Like a Good Book

But in my defence, there were loads of photos.

In other words, here are the photos from the Purim party!

( Loads of pics! No particular order... )

Oh, yes, it was THE BEST.

And now, here be photos! (and tons of them)

( Party goers! 8 women altogether, but I've no photo of myself )

( The Entertainment - 3 fabulous Drag Queens )

( The Drag Queens were awesome at ad-libbing, as well as mingling... )

I knew I was about to head out on Friday morning so I got up early and managed to leave the house at 9:45 (which is early for a Friday). The plan was head to the Frau Blau sale (they're a couple of Israeli-Russian designers who make wonderful colorful clothes who fit me quite well), to go get my latest 120 film developed and walk around TA photographing. I gave myself the challenge of taking only monochrome photos, which was really fun and challenging (photos to come).

Made it to Frau Blau and left after 15 minutes with three new shirts - very colorful, very flattering, the nicest fabrics, but two of them will not fit work - just too colorful and open. Great for the weekend, though.

Took off on foot and headed down Alenbi street and went through Nachlat Binyamin (which made for some lovely photos). I still need to get the hang of the fuji's auto focus, I think it's a bit slow, but then again I've heard it's one of its problems, so it might be just that.

Gave my film to be developed (very few places who develop 120 film) and headed to Shenkin street for a fruit shake. Watermelon and banana is a great combo. SAt on a bench for a while, drinking my shake and reading "Four to Score" (Stephanie Plum novel) on my kindle and then went home. I was lucky to have the bus arrive right when I got to the station and to have a place to sit (not an easy thing at this place at this time on a Friday).

My parents took my grandma to my grandpa's grave so I made myself lunch (asian-marinated tofu with broccoli and rice) and waited for my mom to come so we'll go to the Accessories Market.

The Accessories Market was nice as always, lots of designers we know (my mom spends half the time there talking to the designers). I got a new necklace and a hat and my mom bought a new bag from her favorite designer Belinky.

We were back home just in time for me to catch a movie I love on TV (Shlomi's Stars, one of the only Israeli movies I really love) and then I headed to Ofer and Shiri's.

The evening was lots of fun, with great games and great people, and after dinner, when the second round of games was starting I excused myself and took everybody's photos (again, only monochrome), which was a great decision, since if I would have played we would have had very few photos and this way I caught everyone on film. And here was the great thing about the fuji - ISO 4000-6400, and not an eyelash batted by it, so i could catch the action without having everything blurry as hell.

So now on to uploading photos and then maybe a bit of "Orphan Black".

...and I'm passed the 100 followers! Some girl (Israeli, no surprizes there) started a Society 6 artists group on FB, which gave me like, 15 followers in 12 hours...

Still no buys but I'm hopefull.

And thank god Hagar texted me just now, because I totally forgot we had a show this evening.

Independence day was great as usual, but there was some rain and alot of wind. I dragged my mom out in the evening before to catch the fireworks, but I won't again. It's just not worth all the mess. So I'll only get to see the biggest and those who fly highest.

Regualr week next week, after all the hoo-ha of the last few.

OK. Back to "Out there"

Win of the day - get an artist I adore to follow me on Society 6 (today it's Nikola Nupra)

Smashing!

(Also, I'm up to 46 followers and two of my pieces are at the shop - true the shop has a hundred pages and each page has 20 pieces but still.)

(Oh, and if everything goes well I'm going to be starting work this Sunday - At the Israeli Institute of Standards)

(And yes, the Society 6 news takes precedent.)

I had some good work done today.

My Diana F 120 film needed developing, so I set about in search for a place that does that. My first stop was in a big store in Alenbi where they informed me that no, they don't develop 120 color film but only B/W but another store in Alenbi does. Also, they suggested I glue the crack on my old Olympus since I'll have no other way to get it fixed because parts aren't being sent to Israel anymore and it's quite an old camera. I bought a few films extra to have (ISO 100, 400 and 800) and went to the store they pointed me to, where they happily took my film and told me to come back two hours later. They also repeated the glue suggestion from the same reason.

Took off towards Dizengof Center, where I went ot buy shoes as my old snickers are not as stable as they once were. Got a nice pair at Adidas, and as it turns out, I seem to be size 41 in these kind of shoes. Weird.

