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Mothers' Day a million years ago Today is the American (some say Hallmark) holiday of Mothers' Day. Several of my friends on facebook felt the need to acknowledge that Mothers' Day can be a difficult day for many. The childless, those who have lost children, are estranged from their child, or estranged from their mother, those who have lost their mother... I get it. It sometimes feels awkward to be happy in the face of others who are suffering over this very issue that we are celebrating. This is one of the reasons why Israel changed its Mothers Day to Family Day. But this also isn't 100% comfortable. Why shouldn't mothers, in the one job with no days off during the year, have a special day to celebrate their unique role? When we post photos of a fabulous wedding, do we feel the need to acknowledge singles who are lonely and desperately searching for their soul-mate or secretly wistful over the wedding they never had? New baby photos, Bar and Bat Mitzva photos, wedd

One single poppy (There was a live concert in the street below. Not much social distancing. Israelis are largely voting with their feet on that.) Here are this week's Reasons 2B Cheerful. It's an interesting exercise to come up with things when you only venture outside twice a week to go to the supermarket. Thank goodness for facebook and zoom. And You Tube and Netflix of course. The Linky is with Becky on Lakes Single Mum if you want to see what other cheerful bloggers have been getting up to. 1 Schools Return All schools go back this week. DD starts on Monday. So no splitting classes but there will be staggered playtimes, personal distancing as much as possible, no sharing food or touching, and masks worn all day. It's going to be 37C for most of this week but the classrooms do have A/C. Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about it. I know three people who died of covid-19. And another seven people who are immediate relatives of friends. But not in Israel. Otoh, we stil

The once private fields behind my Mum's place,  although we always went there for walks, has become an official Country Park. It's on my list of first places to go when we can travel again.  I wasn't going to write a Reasons 2B Cheerful post this week as I couldn't think of anything to write. We're cheerful enough but there's nothing happening. And then, suddenly, a few things happened. 1 Childhood Memories I got a message from an old friend from my childhood community, telling me about some members who have sadly passed away from the coronavirus. I was particulalry shocked and upset by one of the names - a man not much younger than me who I remember as a young boy. I wrote a facebook message including a number friends from the old days and we reminisced for a bit. Then Daniel came up with the idea of opening a facebook group for anyone who grew up in our synagogue in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Within a few hours we had over 100 members. Stanmore Synagogue was the

Here are my Reasons 2B Cheerful for this week. The linky link-up is with Becky on Lakes Single Mum.  1 We made sushi DD loves the sushi from the very expensive sushi place near us. It's the equivalent of £10 for six little sushi rolls. So we decided to make it ourselves. I bought the rolling mat, the nori sheets, rice vinegar, and soy sauce. We have rice and we have cucumbers. I'm nervous about using raw fish from the supermarket frozen section so I didn't defrost the salmon we have in the freezer. Nor did a buy very expensive fresh salmon or tuna for this experiment. Instead I bought the mock-crab sticks that one of the sushi-making videos on You Tube used. I cooked the rice. DD was offended by the smell of the rice vinegar that you're supposed to add to it. Honestly, I only added a bit. She refused to even taste the mock-crab let alone put it in her sushi. I made mine first with the mock-crab. I took a nice photo and ate it. It was ok. Then DD made hers with just cucu

View from my window (not tonight) Yes, we are in enforced quarantine until the 10th of June. Just as we started to socialise a bit, just as DD was getting back into the school routine, and the evening before I was due to go back to my school... we got the WhatsApp from DD's teacher. First some background. A big high school in Jerusalem had a few students who tested positive to corona. They shut the school and set up testing for all students. The closest primary school decided to close for a few days - until the situation was clear, because more than a third of their pupils have siblings in the affected high school. The official decision was that primary schools should remain open, even those with siblings in the high school. However, the parents committees of various feeder primaries, including DD's school, directed everyone not to attend until Tuesday (that's two days off) when the high school testing will be completed. The parents committees have a lot of clout. A few pup

Since yesterday and because of rampant corona cases in the education system, they changed the rule about which schools have to close. Initially it was if three pupils and/or staff tested positive. As schools with even one case were effectively shut (or shuttered - ugh!) by the parents associations and because the problem is bigger than they thought, all schools with any person testing positive have to shut and all the pupils and teachers need to be tested. Today 36 schools around the country were closed, including DD's school. Around 10,000 people country-wide are in quarantine - and that's just the ones who registered but doesn't include family members who are quarantining with them, like me.  We got a note from school saying that when they open, only children with documented negative test results will be allowed back. We don't know when this will be. For the moment they are urging everyone to be tested. I expect they will make decisions only when they know the extent