Accountability

Now I have some goals articulated, I need to work on accountability. I need to keep on track, to work towards my goals, not get distracted in the small things of life.

The problem is that I am easily distracted by a mind that wanders all the time through thoughts and ideas, so that while I'm writing this here I've had about 10 ideas for things to do and explore that I've written on the weekly planner that sits beside me. I've also been checking my nails to see if they need filing. And I've thought that I need to fix the blank white wall in front of me by filling it with inspiring things and images. And in that time I've written about 200 words, which I will need to edit and make readable for you all.

Everyone works in different ways, and it's a matter of you figuring out what works for you. I need to have 5 lists of things that I need to do. Amit needs only one list that he just does. I need to break down all my list items into minute steps so that I do not get scared by an item and then avoid doing it. I need 20 minute timers to tackle tasks I don't want to do (but need to be done). I've tried doing away with lists and timers and going with my heart, but it never really works. I forget important things, stress out, and go around in circles doing unnecessary things.

Take a dip into our lives now with my first video on being an entrepreneur! You can see what Amit and my work stations look like, and take a peek at our to do lists, and see what is outside our window. Enjoy!

A few links from the video:

The weeklyplanner from Kikki.K – it comes with lots of tear-off sheets 

Books that inspire:

The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau 

Screw Work, Let’s Play: How to do what you love and get paid for it, by John Williams 

Accountability – sharing your goals with others

Amit and I just started having morning meetings, where we write our lists for things to do today and also discuss any issues we are having with what we are doing at the moment.

Once a week we're reviewing our major goals and how we're progressing towards them for the year. This works because we're open with each other about any doubts we have, and provide honest feedback.

There are other ways of being accountably to your goals.

One idea is a weekly check in – you can email a few close friends or loved one (or even post a list to Facebook!) with the list of things you aim to do that week. And at the end of the week check in and say what you’ve actually done. Of course you need to make sure that you give yourself a reward if you complete everything you said you would (like a piece of cake, drinking wine with friends, a walk in the park, or something similar).

Another idea is creating a small mastermind group that meets weekly to help each other achieve their goals.

Mastermind groups exist all over the world and help people with accountability by creating a support network around helping each other succeed in their business and goals. There is lots of information on how to start your own mastermind group, but the basic idea is:

- a group of 3 to 5 people

- working on achieving something for themselves, like creating a business

- committed to meeting once a week

- in person or via skype etc.

This site gives a nice run down of what a mastermind group is and how it works 

How do you stay accountable to your goals? And what do you think of my video?? (I noticed that I stumble over words when I'm trying to focus the camera...)

Do you really want to travel for work?

People say to me that they really want a job that involves travel - like being a lawyer or accountant that just happens to have frequent interstate and overseas work. I ask them why on earth would they want that?

Getting paid to travel for work is downright exhausting. Instead of getting up and going to the office, you have to get up at 4am, pack your bag with everything you might need and be super organised, get to the airport and go through the mind-numbing security and airport check in. Wait in no man’s land with crappy places to eat and shop before getting on a cramped plane, getting to your destination, taking a cab to a generic hotel room, and then having to spend all you time in that new location/country with work people who you wouldn’t hang out with under normal circumstances.

You might get a day off to explore the city, but how much can you really see in one day? By the time you get home after a few days you're totally exhausted, have mountains of work and email to do, missed your partner and friends, missed your regular exercise and classes and meeting your friends, and have to unpack your bag and do the pile of washing you have amassed on the trip. It is not that fun, it's not cool; it's exhausting.

You might briefly see a new place, but at the end of the day you are alone in a hotel room, and that is just depressing.

Travelling for work can sometimes be ok

There can be good things about travelling for work, and those good things depend entirely on how nice your employer is, and if your colleagues happen to be your best friends I suppose.

I had a good run at my job in Australia - I would travel every 3 months or so with work all over Australia and my boss would not mind me spending the weekend once I was there.

On Friday I would check out of the 4 star hotel, work from the local office for the day, then check into a backpacker’s hostel in the evening, and start exploring. I went scuba diving off Rottnest Island near Perth, spent a long weekend on an amazing tour of Uluru, Kings Canyon and Kata Tjuta, saw a Xavier Rudd concert in the rainforest of Kuranda, scuba dived on the Great Barrier Reef, and saw friends in Melbourne for a weekend. All without paying for the airfares to get there.

I was indeed quite lucky - I had a nice boss that thought it is better for me to explore more of my country, and it didn't effect my work. I got to spend more time with my colleagues in the local offices. I saw more of my incredible country. If you have a boss like that, and work in a company that understands flexibility, then you are lucky, and it's not so bad to travel that way.

What you REALLY want is the time and money to travel

The best kind of travel is when you get to choose where you are going, and when, and who with.

And if you have a location-independent business, you can work on a project from an apartment in Buenos Aires for a few days to earn money, and then get to go out and meet people you want to spend time with. There a people right now renting apartments in Bangkok for 3 months and working, then moving on to Berlin for a few weeks – they work along the way in their location-independent business, and explore the world as they do so. It must be distracting to be working in such diverse environments sometimes, but I think I would be incredibly motivated to make it work to maintain such an exciting and inspirational lifestyle.

 THAT IS the way to travel.

I'm writing this from my parent's in law's apartment in Hod Hasharon, Israel, after a huge Saturday lunch. Later this year I'll write to you from a hostel in Cape Town, South Africa. Next year I hope to be writing to you from beside my parent's pool on the Gold Coast in Queensland. And after that, well, who knows... Here are some ideas I have for where I’d like to work from:

• an apartment in Paris
• a boat in the Galapagos Islands
• Sharm El Sheik on the Red Sea in Egypt
• a B'n'B in the Trossachs in Scotland
• an onsen in Japan.

I think about these places and I get so excited, I start thinking about how we will find cheap airfares, find the perfect short-term apartments, eat delicious food, see beautiful landscapes, meet interesting people, and constantly be inspired by what surrounds us. I've learnt more about myself, people and the world travelling than I have in any other way.

Where do you want to work from in the world?

Me at Uluru in 2008. Yes, I am holding a beer.

My goal for 2012: Create my Location Independent Lifestyle

Whatever your dreams are, you’d better start taking them very very seriously
Barbara Sher in her book Wishcraft. 