Anyway, Also got some body scrub at Soap (nice little promotion next to the store had me picking my favorite scent and reach into a box and get some kind of present and I got 20% discount, so very nice) and some crossword puzzle magazine and the latest National Geographic - cover page being about drones...

Took a turn in SOHO, nothing caught my eye, made it to iStore to find out that (as much as I expected) my ipod isn't worth the bother or money of fixing it and went to lunch. Moon had, as usual, very good sushi and very bad service but I really wasnted that sushi and when the Agadashi Tofu took forever they took off 30% of the cost.

Walked back to Alenbi (all by foot - true it's not that far but all together and the way back with parcels it can be annoying - lucky thing I had a good mood and good weather) and got my developed film and the CD with the photos scanned.

Made it home by 16:30 and took a look at the photos - I knew there were some I stupidly didn't take the lens cap off for (first time with this camera - needs getting used to) and those I took inside the Market needed longer exposure or a more open shutter but a few turned out nice and one of the double exposure is sweet as hell (obviously it's Udi's). I learned a lot by looking at them and I think I'll do a better job next time. Also, I need a shutter release for it, and when I get the Fuji I'll get one for that as well.

( The better photos from the Diana, Jerusalem area )

Yesterday was my mom's birthday, so we said we'd go for a trip. My mom talked to Menahem, who's a friend who travels a lot and he gave her some places, so we headed out early in the morning (early in our definition... Say 8:30).

We went towards Jerusalem and the Jehuda mountains, where we hoped to get a glimpse of tulips in bloom. The weather was terrific. We made it first to one place and then the other (Chorashim forest and Kisalon) and there were no tulips in sight, even though the entire surrounding was green and beautiful, full of mustard plants and some primroses. My mom called Menahem again, who directed us in another direction... And there they were! Tulips! Wild tulips are much shorter than cultured tulips, but just as beautiful. In a few weeks the blooming will be gone, so we really did get the last glimpses of them before the season is over. I broke out my Diana F to shoot some of them, I have no idea how it came out (I finished the roll of film later in the day, I'll find a place to get them developed tomorrow or next week). My camera was acting up (it is almost 6 years old. I really need another one already) so some of the photos were taken with my phone.

( Tulips photos (and other nature shots) )

We finished our rounds of photos and excitment of the flowers (city dwellers that we are) and went to have brunch.

We went to a place called Derech Hagefen (Vine road) in Beit Zait (Olive House! Woo-Hoo!). The place comes highly recommended, but it wouldn't have been that in Tel Aviv. Yes, the food was good and the place is beautiful, but the service was below average and the prices high, and the food is just as good as any coffee house in Tel Aviv (lack of competition, that's what it is - you drive half an hour outside of TA and there's only one coffee place in a 30 km radius. This place would not have survived in TA).

Problems notwithstanding, we had fun and took pictures (duh), including one of me hugging a very reluctant Udi, which I'll spare you from seeing... :P

( Vine road photos )

After out meal we headed out to see the memorial for 9/11 they have set out on the way to J-M. Don't ask me who made the decision to locate it there, since it's literally in the middle of nowhere, but we made it there (saw some deer on the way! No pics of them, though. Fucking camera). It's very large, and made with white limestone (I think). The middle piece is dark metal with a piece of the twin towers behind a glass window, and overlooking the hills of J-M is a bench with the name of the casualties on dark metal.

( 9/11 memorial )

J-M isn't one of our favorite cities but Machne Yehuda market is a great market, full of goodies. If we would have had a shopping cart we could have emptied half the place... We bought Halva, olives, pastries, cheeses, garlic and other stuff I can't recall. Most of it is awesome (there are always flops with places you don't know). We had a small lunch at Azura, an Iraqi restaurant with really great food and headed out to Nachlaot neigborhood. The street are small and old, and it has its charm. Some really big cats as well...

( Machne Yehuda market and Nachlaot )

The last place we headed to was Yemin Moshe, with the big windmill and overlook at the old city.

( Yemin Moshe and the old city )

...and then we headed home through the haze, which made me caugh heavily.

( Haze! @#$%^&* )

And in the evening we met Michali and Tomer for dinner at Brasserie, which was excellent, as always. My mom was over the moon after that day...

If anyone is interested, I'm selling my photographs through Society 6 - my profile is here