Blinding beauty

Bloom

Springy

Spring

Good morning!!!

Woke up early today and suddenly it hit me - 6 months to go before the wedding, and the biggest branding project I have ever worked on, and I need the design YESTERDAY already.

so much to do!!!

well, at least I have a concept...

Back to johannesburg

Dear all,

It is so strange to be back here. Everything looks a lot smaller, distances are tiny. Seems like i grew up in a small neighborhood just like I did in Israel....but without the walking.

There's a summer storm approaching... I still feel a bit uneasy here....tense. There's an undercurrent of fear that comes to light at night...when ordinary people don't stop at traffic lights, and the streets are deserted. The night here is thicker somehow while the air is thinner because of the height above sea level. The plugs are bigger, the streets wider, the summer air is dry and breezy. The people are extremely polite when they assist you, but everyone is slow. A different pace of life.

Things are delicate and beautiful and extremely designed... Gorgeous, heavy wooden furniture and glittering mosaics are to be found left and right...as if it were nothing. Huge estates loom behind solid brick walls and gleaming parallel electric spider webs keep the desperate out.

The desperate stand at traffic lights and go on their knees, mouthing miserably,(no they are finished with misery, that takes energy) holding up a sign pressed to his chest tall letters sad words.This is sad.

Bleariness...

I am tired. Thursday tired. Which is a little of Sunday tired, mixed with a dash of Monday exhaustion, left to simmer in a Tuesday coated pot, peppered with Wednesday bleariness.

Below is a drawing of what my eyes feel like.

That made me laugh while drawing it.

Trains in Israel smell like tired burnt rubber sweat plastic dust memory of sewage.

Like water off a duck's back

It's all a learning process. You should roll with the punches, and leap to catch the opportunities. I didn't roll with the punches...I haven't yet learnt how to do that. I did put on a good facade that I did.

But I did jump love a collie dog snatching a frisbee out of the air with it's eager maw.

I want to whip the clouds with a whisk and see what kind of cake I can make with the yolky sun

Indepedence

I have just realised that there could be no better country for me to live in than Israel.

Israel, just by daring to exist, was a dream that became real. A concept made flesh, and earth, and people.

A defiant country, struggling and fighting every day for its right to exist.

And I too share a similar struggle. Going against the grain. Doing what I believe is right. 

I am here for a reason.

On tuesday we celebrated Israel's 63rd birthday... now, I will not claim to love Israel. Not yet. Maybe I'm too 'defiant' to admit it.

But I am proud of this country.

Against all odds! Even with our crappy job market, 16% tax, legendary prickly pear (and oft badly behaved) citizens, Israel 

continues to push forward.

Continues to scrape something together out of odds and ends (and money...now we have some money) and pull ourselves up the harsh rockface of existence. 

We have made something of ourselves.

I hope this experience of living here will make me stronger... there was a time when it broke me. 

But sometimes...bones grow back stronger after they are broken...