If I’m really going to be an entrepreneur in 2012, I need some real goals to make my dreams a reality.

I found this goal setting guide on Live Your Legend, and it’s really helped me clarify what my goals are, and my motivations. It’s nice to have it all written down now (I made a spreadsheet of my goals, because I like having things on one page, and I just like spreadsheets).

My goals fell into 5 areas: Work, giving back, health, travel and family and friends. I’m going to write about my work goals; because it’s the area I’ve made the biggest change in over the last year or so.

My goal for 2012: Create my location independent lifestyle and live without a boss

What is a location independent lifestyle you ask? It’s creating an income from anywhere in the world. It’s usually an online business. It’s for people who want to start something of their own, live without a boss, and work from anywhere in the world. Location independent people are also called digital nomads, mobile bohemians, or remote workers.

The idea really appeals to me because I want my life to be full of travelling, I love it so much. I also want to be able to create an awesome career that I can take with me, wherever I live in the world. This is especially important because my life will always be divided between Israel and Australia – and it always will be.

I’ve been on a journey these past few years that made me decide that I want to live without a boss, and create my own business.

My journey to living without a boss
I was working at a large research organisation in Australia for three years before I moved to Israel. I enjoyed working with people that were making a difference to Australia's future through science. But I felt like something was missing. I was rarely seeing the impact of my work. I thought about studying something, but I could never decide on one thing. I was interested in so many things - business, project management, development studies, more science communication studies - I really had no idea.

I arrived in Israel in 2010 thinking that this was my time to figure out what I really wanted to do with my life. The problem was I was thinking too big - I was trying to figure out what was the one thing I wanted to do for the rest of my life that would make me happy and fulfilled? What was that one big thing I was meant to do in the world? I went round in circles and never came up with an answer, so I just went and got a job.

I got a job surprisingly quickly. I was writing grant proposals for Israeli scientists. It sounded good; it was something I could do because of my science communication background. But I didn’t enjoy it. I had little passion for a job that was mostly project management and administration. Combined with working conditions that were not what I was used to in Australia, as well as low pay (a one-third pay cut compared with Australia!), it turned into a huge burden that I had to shake off. I resigned and left after a year.

I did learn a few things in that job though.

I learned that life is too short to work in something that is unfulfilling.

I learned how to work hard. I’m now going to work damn hard so I don't have to go back to working for an Israeli company. I know that not all companies in Israel are like where I was, but why would I take the risk of suffering when I have other options!

And I learned that enjoying my life was more important than a regular pay check. I had done a bit of freelancing for my previous employer before I started working in Israel, and knew I could earn an income I could survive on by reducing my spending. If you think about it though, I’m sure you could think of something you can be paid to do to keep some money coming in…

After I quit that job I started doing freelance science communication work for Australia. It's interesting work, with nice people, good pay, and I get to sit at home in my cosy apartment with freedom. I enjoy the freelancing, but would like to add something else, and create a portfolio career for myself – one that combines a few different business that help satisfy my need for variety in my work. I’ve realised that I don’t need to figure out what I want to do for the rest of my life – I just need to figure out what I want to do next.

If you want to know more about being location independent, there are a couple of good blogs to check out:

Chris Guillebeau with The Art of Non-Conformity (great book btw)
John Williams with Screw Work Lets Play (also a great book!)
Marianne Cantwell with Free-range Humans
Crobett Bar and a good article by him: 10 Digital Nomads to learn from

Jumping in the Gilboa, Israel.

Productivity plans without goals = failure

Last week I posted about productivity. It was going to be my week of productivity. I did a few things I wanted to do. I failed in my goal to only look at Facebook twice a day. I am addicted to Facebook and found many reasons to adhere to that goal, so I’m going to consider it a hopeless cause for the time being.

I had neglected the reasons why I’m not productive in the first place, which Seth Godin (a very awesome marketing guru) pointed out in a recent blog:

The reason productivity improvements don't work (as well as they could)  

Getting Things Done (GTD), 18 minute plans, organized folders... none of them work as well as you'd like. 

The reason is simple: you don't want to get more done. 

You're afraid. Getting more done would mean exposing yourself to considerable risk, to crossing bridges, to putting things into the world. Which means failure. 

The leap the lizard brain (the primitive part of your brain) takes when confronting the opportunity is a simple formula: GTD=Failure. 

Until you quiet the resistance and commit to actually shipping things that matter, all the productivity tips in the world aren't going to make a real difference. And, it turns out, once you do make the commitment, the productivity tips aren't that needed.  

You don't need a new plan for next year. You need a commitment.

There are two key things I need to do before I can be really productive:

1. Recognising what I’m afraid of. Why don’t I want to get things done that I need to do? What scares me about achieving what I’ve set out to achieve? These are hard questions to answer, it is  hard to be so honest with myself. But I’m pretty sure it’s around fear of failure, not being successful, people not liking what I do, etc. Nothing new in the field of psychology there, they are just your standard fears that I’m sure most of you have.

2. Committing to goals. I need to articulate what my goals are. I need some tangible goals. I was going to list the things I’ve committed to, like writing this blog, doing exercise, and writing 750 words every morning, but Amit pointed out that I haven’t actually said what my goals are, apart from that 2012 is my year of being an Entrepreneur. And that is only a theme, not a goal. So next week I plan to have a few goals articulated and committed to for the year.

What is holding you back from being productive?

Adjustment Week: my excuses and productivity plans

I’m going to call the week that just past my adjustment week. Because I need an excuse for not actually achieving that much. The first few days of the week I battled some mild jetlag after a 32 hour long New Years Eve (thanks to flying against the clock from Seoul), tried not to freeze in our drafty apartment after being in the Aussie summer for 5 weeks, and generally tried to not feel too much culture shock being back in the Middle East.

These are my random achievements of last week: I booked a flight to the UK, planned a driving trip around Scotland, researched safaris in Africa and summer music festivals in Europe, and did about four hours of paid work. I also did a bit of research for our entrepreneurial adventure. I looked at Facebook 500 times. I sent out my first ever e-newsletter using MailChimp. And I read Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, which is about successful people. I was not a successful person this past week (unless I’m planning to build a career in travel planning. Which I’m not).

