The Moon is Following Us

Bondi Barefoot

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Sharon) — Sun, 24 May 2009 11:11:00 +0000

Has been a while since I've written anything. It's Sunday night. Today we booked Sharon a ticket to go to her 20 years high school reunion in California in October. Lily is so very extremely excited to be left with me for a week and a bit.

The last few months have been rather uneventful as far as I remember. Mum came to stay for a couple of weeks which was great.

We went to Canberra for a long weekend. I'd not been before. It has a bad rap for being a totally boring town but it was actually really impressive. We went to the Anzac day service in the drizzle (memorial day) since it was Anzac weekend. It was quite moving. Kevin Rudd gave a speech. No security. Walked around the National War Memorial afterwards. Went to Parliament. Went to the National Museum. Went to Questacon (Science Museum). All really good except the very dodgy museum food. Stayed in a somewhat bizarre apartment. Visited Sharon's schoolmate Meredith and her new baby and family. All in all very impressed with Canberra.

Before that Mark and Tara were here for a visit along with some of Sharon's aunts and uncles from South Africa who were here for Purim. After that Anne and Irwin came from California and were here for Pesach. Before that Marcus came over with Ben from Israel. It was good to see everyone.

Lily terrorised and charmed them all.

Today we walked to the beach to find that it was the Bondi Barefoot which is a series of races in the soft sand at the top of the beach - 4Km and 10Km. There were people seriously running faster than I could on tarmac - quite bizarre. This one guy in the lead had this just enormous stride. Felt all motivated for a little bit and then got tired walking home so had a nap.

Kids have started playing AFL as the season started a few weeks ago. Sharon has been taking them to practice every week and to the 8am Saturday morning starts all over Sydney. Lily had to have her uniform shortened somewhat but is very pleased with the overall look. Sharon decided not to play rugby this season given that some of her team were nearer in age to Ariel than to her and given last season's injury stats. Anyhow she is now playing for a women's over 35s soccer team. Today we went to watch. Seems more sensible to me but she is missing the running into people and sheer physical brutality that Rugby provided.

February marked our two year anniversary in Sydney. Seems to have been a good move on the whole. Sharon and I took a week off by ourselves to walk the Milford Track in New Zealand known as the finest walk in the world. Fabulous week and stunning walking. Spent a few days in Queenstown on the South Island too including a half day going down a load of river rapids on a boogie board. All good fun.

That'll do. I'm going to be travelling again for work over the next few months after a break for about a year. Vegas in a couple of weeks followed by a week travelling the States and then probably again in July and possibly in Europe.

Lots more photos available at here: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/Ben.Berger/May2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCMrf043mjOmSVA&feat=directlink

Dirtiest Jobs in IT

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Sharon) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:24:00 +0000

This article made me laugh and then turned my stomach a few times. Number 6 seems like a lucrative sideline for therapists and counsellors.

http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/even-dirtier-it-jobs-muck-stops-here-002

Dirty IT job No. 6: Data crisis counselor
Wanted: Empathetic individual able to withstand long bouts of unwarranted abuse; soothing phone manner and low blood pressure essential.

When disaster strikes and critical data goes down the memory hole, it can generate a gamut of unpleasant emotions -- tears, depression, guilt, hopelessness, and rage.

It's Kelly Chessen's job to listen to it all. As a crisis counselor for data recovery firm DriveSavers, she's gotten calls from sobbing adults who've lost images or videos of their recently deceased parents. She's talked to dentists who were frantic because their systems went down and they have no idea what services their patients needed. She's logged hours with IT managers who lost entire Microsoft Exchange servers because they thought they knew how to implement RAID 5 but really didn't. Now their servers were dead, the backups were missing, and their jobs were on the line.

"I would talk to one IT guy one day and another IT guy from the same company the next day because the first guy had been fired," adds Chessen, whose job title really is Data Crisis Counselor.

Though she has an undergraduate degree in psychology, it was Chessen's five years on a suicide prevention line that best prepared her for her current position, which she was offered after a chance encounter with the president of the company. (No, he was not one of her callers, she hastens to note.)

Chessen says the worst call she ever received was from a small-business owner whose building had burned to the ground, taking all his computers with it. "He yelled at me for 30 minutes straight," says Chessen. "I didn't burn down his business. But after 5 or 10 minutes of yelling, it's hard not to take it personally."

