GOING GOING ALMOST GONE

I'm not quite sure I believe it myself, but after a couple of days of thinking that I might have to cancel my trip to England and take a bad hit in my bank account, it all turned out ok yesterday. My bank manager actually allowed me to do what I want and the trip is a go.
I'm off to Bat Chen's later today, then to Zahava (my airport driver) on Thursday, so this will be my last post here for 8 days, unless I use Zahava's computer! I have my 'hand bag' packed, but don't even my usual travel bag out yet. I'll get Orna in and get that done after this posts. All cameras and smart ass cell phones have been checked and are ready to go. It really is time to get a move on.
See you all in a week or so!

EUREKA I FOUND IT!

I have no idea how it happened, but I found the Bat Chen's house with only one very minor goof. Somehow, Kiri Four Wheels just took the correct turns and when I realized we were doing ok, called her for the rest of route and I got to her house a good 10 minutes before she did. Chuffed doesn't quite cover it. We spent the afternoon planning and discussing the will Tsion left. In the end it turned out that he not only left a will, but detailed instructions as to what is to be done. His family is trying to deny the will and are thinking of trying to prove that it's a forgery. They won't have much luck with that for the simple reason that it isn't. A box was delivered to a friend with directions on how an to whom to give the contents. Bat Chen's envelope ended up in the wrong hands and was opened. Her friend Ilan came over and when he heard the latest events, called the guy who had her envelope and demanded that he deliver it that evening, which he did. We all went to bed early. In the morning we went to the bank and sorted a few things, then, to Bezeq where I killed 2 unneeded phone lines and bought two phones to complete my collection! Then to fill petrol, check oil and stuff, then to get Ilan, Reef and try to get someone from Tsion's family to get Bat Chen's thing from his apartment, but they refused, so we went back to Bat Chen's where Ilan moved my car into her parking space and brought a few things to the house. We dropped him off and came to Gimp House, where Orna had stuffed the turkey and put it in the oven. As she couldn't find the remote for the small a/c, Danny lit the kerosene heater which promptly made Bat Chen ill. I found the remote exactly where I thought it might be and we got the a/c going and took out the kero heater. Kim came over for dinner and got a Hebrew lesson as well. The turkey was great!
I'm waiting for the AVG to finish running so I can scan the CD that was in Bat Chen's envelope. We suspect that it might have some nasties on it as the guy who had is a computer whiz. She's afraid it might be set up to give him access to her computer and as I have to reformat yet again, we might as well open it here. He can look at anything he wants on my computer! Won't he be surprised.

BETTER AFTER 4 HOURS OF SLEEP

Sometimes it really is too much for one gimp to bear. I've been in such a state recently that I asked my doctor to put me on the list for a full body transplant. There are so many days when this one is just too much. Just after I collapsed in bed I realized that what Aron had told me solves my money issues for the trip, and promptly burst into tears of thankfulness. I pretty much cried myself to sleep. I have the strongest feeling that my parents are really looking out for me from above. There really isn't any other explaination I can think of for these last minute saves. I am now ready to get dressed and start on today's adventures. It will be most interesting to see what I forget, but there *is* hope as I actually have a list ready for once. These middle of the night start times are for the birds, but as long as they are few and far between, I can handle them. The last one was last Sunday when I left for Bat Chen's at 0530, the next is the flight to England that leave at 05something! I can handle that, and at least today I'll miss the Tel Aviv morning traffic jam and I know how to make the voice GPS work, so no panic at a traffic light this time. Maybe I'll get to Bat Chen's without having to call her out for yet another rescue.

I QUIT $£"&*)_+@$£^&

That's it. I quit. I had but one thing left to do before going to bed, and nothing could have been simpler. All I had to do was put the pot of stuffing Orna made for tomorrows turkey in the fridge. Easy, right? Any idjit can do it, right? WRONG. This idjit had to move a bag of chicken wings that was on top of a freezer box of thawed turkey soup. Guess what Peg is doing right now. Yup. He's licking up 4 liters of spilled turkey soup. And my slippers are soaked through with turkey soup. I quit, but I still have one more thing to do, I have to get a soy pudding thing out of the same fridge, except I'm afraid to because I'll probably break and spill something else.
I quit.

ANOTHER INSANE DAY

I'm beginning to think that I'll never catch up with myself. I've been going at full speed for too long and must find the time to wind down. Today was supposed to be easy, the clinic, travel agent, then, home. I did get my prescriptions, my plane ticket, the rental car sorted, fags, then home. I sat outside with 'the ladies' for a while, then a guy from City Hall to tell me to go and pay for the gimp parking place sign, which I did, then I went to get some special printer paper and the guy told me that I should get just the large sheet and cut them to size as it would give me something to do. WHAT? I barely have time to do the sticker designs, never mind time to sit around and cut them out. When I told Orna what he said she suggested that maybe he should spend a morning following me around and then talk! That really was too much. Here it is after 2200 and I'm still playing catch up. There was so much I wanted to go into more detail about from Tuesday's post, but just can't stay here much longer. I have to get up early, get a blood test, pick up my meds, go back to the travel agent, the cell phone place, back to the clinic, to the butcher, come home, give Orna the turkey, go to Tel Aviv.....I had a very nice phone call from my son who informed me that the checks will be going out at the end of the month, and I finally got around to firming up plans with Fingers and Rosebud who, bless their little cotton socks, are both willing to put us up, or should I say, put up with us? I'm really starting to get super excited about the trip! I think I'll just quit now, and try to get the revs down enough to sleep. Got some serious back and shoulder pain, but a pain pill will square that away!

TOO MUCH TO DO TOO LITTLE TIME

Tired? Who, me?
In the end, I went to Bat Chen's alone because Orna didn't get up in time and didn't hear the 5000 calls I made to her. I headed out at 0520 with Don McLean blasting out of the speakers so I could "sing" along and not hear myself. Some place after 3 wrong turns, I tried to use the voice GPS and learned that trying to use it the first time at a traffic light is not a good idea. After many more wrong turns, I found myself at a petrol station and called Bat Chen. By some miracle, I was only a few minutes from where she was and she rescued me yet again (note to self: go to Motorola and get the damn vocal GPS explained). We got BBC out and reassembles, then headed off for our errands which were done in record time. Back at her house, I settled in for a kip, and when I woke up, decided to stay the night and leave in the morning. All fine and well, except for one (two) major flaws. Bat Chen and I simply can not stop talking so it was 0400 before we crashed into deep sleep. In the morning-3 hours later, she took Reef to school, then, lead me to her car guy who checked Kiri Four Wheels vital signs-oil, brake, tranny and hydraulic fluids and pronounced her healthy. Poor man was a bit shocked that I, a woman actually understand cars. From there, I headed home, where Orna and Danny were waiting for me with the wheely. I barely made it to the bed before falling asleep! Next day, yesterday, I got up and out by 1000, went to Cell Com about the ear thing for that phone, then to Motorola for a quick lesson in the GPS thing, to the clinic for my prescriptions, to the far mall,to the pet shop, grocery shopping with Orna, to the butcher, then, home to bed. Today should be an easy day, only to my travel agent. Tomorrow will be another insane day. I have to go to Cell Com for the ear thingy, the clinic, butcher, then, to Bat Chen's. I decided to leave Kiri Four Wheels there and come up with her for the weekend, then go home with her and come back on Sunday. Then, I will spend the week getting ready for England. I'm going out now and with any luck, I'll have enough energy to come back here and fill in a few gaps.