Amit, on the other hand, went to the print shop 17 times to prototype the package design for the product we’re launching (more on that later), taught himself how to use Adobe Illustrator, designed his first ever company logo, built a website, followed up leads for photography work, thought up a project to launch Kickstarter (which he also became obsessed with), and was generally productive. Note to self: be more like Amit. Fortunately he sits two metres away from me so I can follow his every move.

I am going to be productive this week. I’m not even using any qualifiers in there like ‘trying’ or ‘planning to’. I have to make this happen.

So to help me with that, here are some tools I’m going to use:

• Scheduling periods of time each day for completing my ‘to do’ list, and doing this process each morning
• Looking at Facebook only twice per day (I was going to say once, but I know I won’t be able to manage that) 
• 20 minute micro-blocking: a technique where you set a timer and commit to doing only one thing for 20 minutes. This really works for me because often I’ll avoid starting something, particularly something a bit boring, or scary. Committing for only 20mins though is not so scary, and once I have done one 20min block, I often keep going. And along comes productivity. I learnt about this technique on the 30 Day Challenge last year.

What productivity techniques work for you? I obviously need all the ideas I can get!

2012: The year of being an Entrepreneur

This year is going to be different. My husband, Amit, quit his job just before we went on our 5 week trip to Australia, and we have arrived back in Tel Aviv with both of us unemployed. Doesn’t that sound scary! Are you worried about us now? How we are going to make money without jobs?

Well we do have incomes. We are making money all by ourselves, without a boss telling us what to do.

I’m a freelance science communicator, and some lovely clients (and friends) are paying me to write about science for webpages and magazines, and I’m also doing some science editing.

I love the freedom of working from home for so many reasons: no commute into work, no tiny office with no windows, no pointless meetings, no boss. Instead I have my kitchen a few steps away, fresh air and sunlight through the windows, and so much freedom.

Amit has escaped from 15 years as a software programmer to run his photography business full time. He is taking his photography business to the next level and working hard to promote his services. Follow his work on Fly on the Wall.

Now we are the Photographer and Science Communicator, with no other day jobs. We are both sitting in our small apartment in the coolest city in the world making those things happen. But that is not all. We are creating new businesses in different areas, so we will not be relying on service provision for all our income. This is our Year of Entrepreneurship, where we will make our ideas a reality. It is our year of taking risks, jumping into the deep end, and seeing what we can really do with our time and brains and hands.

Write it down, make it happen

I was reading a newsletter for the guru of living without a boss, Barbara Winter, who wrote:

Henriette Anne Klauser explains what real power is activated by this simple act of writing. She says, "Writing down your dreams and aspirations is like hanging up a sign that says, 'Open for Business.' Putting it on paper alerts the part of your brain known as the Reticular Activating System (RAS) to join you in the play...The RAS is like a filtering system of the brain. Writing it down sets up the filter. Writing triggers the RAS, which in turn sends a signal to the cerebral cortex: 'Wake up! Pay attention! Don't miss this detail!" Once you write down a goal, your brain will be working overtime to see you get it and will alert you to the signs and signals that were there all along.

So I am writing this down. 2012 is our year of being entrepreneurs. And I’m inviting you on our journey. I’m going to write a blog post every week about our progress. I’ve written it down so it’s going to happen.

Now a question for you:
2012 is your year of ____?

Thanks to Selina Barker for her inspiration to give my year a theme.

Idea for today: Collaborative Consumption

Today the idea that I've stumbled upon is Collaborative Consumption - the idea that the world is now moving from a time of hyper-consumerism into a new era where people are sharing, swapping and trading their possessions and time with the use of technology. Just take a look at eBay, car-sharing schemes, AirBNB, Couchsurfing, house swapping... the list goes on. Technology has allowed us to create communities that interact around the world, and you can even make money out of this! The average New Yorker earns $21,000 a year renting out their extra space on AirBnB.

Take a look at this TED talk by Rachel Botsman talking about how Collaborative Consumption is changing the world.


I got to this idea from an article about how the adventure clothing store Patagonia has teamed up with eBay to encourage people to sell their old Patagonia clothes. They launched the the “Buy Less, Buy Used” campaign because its the best way for the company to reduce its environmental footprint. Kind of strange for a company to encourage people not to buy stuff from their store, but to buy second hand! But that is what Patagonia is all about, reducing their impact on the earth. I recently read an excellent book by the founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouninard, called "Let my people go surfing", about how he created a model sustainable business. It is an inspiring read.

So what can I do to reduce my consumption?

• Think twice before you buy more stuff. Do you really need it? Why are you really buying it - to keep up appearances?
• If you do buy something, buy something with the best quality you can afford, so it wont fall apart after you use it a few times. Or buy something second-hand, and extend the lifespan of the product.
• Sell your stuff - on ebay etc, or swap it with a friend. Organise a clothes swap.
• Rent your space - via AirBnB or couchsurfing. Perhaps you'll reduce the demand for beach side development ruining some sand dunes.
• Buy green, buy local.

What other actions are you taking?

One-Pot Pasta with Peas & Tuna

I go through phases with cooking, and generally the quickest and tastiest dishes are the ones that stick with my kitchen. So here is my latest recipe, which takes 15mins maximum, and is made from food that I always have in the cupboard and freezer.

One-Pot Pasta with Peas & Tuna
Serves 2 Israelis

Ingredients:
half a packet of pasta
1/3 - 1/2 bottle of tomato Passata
! clove of garlic, crushed (I use frozen pre-crushed garlic for extra speediness)
1 can of Tuna - 250g or medium sized can
Frozen peas, about 1/2 cup
Grated Parmesan (I buy freshly grated, and keep it in the freezer to keep it fresh)
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

All the ingredients, with the pasta cooking away.

1. Cook pasta as per instructions.
2. Add frozen peas to the cooking pasta 1 minute before you take it off the stove. Put in the peas and wait for the water to boil again, then check the pasta is ready.

Adding the peas to the pasta pot, waiting for the water to boil again after its dose of ice.

3. Drain the pasta & Peas. Return to the pasta pot.
4. Add some olive oil
5. Return to low heat

The drained pasta and peas, with the olive oil added.

