Friday, November 28, 2008

The Dream Team

Blackfamilyo hit Tel Aviv today. The kids had Thanksgiving off (one of the advantages of being at an American school) so we decided on the spur of the moment to go into the "city". We dragged bdo out of bed, bso was also rudely awakened and forced to come with (he got in at 3am, 3 hours later than bdo, remarkable that). Blacknephewo joined at the last moment and bwo drove us off to the big city.

We parked close to the Carmel market and walked its narrow, packed streets. As is rather well known I do not particularly like being touched by strangers - today was good therapy. The market was absolutely crowded. It was complete sensory overload. The smells (rotten fish, and spices), the noise (10 sheks a kilo, 9 sheks a kilo, Allo, Allo) and the colors were overpowering. The produce is amazing. Check out these herbs.


As usual when the black familyo hits the road, everyone is always hungry. We needed a fallafel, and we got what we needed. Bwo caught us all mid eat. Bso had to wait for his as his special order has no salad.


All in all a fun but exhausting day. We three men took a long fruitless walk up Allenby to find an electronics store that stocks some components I need for work. On the way we spotted this sign, captured on bso's cell phone. Do you think he only stocks shoes for non-jews or did he really mean "gentle" shoes?


While we walked, we left bwo and bdo at the crafts fair on Nahlat Benyamin, and the most incredible thing of all, they spent no money at all. Who says we never do anything as a family anymore?

Your comments dearest family?

8 comments:

Georg said...

About this shoe shop (shu shop): did you walk inside to find out

Georg

SB said...

I had a good time out, in Tel Aviv. The family was their usual 'cheery' selves and we teased, ridiculed and laughed the whole way into town.
The Shuk is great. I was there a few months back, and can only say that even though you don't need Hebrew skills to participate in the shuk experience, it is infinitely better when you can understand the shop keeper yelling at a woman shopper that she has 'chutzpah and no money anyway.'
The food we ate was excellent, the food we didn't eat, looked good... except the fish, which just looked like dead fish, and the sellers wares were of an extraordinary quality. Extraordinarily crappy. I think I saw more crap, plastic Chinese toys than shirts with IDF logos, Mishtara (police) logos, or stupid slogans like, "Uzi does it."
The hike to the 'electronics sector' of town was a highlight. As we approached, we saw a guy feeding boxes into a window of an old warehouse. Walking along the length of the warehouse, we couldn't help but notice that the other (non-glassed) windows were stuffed-to-the-gills and overflowing with discarded cardboard boxes. We passed some really cool graffiti that I wish we had taken a picture of, but we walked a circuit, and did not walk the same route when returning to the designated rendezvous point. 6 eyes is better than 2 when noticing and pointing out all the silliness that is Israel.
I gotta say, it was a fun day, today.
Go BlackTeamO!!

blackpetero said...

Hey Georg

We did not go into the shoe shop as it was on the other side of the road. We were in a bit of a hurry as I wanted to make sure we were back before bwo and bdo spent too much money.

Jozie said...

blackwifeo here.
Firstly, I want to apologize for calling you (bpo) a dick in the car. Really sorry, it just came out.
Secondly, I want to apologize for intimating that blacksono is an idiot, which clearly he is not.
It's the driving that stresses me out! And have blackpetero in the passenger seat is no easy feat, believe me. The shuk was particularly busy yesterday but I totally loved the artists market. It took huge amounts of self will NOT to buy anything. (except for the yummy warm almonds and cashews at the end and of course even that was slightly marred by bpo pointing out that I shouldn't have mixed in pistashio's with them. ugh. I cannot win.)

Jozie said...

Dear BlackPetero,

Please can you do away with this new annoying custom of writing bdo, bso, bwo bno etc. (its helluvu lazy of you)
Either write our names in fullo, or at least put in some sort of legend or intro somewhere.

Thanks in anticipation,
Blackwifeo

blackpetero said...

It has been done O' organized one. I hear tell that your drivers license may (or may not) indeed be missing. What is the statute of limitations on not looking for something before it becomes officially lost? I need a period of time. Is it one year or six months or just until you, bwo, decides its gone?

Jozie said...

Who told you that????? I take the fifth.

Unknown said...

I have a feeling that the name of the shop comes from the French for "gentle" which I think is "gentil" without the E at the end. "Gentle Shoes" does make sense.