Right so it’s been awhile. And here’s why:

1) The situation in Israel deteriorated RAPIDLY after my last post. It was bad enough to send all Canadian diplomatic spouses and children off to Canada. I would have been part of this voluntary evacuation too, had it not been for the fact that….

2)…A.’s uncle passed away. So we went back to Canada just before everybody else for what ended up being 5 pretty emotional weeks. Uncle R. was young and the illness was fast and horrible. I just…well, it was just awful.

and 3) whilst doing the Ottawa portion of the trip, I was alone. A. had to return to the madness here and so I had little time for writing.

Anyway, I’m back now and things are starting to return to normal, whatever that is here. Ewan started school a couple of weeks ago and seems to be enjoying it. “The work is boring, Mummy, but I like circle time (!!) and they do a good chicken schnitzel.” High praise indeed. And Evelyn is talking and climbing absolutely everything. It’s freaking terrifying.

I realized today that I didn’t mark our one year Israel anniversary. So here goes: IT’S BEEN A YEAR! YAYA! (insert ringing bells and flying banners).

In honour of our first year anniversary, I’ve compiled a list of things that I previously never thought I’d do, but that somehow I have done now and everything is fine:

1) I will never drive on the highway in Israel. This one I actually managed to get away with until just recently. And you know what? It was ok. I mean it sucked, I nearly died twice, and I used some pretty spunky language the whole time, but it was ok.

2) I’ll never be able to keep my cool during a siren. And this was somewhat true for the first one, although to be fair I was really just upset that I wasn’t near the kids. But after that, I got pretty used to them (sad to say) and managed to maintain my composure. Calmly collecting the children and heading down to the trouble room to continue whatever conversation we were in the middle of. The key is to act fast, but outwardly present a relaxed face. Tricky business.

3) I’ll never be able to run here. And yet here I am, trying to work my way up to a nicely paced 10km for an October night race, and 21k for the Tel Aviv race day in February. Running here is hard. VERY hard. Humidity, bumpy roads, not the best air quality all the time, the crazy summer heat. Nothing about this is good for a fair skinned lady with bad knees. BUT. I run at night, I go slowly and I try to embrace the weather and soak up any little wisp of a breeze off the sea when I can. And I am getting used to it. Sort of.

4) I’ll never run outside during rocket attack time. Yeah, I decided that a bunch of looney bins hell bent on blowing up me and the people around me DO NOT get to dictate my running schedule. Jerks. I kept the earphones quiet, ran near the public shelters or friends houses and powered through.

5) I’ll never get used to the grocery stores here. Especially the dairy aisle. This one has taken a long time, and arguably I have a long way to go. But I’m getting used to returning rotten food, the inconsistent availability of certain items, the organization of the stores, the brand names that suck/are great, and so on. The dairy aisle is still hard, but honestly I’ve just started buying random containers of things and seeing what they are. Found some tasty yogurt this way. Win!

So there you go. Never say never, I suppose. We’re one year in and if there is one thing that I’ve confirmed for myself over this time, it’s that one must be flexible, one must take risks, and one must remain positive. We have wonderful friends, the kids are settling in nicely, and everything is going swimmingly – the only reason these things have happened is because of the previous three.

Anyway, I have more to write but I really must sleep. Tata for now!