6. Add garlic, salt and pepper, and stir
7. Add Passata so that all the pasta is covered with red

Adding the Passata

8. Add can of tuna. Heat for 1 minute.

Adding the tuna

9. Ready to Serve! Sprinkle the parmesan over the top.

Finito!

If you are a chilli fan, add some chili flakes. Amit and are are chilli wooses so we don't do that.

Now I know that Tuna is an unsustainable fishing stock, so I suggest you only eat this occasionally, or substitute the Tuna for extra cheese! Most Tuna species are currently over-fished, except Skipjack. Or you can find some tinned salmon that has been approved from the Marine Stewardship Council.

Some more info on eating sustainable seafood:
Australia's Sustainable Seafood Guide
Sustainable Fish guides for all over the world

My favourite Zimmers

Zimmer is the word Israelis use for a guesthouse/cabin/B&B type of accommodation. There is a lot of it in Israel, and most Zimmers have jacuzzis. There must have been a very good jacuzzi salesperson here that made jacuzzis the standard for Zimmers. Very odd, but I'm not complaining. Who doesn't like bubbling baths!

I fortunately have a very romantic husband who has taken me to a few Zimmers in Israel. Most of them have been amazing, as you will see.

Kadita - quirky cabins on a hill
2.5 hours from Tel Aviv, near Rosh Pina

When I was visiting Israel for the first time, Amit and I spent a night at Kadita at the end of July. Kadita is perched on a hill overlooking pine forests near Rosh Pina, just north of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). Each cabin has unique features, and the cabin we stayed in had a porch with a hammock, a record player and records, and a loft bedroom (and a jacuzzi of course). There are lots of windows for the lovely view, and a little kitchen for preparing food. There is also a small swimming pool for the guests.

We visited again when my parents visited in October, this time to stay in a large cabin with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. This cabin has an amazing view of the forest, with huge windows. We spent the evening chatting on the balcony, and playing the classic Israeli card game Taki (which is actually almost identical to Uno).

I'd recommend Kadita for a relaxing weekend away. It is not fancy, but it is quirky, as the cabins are built from recycled materials, and are a tad ramshackled, but that adds to their charm. It is close to the forests where you can go hiking.

Kadita - cute cabins, forest views, swimming pool

Eretz Bereshit - romance in the forest
(website only in Hebrew, but the owners have great English)
Matat, 3 hours north of Tel Aviv

When we arrived at Eretz Bereshit, the owner said that we'd better get our things from the car before we went down the 100 uneven steps, because we wouldn't want to come back up afterwards. And he was so right. After descending the 100 steps we arrived at the most romantic, secluded cabin I had ever experienced, built right into the forest, surrounded by trees, with only a glimpse of the hills in the distance (and Lebanon). I felt like I was in another country - it could have been in the hills behind Byron Bay in Australia. The log cabin had a lovely big veranda with a hammock and table and chairs, an outdoor jacuzzi, and an indoor jacuzzi, a kitchen with a loaf of freshly baked bread, fresh herbs in a jar to use for your tea, a log fire, and so many gorgeous touches I went around taking photos of the pot plants and china figurines. I was completely enchanted by the place.

Eretz Bereshit - Super romantic wood cabins built in the trees. The owners are on the right of this picture, lovely people!

Hemdatia - organic luxury
Ilania, not far from Nazareth, and the Kinneret, 2 hours from Tel Aviv.

After our wedding we wanted to spend the weekend with both sets of parents not too far from Nazareth and Beit Sha'an, places that we were yet to visit. We did a search on a Zimmer website and watched video for Hemdatia and were hooked. We just had to stay there - and we weren't disappointed. It is quite expensive, but it is pure luxury, and because the place is built on ecological principles, it is luxury you can feel good about.

The rooms are built where the old stables were located, with the original bricks and mud finishes. In the courtyard is a lovely stone pool for dipping and cooling off. There is a large jacuzzi in another well appointed room. There is even a tree house in an old olive tree out the back, where you can climb up and look at the view of the village.

The beds are extremely comfortable, there is air conditioning and a wood fired heater in each cabin, and they are all thoughtfully presented.

But probably the most amazing thing about this place is the divine breakfast. The owner and a helper were in the kitchen from 6am preparing breakfast for us a 9.30am, which was made only from produce from their organic farm. There were amazing salads, burekas, omelettes, goats cheese (from their goats), herb tea, antipasti, bread... so much delicious, organic, healthy food! Far more than we could eat.

Around the rooms there are vegetables and herbs growing. And each room has the choice of both a regular toilet and a composting toilet. The owners say that even if someone has no interest in ecology and sustainability, just by seeing vegetables growing and what a composting toilet looks like will be an education for them in someway.

It is the kind of place you never want to leave...

Hemdatia - sustainable luxury....

Talking about the weather

How much do you talk about the weather? Chances are it's highly related to where you live. So I'm going to talk about the weather now, well, more specifically, how you talk about the weather in Australia, England and Israel.

Talking about the weather. Part 1. Australia.

Australians love to talk about the weather. Every time I speak to my parents the conversations always include a weather report, and every email I receive mentions the weather. Perhaps my family is more weather focused, as my dad is a sailor and spends a lot of time at sea, but I would say it is not unusual to talk about the weather at the start of every conversation with someone you know well or only slightly. Aussies talk about the weather a lot. We do live in a country with the most variable weather in the world, where nothing is normal from year to year – where you can live your whole life in a 20 year drought for it to be broken by months of flooding rain that destroy everything you own, or the hottest day ever brings 47 degrees C and bushfires that cause unbelievable destruction, or the biggest cyclone in centuries flattens everything around. We're talking extreme weather, that is only becoming worse with climate change. It is hard to be a climate change denialist when you live in Australia, when with every extreme weather event people say it must be climate change.

The Australian weather nerd

I worked with some extreme weather nerds in Canberra. Extreme weather nerd behaviour includes:

• closely monitoring the rain gauge in your garden, plotting the results for the season, comparing it to seasonal averages etc.
• listening to all news weather reports. If you hear there is rain coming, you jump onto the Bureau of Meterology's website for the infamous weather radar, watching hopefully for patches of red
• calling all your friends or running to see them when you see a red colour on the radar, representing lots of rain
• getting jealous of all the red on the radar over north queensland in summer.

