On Holiday

Life is good so far. The wedding was excellent meeting everyone after so long was a joy. Seeing Cathy again is great . The low spot so far was having to bury 40 overipe goose eggs. I shall continue to ignore the news as long as possible.

California wine trumps French wine…yet again

Congratulations to the fine wines and winemakers of my native land for once again demonstrating that California wines are in all ways superior to French wines.

In two blind tastings this week the world’s top oenologists – including French people – ranked California wines over French wines on all counts.

At the top end, the tasting was a rematch of the famous blind tasting “judgment of Paris” 30 years ago where French wine experts shocked themselves by voting California wines superior to their own. At that time the frogs attempted to cover up their embarrassment by saying that the California wines may be wonderful now but they wouldn’t age well so come back in 30 years time. So the wine experts did exactly that.

Blow my foie gras down with a feather but the French were talking merde again. French wine experts voted with their colleagues from around the globe at simultaneous tastings in Napa and London, and agreed that the California wines aged better than their French counterparts. Right-up-the-road from where I grew up Ridge Monte Bello Cab 1971 was voted the top wine. Other California cabs came 2nd- 5th. The French mouthwash sorry wines came 6th-9th.

Announcement

Notice is hereby given that the second annual(ish) meeting of the Neither Here Nor There blogging team eg Cathy and Adrian will take place next week at Cathy’s (pent)house and various other London locations.

Agenda
-welcome and hugs
-catching up
-the N6 smoking ban
-garden and views of all sorts
-books
-scintillating conversation over wonderful food prepared by Good Sport and wine selected by Cathy
-books
-fast driving
-aob

Did I mention books?

Holidays

I'm off to the UK for a week or so. Blogging will be light with an occasional shower of drivel. It's a family wedding and reunion. There will be bookshops somewhere of course.

AbbaGav says it better

Go read AbbGav on the supposed link between the Muhammed cartoon furore and the Da Vinci code row.

Sorry guys, but "Da Vinci Code" protests can't even be stretched or misrepresented to be reminiscent of Muslim reaction to "blasphemous cartoons." Here are just a few reasons why:

1. No out of control rioting spreading globally as activists intentionally fan the flames (for example by inventing and publicizing additional false and malicious rumors such as that Paris Hilton will be playing the Virgin Mary in the film).

Click above to read it all.

Another day out

Mrs E and the rest of us went to the Kinneret at a place called Rob Roy's for a family reunion. Lots of food and hugs all round as the sons and daughters of Shoah survivors gather. I did swim in the Jordan for the first time ever, just up river from where the Baptists strut their stuff. Falling in some years ago doesn't count. A very Israeli family fest down to moving the tables and chairs onto the tractor and trailer combo when it finished.

Rob Roy is named after John McGregor who kayaked around the kinnert some 150 years ago. Brits go everywhere.

Highgate garage sells for £140k shock

Yes, it’s that time of the year again. The chattering of us it’s grim up norf London folks has once again moved to property prices and the ludicrous price paid for postage-stamp sized properties.

Following on from last year’s kick-off of the £100k 5.8 m2 metzia, this year’s property season has kicked off with the Highgate garage around the corner which has just sold at auction for £140,000. OK it is a detached garage with a drive and leafy views suitable for a sensitive and discrete architect-designed infill home…however.

Woman

I note that Saudi Arabia is pushing women to one side again. No suprises there I suppose. After all it makes so much sense to let woman pilot passenger jets but forbid her driving to the airport.
Here in Israel, Elms in the Yard reports on all male passenger flights with El-Al and the gradual drive to push women to the back of the bus.

Jihad-fired Katyusha hits Ashkelon-area moshav - Chickens killed

A Katyusha rocket hit Moshav Netiv Ha'asara today killing a number of chickens. The surviving chickens will be given trauma counselling before being hung upside down and slaughtered.

5,000 Jewish youths reenact 1948 war

Some 5,000 Jewish youths from around the world taking part in the Zionist “Masa” (journey) project, will participate in a reenactment of the breaching of the Burma Road during the War of Independence in 1948.

However, organisers have expressed concern that their recruiting drive to obtain red team volunteers have met with little success. Israeli Arabs are reluctant to dress up as Jordanian Legionnaires, Iraqi fedayeen and Egyptian Army regulars and pretend to charge 1948 era IDF troops.
Abu Eliyat, a Jerusalem resident was quoted saying "Do I have stupid written on my forehead?"

Lag Ba'omer

Today is Lag Ba'omer. If you're not used to Israeli holidays this one may come as a surprise. As far as I can tell, it's mainly kids, collecting supermarket trolleys, filling them up with whatever wood they can lay their hands on, piling it all in a heap and then setting light to it. Three year old boys get their first haircuts. The fire department gets a workout. I get to stay home and fend off the ravening hordes from my stock of wood. Building contractors get depressed, drink too much and go wild after all their scaffolding goes up in smoke. We will survive.

Oddly enough, this appears (only to me ) not one of those Jewish festivals which can be best summarised as 'They tried to kill us, they failed, let's eat'.

Sunday pics

Roses looking good.