It's a job your average IT person would be wholly unsuited for, agrees Chessen.

"Not everybody can do what I do for living," she says. "You need the skills, the background, and the patience. It's a dirty job, but it's also very rewarding, because we have a solution. In almost every case, we can get their data back for them, sometimes as quickly as 24 hours."

And on those rare instances when DriveSavers can't recover someone's data because the drives are simply too far gone? "I do grief counseling," she says.

Credit Card Operated Toilets (on planes!)

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Sharon) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 06:17:00 +0000

This strikes me as brilliantly counter-productive (unless RyanAir's boss was seeking publicity)...

"Chief executive Michael O'Leary has said he is thinking about installing credit card-operated toilets on planes and charging passengers to use them."

What exactly do you do if you don't have a credit card or it is lost in the overhead luggage? Anyone want to send their kids to see Grandma on that airline??

i-Phone pah

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Sharon) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:40:00 +0000

I want the world to stand still but it refuses. A glimpse of your "phone" in 7 years time.

Dawn Chorus and a video

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Sharon) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 10:01:00 +0000

Today we woke up at 5am-ish to bundle the kids into the car and drive to one of the local harbour beaches for a choral concert. Sharon's idea. And a good one. So good that there seemed to be a 5.30am traffic jam. So I was expecting about thirty people would get up so early but there were probably over a thousand. I'm not so good anymore of doing early starts.

Abi sent me this. You may have seen it but if not then take a look for two minutes.

Brains Work Best At Age of 39

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Sharon) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:05:00 +0000

It was my birthday. This was such an uplifting headline but then I read the small print.

Visiting all over the place.

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Sharon) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:38:00 +0000

Well we had a good holiday to Israel, London and New York. We were away for about four weeks. It was lots of travelling - 8 flights and not 4. So much for global airline alliances making life easier. But it was just good to see so many people - not everyone we would have liked, but a lot.

Israel was crazy as expected as we organized a shipment and emptied out our apartment in Modiin. Not helped by Ben being pretty under the weather for much of the time there. Probably working too hard before we left and spending my working day in an recycled air-conditioned bubble. We did get to see many Krengelim (Sharon's cousins) including some from South Africa and Yitzhak's bar mitzvah party get together. The latter was amazing - totally wowed - I don't think I was getting up and singing and addressing (totally eloquently) loads of people at that age. Lily slept through most of it but said she had a great time.

Also got to see Libby and Avi (who were and continue to be amazing), and Ruthie and her family and my old colleagues from Unicorn / IBM. It was great to hang out in the IBM foyer and see all those smart funny people again. Working with you has very positive memories for me and it was just great to chat and see how you are all doing and you all look great. We also got to see Dan and Ada, and Melanie and Marcus and Richard and Lisa and Gaby and Stephen, Dina and Gilad, and Miriam and many others. Then we spent three hours in the bank and had the pleasure of visiting the municipality and a lawyer and the post office etc etc...

Then it was off to London to stay at my mum's place. Spent loads of time with Abi and Deborah and mum which was great - thanks for making such a big effort. Sharon met up with an old school friend from Australia and we saw a bunch of old friends. I feel very privileged to be able to stop by every year or two or three and be able to catch up just like that. It's great to see how everyone's lives have developed and to see quite a few kids get bigger. Big thanks to Louise and Dave especially for letting your house be invaded. I wish you all lived here in Sydney.

New York was great too. Just seemed to see lots of friends and eat lots of amazing food and do a bit of shopping. Good to be back in Park Slope and we had an amazing brownstone to house-sit in - thanks to Sharon T for organizing that. We also camped out at Elyse and Bruce's place for the last weekend. We didn't really know Bruce so well when we lived in Brooklyn but he is really quite funny - thanks for your hospitality.

And after so long it was just good to be back in our own beds again. Going back to work was a bit of a shock but we are back into it now. I didn't look at work email once the whole time away (which was unprecedented and great). The kids have one more term and then the summer holidays start. We're back at the beach with it's ever changing rhythms. The days are getting longer. We have the painters in. The grass is a disgrace. Antibiotics have killed ouff my five week yucky cold. Life is basically good.

There are some photos from London here and New York here and a mishmash of others here.

