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.

Holiday, at Last! Going to Hong Kong!

Leaving to Hong Kong this afternoon! This will be my first time in south east Asia. Going to be there till Monday, December 10th. So this is my Out of the Blog message. There will not be new posts till then, if you were wondering.

I'll try to write down some posts and/or tips on my Super-Cool Google notebook!
There will be some pics as well!

But now I'll go to sleep, too tired. Still have to pack tomorrow...

Answers to Some FAQ

Hi all,
Sorry it took me too long to answer. I'm just too busy, and somehow it doesn't surprise me.
Ireland is very nice, yet a bit retarded in certain ways, but you cannot have it all. So at least work is fine. There's a lot to do, but I enjoy it and it's very interesting. I love the people I work with, the food at work (which is a huge problem, but at least we have a free gym, and I'm there almost every other day), and the feeling that we are really being taken care of.

The most important thing is earning Euros and living in Ireland. It really makes everything else and other places to seem so cheap. And helps admitting that Israel is not such a bad expensive place to live. especially not Tel Aviv. And I'm serious. Try to pay no less than 1200 Euros for 1 bedroom apartment (and at least 1500 for 2 bedrooms). And the obvious thing is of course being closer to the rest of Europe and the lack of El Al presence nearby. It may be the main reason why the flights are cheap.

It also feels like people here are planning their next vacation all the time. So am I. That's what happens when people have so many free days a year (excluding National Holidays!). It also seems like I have been abroad (of Ireland) every month since I moved here. Yes, we already have plans for the next vacation which will be on 1-10 of December. We will be in Hong Kong. We already booked flights (even cheaper than what it would have cost in Israel) and hotels.

So... Those are the only updates I can come out with for now. Feel free to comment (or send an email) , and I think I'll use my blog for future updates for my dearest friends. Don't feel bad if it takes a while till you hear something back from me...
By the way, I can read and write Hebrew on my laptops, so don't write in English I you don't feel like (Unless you comment. Lets be fair towards my non-Israeli fans).

And to my dear friends that miss me, I really miss you and all the fun we had. And since you miss me in the office as well, maybe you better send me you CV??? Take a day or 2 to think about it.

And... Don't forget to check out the pics from Oslo, on my blog!

Air Bus

One of the great advantages of living in a European country is of course the possibility of cheap traveling. The low-cost airlines, to be precise. One of the biggest dreams of the average Israeli.
So guess what, after being in London last month I'm going to be in Oslo the coming weekend. We are going to be 13 friends from work, and probably we'll spend most of the weekend trying to work it out so that everybody will be content. But who cares? In that case its the company that counts.

Besides, I'm sure I'll be in Norway again one day, hopefully on February, to see Northern Lights. That has been one of my dreams ever since I was a child. One of my favourite book I liked to read over and over was a children's science book, and when I was reading about the northern light for the first time, and looking at the attached pictures, I decided that one of my goals in life is to witness this amazing phenomena.

But that's not what I want to talk about. Lets go back to the subject, this weekend in Oslo.

The flights are cheap indeed, cheaper than flying from Tel Aviv to Eilat.
But there is a catch. Probably there always is... It's possible to find and book a flight for 0.01 Euros (yes, 1 Euro cent), depends on when you travel and how much time in advance.

The reason we go to Oslo is the cheap flight (and lets ignore the fact that Norway is a very expensive country, even more expensive than Ireland). But in our case, we discovered we have to take a bus from the airport to Oslo, around 2 hours journey, and will cost us 35 Euros each, one way. so that's the money we were trying to save by booking cheap flights. Damn!

Oh, yes, 3 more things. Fees, to be precise:
Luggage fee- 6-10 Euros for each bag you check in, depends on the airline and whether you pay in advance or at the airport. Luckily, passengers can (still) take carry on luggage for no extra fees. 1 for each passenger, and depends on the size of the bag.
Check in fee- only the online check in is free. otherwise pay extra 7 euros.
Credit card fee- 6 Euros for each passenger. One can avoid that fee incase s/he pays with Visa electron. Otherwise, no one can get away with this.

So eventually the amount of money we spend in order to arrive to our destination is reasonable enough, definitely not cheap.

