Long weekend

We went away for a long weekend in Aug to the Kfar Maccabiah Hotel at Ramat Gan in the center of the country.  It is a very impressive building and large facility with an adjacent pool and sports complex.  We had a lovely room on the 5th floor with a nice view of the grounds and the adjacent National Park.

Because our daughter and her family were intending to join us for the day I called the Hotel and confirmed that it would be OK for them to join us in the pool.  I was told I should buy guest tickets for them at the reception desk.  When we checked in I asked to buy these 4 tickets and I was told by the clerk that we could only buy two tickets during August to avoid crowding at the pool.  I told her that I had called to confirm it was OK for 4 and she smiled nicely and said, "you were misinformed."  Also, she told me that the tickets were purchased at the pool not at the reception.  So I called my daughter and they had already set off, so we said we'll sort it out somehow.  I confirmed with the clerk that any 5 people could use the pool at a time since there were three of us in the room (including our Filippina metapelet), so all four of them could go with one of us.  When the family arrived we went over to the pool and I showed them my hotel key and the guard at the entrance let all seven of us in without a question. 

The day before we went there I had gone to the gym and evidently pulled a muscle in my lower left back and I had quite a bad pain.  This had happened to me twice before, coincidentally both times on cruises, to Mexico and to Athens.  That night I woke up in agony and could hardly stand or sit.  At my family's insistence I arranged a massage at the Spa in the Hotel for the next day.  This is the kind of thing one does on vacation, although I am not a fan of massage, since I always feel it is self-indulgent.  I imagine a Roman Emperor having a massage from a slave, while giving out orders to conquer a country and then saying "press there, that's better."   

Anyway I went for the massage.  It is always in a darkened room, with pungent smells of odiforous oils, and a nice young man with golden hands.  I lay face down and put my face in the ring and could not see what he was doing to me.  I think there should be a tv down there so one can see what's going on, athough it might frighten the massagee.  I told him about my pains and he did things to me that could be considered "crimes against humanity" under the Geneva Conventions.  What it was he pressed into my lower back, his elbow, his fist, or a gun barrel, I'll never know.  Over all it was a nice experience, but hardly curative.  Someone also tried Reike on me, but that did nothing either.  I bought some muscle relaxant and a pain killer at the local pharmacy, and they did the trick and gave me relief (of course I believe in drugs, I was a Professor of pharmacology).

Overall we had a great time, the highlight was the visit to the nearby Safari Park, where we communed with many animals at close proximity, but with the windows of the car closed.  We also drove around the zoo in an electric buggy, that was great fun.  What does one do on vacation - eat!  We ate three good meals a day in the hotel with an unlimited buffet, including 5 kinds of cake.  Of course, the food was too rich for me and I began to have abdominal pains, since I have always had a "sensitive" system. It was good to get home and recover.