Now this extreme weather behaviour I witness (and participated in) was obviously the result of the long period of drought Canberra was in. Considering it rained constantly last winter, I'm not sure if such behaviour continues, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it does... (and this behaviour may also be related to many of these weather nerds living on farms/keeping gardens/being ecologists...

Talking about the weather. Part 2. England

Talking about the weather had never seemed that strange to me until I moved to England, where the weather is discussed on an entirely different level – the English talk about the weather all the time. With everyone. All day, every day. And the weather in England is always: Grey or greyer, wet or wetting, windy or windier, cold or colder. One day a year the sun comes out, and it's talked about all year.

A typical day of ones life in England:

7am. Wake up. Look out the window. Grey. Listen to the weather report on the radio. Grey and cold. Discuss the grey weather with your partner/housemates.

8am. Go to the bus stop, noticing the weather. Talk to the person next to you at the bus stop. About the weather

9am. Arrive at work. Say Good Morning. “Grey day today isn't it” you say to your colleague

9.10am. Make tea. Talk to another colleague. “It's rather grey outside today isn't it. When is the sun going to come out”, you say...

10.30am. Morning tea meeting with other colleagues. “How about this weather we're having, there is no end to this grey is there! When will the sun appear?”

I'm not going to continue. As you see, for the first 4.5 hours of the day you've talked about the weather 5 times with at least 5 different people. In one day, you probably discuss the weather 20 times, with almost every single person you talk with. Talk about taking the discussion of weather to an entirely new level. It's completely ingrained in the culture. I think that if an Englishman moved to Israel, where every day for 5 months is almost exactly the same: hot, humid, 30 degrees, he would still talk about the weather every single day (but only with other Englishmen...).

Talking about the weather. Part 3. Israel

Which brings me to Israel. I started working in an Israeli company, and in the tea room I met many people that I know barely. And I naturally talked about the weather with almost all of them. Well I did, until I mentioned it to my Israeli friend who said, “If you talk about the weather with an Israeli, they will think you have nothing else to say, and that you are a boring person”. Israelis do not talk about the weather. Well, it does come up in conversation, but it is way down the list. But then, there is little reason to talk about the weather, for a few reasons:

1. The weather here is boring. In Summer it is exactly the same weather for 5 months. And there is absolutely no rain for those 5 months either. In the winter people do wonder where the rain is, but not very much.
2. People ask about people here, how they are, are they sick, are they married/having babies yet, are they enjoying life. There is very little small talk. People are direct with their questions and answers and open with their feelings.
3. There are bigger things to worry about. Terrorism, war, security. The Middle East peace process. Will Israel still exist in 50 years time? Big questions, big insecurities, and the weather doesn't really rate there. No one talks about climate change. I've never seen an Israeli newspaper mention it. Life is stressful here, and there is no interest in talking about the weather.

The Israelis are in line with the Crowded House song that starts:

      “No time, no place to talk about the weather

       The promise of love is hard to ignore...”

More info

Talking about the weather falls into the small talk basket. Small talk is called phatic communication, and is considered a social skill.

This BBC article on the differences between British and German small talk – the Germans don't even have a word for small talk. And Hebrew doesn't really have a word for it either. 

Talking about the weather in Australia vs. Indonesia: 

This blog post  talks about how social media is changing phatic communication.

And here is an American guy discussing how to talk about the weather.

סיימתי כיתה א+ באולפן

סיימתי כיתה א+ באולפן גורדון בתל אביב. המורה שלנו היה מצויינת. השם שלה אילנה. היא אוהבת מדטציה, אז, עכשיו היא נוסעת לארה"ב, ושם היא עושה מחנה מדטציה למשך 3 חודשים. בכיתה שלי היו תלמידים מכל העולם.  יש תלמידים מצרפת, אנגליה, דרום אפריקה, ארה"ב, פילפין, סודן, דרפור, רוסיה, לטביה, מולדובה, גרמניה, ועוד. אהבתי ללכת לאולפן כי זאת הדרך הטובה ביותר ללמוד עיברית. אף על פי שקשה ללמוד באולפן אחרי העבודה פעמיים בשבוע, אני חושבת שזאת הדרך הטובה ביותר ללמוד עיברית בשבילי. 

What to expect at an Israeli wedding

1. Huge numbers! 400 is normal, 200 is very small, 800 happens

2. People will wear jeans. In fact, many dress in a style that would be appropriate for a “dinner at the local Chinese on a Friday” by Australian standards. But this isn’t so surprising when you consider that Amit, my lovely well dressed fiance, didn’t own a pair of black pants or leather shoes until three months ago (he now owns three pairs of each).

3. Weddings happen mostly at night, after work. So you can go to a wedding on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (the most expensive) nights. Friday noon weddings happen, but there are issues with Shabbat (the sabbath) entering at sunset, and as most places are kosher, they will kick you out before the sun goes down.

4. There are no bridesmaids or groomsmen. No one wears matching outfits.

5. No one gives presents. Money only! Amit says that if you give a present you are hated forever (unless you are a very close friend, when it is allowed).

6. You will get invited to tonnes of weddings each summer. A rule of thumb on whether you should attend is whether you have the bride or groom’s phone number in your phone book. If you go to all of the wedding you will go broke, no doubt about it!

7. No speeches! There might be a video made by the couple’s friends though...

8. Ladies bring a second pair of shoes with them - flat ones - for dancing the night away.

9. Most weddings follow a particular format, which is almost upside-down compared with traditional Australian/American/English weddings.

So I’ll use an evening wedding as the example, which is the most common here. Below is my experience of Israeli weddings (all five I have attended so far). There are lots of slight variations on this theme, but you’ll get the gist...

Before the wedding
The wedding day starts late morning, when the bride starts getting ready. At midday on a week day you will see the hair salons filled with brides getting their hair done, with a make-up artist lurking in the wings to get started on their faces. This also happens at home.

Efrat having her hair and makeup done at home. Photo by Fly on the Wall

The bride gets dressed with her mum/friends at home. Then at about 2pm, the groom arrives to pick her up. None of this “waiting until she’s walking down the aisle” to see the bride - the groom and bride go off with their photographer to take photos for a few hours BEFORE the wedding. Popular photographing spots include: the dilapidated buildings in Neve Tsedek, the Tel Aviv Port, old Jaffa, Rothschild avenue, the Carmel markets, a field somewhere - wherever the contrast of a couple dressed up and the shabby/natural surrounds are greatest.