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Waltz with Bashir

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Sharon) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 02:22:00 +0000

Last night we went to see Waltz with Bashir. An Israeli animated documentary. It is about the journey the director (Ari Folman) takes to recover his memory from his time as a 19 year old soldier serving in Lebanon. It is one of the most powerful films I have ever seen. Quite extraordinary. Track it down and go and see it. More details here.

Visiting China

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Sharon) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 07:05:00 +0000

Preparing for English-speaking visitors, a restaurant in China recently ran its name through an online translator, took the result, then purchased and mounted a large sign displaying the English version of their name.

Source: AdFreak and Slashdot

Randy Pausch

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Sharon) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 07:17:00 +0000

This is a remarkable lecture / talk with a powerful punch line. If you have a quiet hour and a quarter it is well worth a look. Quite emotional.

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008) gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving presentation, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals.

Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

Dead car

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Sharon) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:19:00 +0000

Oh no. Someone killed our car. They were being chased by the police and crashed into our car and two others when we were not in it. It was parked politely on the street near Sharon's work. It is deceased. We need to get a new car. Suggestions on what car to get welcome.

Vomit on the screen

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Sharon) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 12:19:00 +0000

I have not written for a while. I'm not sure but it is not busyness or lack of time. So I'm going to write to get over it. This is what we have been doing in no particular order and no particular chronology. I write sitting next to Sharon watching Lipstick Jungle - ugh. So here goes. Ariel broke his arm. Again. He just had the pins out a week out. Everything got infected. It smelt like cheese. We thought it was just sweat under the cast but it was gangrene. All is well and he is off the antibiotics. Worst case scenario is a scar as testament to his parents cluelessness. Lily turned 4. Ariel turned 6. We edge inexorably towards 40. I'm losing my hair. I just applied mud to my face. Feels good. We still have not bought a TV stand so there are wires everywhere. We are going on a round the world trip starting in Israel for New Year, moving to London and then on to New York. Starts in September and ends in October. Ariel started school. He is enjoying it mostly. He wears a cute uniform. They both seem to be getting a bit spoilt. This troubles us. We need to work out whether to keep Lily in preschool or move her to Kindergarten. More cluelessness. We are planning to sell our apartment in Israel. Been a massive pain to maintain from across the globe. Can't see us moving back into it even if one day we move back to Israel. I was in Vegas. Yuck. I was in London for a few days. Great to see family and a few people. Can't believe that B is having twins. How cool is that - go girl. Look forward to catching up when we are all over. Hopefully the kids will not be mares with the jet lag and moving around and meeting lots of people for a month. I'm enjoying my soccer. I still have to set up a poker game. Sharon is playing rugby again - very exciting. Some of her team-mates are nearer in age to Ariel and some of the opposition weigh in at 200 pounds. Here is hoping she does not get injured. The Pope is in Sydney. Brought in lots of "pilgrims". We have a big time Catholic attraction next to the office so Benedict came by in his 20 car cavalcade - serious carbon footprint. My cousin Katy has been staying this week. She is 19 and lovely. We have not lived with a teenager for a while – like since we were. I don't think Katy has lived with people like Ariel and Lily. Katy is here for a semester doing Geography. Last night we went out to the Sydney Comedy club. Pretty good and unlike us. It has been a year since we started our jobs here. Huggies has a very funny new advert on TV. That's it. Photos next time.

Tehran police chief caught nude with 6 women in underground brothel

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Sharon) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:48:00 +0000

Headline of the month. It appears that Iranians have foibles too and with this all attempts to dehumanize them will fail. Let's hope that General Rez Zarei is not punished too harshly for his cavorting efforts.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/975210.html

Monty Hall

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Sharon) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 10:51:00 +0000

Three closed doors stand in front of you.

Behind one is a brand new Ferrari.

If you choose the correct door hiding the Ferrari you win the car.

Behind the other two are goats.

You point to one but don't open it.

A little man called Monty Hall opens one of the other two doors that you did not select to reveal a goat.

You have the choice to open the door you pointed to or switch choices and open the other door.

Should you change your mind or stick to the same door or does it make no difference?

Don't try and work this out at four in the morning as I did. To play the game and see why you should switch doors see this great piece on the New York Times website.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/science/08monty.html

PS The reason it is interesting is that someone has applied the same type of thinking to studies of cognitive dissonance theory and but a big dent in the whole subject - a bread and butter part of any psychology degree.

