Finnished

(And a slightly worrying realization)

Hanging around home alone, Mrs. at some function I was happy to avoid. So I'm sitting here reading a book, and listening to music. More specifically - Carol King. When I first listened to her CD a few years ago, I was surprised I hadn't heard her name before, since I already knew half her songs...

Such a wonderful voice, and what a gifted song writer.

Yeah, so I just felt like sharing her with whoever still bothers to check if I'd updated.

Here she is, with a voice and a piano that can break your heart:

Beautiful.

And of course there's this one, too.

As for the worrying realization business -

A while ago I got the audio-book version of the Harry Potter books. I listen to them in the car, mostly on the way to work and back home, and I'm loving it. With 20-35 minutes of driving everyday, I'm already well into the 3rd book.

Now, Mrs. is going on a work trip next week, and I figured I'd pack up the dog and go up to visit my mom and sister instead of being stuck alone in Jerusalem all weekend.

Here comes the worrying part - the first thought in my head after deciding on the trip? Was it sadness at being away from my wife for a few days? Was it joy at the prospect of seeing my family? Was it happy anticipation of 2 days' vacation from this city?

No.

My first thought was "cool! Three whole hours of Harry Potter"!

Of course, all those other thoughts did come right afterwards, but the damage is already done. Is there a Harry Potters Anonymous?

 So yeah, I've been busy. But I can see on my statistics page that one or two of you check this page almost daily and finally decided I can't let my audience of one down much longer.

 A lot has happened since I last wrote. Packing the flat in Helsinki up, then a quick vacation in Barca, then a family visit in Mrs'. hometown, and then it was off to the Holy Land! Now I'm writing from our new rented flat in the City Put Together. After a long month of living in an empty apartment with 2.5 chairs and a couple of forks and plastic plates, our container finally found its way here and all our earthly belongings (give or take an item) are now unpacked and each in its place (thank you Rakas  ).

 Don't think I don't know what you're thinking - what's she talking about with this 'busy' bull? She's probably just sitting in front of the Internet 18 hours a day, as usual! Well, normally you'd be right, but now that I'm in a country where I speak the language, I actually found myself a job! And not a bad one, too. But I started in the middle of the high season and it's crazy busy right now, which means double shifts, aching feet, and reaching the weekend so exhausted I collapse on the sofa and try not to get up from it till Sunday morning (oh, also had to get re-used to the 1-day-weekend. Damn, those Europeans have it good). It does feel pretty good to be working again, even if it is hard. After two years of being a lazy student living off the Finnish welfare state, it's nice to feel like a contributing member of society (plus, I got my first paycheck today, which also helps ease the pain in my feet...).

 I don't normally do this, because I never really integrated myself into the whole Israblog culture, but I'm sitting here laughing out loud (and I mean actually laughing out loud, not LOLing on MSN while really barely smiling). So I wanted to share - this girl is hilarious.

My apologies to the Hebrewly Challenged ™.

OK, so I know we're part of the community that pretty much subsidises the Eurovision, and Finland's never won before so this is is the first time ever in Helsinki, and it's so close, and we only live a couple of neighbourhoods away from the venue and all that, but the tickets sold out in like 9 hours, and we weren't in the country at the time and sheker kolshehu..

But, this weekend they picked the Finnish entry. And boy, does it look like we'll have a chance to see it in Helsinki again next year!!

On a much more positive note, the hosts for this year's contest have also been picked, and though the lady doing it is ok, the male host will be that fine specimen of Finnish genetics, Mikko Lemppalimpappimppeli. Those keeping track of this blog, may remember the time he proposed to me.