The North Eastern fence section continues. I'll have this whole village surrounded soon. Cheseks anyone? We're swamped with them.

UK human rights law 'may be changed'

I hope this is serious talk by the Lord Chancellor rather than mere political puff. He certainly is being pushed by David Cameron (the leader of the Tory Opposition).

We had a ludicrous high court ruling this week which sent the message that the human rights of a few foreign criminals - Afghan plane hijackers - have more value than the human rights of the many passengers on the plane and of the thousands of UK citizens over which the hijacked plane flew and who were in or around Stansted Airport during the siege. You don’t like the Taliban? Stay in Afhghnistan, fight and build your country on your terms. What, that’s just too dangerous? Tell that to the US and UK troops who are at this moment trying to sort out your country for you.

Even worse, the human rights of someone convicted of violent attacks was considered to be worth more than those of the general public. He was released on human rights grounds in spite of his long record of violent and unpredictable behaviour and the fact that he had recently escaped and attacked someone with a brick. What happened? You know the answer: he carried out another violent attack -- this time murdering someone.

I have never been a big fan of the version of human rights legislation as implemented via the European Convention of Human Rights. Simply: it does not do what it says on the tin. Contrary to what the human rightsistas say, these laws in practice have not helped protect the people from the excesses of the state – quite the contrary. The state (of whatever political complexion) is getting on with more regulation, taxation, surveillance and control of ordinary citizens, whilst serious criminals, crazies, terrorists, islamists and jihadists - especially non-UK citizens – continue their activities unabated.

In the longer term, the only way the balance can be redressed is by convening a European Convention on Human Responsibilities.

U.S., France call on Syria to mark border with Beirut - Haaretz - Israel News

Syria still playing hard to get over the Shebaa Farms area. Everyone except Syria and Lebanon agress it's part of Syria and if they want to give it to Lebanon, fine. It's the very thin rationale that Hezbollah uses to do it's thing and they don't want to give it up.

Google Trends

Thanks to Google Trends, I can now state with some certainty that Washington, USA is the most concerned area as far as terrorism is concerned and that Pakistan and Egypt seem to have an unhealthy preoccupation with sex.
Blog, however, is a major worry for the good citizens of Lima, Peru.

Well done Google. I predict even more hours wasted on this one since Google Earth arrived.

Deep Falafel

My source tells me that some persons in the security services in Israel are starting to regret the end of Saddam in Iraq and Syria from Lebanon. 'Much easier in the old days' they say. 'We had levers back then'. He/she also mentions that there is no great enthusiasm for a strike on Iran. "Wait until the diplomatic/political process has ended.". No real agreement though on where the red line is. I would like to point out that the first country in the world to try and attack a nuclear reactor was none other than Iran on September 1980. The Israeli attack the next year crippled the Iraqi reactor and US planes finished it off in 1991. Funny old world.

Nazis ‘shipped arms to Palestinians’ - News from Israel, Ynetnews

I am sometimes struck by the Palestinians choice of allies. Germany may have looked a good bet in 1937 but not so good in 1945. Saddam may have been a good try in the late 80's but was a poor long term choice. At least Hamas tries to distance itself from Iran but it doesn't seem to have much of a future as things stand right now.

US 'spyware maker' fined profits

Sandord Wallace, the left pondian ex spam king, has now been fined $4m for distributing malware. Hooray. Next stop, bankruptcy and jail please. He's caused more damage to computers than any other entity.

The sultan’s elephant in London

We Londoners tend to be generally blasé about visiting dignitaries. There seems to be a state visit every other week. So what?


Today was different.

Even I was willing to run around the West End and St James’s to see the time travelling Sultan and his entourage trundling through town on his huge elephant, accompanied by the rather large little girl who arrived in London by rocket. A fantastic spectacle in spite of the drizzle.

Away

They use mud a lot where we went.

The Eggheads went south to visit Lotan where Son Number One is milking cows and , in one not for camera moment, helping a cow give birth with a block and tackle.

The road picture shows what goes wrong when the rain gets huffy and floods down near the Dead Sea. it washes the road away.






They like to build with old tyres, mud, straw and whatever rubbish they can fill the gaps with.

The fence moves on

Still no razor wire. I was asked why I built a fence and then built a window in it. Because. The loquats locally known as sheseks are doing very well and make a nice jam. Happy Independence Day Israel. May no ray toting aliens come and spoil our fun.

Israel army head opposes Gaza re-occupation

This headline from a South African news service via an AP story really caught my attention. Wha? Just spin? Consulting the original source Haaretz, it seems that indeed there has been some serious consideration of re-occupation in Israeli military circles. I do hope it is just letting off steam. From here and from a global political perspective, nothing could be worse at this point in time especially in light of the hard work that needs doing with respect to Iran.

Here in Israel

It's one of those funny half days we get every so often. Around half the people turn up for work here and the bosses wear jeans. Mrs E. is off to a 'Remembrance Independence and Nakba ' , part of a series of workshops trying to resolve issues. I'm still with the fence though.

An Israeli Dad Blogs Israel, the Mideast and the World

AbbaGav has a caption competition. Click on the title above and see if you can do better than mine.