Neighbours

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Sharon) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:53:00 +0000

So we are getting ready for our second Passover / Pesach in Sydney. Our neighbour came to ask us if our mail had been delivered. It had. Sacha must be at least in her 70s and lives in a big house with her daughter who travels a lot for work. She is a tough woman who battles with the local council. This much we know. "Let's invite them for Pesach". Sharon pops over to ask her. Turns out that Sacha has not been at a Passover Seder since she was in the Warsaw Ghetto. Sacha lost all her family. Turns out that Sasha is Cesha. This is her story:

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/07/1081326802595.html?from=storyrhs

Emails on the toilet.

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Sharon) — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 11:10:00 +0000

This has to be one of the most extraordinary bad adverts I've ever seen. It manages to completely pinpoint why I refused to use one in the US and refuse to carry one now.

In case you don't know, Blackberry supplies an always-on phone / email feed so you will get emails all the time as they arrive with no need for the owner to "log in" or ask for their emails. They arrive when you are at work, at airports, as you travel to work, as you go home, as you eat dinner, as you sit in the bath. as you talk to your friends and family. They beep when they arrive.

Why on earth would the prospect of less downtime appeal to me? Why does downtime need to be recovered? Why is this making me angry? At what point did I become a Luddite?

Chanukah 5768

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Sharon) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 06:55:00 +0000

Chanukah. A long way away from Modiin where it all started. A long time ago from the events. Not much changed from thirty years ago though - still remember lighting the candles in pajamas (invariably new ones). The lights are powerful. The kids are great.

Sign up for emails...

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Sharon) — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 11:56:00 +0000

You can sign up for email updates by clicking here

Ariel Sings

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Sharon) — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 11:05:00 +0000

For understanding what he is on about see here

The mouse is dead

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Sharon) — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 09:45:00 +0000

Nothing related to us but a look into how Ariel and Lily will be using "computers" down the line. And as I continue to feel just a bit older I just read that email is only for old people.

The original video was take off line but here is the new one.

Flies

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Sharon) — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 11:06:00 +0000

Well it has been almost two months since I wrote last. Work has worn me down and it is hard to write when you're tired. Lots has been happening.

Mum has been here. We went to the Blue Mountains. My work situation has to some extent fallen apart. Summer has arrived. There is an election for which I am feeling disenfranchised. Xmas trees have arrived.

So mum was here. She came for more or less three weeks. Lily gave her a terrific welcome considering it was seven in the morning - much to my surprise and artfully proving my warning and pre-apologies to be unfounded. Picture bears no relation to text. Ariel warmed up. It was good to see her. It was school holidays so kids were around a lot. Abi had sent along some silly outfits as is her want. Ariel was a rather good pirate and Lily was a ballerina. Actually they both do ballet. Left toes in left toes out etc. Being with my children is hard work so mum got a bit tired by the last week and I think was happy to get home to the overcast sanity of SW18. It was a good excuse to see extended family though and I know she enjoyed meeting up with dad's Sydney based cousins. Next time we will get to see more of them.

It was sukkot when she was here. We bought a sukkah and ruminated on the exorbitant cost of being a Jew in Australia. Today I went to work and the shopping center I walk through on the way to the office has put up xmas trees. Totally bizarre, it being really rather hot at the moment and no doubt getting hotter. Personally I didn't really notice xmas in New York - must have been all the Jews. Anyway this is a bit odd. Also this week there is a near plague of flies. In five or so trips to Sydney of what I thought counted as scrupulous due diligence I do not remember a single fly. Now there are a heck of a lot. I don't understand it. It's not like it's not hot in New York. Seriously there were less flies per cubic meter in the refet at Kibbutz Yahel than there are in Sydney and there aren't those sticky fly papers everywhere. Apparently this is temporary for another month or so. On the beach Lily was not happy and proceeded to flick ever more sand into her eyes, ears and mouth trying to ward them off in a downward cycle of misery. Mum did buy me a boogie board (read: small lay-on-top surfboard) for my birthday which has been good fun - kids enjoyed pretending to surf.