Ido and Efrat at their photo session before their wedding

After the photo session, the couple arrive at the venue, shortly followed by the families for the family photos before the wedding begins.

The wedding begins
On the wedding invitation you will see the time that the wedding event begins, and also the time for the ceremony (huppa). If your invitation says 7pm, most people will start arriving at 7.30, and continue to arrive for another 1.5hours.

When you arrive you greet the bride and groom, and then dive into eating all the yummy appetizers. There are usually people walking around with trays, and also there are stations for yummy food. Wedding have amazing food in my experience, and the appetizers are the highlight!

Remember you are in Israel, and unlike in Australia or the UK where you would dive to the bar, Israelis are in no hurry to drink. It’s all about the food.

Speaking of alcohol, it is usual at Israeli weddings to have an open bar - spirits and wine and one cocktail to welcome the guests. This is pretty uncommon in Australia because it would cost a fortune (as Aussies tend to like drinking more than Israelis).

Walking down the aisle
I have seen a couple walking down the aisle alone, but more often the groom is escorted halfway down by both parents, where he waits for the bride, who also is walked to him by both her parents (no father giving the bride away!). At the spot halfway down the aisle, the bride meets the groom, who puts the veil over her face. They then continue onto the ceremony location.

Ido putting the veil over Efrat. Photo by Digital Closeup

The ceremony
The ceremony and its location is called the Huppa (said hoop-a). It is held under a white canopy, often held up by 4 male family members holding each post. Under the Huppa you have the bride and grooms family, the bride and groom, and the Rabbi. The ceremony is then conducted by the Rabbi. This is where I get a bit lost because the ceremony is conducted in Hebrew, with many traditional prayers and blessings.

The Huppa. Photo by Digital Closeup

 Key parts of the ceremony include:

Blessing the wine, the bride and groom drinking from the same cup. Photo by Digital Closeup

Exchanging the Ktuba - the wedding contract, which states how much money the groom is paying for the bride?? The Ktuba is signed before the ceremony with the Rabbi and the men of the families. Photo by Digital Closeup

The groom putting the ring on the bride’s finger (on her pointing finger, not her ring finger, where she puts it later). Photo by Digital Closeup

And to end it all, the groom smashes a glass! (a glass that is wrapped in aluminium foil so you don’t get glass everywhere). Photo by Digital Closeup

This is my take on a ceremony that I don’t quite understand - for more details check it out here: Ceremony: Jewish Wedding Rituals

In my opinion, the Huppa can be a bit impersonal, with the Rabbi following strong rituals, and the bride not usually saying a word during the whole thing. And another thing, during almost every wedding I have attended here, guests are talking between themselves during the ceremony! I find it so incredibly rude! Perhaps it is a consequence of the large numbers invited to weddings... or perhaps Israelis are just rude. You decide.

After the ceremony
Once the glass is broken, people rush to the Huppa to kiss the happy couple and say their congratulations. And then they run to get their dinner (20 mins of ceremony makes you starving apparently). There will be buffets with tonnes of food - beef, chicken, fish, six salads, etc etc.

You’ve barely digested a thing when the dancing starts, and goes on and on for another 4 hours minimum. It is all about the party at the Israeli wedding and the dance floor is packed for hours with the guests.

The dance floor. Photo by Digital Closeup

The bride on the dance floor. Photo by Fly on the Wall

The groom and bride on the dance floor. Photo by Fly on the Wall

Conclusions about Israeli Weddings (from an Aussie perspective)
Israeli weddings are all about the fun. Food, a few drinks, and dancing till your feet won’t hold you any longer. There is little formality about the whole affair. And sometimes I feel that the event doesn’t honor the bridal couple enough. But the food is fantastic, and it is great fun to dance the night away!

For a humorous take on Israeli weddings, check out comedian Benji Lovitt's blog.

What about our wedding?
We are getting married in June, on a Friday afternoon. A Friday afternoon wedding is rare in Israel, but we’re not restricted by a Rabbi or a Kosher venue, so we will all party into the evening, and everyone will have Saturday to recover before work on Sunday.

Our wedding here isn’t a registered one, because we cannot get married in Israel. Israel only permits religious weddings, and mixed-religion or secular weddings are not recognised. However, if you get married overseas, your marriage is recognised for all official purposes in Israel. We are getting married (again) in Australia in December.

Our ceremony will be conducted by a wonderful friend of ours, and will have some Jewish traditions, but will be designed by us.

There may be speeches, we won’t mind if non-Israelis bring presents, and the rest we’ll leave a surprise.

We’re super excited!


Thanks the the wonderful bride and groom, Ido and Efrat, for letting me use their wedding photos. You are the best!

A round of applause

At a concert last night I was reminded of a bizarre cultural phenomenon in Israel.

Whenever I go to the theatre, opera, or concerts in Israel, the performance inevitably ends and the audience naturally breaks into a round of applause to show their appreciation. The applause is chaotic, like I'm used to in Australia, Canada, Japan, England, and other places I've been to in the world.

Then after a few seconds, a strange thing happens. Everyone starts clapping in unison, like they're clapping along to music. Now what I'm used to hearing in a packed theatre is of tumultuous, thunderous, chaotic applause. But all I hear is clapping in unison, like people clapping to a marching band of music piece. And I can't resist it and I clap along. I can't escape it. I can't understand it. I want to clap differently, to create the sound I'm used to. But I can't, I'm trapped, and even if I clap totally off the beat to everyone else, I'm just one person in a sea of hundreds.

This really frustrates me, I feel like I'm not showing how I really feel about the music, and that the audience isn't showing its appreciation as it should do. Instead they seem to be clapping along together like it's a game, and not like they've just experienced some world-class culture.

Have you ever experienced this bizarre clapping behaviour before? How do you feel about it? Is it a purely Israeli thing??

The concert I saw last night was with Richard Galliano, a musician from France who is said to be the best accordionist in the world, playing with the Netanya Kibbutz Orchestra. It was a fantastic performance, and they gave four encores (despite the fact that the audience kept getting up to leave the theatre even though the orchestra remained seated! And they did this terrible clapping thing! Poor Mr Galliano).