So the lesson for today is that there's no such thing as free meals (except from Google). Unless, of course, you get your flights to London Gatwick for as little as 10.02 Euros (0.02 Euros for the flights and 10 more for the Credit Card fee) or Edinburgh for 20 Euros.

Week 1 Summary

Here are the implications of my first week at Google:

My shoulders hurt and my back is almost broken from carrying my new laptop to and from work.

I have some blisters that refuse to heal from walking to and from work, 30 minutes every direction.

My arms are full with bruises as I bump into so many people on rush hours in the crowded city of Dublin.

My ass hurts from sitting for 3 hours at the Immigration police waiting to get a Certificate of Registration card that looks exactly like an ID card, but says at the back: This is not an Identity Card. And they got my details wrong: they changed my name and made me 2 years older. what the hell will happen if a policeman will check my certificate and see I'm supposed to be 30 according to it? He might think it's a fake one!
Ohhh, and almost an hour at the social security offices.

I have a cold from walking in the rain. With umbrella. No jacket.

Lack of sleep. It just feels that way. Now that I'm working again, I feel like I need to sleep more than I used to when I was unemployed. Besides, I don't feel like my back is healing as well, because of the lousy mattress we have in our apartment. In Israel I had my own wonder mattress. Now we have the cheapest mattress the owner could find. which probably wasn't that cheap. After all he paid in Euros.

And of course, I'm broke.
But somehow there's always money a pint or 2 everytime we are going to the pub.
Some of my last month expenses:
British Airways' (expensive) ticket to Dublin (which will be reimbursed);
New shoes for work, paid 100 (!!) Euros for the above-mentioned certificate (which will be reimbursed);
A new mobile. I know I cannot allow myself luxuries, but I'm an Israeli, I cannot function without a mobile. In spite of the fact that I don't really use it, I must grant people the opportunity to reach me all day. Doesn't matter if I'm broke;
New pants. In order to justify this purchase I will state that it was for work as well.

I'll get my first paycheck and the reimbursements on the 25th of August! I'll have to use the Israeli bank account for everything, and the money in it is about to evaporate by the 2nd of August.
Or maybe just ask Dan for some money... Haven't asked someone for money for over 10 years...
Isn't life wonderful as a poor girl?

So as you probably already figured out, Israelis like to complain. A lot.

But I, contrary to other Israelis, can also distinguish some positive aspects of the situation:

I start working on Mondays. I always thought that working on Sundays is useless. And at last someone actually agrees. (And for the moment, lets drop the fact I also work Fridays, OK?)

It is so nice to see the smiling face of the man who hands out the morning papers at the same street corner, and greets me every morning and wishes me a wonderful day.

I met so many interesting people, from at least 15 different nationalities!

I become even more eco-friendly than before.

There are hundreds (if not thousands) of free beer in the canteen (Where we have breakfast and lunch everyday) on each Friday's TGIF. And after drinking some, we go to the pub to drink some more.

Playing X-BOX, Foosball (Still learning), Pool (trying to, anyway), and the possibility to choose any other game, such as SP2 (t, Table-Tennis, and more (the rumor says there is or are PS3 somewhere).
If I don't feel like playing I can always sit on cushion seat (pouffe). Or on the massage sofa.

And....
I do have a google.com account, which is priceless!

Have a Safe Flight!

This morning I joined a friend on a flight in his Ultra-Light plane. I packed some paper vomit-bags in my back-pack, and was ready to go!

We were flying to the south of Israel, to the Negev, just above Ramon Crater, the border with Jordan, the Dead Sea and Masada

I took a camera with me, took some photos, hoping some of them will turn out to be sharp and clear, because I took some of the photos through the window, and it was a bit windy, and when you fly in such a plane,

with the window above us is open, the plane shakes and jumps a lot.

But I just love the adrenaline!

I wanted to show you some of the amazing photos I took, maybe you can feel the adventure through it:

(all rights reserved to me!!!)

Flying in a gorge in Ramon Crater, the greatest crater in the world .

We were flying above those amazing shaped stones (or shaped cliffs). Not safe at all if we are forced landing, for instance... But the view made us forget everything else!
The water in the background is the Dead Sea.

And of course- Masada, the perfect view from south and south-west.

Next time we'll fly to the north.

But it will probably be in few weeks time.