Now the dilemma. One of the pitfalls of a nice, fancy room: I want to stay! I am tired, this place is comfy, but I should go to Jerusalem. The suicide bombing yesterday really threw me off. Yes, I wanted to go to the great city, where the Saviour rode in on a donkey, but a bomb went off yesterday.

I did some thinking, reflecting. I decided to stay. I still have part of Tuesday, I have a good part of early Wednesday, so there are options.

I love this place and I want to stay, so I stayed.

Picked up on some rest and then to the lounge. Lot's and lot's of food. I had some more, will never say how much, of the chocolate pecan pie. In fact I probably had most of it, shhhhhh.

Then behold, they had a computer thingy with internet access. Oh life is good. You have to pay for it but at whatever NIS and $4 US per hour, I am there.

I was able to add to my prepatory 'notes' on flyertalk and play on my singles sites and update my yahoo lists, but no AOL access. (scheiss) I kind of needed that. So I took an hour and then someone else wanted to play. More food and drink and then it is time to go for a walk.

I walked the Promenade down below. I don't know what you call it, they were playing a kind of tennis, smaller racquets but not racquetball, watch out! The sun was slowly going down and you could see more planes going into Ben Gurion. Much warmer now and nice seabreeze. Hey, it reminds me of Malibu.

Past the 3 hotels and up near the real Sheraton. Past little cafes, bars, many of them empty, sadly, and over to across from the Dan Hotel. That is one of Tel Aviv's finest hotels.
I wanted to go up and play, but enjoyed the view outside, maybe later.
Maybe Dov would take me for a visit, NOT! LOL

I went as far as I could and then as it was getting dark, headed back. I could have taken a taxi, no buses, please, but knew I needed the walk. Let's be honest, after all that chocolate, yeah, walk.

They have a string of Embasies across the street on Ha'Yarkon. I like Embassies. Stood in front of the French Embassy claiming temporary standing in France which was cool.
They even had a French gendarme inside. In a few days I will be in the real thing.

They actually have Embassies for several countries: India, Russia, and some of the former Soviet Republics, but the French one is the only one I paid hommage to. Vivre la France! No Embassy for Syria?? hmmmm LOL Maybe someday.

Back to the other Sheraton and up to the lounge, which was now packed and had tons of food and many conversations in Hebrew, English, and what else.

I could have made dinner with what they had. They had a wonderful chicken salad, chopped egg(does this sound Jewish? LOL), rolls, the traditional Israeli salad bar, the drinks, and some desserts. I enjoyed, then enjoyed the view of Tel Aviv at night and watched some CNN. For those who drank they had 2 kinds of wines. Not a bad deal at all.

Then I did the naughty thing and went down to the hotel restaurant buffet. Yummmm
$25 US, again, in a fixed US $ price. More food than you could ever know what to do with.
And you wondered if Jewish people like to eat!? LOL Oh my.

Salmon, pasta, rice(very Middle Eastern kind of rice, yummm), veggies, some oversoaked kind of beef, hey, I tired about everything, save the salad bar. I love salads at home, don't get me wrong. Ordered an Orange Fanta and could hear German from a LARGE amount of German tourists behind me who I am sure were drunk. They were happy.
German in Israel!? Ok... Hey, all my Jewish ancestors in Europe spoke German/Yiddish. So there ya go.

I was getting tired and jetlag was settling in. They had a delicious looking chocolate cake, not round, and I asked for the privilege of taking some to my room explaining jetlag and they agreed. I am glad that I left when I did.

When I got back to the room there was a knock on the door. A bottle of mineral water and a small tin of cookies with a cute picture and name of the hotel on it. Actually, for some reason, never drank the water and the cookies were ok, but I love the tin and it now resides in Malibu. (in fact it is now 2 feet from me)

Had a message from Dov and we talked for a bit. That was a very expensive phone call, fyi, just to let ya know. I figured it was an Israeli cell. I should have been able to call South Africa for that price. We set things up for the first Flyertalk lunch in Israel and agreed on a meeting time. I also liked that he agreed to come to the hotel vs. meeting down the street.
Saved me time as Mr. Early bird arrived too early in the am for me. He also gave me advice on picking up on women. He actually gave me some good advice which I have to credit him here. I came to Israel to check out Israeli women. But he said you want to get women who are away from their home turf and so now it would be harder to chase Israeli women in their own home. True and I have dated Israelis at home in LA, maybe now I will do better that I have actually come here. So where are the French women? Yes, Dov is a stud, I will concede that, otherwise, I would have ignored his advice. :P

I enjoyed some late night tv and that wonderful view from the balcony. I don't think I have ever had such a more beauitful city view in my life, not comparing to Maui in any way, but I would compare to the Marriott in Montreal, one of my favorite views, facing North, from a high floor, but this has a balcony.

By the way, no pool, it is closed for renovation, so there went my 'mikve' in Israel. Oh well.

Lights out(exhausted) for a bit then did the 3 am wake up call and I was wide awake. So we pulled out the buffet. The chocolate cake from the restaurant, some Dasani, some Sprite from the lounge, some Swiss chocolates(I have the same kind next to me now!), and more views from the balcony. And some early morning planes coming in.
I also said a prayer for Israel. It was too perfect, too calm, too peaceful not to. God bless this sacred land eternal.
Shma Y'israel!

I called mom to say hello, got the machine, sometime in the evening, and said don't worry, all is well, and gave her a message of comfort that I would probably be skipping Jerusalem so that was a peace offering.

Then I decided to call Brian and yank his chain. I started to leave a message and his mom picked up, explaining he was in the hospital and that she was on her way down. Oy vay! You go away and look at what happens.

I forgot the pin on my AT &T calling card and they weren't going to help. I haven't used it for so long, being cheap and not having phoned home for a while from abroad. So back to AT & T and had to use my credit card.

I called the kid at his hospital bed and sure enough it was true. You have to wait till I leave to get sick, what am I going to do with you?

He was better and we yacked and I didn't care what it was costing. I still have yet to see the bill, cringe. It was special to call him from Israel, a place he would not come to and sent me off alone(guilt trip here, mate).

Now he is well. That phone call, fyi, was very special.

September 11th in New Zealand and now this!

With that fun back to bed