There is an election going on here. The election consists of unpopular short old codger who has been in power for a decade versus young other guy, who has not, and speaks Chinese rather well. All polls predict young guy will win - Kevin in 07. John - the old guy - I saw him interviewed. Such an phenomenal lack of vision and ideas - I was amazed. The election so far seems to have consisted of an ever increasing series of astonishingly blatant bribes from old guy to the electorate on a scale that way goes way beyond the chutzpah and financial ability of anything an Israeli PM would try. Policy is only slightly clearer than in the Middle East. Everyone seems to have a "bring on the bribes" attitude but I can't really claim to have my finger on the pulse of yet another strange land. I am bemused. I also don't have the vote. Voting (if you have one) is compulsory here, it is illegal not to vote. I feel disenfranchised.

We went to the Blue Mountains a couple of times in the last couple of months. About 2 hours away and really very beautiful. Great trees. Great hikes. Good food. Mark and Tara (S' brother and wife) came the first time. Great to see them again. Second time was with mum. Kids had a blast of course.

Soccer - scored a hatrick last time we played having purchased a rather lightweight pair of soccer shorts to replace the heavyweight sweat-shorts I've been lugging around. Have to see the urologist as got enlarge prostate - I'm getting old. So does Olmert apparently. I wonder if he has to go the toilet in the middle of the night too?

Which brings me to work. So I had bought into this idea of turning this incredibly dysfunctional but rather profitable company around as part of a team of five or so people that seem to know what they are doing. Problem is that one of them, the CEO, was fired. Another, the CFO, decided to go elsewhere. A third, the head of Asia-Pac sales, engineered his way out. Leaving two (for now). Not enough to turn it around. So I'm considering my options. I'm not going to write much more here. Suffice it to say that this situation has not made me happy. It has made me very stressed actually.

That is about it. Sharon got us built-in cupboards. Actually she did a hell of a lot more than that of course - as in raise the kids, go to work and keep me sane. Now I'm done. Time for dinner.

Except there are some more photos...

Here is a funny sign from the Blue Mountains (Click to enlarge).

Here is a picture of Lily with Uncle ~~Shrek~~ Mark.

And here is a picture of all of us in the BMs with a famous rock formation in the middle.

OK that really is it.

Very Cool Picture Editing

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Sharon) — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 00:44:00 +0000

This is not about us. This is one of those wow moments (for geeks). Couple of Israelis have just pushed image and photo editing up a big notch in a very clever way.

Here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIFCV2spKtg

City to Surf

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Sharon) — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 10:40:00 +0000

We (Sharon, me, S-father-Alan and S-brother-Greg) did the City to Surf a week or so ago. Fourteen kilometers from the center of town to Bondi beach. Got to the start a bit late and the queue for the toilets was really long there being over 50,000 people milling around. So didn't. Started at the back and walked very fast passing 10,000 people or so before the finish. Met Ariel and Lily and S-mother-Molly at 12K and Ariel ran the rest of the way with us. Walked home. Went to the toilet. Had BBQ. Felt good.

On the way to an "-ology"

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Sharon) — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 10:28:00 +0000

Today was Ariel's first interview. He got offered a place at E*anuel School. It is a small Jewish school set up originally by the Reform movement and now seems to be very popular. About forty kids per year. We've been lobbying / badgering anyone and everyone for a place since before we arrived in Sydney and until last week had been told that there was no place available. Sort of thing you are supposed to sign up for at birth which is a bit of a disadvantage to immigrants.

So we get there at eight in the morning having argued about nonsense since I think we were both a bit stressed - Ariel wasn't. Some spotty schoolboy with learner plates was trying to parallel park and nearly took out the pavement and a piece of his car. Ariel takes a fancy to all the trophies in the waiting area outside reception. The head of primary turns up. Ariel refuses point blank to shake his hand. I don't think Ariel has ever shaken hands before actually and I heard this evening that this guy is very into his manners in a wanna-be English public school sort of way. He then curls up into a ball on the chair.

We had to bring some recent pictures he had done. Note to self: Bring ones he remembers drawing. Bring ones where the main protagonists don't have green hair. Bring ones where the house is big enough for the people to get into unless you can convince your kid to say that it is in the distance. So not too high a score on the artwork but got extra credit for looking at his birthday watch and blurting out the time when he was getting bored. Clinched the place by saying he could count to four hundred and up to whatever in Hebrew - no thanks not today. Actually, at this time of year, I think they wanted the income thank you very much. Ariel tries to give him a high five on the way out - oops.

Taking a five year old for an interview grates the heck out of me - what on earth is the school screening for? I shudder to think.

