Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Happy Half Birthday

Today Yakira turns 1/2.

Born on August 31, there is no February 31 and in the absence of February 29, today is her half birthday.

It is incredible to think of how many different ways our lives have changed since she entered the world six months ago.

Amazing to think how much joy and happiness this little soft delicious thing could bring.

Just to bring you up to speed with some of her achievements:
*Now starting to eat real food - pureed Sweet potato.
*She is rolling over.
*She loves to play with her feet and she loves to rub them together. She also loves to test her levels of flexibility by placing her foot in her mouth.
*She has three teeth emerging.
*She sleeps through the night.
*She makes numerous baby noises and is probably not too far away from saying some real words.

Here are some recents photos of her.

Happy Half Birthday!




Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Face Space

Last year I wrote about the Tipping Point and Crocs.

Maybe I'm way late, like a year or two late, on calling this one but I only connected the dots last week.

Social networking sites such as MySpace and FaceBook have clearly tipped. When you start getting friend invitations from people you didn't even know, knew how to turn on a computer let alone have a MySpace page then you know things are out of control.

We had seminary girls over for Shabbat and I joked to them that Yakira had her own page and even had 200 friends. They were actually disappointed when I explained to them I was joking.

Truth of the matter is that I have known about MySpace since around 2003, around the time when it started which is why I probably have never given it much thought.

But for some reason they have taken over the world. Obviously it helped a great deal when News Corp bought My Space because the American Idol contestants having pages and the like gave it a great deal of publicity.

Having a page though, can prove problematic when a person has one and then becomes famous such as an athlete. Similarly there were reports of prospective employers checking out the MySpace pages of interviewees to see what they are really like.

But when you hear that everyone around has a page is when you feel the power of the Tipping Point and just like seeing that everyone has a pair of Crocs induces you to buy one or starting your own blog, so too is the pressure to have a page as well.

Another reason is that having a page is the only way you can view their photos and while I couldn't care less about having my own page, seeing someone else make a fool of themself - well that's a completely different story.

Where do I sign up?

Monday, February 26, 2007

Oscars Post Mortem

In the end Ellen was a non-entity. Jerry Seinfeld got more laughs in five minutes than she did in the entire night.

For instance with Jack Nicholson sporting a shaved head, there was a Britney Spears joke crying out to be made. How hard could it have been to make the connection?

I thought from start to finish the show was pretty flat. Much of this probably has to do with the opening which was non-existent.

Those dancers were cute but who really needs that?
Ditto for the Michael Winslow choir.

As for the actual awards, Eddie Murphy was the only upset of sorts and I guess that was due to the number of people in Hollywood who don't like him.

I think the show needs to be sped up especially the early awards like art direction, costume, sound and make-up.

Live from the Oscars

Just woke up. Still feeling a bit tired and lying on couch with the computer on my lap. Not sure I can write for the next four hours.

We'll see....

PS: It's over now. I'm off to sleep.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

And the Winner Is.........

Tonight is Oscars which is always pretty big news.

Not going to make predictions because I hardly ever get them right.

Nothwithstanding that, all the good money seems to be on the foursome of Mirren, Whitaker, Hudson and Murphy who between them have won all of the lead-up awards.

And I would be very surprised if Marty doesn't finally take out the big one. I checked the recent celebrity deaths and I wonder if this guy made the deadline.

The show is meant to be a long one so sit back and enjoy it.

And we will be live-blogging it here.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Meet My Dad, Panasonic

Was watching Dr Phil the other day. Interesting discussion they were having about this person's personal problems but why would they come onto TV to discuss it? Why let the whole world know your issues and subject yourself to such an experience?

Guess you could ask the same question about why a person would go onto TV to lose weight or go onto TV to get married.

Seems like TV has become the onestop destination for solving all of our problems.

And while we may criticise it, we lap it up, the voyeurs which we all are.

The Running Man may have been science fiction but it's pretty close on the money now.

Maybe this is the trickle down effect which came as the result of parents dumping their kids in front of the TV. When your tired or have stuff to do, what could be easier then to give them two hours of Dorothy the Dinosaur and Blue's Clues.

So wouldn't seem natural that once these kids became adults, as soon as they were in need they would turn to TV for help?

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Supper Time

Made the famed Spinach Filo recipe which has been passed down like a family heirloom from generation to generation. Thought I would share it with you.


This is all the filling after it has been mixed together. You have 500g of spinach in there, grated yellow cheese, a sauteed onion and some beaten eggs.

Some of you may note the blue tape around the knife. That is to tell me the status of the utensil. We have blue tape for milchig, red for fleishig and green for pareve. Without the tape or color indicator I would have no idea what is what.


