Birthday day
Yesterday was my birthday, for those who must know I turned 71 (no need to send plaudits)! I don't seem to be of such an advanced age, it seems unreal.
The day started badly, as I was walking down the stairs in my apartment building, I slipped, my feet went forward from under me and I slid down a flight of stairs on my back! Someone had left a rag on the landing after obviously trying to clean something up. I don't know if it was water or something else, but there are workemen in the building renovating an apartment and maybe it was them,. But, I was lucky, I only bruised my right upper arm and elbow and my backside. Not a good start to the day.
Then I went to see the printer where I am having my book/novel printed. They are Russian speaking so we have to communicate in (poor) Hebrew. I had decided to print it myself since it's never going to be published and I don't want to pay the exorbitant price of a vanity printer (anyway more on the book in another blog). But he had not received the file by e-mail, my final version of the text. I was very perturbed by this, but later I discovered that when he writes to me his return address is his web site and when I reply it is listed as www... so it doesn't reach his e-mail address.
Finally, since all bad things seem to come in threes, when I got home I found that Naomi had by mistake replaced my id in the server thinking she was in yahoo, and it wouldn't work, so I had to call Bezeq and mess around for 30 mins (call 'customer services', you need to speak to 'technical services,' no you need to speak to 'customer services', oh sorry we've made a mistake, you'll have to hold while we sort this out...) At one time I had an English speaking girl from customer services translating for a Hebrew speaking girl from technical services to solve this apparently intractable problem. Anyway, we are back in business, and I was able to re-send my final text version to the printer.
Then by choice we went to our local Japanese restaurant, and then after that we went to a performance of 'the Stompers,' the local jazz band. They are excellent, I may have written about them before, the leader is trumpeter Stanley Ross from Glasgow, who is about 80 years old, but still going strong. He plays his final last concert about every six months and luckily for me it coincided with my birthday. He has a great team of musicians, including Jacques Santi from France who plays the soprano saxophone and is internationally known for playing at Sidney Bechet festivals. In the band there are French, Scottish, English, American, Russian and Israeli musicians, all harmonizing brilliantly. They played for 4 hours to an enthusiastic audience at one of the local English-speaking shool's hall. It was a great birthday event for me. Life in Israel is good.
The day started badly, as I was walking down the stairs in my apartment building, I slipped, my feet went forward from under me and I slid down a flight of stairs on my back! Someone had left a rag on the landing after obviously trying to clean something up. I don't know if it was water or something else, but there are workemen in the building renovating an apartment and maybe it was them,. But, I was lucky, I only bruised my right upper arm and elbow and my backside. Not a good start to the day.
Then I went to see the printer where I am having my book/novel printed. They are Russian speaking so we have to communicate in (poor) Hebrew. I had decided to print it myself since it's never going to be published and I don't want to pay the exorbitant price of a vanity printer (anyway more on the book in another blog). But he had not received the file by e-mail, my final version of the text. I was very perturbed by this, but later I discovered that when he writes to me his return address is his web site and when I reply it is listed as www... so it doesn't reach his e-mail address.
Finally, since all bad things seem to come in threes, when I got home I found that Naomi had by mistake replaced my id in the server thinking she was in yahoo, and it wouldn't work, so I had to call Bezeq and mess around for 30 mins (call 'customer services', you need to speak to 'technical services,' no you need to speak to 'customer services', oh sorry we've made a mistake, you'll have to hold while we sort this out...) At one time I had an English speaking girl from customer services translating for a Hebrew speaking girl from technical services to solve this apparently intractable problem. Anyway, we are back in business, and I was able to re-send my final text version to the printer.
Then by choice we went to our local Japanese restaurant, and then after that we went to a performance of 'the Stompers,' the local jazz band. They are excellent, I may have written about them before, the leader is trumpeter Stanley Ross from Glasgow, who is about 80 years old, but still going strong. He plays his final last concert about every six months and luckily for me it coincided with my birthday. He has a great team of musicians, including Jacques Santi from France who plays the soprano saxophone and is internationally known for playing at Sidney Bechet festivals. In the band there are French, Scottish, English, American, Russian and Israeli musicians, all harmonizing brilliantly. They played for 4 hours to an enthusiastic audience at one of the local English-speaking shool's hall. It was a great birthday event for me. Life in Israel is good.
posted by Jack Cohen at 7:35 AM
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