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Sharon) — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 12:54:00 +0000

There was this thing at IBM called Work Life Balance. It was one of those IBM things. There were numerous internal web pages about how to manage the Work Life Balance. Tips and 10 Signs That You Have It Wrong type thing. Some of it was aimed at those of us who were trying to work from home. I’ve been doing some thinking about it recently. Actually some of it was triggered by the horror of waking up at 7 in the morning and thinking about work and sometimes going to bed thinking about work. It is something I used to do a lot – actually basically nearly always. Checking my work email within minutes of waking up didn’t help. Having had a break from work I was not overly happy to see those things start to creep back.

Now I had thought that some people were good at switching off work and some people (like me) are not good at this. And people don’t really talk about it. It gets hinted at sometimes but I couldn’t really tell you who of my colleagues were turn off-ers and who were always on-ers. And I wished and marvelled at those people who could turn off. And I thought that I am just someone who gets terrifically focussed on whatever it is. But now someone has made me think that perhaps this is actually a choice, it is not innate or so deeply built in to who I am. So I’m going to see if they are right, to see if it is a choice. I’ll let you know.

Trip to Denver:

UA870 to SFO. Cattle class. My colleagues got upgrades but I have not paid my time on United. In a company that asks you to pay per Tim Tam (good for my health) the economy class ticket policy was not a huge surprise. It was "Do you want the good news or the bad news". I don't remember the good news but it was possibly something about once you start to travel you will start to get upgraded.

Having boarded I saw him. He looked at me. His mother was getting organized. Fourteen hours next to someone else's toddler - nightmare. It didn't take more than a few nano-seconds to take up the offer to move to another location so that particular toddler party could sit together.

34K did not have a lot of room. So my neighbour had been on holiday accompanying her husband on a business trip. The conversation is a bit of a blur but they were folks from the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from Salt Lake City – otherwise and more easily pronounced Mormons or LDS.

I made the mistake of asking one too many questions.

“We were persecuted and thrown out of many places”. Once a year we go out of our way to remember how we were slaves in Egypt and how we came out. This lady lives a couple of hundred years of recent history in the present. She is good at it.

Suggesting that LDSnikim are not really Christians and don't believe in Jesus as the son of G-d is not a good idea unless you want a very long engaged conversation. I didn’t suggest any such thing but it was enough that many people apparently have insinuated this that provoked a strong monologue.

Mormons don't eat a lot of meat, don't smoke, don't drink alcohol, and tea is out. I did spot a surreptitious Coke bottle though. "So do you drink Coke then?" "We are not perfect." "Well, nobody is perfect." "It is not written that we cannot drink Coke but tea is out". My kind of halacha.

“Well we encourage people to read the book and pray and see how that feels”. Repeat four or five times with intervals in a very confined space.

You have to be well behaved to get married in the Temple. No pre-marital etc.

There are three million Mormons on this planet.

Honey, he studied in Oxford.

They started travelling a lot recently. They have been to Texas and Arkansas.

Denver itself was OK. I missed Mark and Tara who were off rafting down the Grand Canyon. I drank quite a lot. It was hot. I worked out. I met lots of people. I went home with an upgrade – no Mormons.

Sharon’s Work
Sharon is working for the local national Jewish paper. This is her second week. She flew to Melbourne for the day and has come back looking very tired and has actually fallen asleep. And now I over-cooked the rice because I set the alarm wrong. Bugger. Anyhow, flying without kids for the first time was apparently a bit of a let-down.

What else is news? I’ve been playing soccer but have not started something else. I need a something else. We also haven’t made much effort to be sociable so need to work on that. And we haven’t got out and about much recently so need to do that too.

We did have a birthday party for Ariel. Sharon organised it. We had it in Centennial Park and the weather was gorgeous and the kids had an activity looking for bugs with Phillipa the park ranger originally from Windsor (UK). Ariel had a lovely time. We gave all the kids a plant and a little watering can as going away presents – much nicer than the processed sugar hive they normally come home with. And this week the council planted trees in our road and they have suggested we adopt one or two while they are still young.

That is all for now. Tomorrow is Sharon’s birthday and we are off to see a show and I made her a card for the first time in years inspired by Deborah’s beautiful hand-made card for Ariel. I can write this as she will not read about it until her birthday as she is fast asleep. Goodnight.