It was like the movers hadn’t packed me, they’d archived me.
Tag: Israel
Se-juice me!
Tasks always take a stage or two more than you expect in Israel.
Loop de loop
Everyone’s eyes were on it, their heads moving with it like at a tennis match.
Pride
Rainbow flags everywhere; hanging from balconies, flying from lampposts, in café windows. If this isn’t the gayest city in the world it is, at least, trying to be.
Art attack
They seemed especially nervous of ‘conceptual’ art. I can’t imagine what dark things they imagine.
Butter
She uses French butter to make croissants, and pulls a face at the idea of Israeli butter. Less fat, she tells me.
Manta Ray
We may be the definition of rootless cosmopolitans, citizens of the world.
Rabbinical detective work
It was so simple to do, I never stopped to think if I really wanted to leave London.
Denise, Denise
Then, shockingly, he said how he wished Hitler had finished the job he’d started on them.
Breakfast of champions!
He shows me the top of his tattoo, which is of a large feather. It’s well drawn, actually. It starts at the small of his back and, I don’t really want to imagine, sweeps downwards.
Men and dogs
Rufina’s face changes colour like a cuttlefish, pink to red to white. A tear runs down her cheek.
Jerusalem
The last time I came to the Old City I turned a corner and an Arabic man standing, on guard, maybe, I don’t know, wagged his finger and said, menacingly, ‘Don’t.’ So I didn’t.
Sex! (A drought)
I reached the shop, down a short alley, and knocked on the door. I knocked again.
Fat fatty fat fat
Elli leaned closer, his face serious, and told me something surprising. At least, I was taken by surprise.
Friday night dinner
Nathan pretends to look serious and says, ‘We can talk about politics, if you want,’ and laughs, then repeats himself. We stop talking about Eurovision.
Missing Europe
Alberto’s espresso arrives. He pulls a face.
My new sort-of passport
Dan shook my hand and smiled and said, ‘Welcome home,’ and I felt emotional again.
White Meat 