Friday, May 4, 2018

Israel Independence Day - R2BC

70 Years!
It's been three weeks since I last wrote a Reasons 2B Cheerful post. Last week was canceled because or the tragedy that happened in Israel. Since then I meant to blog every day. I wrote lists of blog posts and assigned one to each day in my diary. And then I came home from work every day and didn't blog. I don't even know why. I just lost my mojo. Anyway, it's back and so am I. And this is why I'm only blogging about Yom Ha'atzmaut (Israel Independence Day) three weeks after the date. I apologise to Becky at Lakes Single Mum for missing two Reasons 2B Cheerful  posts while she was hosting. (This week R2BC is back with Michelle at Mummy from the Heart for the merry merry month of May.)

On Yom Ha'atzmaut eve we went up to the Jerusalem Promenade overlooking the Old City and watched the fireworks. It's ten minutes walk from where we live and we met loads of our friends there. It was a spectacular start to the 70 year celebrations.

Go-karting in the morning.
Then came the actual day. The thing about being single, not having a car, and living in a flat without a garden is that it makes Yom Ha'atzmaut very traumatic. When you have a garden you just invite a couple  of friends for a barbecue and you've got a party. If you have a car you can go out of town and have a picnic. If you are without either but you have a partner, you can go out for lunch together, have a glass of wine and call it a celebration. As a single there is always this frantic hustle to find a party or invite yourself to a barbecue. I admit that before DD, I sometimes just stayed home alone and didn't tell a soul. I enjoyed my own company, watched movies, read books and pottered about, but oh the shame if  anyone had found out.

When DD was small we'd get together with my singlemum friends and we'd picnic in a local park. However, our children are now all between 7 and 10. A picnic in the local park just doesn't do it for them anymore. We had to go bigger. Luckily the others all have cars.

Sunny on Thursday
Reader we had the most amazing time. We went to an adventure park in the morning where we went go-karting. Then we headed to the beach at Ashdod where the kids played in the sand while we watched the Airforce flyover and the Navy flotilla.

As Yom Ha'atzmaut was a Thursday and Friday is a half day at school, we took the day off (as did half the country) and made a long weekend of it. We stayed at a hotel right by the beach and spent the next two days alternating between the beach and the pool. The weather turned on us and it rained. But it was still warm so we swam in the pool in the rain. Same wet so no big deal. The sea was rough so we paddled while the foam slapped our legs. The sky was grey - I felt quite at home. And the children loved it.

And guess what? Yom Ha'atzmaut falls on a Thursday again next year. I think we already have a plan.

Rough and grey the next day was also fun and we had the beach to ourselves.

6 comments:

  1. Great photos and nice to know that you had a great time - and that you are back to blogging. Canada's "birthday" is July 1st and last year was the 150th anniversary so there a lot of celebrations throughout the year.
    PS - I know what you mean about being single on these occasions - you feel as though you should be out there but really, I'm fine with my own company - you just can't say that.

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  2. Crazy isn't it. I consider myself to be quite self-confident and I don't let myself be drawn along by the crowds if I want to do different, but I think it's the pity it would invite if you didn't do something fun to celebrate. Or at least, fun according to the majority opinion.

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  3. Ohh it sounds like a wonderful time. I love it when you get to do something out of the ordinary. Mich x

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    1. It was different enough to feel like we'd been on a real holiday though it was only two nights away and three days.

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  4. So glad you had an amazing day. Don't worry about not joining in it is the laid back linky :-)

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    1. Love the laid back linky - I've hosed a few of them in my time. LOL.

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