Chain or Neighborhood?

International chains give you a feeling of consistency, of global citizenship. You can have the same coffee or hamburger whether you are in New York, London or New Delhi. But why? If you took the trouble to visit a remote place, why not enrich your experience and taste some local specialties?

Personally, I prefer neighborhood establishments to chains. They are usually smaller, more intimate, the staff knows the returning customers and they sometimes serve interesting house dishes. To my pleasant surprise, a new coffee shop opened in my neighborhood, which is really a big deal considering we don't have any shops at all, not even a simple grocery shop. We walked over to the cafe one evening and had a pleasant experience. The place is spacious, the service attentive, the dishes average.

A few days before, I met my Gvahim mentee (a nice French system analyst whom I'm trying to help finding a job) in a chain coffee shop. She arrived earlier and had coffee and cake. When I joined her at the table, no waiter asked me whether I want to order anything, although waiters were walking by our table back and forth. After a long while, I simply caught the attention of a waiter and ordered a decaf cappuccino. To my complaint about not being asked to order, he gave me the lousiest excuse I ever heard: "we didn't make eye contact".

Independence 2012

1. Good News
Tom got an excellence award for outstanding IDF service, a good enough reason to take a day off and go all the way to Zfat for attending the ceremony. With just a short coffee break at Alonim, we managed to get there on time for the modest but meaningful moment. After the ceremony we had lunch at nearby Bat Yaar ranch, visited Baram National Park, took a short walk in the Baram Forest and ended the day with coffee and cake at best friends in Karmiel.

2. Memorial Day
My Zionist activity for Memorial Day 2012 was watching two Israeli movies: Beaufort and Late Marriage. There is something good going on in the Israeli movie industry during the last ~12 years.

3. Independence Feelings
Looked at my balcony decorated with flags, watched the fireworks and felt grateful for living in Israel. I will never take this for granted.

Fraudulent Coupon Yields Food for Soul

I get a daily Groupon mail. Mostly uninteresting stuff with incredible discounts. One offer caught my attention: a beginners' mosaic course: three 2-hour sessions in a studio, not too far from our house. Immediately thought of my husband, with his endless patience for meticulous jobs, inclination for art and golden hands. It has been a while since he did something for the soul, so I decided to surprise him.

Did some research on similar courses on offer, locations and prices, and concluded that the one offered is OK, although the coupon does not give real discount. The regular beginner's course offered by the same studio with no coupon is much longer (five 3-hour sessions) and not limited in materials. Talked with the artist on the phone, reserved a place for hubby, gave him a cheque in a sealed envelope and told him to be at a certain address on a certain date and time. Told him it's a present for no particular occasion and he should just 'go with the flow'. He didn't try to figure out what it was and ruin the surprise, just did as told.

As predicted, he enjoyed it. He really needed such calm, creative, anti-stress activity. In this photo, taken at the second session, you can see how absorbed he is by fitting together the small pieces he cuts out according to the design.

I'm so happy for him!

Trains, Contract Workers and Unions

Israel Railways operate only a few lines, most stations are far from city centers and have no parking. The trains seldom run on schedule, there are either maintenance or development works going on, or strikes. There were numerous train accidents, including collision and fire. Their Maffia-style union has repeatedly disobeyed Labor Court rulings and has acted arrogantly, thinking it can turn the train service off and on at will. The Transport minister is threatening to close the railways down and open them up anew.


Now the union is striking against outsourcing. Although Israelis love to hate the railway union, this time the union is fighting for a just cause. The maintenance work should be done by Israeli workers and not by the Canadian manufacturer. So Minister, if you don't like the existing workers, fire them all and hire new ones but leave the work here!


Many years ago during a job search, I was interviewed at a large state-owned company. They liked me and offered me the job. When we finished negotiating my compensation package, they surprised me with "Now you find yourself an agency to work through, they are basically all the same, here is the list of agencies we work with." Me together with a third of their workforce did the same type of job as their direct employees, worked harder, but made much less. We were not entitled to lunch coupons, to participating in fun days and other direct-employee-only activities and were subject to other humiliating conditions. No matter how good my work was, my status did not allow for any promotion or bonus. There was no future. 

Last week there was a 4-day general strike against employing contract workers. The employers of contract workers are agencies that do nothing for their workers, except exploiting them. The physical workplace tells them what to do and how to do it. Contract workers often work alongside direct employees doing the same job for a fraction of the direct workers' salary. For years and years. Many of these 'transparent' workers are janitors and security guards, but not only. There are IT workers, social workers, and even teachers. And the biggest such workplace is the government. Why do they do this? They claim they want to increase the state income by cutting expenses. What the over-zealous government bureaucrats forgot is that the state is not a for-profit organization. Please take pol-sci-101 again.


