We speak English, don’t we?
The other day I started up a new WhatsApp group: Lloyds English. I announced it to my close family: Israeli-born offspring and Israeli-born wife, and stipulated that it would serve as a place where we’d communicate only in English. The immediate response to my announcement was: “What are you drinking and are you already drunk?” And […]
Can beautiful people really feel the Blues?
I first saw the movie, Bagdad Café, long before coming to live in the desert, but even then its haunting sound teased me with dark promises as to where a desert road might lead. When I first listened to the Blues, I felt very much the same way. I wasn’t there yet, but it touched me in […]
When is a Lloyd, not a Lloyd
I carried the name Lloyd on my long, solitary journey to the Holy Land, so many decades ago, only to discover that I was probably the only Lloyd in the whole State of Israel. Was this a new dynasty I was about to create, or would the Lloyd name peter out here altogether? One can only […]
Frozen wonderland without borders
“Do you have any ice salt?” I asked the woman at the Canadian Tire store.“No, all out.”“When will you have more?”“Don’t know. Going to take some time. The truck is coming direct from Montreal, eh?” When travelling for my annual Canadian winter visit, I never expected ice salt to become the most sought after commodity […]
Comfort and Fashion – Never the twain shall meet
Those of you that know me, know that I don’t struggle much with fashion. At least not now, when I am pretty well worn out.”Adva would claim that my poor dress habits even go beyond fashion.“You’re not wearing that!” she exclaims. “It is full of holes!”“There are only two… three,” I respond. “And I am […]
When will Israelis get a real weekend?
One of the first things I had to get used to in living and working in Israel was the fact that Sunday is the first work day of the week. Sunday is actually called Yom Rishon (“First Day”) in Hebrew. When it comes to naming the days, Hebrew is quite sensible: Yom Rishon (“First Day”) [Sunday] […]
Facebook status: Grandparent
My daughter in-law, Sharon (with significant help from my son, Noam) gave birth to a beautiful baby boy and I am now a grandfather. Adva and I are still getting used to this new status. Grandparents… wow! Soon after being told the news,, a picture of the baby – taken with an iPhone – appeared […]
Someone pass me the remote
I grew up before the days of cable or satellite TV, in Scarborough – a small suburb of Toronto. Like everyone else, we picked up broadcasts by means of a roof top antenna, with a very limited choice of stations. There was no remote control at the time – just a knob that we turned […]
Wake up and smell the flowers
No, they aren’t roses. These be wild flowers. Wild, but protected by the Nature Authority. Israelis may be a grumpy, aggressive, loud lot – but they sure like their wild flowers. On a beautiful spring day (can the 9th of February be considered spring?), we wandered about admiring the flowers up on the Carmel Mountain […]
The Puzzle Maker
I have started doing puzzles – jigsaw puzzles. There is something therapeutic, soothing, yet stimulating in sitting in front of a puzzle for a few hours each evening. I imagine that we use only about five per cent of our brain during the day, even if we are multi-tasking twelve different screens on the computer. […]