The program from last night's performance at the Tel Aviv Museum

I found another blog post from a few years ago that discusses the strange Israeli behaviour or synchronous clapping:  The Muqata: Synchronous Clapping

Portugal for business

The pavements in Lisbon are all cobbled

I just went to Lisbon for work. I left home at midday on Tuesday, and got home at midnight on Friday. That's 74 hours away from home. It includes 14 hours on aeroplanes, 10 hours in 4 airports (Tel Aviv, Rome, Lisbon, Paris), 18 hours in meeting rooms, 7 hours in restaurants with colleagues, 27 hours in a hotel room, and a bunch of transit time.

There were Christmas decorations - my first this Christmas

Things I learnt about Portugal:

1. They don't seem to have very good Wi-Fi
2. They like cod. A lot. Apparently they have 200 ways to cook cod.
3. They like eating thin steak with egg on top.
4. Portuguese parents are like Israeli ones – calling their kids every day, cooking too much food, wanting to always be near by their children – 20mins is almost too far.
5. The country had a dictator for many years, and a lot of people remember him fondly and wish that they still had his financial management, especially considering the country is now bankrupt.
6. Portuguese tarts are totally delicious! Flaky pastry with a custard filling, slightly charred on the top. Like magic.
7. Women kiss men on both cheeks even when you first meet them (a bit close for me!).
8. The Portuguese seem to be big on hygiene. Hand disinfectant everywhere. Plastic toilet seat covers.
9. Most people have dark, straight hair. No gingers as far as I can see. And no curly hair. So I don't exactly blend in (which I do in Israel, if you would believe. There appear to be more gingers in Israel than in Australia, and combined with curly hair being so common, I look like a local! Who would have thought).

A Lisbon street

Toothpicks

Toothpicks - an Israeli obsession. When I was growing up I noticed my parents always wanting toothpicks at the end of meals. I grew up never feeling the need to stick those little pieces of wood in my mouth after I ate. Maybe I don't have gappy teeth, but then no one my age that I ate dinner with in Australia demanded toothpicks, so perhaps it just wasn't a cultural norm.

Then I came to Israel, and the very second you finish your main dish at a restaurant a pot of toothpicks magically appears on your table. Without fail those toothpicks appear, and everyone at the table will proceed to stick them between their teeth to remove all the food - steak, salad, whatever. Of course they do it very modestly with one hand covering the other while it digs out those sneaky pieces of food.

I've been learning this toothpick etiquette over the last few months, and must say I've become almost used to digging into my teeth after every meal, remembering not to speak while I do so, avoiding opening my mouth too wide like at the dentist, and covering my mouth with my other hand so the whole table doesn't look down my throat.

I don't know why Israelis have such an obsession with toothpicks. Do they have gappy teeth? Or do they have particularly good dental hygiene? Is my parent's obsession with toothpicks a sign that they are secretly of Israeli origin?

Well if you really want to know more about toothpicks, I just found out that there is a book all about the history of toothpicks, would you believe it, called The Toothpick: Technology and Culture. It is not written by and Israeli.

Jo Walks Tel Aviv

A few months ago Amit and I decided to take his Canon 5D camera with us for an afternoon stroll through Tel Aviv. The stroll lasted a few hours, we show you what Tel Aviv looks like on a Friday afternoon, and we met a few friends along the way. So here is a glimpse of our city, through our eyes.

Cleaning floors, Israeli style

This country is incredibly dusty. There is more dust here than I have ever experienced in Australia. It must be blowing off the Sahara.

All this means that our apartment gets dirty fast - dust covering everything and that lovely grainy feeling under your feet as you walk on the tiles. Now if I were in Australia I would fix this with a quick dust, a vacuum, and a mop. But no, that's not how it's done here!

So here are the amazing steps to cleaning your floor in Israel.

1) lift everything off the floor. Not just chairs, but everything. Pile chairs on top of tables, couch chairs on top of the couch, computer off the floor, cables off the floor, everything.

2) fill a large bucket with hot soapy water

3) throw the water all over every floor in the house. Puddles are required everywhere.

4) get a water scraper thingo and push the water into every corner of the house so it makes the dust and dirt soggy. Lift up every piece of furniture, beds, giant bookcases, everything. You must catch all the dust and dirt with the water!

Amit cleaning the floor - notice the furniture piled up!

5) scrape the lovely dirty water from all over the house into the hole in the floor, which is usually located up a slope, in a tiny corner of the bathroom.

6) drape a piece of cloth soaked in fresh water over the scraper thingo and use it as a mop to get the rest of the water of the floor. Somehow you are supposed to manage to keep this piece of fabric draped over the scraper. I've no idea how! I ended up standing on the cloth and shuffling around the house.

7) put all the pieces of furniture back, plug everything back in, and you are done. It only took us (2 people) over an hour to complete.

Needless to say, Amit and I have only cleaned the house in this way once. I tried an improvised version (partially throwing water around and scraping it into a whole, partially shuffling around the house on the cloth, pretending I was a mop).

Finally a few weeks ago we bought a mop. Now I'm sweeping and mopping, and not using the Israeli scraper, which I was obviously not born to handle!

Here are a couple of blogs that share my experience with cleaning Israeli style.
You have got to be kidding
Lesson 5 - this is a mop

England

A few weeks ago, Amit and I went on a one week trip to England. I lived in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne four years ago for 15 months, so the main aim of the trip was to go and visit my great friends there.

The first thing that struck me was that I could understand what everyone around me was saying! I was flooded with voices, other people's conversations, advertisements on walls, shop signs. I'm used to turning off all these distractions in Israel, easy to do because they are mostly in Hebrew.

I just loved walking into Boots pharmacy and seeing all these familiar brands, and so much variety! Israel has most things of course, but it is a small country compared with the UK and Europe so it doesn't quite get the variety.

The architecture in the cities really shocked me as well. I'd forgotten what it looked like, all the intricate details make it so interesting to look up to from the street. I have talked before about how I love the buildings in Tel Aviv, in all their dilapidated glory and minimalist lines, but seeing English architecture reminded me of my love for living history, as seen in buildings that line the streets of London and Newcastle.