In many cases, the state would be better off paying direct employees and not agencies, so why isn't it doing just that? Because of Israel's best kept non-secret: it is almost impossible to fire a unionized worker. According to this twisted logic, the state pays a premium (while the workers earn less) for the option of firing the workers when they are not needed. Dear Union, you brought this unto yourselves, actually onto us! 

Ichilov Sale: Two for the Price of One

Imagine you are young and generally healthy. You have abdominal pain, are diagnosed with appendicitis and are awaiting surgery. You know it's a minor procedure and you expect to be dismissed  from hospital within a day. Waking up after surgery, you realize you can't breath. That's what happened to Dan a couple of weeks ago.

With Dan in recovery after appendectomy followed by pulmonary edema, Tom got permission from the Army to visit him. He skipped breakfast, took the first bus-train-bus and arrived to the hospital in the morning, a bit before myself. When he saw poor Dan attached to all those needles,wires, tubes and monitors he fainted.

Now if you are about to faint, the best place to do so is in Ichilov's recovery. Seeing him collapsing by his brother's bedside, the nurses asked him whether he suffers from any diseases. Halfway down, he answered 'yes' to the imaginary question "do you feel bad?". The nurses panicked and called a doctor to come and save him. They put him into a bed on the other side of the wall, hooked him to IV and gave him a cup of tea.

Since I was the last one to see Dan the previous night and knowing that visits are extremely restricted in recovery, I offered Peter to be the first one that morning. His "you're stronger', you go" surprised me somewhat, but didn't have time to philosophize too much over it. I headed towards the receptionist and was surprised she had been almost expecting me. The story of the two brothers spread like wildfire in the entire ward. Went in, put on that ridiculous robe and shoe-thing and jumped back and forth between the boys, until Dan was transferred to intensive care and Tom recovered.

After almost a week in hospital (most of it in intensive care) and a small pharmacy in his veins, Dan could breath by himself and was finally dismissed. Tomorrow they take out the stitches.

Bus Stories

With Dan hospitalized in Ichilov and crazy parking fees in Tel Aviv, last week I traveled by bus - something I rarely do.

I get on the bus near work with a banknote of NIS 100. The bus driver says he has no change. I offer to sit behind him and wait until other passengers pay and he collects enough change from them. He refuses. I ask him what should I do. He claims it's against the law to pay with a banknote more than 10 times the price of the ticket. I apologize, telling him I don't know about that law, I rarely use buses. He rants about the general lack of civilized behavior in Israel. A women gets on the bus and changes my 100 for two 50s. I'm saved.

I'm walking towards the bus station in the morning. A few meters before the station I see the bus coming towards me, after it left the station. I realize I missed it and I know it's not supposed to stop, except at designated stops. I'm frustrated. The bus stops at a red light while I am near it. The door opens and I get on. I thank the driver and ask him whether he is a mind reader. He says that's part of a bus driver's job. What a counter-experience!

Mobile Victory

After reading my previous blopost on mobile phone dilemmas, many asked me what phone I bought. Samsung Galaxy S II. This was back in July 2011. While paying for it, I accidentally found out in the shop that my mobile operator is supposed to reimburse me for it because they were not selling this model yet. Called them up and indeed, after asking me to fax the paperwork, they promised to start reimbursing in monthly installments. So they said. I waited a month, two months, three months, nothing. Called them up from time to time and always got the same answer: "next month". After about three months and the same lie, I asked the rep to check what's really going on. "You are not on right plan for getting the reimbursement". I didn't know there is a 'right' plan for it, but they assured me there is. Of course the 'right' plan was much more expensive than my current plan. In fact, the data part of it was so expensive, I decided not to buy it at all and just use Wi-Fi for Internet. Naively, I believed what I was told and forgot about the issue completely.

Last month, Tom came across a ynet article on this very issue and sent me the link. No mention of linkage between plan and reimbursement, but a handy list of options for contacting the Ministry of Communications for complaints. So I complained.

My operator's call followed shortly. I repeated my story to their Nth rep and was offered all sorts of inattractive plans, with thousands of minutes and SMSs I don't need. What I do need is a reasonably priced 3G connection. This time they claimed there is no 'right' plan, but I simply don't speak enough to reach the reimbursement threshold. So now there is a threshold. After a few more uninteresting offers, I was frustrated and ready to get back to the Ministry. Just before acting on my frustration, the operator finally offered a reasonable data plan. Since the reimbursement is higher than the price of the data plan, I signed up immediately.

Started using Waze. The first time, it navigated me home using the same route I use every day. Beginners' luck. Since then I'm happily following its proposed routes. Now I just have to learn how to disable the annoying messages and understand the meaning of all the cute icons. And use all the features of my smart phone I don't even know exist...