This is the filling in the dish on top of half of the filo pastry.

This is it taken out of the oven.


This is it after having taken a slice out of it. As you can see, it was delicious.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Times We Live In

The Academy Awards are just one week away.

After the success of the liveblogging of the Australia-Croatia World Cup match, I will be liveblogging the 79th Oscars from the Dot Co Dot Il mansion. Last few year's ceremonies haven't been that good, but with Ellen at the helm anything could be possible.

Do you think that Anna Nicole Smith will be included in the dead people montage on the basis of her work in Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult?

It is a crazy wacky world we live in and along with ANS, Britney Spears shaving her head didn't do much to alleviate those thoughts. Who would have thought that Kevin Federline would have emerged as the more responsible parent?

Then you have Ralph Fiennes joining the mile high club on a Qantas flight.

Maybe being a celebrity isn't as easy as it seems.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Simon Says

The final 24 of American Idol has been set which means that the competition has now begun. Idol is undoubtedly the King Kong of reality-shows.

While the others may become stale, Idol keeps on keeping on. It has become a powerful entity especially in the notoriously fickle music industry. Whereas it may have snubbed its nose at it in the beginning, now it embraces it.

Let the singing begin.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Queen Bee

After forever and a day, the Jerusalem Post finally got round to revamping their blog section.

That's good because it allows me to blogroll the one and only Queen of Katamon.

If you don't know who she is, do yourself a favor and check her out. You won't be disappointed.

Many blogs come and go but there will only ever be one Queen.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Ball Bearings

So the Ball is over and done with for another year.

I was suprised that they were actually going to go ahead with it in deference to the passing of Anna Nicole Smith, but then again what better way to celebrate the life of a person whose life was one long party?

On the whole the evening was good and props to the organizers for doing such a fine job.

There were some fashion crimes committed on the night but then again you had some girls hit it out of the park. To protect the guilty, I wasn't allowed to take photos of the offenders.

Other observations:

*Most girls can dance quite well, most (Jewish) guys can't dance to save their life.

*Apart from Yakira, every other female present was wearing black.

*There were quite a lot of people smoking. More than I would have thought.

*Food was so-so. But then again most people weren't there for the food.

*There was an engagement at the Ball. Is it like being born in an aeroplane and any kids they have will get free entry to any Ball they attend?



Here are some photos of my two girls....





Thursday, February 08, 2007

Having A Ball

Yes tonight we will be part of the cast of thousands who are heading off to the Jerusalem Winter Ball tonight.

In what is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the Jerusalem social scene, I would have loved to have been able to liveblog it all for you - maybe that's an innovation we can introduce next year.

Anyhow, if Yakira isn't awarded:
*Rookie of the Ball
*Best Dressed
*Queen of the Ball

then something is dreadfully wrong.

Rest assured you will have plenty of photos of Yakira at/from the Ball.

After having to choose between Marchesa, Vera Wang, Valentino, John Galliano and a few others we finally settled on something that demonstrated the best use of pink.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Ad Nauseum

Last night watched all 51 of the Super Bowl commercials with Mrs Co.Il.

For the most part they were thoroughly unimpressive.

The USA Today rankings are a bit dubious with Budweiser/ Bud Light taking seven of the top 10 spots.

First of all many of those ads were hopeless (Stray Dog, Gorillas, Wedding) and second of all, have you ever tasted their beer!!

Which ones did you like?

Monday, February 05, 2007

Third Time Lucky

It was time to renew my Australian passport.

When I received it in November 1996 and saw that it lasted for 10 years, to me that was as good as forever. But eventually the 10 years came and went, so it was time to get a new one.

Renewing meant printing off the forms, filling them in and sending them off to Tel Aviv. The Embassy in Tel Aviv doesn't accept appointments.

So sent it off and a few days later received a phone-call.

There is a problem with your passport photos. You're mouth is open and you're smiling.

Security reasons was the reason I was told why.

So I send off some more photos taking care to keep my mouth closed.

Another phone call a few days later.

There is a problem with your passport photos. The distance between your head and chin is 29mm and it should be between 32 and 36. Please resend.

Took further photos and this time checked the size of the photos after.

Got the passport back and suffice to say, the photo doesn't do me much justice at all.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Super Size Me

It's the Super Bowl this weekend.

A surreal experience here in Israel as you go to work the day of the game and then have to stay up to 1.30am to watch it.

Like many big sporting events these days, there is so much hype and build-up to it that you tend to forget there is a game at the end of all the pizzazz and hoopla.

I didn't really want either side to make it this far and now that these are the only two left, have to say that I prefer if the Bears win.

Of course the real highlight of the day is the commercials which will get as much exposure as the game itself.
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