Amit on Grey St, Newcastle. Beautiful buildings. From England

We had fun shopping in the mega clothes stores, eating the delightful English cuisine (sausages, bacon, pies, sausage rolls, roast lunch, curry), drinking beer, seeing all the greenery, walking till our feet hurt, and of course seeing friends.

There is nothing quite like seeing old friends. It's like those four years never really happened, and we've been transported to a meeting where we still know each other super well, but we've had all the experiences in between to make our conversations even more interesting! Amit loved meeting my old friends too, as we're both all about the people, and he didn't mind that I dragged him around England meeting 20 people in 7 days.

Nita and Ken took us on a road trip through the Northumberland countryside to the beautiful Belsay Hall - a fantastic mixture of historic house, castle and gardens, with an amazing art exhibition exploring the impact of scale.

Enjoying the green at Belsay. From England

It was a strange experience going back to somewhere overseas that I once lived. I remember when I thought that the culture there was normal, it was part of my everyday life. I remembered the streets I walked on everyday, I remember the music I was listening to, I remember the people I knew there. All sorts of things. But in those four years since living in England I've experienced so many things that have led to me living in Israel with my man. Walking through the streets of Newcastle four years ago I could never have predicted moving to Israel! I also felt that I am living in the right place. Tel Aviv is the place for me.

Upon returning to Israel two thoughts dominated my mind:
1) I need to eat some Israeli salad!
2) I missed hearing and speaking Hebrew, strangely enough. The trip made me realise that speaking another language is an exciting thing, and I've been spurred on to study more Hebrew now.

A slide show of our England photos...

Tel Aviv - its evolution

Tel Aviv has the amazing ability to re-invent itself. It is the first modern Jewish city, founded in 1909 on sand dunes next to the old city of Jaffa. It is a bubble in a region of constant conflict, as unless you read the news you wouldn't know that there were missiles falling near Sderot. Tel Aviv was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003, as it has the world's largest concentration of Modernist-style buildings (Bauhaus).

Walking the streets you feel like you are walking though a european city in the height of summer. There are tree lined avenues, cafe's filled with people, and designer stores everywhere. There are differences of course: the lovely beaches a few minutes walk from the shopping district, the crazy traffic and drivers who like their horn a little too much, and of course the language!

Did you know that Rothschild Boulevard is such a lovely wide road because it is actually a filled-in river bed (a wadi), so no one wanted to build their houses on it? It was called Rothschild Blvd because the founders of Tel Aviv hoped Rothschild himself would donate some money for the city. Apparently he was more interested in developing the rural settings, so he never paid a penny to have the best street in Tel Aviv named after him. Anyway, watch the movie for other interesting facts about this vibrant city.

my favourite places to eat in Tel Aviv - take 1

Food is a constant topic of conversation here. Everyone wants to know where you ate, what you ate, whether they should go. Most conversations go something like this:

"You ate at somewhere? Which restaurant? Was it good? Where is it? Give me the details immediately! (because I can't believe there is a good restaurant in Tel Aviv, or the whole if Israel, that I don't know about)".

So here are some of my favourites - they are mainly eateries rather than restaurants, which perhaps reflects our budget more than anything. I expect I'll have another list of favourite restaurants in Tel Aviv soon - there are some many tasty restaurants!

La Gaterie

184 Ben Yehuda St, Tel: 077 2180077 and 97 King George Street, Tel: 052 5035003
The story goes that the two owners of this place travelled to France and spent two years learning how to make the perfect croissant. The croissants are served with freshly sliced cheese and meat (salami or prosciutto), and a poached egg. I was skeptical at first, but it makes for the most delicious combination. I think I'm addicted... but I'm trying to limit myself to one per month. I celebrated my birthday breakfast here with a long black (americano).

Me eating the delicious croissant from La Gaterie. From Israel

The Pizza (הפיצה)
51 Bograshov, 03 5281077
The Bianca pizza here is incredible - wood-fired oven pizza with mozzarella, parmesan, feta, olive oil and parsley on top... the most authentic pizza in Tel Aviv in terms of the type of pizza base (not too thin or too thick), cooked in a proper wood-fired oven, with yummy fresh toppings.

Moon 
Borgashov 58, 03 6291155
This place does amazing sushi. I really didn't expect there would be so many great sushi restaurants in Tel Aviv, but this city continues to surprise me, especially on the food front!

The sushi in Tel Aviv is different to what I've had in Australia (and Japan), nonetheless it is delicious in it's uniqueness. The fish is fresh and delicious, the styles are interesting and diverse... I want to eat more of it!

Amazing sushi at Moon. From Israel

Update: Amit and I ate at Moon tonight. The food was tasty and delicious, but the service was not up to scratch - we had to wait a long time for a table while there were free tables not cleared. Basically looked like they were understaffed, which is a shame. One of our friends worked there for many years and loves the place, so maybe we caught it on a bad night....

Tony Vespa
267 Dizengoff St, 140 Rothschild Blvd. Tel: 03 5460000
I had my doubts about this one, but after a fun night with dutch friends recently, Amit and I had some salami and cheese pizza and it went down very well... Perfect for a late night snack, it has a crispy thin base, fresh toppings, and is priced by its weight - you just tell them how big you want your slice to be!

WolfNights chef burger
40 Lilenblum Street, Rothschild Quarter. Tel:  03 517 7155I and 53 Yehuda Maccabi

I've never really been into gourmet burgers, but WolfNights may have changed me. Amit is obsessed with these burgers. Whenever we are thinking about where to eat Wolfnights is at the top of the list. Amit always goes for the Wolfnights special - a gourmet beef and lamb burger with emmental cheese and crispy bacon on a soft sesame seed bun. I quite like the beef burger with mushrooms. Addictive, not so good for the waistline, but super delicious!

La Brasserie
70 Ibn Gvirol, 03 6967111
This place has a great vibe, some delicious food (I love the bone marrow - I'd never had it before and it's so yummy!), and is open 24hours! With classy service, it's not exactly cheap, but it's a lovely night out. It is a little noisy inside, but you can sit on the street.

 La Brasserie's bone marrow, served with roasted garlic and toast. Yummm

For some reviews of good places to eat in Tel Aviv (including a few I've mentioned here), check out Taste TLV