minute we were expressing our deepened apologies to the unfortunate situation, I just disappeared in the crowed.
It all happened, by the way, due to the temporary lose of his sense of space. Although I was very sober and tried not to dance like we had the whole dance floor to ourselves, it was rather difficult with a partner who does believe so... I assume it also looked very funny to other observers. Were there others like me? The only one I can think of is the guy who doesn't need to consume alcohol in order to have fun.

6. The girls who did everything they could in order to look astonishingly beautiful and fabulous that night, wend home looking like a wreck. Some were sitting on the side-walk, ruining their fancy Cocktail (may I say Oscar?) dresses when going out to have a smoke, others looked like (rather unstable and unbalanced) zombies. I remember one girl at the elevator had her boob out of her dress and it was her friend who noticed this and fixed her dress in order to cover it. It didn't seem the girl even noticed neither her exposed breast nor her friend's gesture.

To summarize my experience:
I'm happy I got the chance to be in such a party, since it's probably will be the last one. Felt like Student's party, just that they tried to act like adults but it didn't really work out for them nor turned out the way they expected.

I also feel much better for feeling that I don't belong sometimes. Sometimes I really don't want to belong to some of the above.

And I can also have fun without consuming alcohol. I actually did prefer the gorgeous Éclairs. I had some whenever I had the chance. God, I had so many...

My Favourite 2008 Christmas TV Ad

Ahhhhhh... Christmas brings out the best of everything and everyone!

Even myself! Feels like I'm a completely different person after this ad shows on TV. It usually happens at the gym and I become too chatty and all smiles afterwards, and if you know me good enough you know I'm usually not!

By the way, it's all about the song. I ignore that gimmicky baby...
And you should look for their 2007 one as well!

Common People, Part I

" ... I want to live like common people
I want to do whatever common people do
I want to sleep with common people
I want to sleep with common people like you
Well what else could I do?
I said I'll see what I can do

I took her to a supermarket ..."

Well, the supermarket in Israel is a nice anthropological experience and I'd love to share this kind of experience with you someday. However, you can also go the ministry of interior. Or take the bus. Or just go to the doctor if you prefer:

A man with a tracing bracelet on his ankle enters the clinic. His name is Dror Ohana [yes, just like one of the known mafia families in Israel]. He brings along his ugly little dog, cheeco. Hanit, the receptionist, asks him to keep his dog outside of the clinic, since dogs are not allowed. Dror Ohana wants to see the dermatologist [this bracelet must have given him a rash…]. Hanit explains that he's fully booked for today and over the next few weeks he's on vacation. It makes Dror Ohana pretty angry that he cannot see the doctor today and wonders out loud: "I can't understand, why on earth is the doctor going on vacation when so many people must see him?!" [if only I knew, I would have given up my GP appointment and go to the dermatologist as well!]

Then he calls the information center asks for an appointment with the nearest dermatologist. He also puts the phone on loudspeaker, of course, while he was waiting [I believe it’s highly uncomfortable o use his mobile as a handset]. He pays no attention to Hanit, who demands he would not make these calls here or at least not on speaker. And since cheeco was still inside the clinic, she added that this is not the place for dogs!
But Dror Ohana says that no one could watch after cheeco, so he had to bring him along. Also, he cannot be left outside, unaccompanied! Then he adds: “Besides, if you were willing to help me and let me in today, I wouldn't have done that. This is all your fault so stop complaining!”

While Dror Ohana is holding [the information call center. remember?], Cheeco is chewing his lace, tearing it, and now he's free to wander around the clinic. Dror Ohana is still on the phone, but now he’s speaking to a representative who's trying to schedule an appointment for him [with another dermatologist. Remember?]. When he's done, he loudly asks all the people in the clinic: “Where is Ezorey Hen?”
Everybody is staring at him, but nobody answers.
“Where is Ezorey Hen? Nobody knows?!”

The receptionist asks him again to take the dog outside of the clinic. But then Dror Ohana discovers that Ezorey Hen is too far for him and he doesn't know how to get there, so he has to call again, to shout at the representative and schedule an appointment to another closer dermatologist.

After taking out his anger on the current representative, he gets a new appointment, to another dermatologist, who’s not on a vacation when most people need to see him!

Then Dror Ohana turns to cheeco, discovering the torn lace. “You ate your lace again?! Why? It’s a new one, bought it yesterday! You bad dog, this cost me 20 Shekels! OK, let’s go, Hanit doesn’t like us and don’t want us here.”

And then Dror Ohana, Cheeco, the ankle and the bracelet left the clinic and things became quite boring again.

Couldn't ask for better friends - I love you R4!!!

Using this platform to thank all my friends here in Google Ireland who organised some amazing birthday surprises. This years birthday is definitely the winner in my Best Birthday at Work category.

So thanks again.

By the way, I'm not mentioning names since I'm certain I'll forget few.

Back to civilization?

My holiday in Israel is over. That's the first time I was actually a visitor in my homeland. It definitely is a good feeling.

At the moment I'm at the airport, reminding you I'm still alive (even though I met most of you while visiting in Israel).

But I'm not going back to civilization. I wouldn't call Ireland a civilized country. No, it's a 3rd world country.

So, this post is to ask you to stay tuned for some updates and my newest adventures in the holy land.