May 2004 Archives

I swear I'd be a great study for a psychologist: what are the emotional repercussions to a woman when she is unable to have children? As that is the truth, as I have promised, in as much as is possible, to not have children for the next 2 years.

Interestingly enough, I wasn't particularly eager to have children prior to having made this commitment. It has turned my 'biological clock' into a time bomb.

Now, I think I'm beginning to think about children like those couples who experience infertility (and Mark is, too). Now, before I get lambasted for thinking I could relate to such an experience, my caveat: I recognize that this is different because we know there is an end. Of course, wouldn't that be ironic if 2 years from now we do have trouble conceiving. I won't go there...

First off, we have a new camera (though I've only taken 4 pictures on it, compared to Mark's 400), but anyway, for all who'd like to check out pictures of our visit to Scotland, as well as Haifa, he has a gallery here.

I've been reading quite a bit lately. Nothing profound, of course. It's been wonderful not to have to read something that was assigned to me! Plus, good, English-language novels aren't exactly falling off trees here, so when I got my hands on some, I devoured them. Yummy. :-)

And yes, this is a cry for good books, namely fiction.

I realize my descriptions have been fairly thin of recent events, so:

Scotland

Scotland was a wonderful little getaway from Israel - especially as the weather is getting hot and dirty. Yes, dirty, but that's beside the point.

We got in Thursday evening (Friday morning?), and thankfully Nathan met us at the airport. After travelling for quite some time I really didn't feel like trying to figure out where to get money and how to get a taxi to his place. Thanks again, Nae. During our whole stay not once did we leave the house before noon. However, we did do plenty.

On Friday, since Nathan was working and had no desire to visit the castle, Mark and I wound our way up to the castle, looked around, Mark took some pictures and then when it got so cold that even being inside didn't really warm us back up, we headed back down. Friday was the only day it was really cold and bleary. There was a mist up in the castle - we could literally see it moving in front of us - cool, but cold! There was a couple getting married while we were there and I felt so bad for the poor woman - freezing! So, anyway, we headed back down the hill, had some great tea, coffee and sweets and headed back to Nathan's place.

That evening he took us out to Rogue - and the food, of course, was scrumptious. Ahhh ... there just aren't restaurants that good (that I have access to) in Israel. Yum. And the place was cool - a seamless wall led to the bathrooms. It took me a minute to figure out where the door to the toilet was! I felt like I was in a James Bond film or something.

We're back from Scotland - which was a total blast. It was so nice to relax, not work, and just have fun for a few days.

It was also so great, wonderful and beautiful to be in a city surrounded by green hills. It was very refreshing.

Now I'm back in Israel and busier than ever. Partly because I missed two very busy days at work. One of the other French translator's was out translating for pilgrims, so that left one poor, inundated French translator left to do it all! As soon as she saw me she got up, gave me a big hug, and said "Am I glad to see you!" Always nice to feel appreciated :-)