FIRST SHABBAT

Sweets shop on the way to beach

Today is our first Shabbat.  Although everyone warned us that most almost all thIe supermarkets and stores would be closed it's still unfamiliar to walk the streets with so few people out and with so many shops closed.  They pull shutters down in front of their stores/cafes, so places that I would normally recognised as beautiful little pattiseries are completely hidden by a metal shutter door. 

I'm relieved the children are enrolled in school here otherwise we may not have lasted the distance.  Being in a smaller home and not having the places to escape to is going to be testing for all of us.  I told the kids that we need to find a better way to communicate with each other if we're going to make this work.  They are still unsure about whether they want to be here so Alex and I will have to be incredibly patient and hope that the holiday spirit rubs off on us, providing us with the reserves necessary to deal with four kids in a foreign land.  

I like the idea of Shabbat - of a holy day of rest.  A day where everyone is forced to just be together.  We are always so busy and it leaves so little time for families to be together.  To honour this I've been playing table tennis and connect 4 with the kids today.  I notice that there's a part of me wondering whether I should be doing something else instead.  It's going to take some time I think to completely give over to just being with the kids but that's one of the reasons we're here so please God I can let go of that need to be "busy, busy, busy!"

I realised by mid morning that I'd have to get the kids out of the house so we walked down to the beaches in Tel Aviv.  They're wonderful - much better than Jaffa's beaches.  It felt like stepping into a bath with the water being no colder than 27 degrees (81 degrees F).  It's the kind of temperature that a Brissy girl enjoys :)  The kids loved it too and spent hours in the water. Here ares some photos of the trip along the way. 

Shop we passed on the way to the beach.  Where are you Kay Ishak???

Kids walking along the promenade.  My brother said that it looks like the Gold Coast, which it does.  Just with a big mosque behind it!

Our street

Al-Bahr Mosque overlooking the beach

House across the road from us and area where all the street cats congregate. A couple come out each night to feed the cats.  The sound of cat fights is common, followed by the barking of dogs.

Bouganvillias at the end of our street.  They're everywhere and provide such beautiful drapery to many a run down place.