We had a most beautiful day on Halong Bay. No kidding. The weather was perfect- sunny and warm. Had an adventure…

When we (the French speaking guide and I) got to the kitchen with all of our stuff they showed us the fish. Very nice… fins and scales… everything very nice except they were cooked… in *their* wok. “No no no,” we both said- “we must cook in OUR pots!” We explained that we need new fish. After all, we were on the open bay… there were fish… So we walk away and after maybe 10 minutes, they show us some other fish that they had cooked in foil. Can we see them? We went and looked. It was clearly the very same fish that we had earlier rejected. They had wrapped it up and tried to pass it off as baked in foil. So we proceeded on. Soon the boat stopped at a platform. Some of us got off the boat and saw that in the platform, a wooden floating floor, there were several square holes, cribs for fish. They took a net and fished out two lovely fish, however, they had no scales. Again they took out fish, this time of the 3, one had fins and scales. When we indicated it was OK, they proceeded to take out another 7 or so.. all of the time the fish were flipping around, moving the bucket to and fro. In short (or long) we had really really fresh fish for lunch.

It’s hard to believe the day has finally come and aside from worrying about transporting everything I have, I am ready and anxious to leave for Vietnam. Almost everything is packed. I am waiting to pick up the challot and then I will pack them and the cheeses and the beer bread (yes, beer bread) that I have made – into the last spaces I have left and I am hoping they will fit. We may need warm jackets for transfers in Tashkent and perhaps for northern Vietnam in the mountains, so I would like to find room inside my suitcases for my jacket rather than to carry it as another item (I already will be getting on the plane with my magic vest, my rolling carry-on, and a knapsack). The good thing is that from here on in, my luggage gets lighter and lighter as we consume the products I am carrying. I don’t know when or where I will have internet access nor how much time I would want to spend on the computer, so I may be while until I post again. Meanwhile, let’s hope the weather in Hanoi and Sapa will be excellent for my travelers this week! Tạm biệt

So much going on at the same time!

The renovations will begin while I am away, but I will be lucky enough to return well before the biggest, messiest part. I am sorry I turned in my gas mask.

Meanwhile, the trip is really shaping up well. I am pretty certain that all of the major and most of the minor points are taken care of. We have some logistics still to work out on the spot, but everything we could do from here is done. “We”, from here on means Rita and I, Rita being the French speaking guide who will be guiding a French speakers’ group that will be staying at our hotels, flying with us, and eating with us, but we will be touring on separate buses and seeing the sights separately. One of the challenges we face is having our suitcases transferred at the Bangkok Airport from Uzbek Airlines to Vietnam Airlines without having to go through baggage claim. Last year, the guide was successful in getting that done, but it is not their usual procedure. Rita and I will tag team on that one. I think that the two of us together are a force to be reckoned with…

Tomorrow we have friends coming to visit and spend shabbat. I will be great having them here, I am sure, and a welcome break from all of the planning and rushing around of the past week.

Last night we did a walk through with the man who will be doing our renovations. It’s funny that when you think of doing renovations, you think of how nice it will be when it’s finished. If you’re like me, you don’t think of all of the mess and confusion involved with the process. But last night, as we began to talk more concretely, it became apparent that this will be a major inconvenience. At present (just to make things even more complicated) it seems that the renovations will begin while I am away in Vietnam and Cambodia. Then the contractor will be on vacation (in the middle of the work) for about 10 days. And… my sister will be visiting. And… we have two grandchildren due during this time.

Today we will be ordering the staircase that we will be putting in to replace the very heavy concrete (with stone risers and treads) one that the house had when we moved in. Because one enters the house and is immediately in a hallway that contains the staircase facing in the opposite direction of the door, the entry to the house was dark and cave-like. We’re hoping that the open metal and wood stairs will give a feeling of openness and light. We also are going to be increasing the size of our kitchen window also to increase the amount of light coming into the house and allowing us to enjoy the garden outside.

But it all makes me nervous.

Since you asked…

The company that my husband and I guide for is Shai Bar Ilan Geographical tours– website: www.shaibarilan.com/eng

This company has been doing kosher tours all over the world for about 30 years and has developed all sorts of clever ways of dealing with our kosher food needs. Our travelers are served freshly prepared, strictly kosher meals everywhere we take them. I won’t go into details, but what I will say is that all food is prepared by professional chefs and by us (the guides) in and with utensils that belong to us and there is always a guide supervising and assisting the cooking. When we travel to places like China and Vietnam, our people are able to eat food prepared in the manner that local food is prepared. In China, we have wonderful vegetables not commonly eaten in other places. Ask my granddaughter about the lotus we had one evening in Beijing! In Vietnam and Cambodia, in addition to all of the delicious food we have for our main courses, we are able to eat the most delicious pineapple I have ever tasted. Bananas too are plentiful. So in addition to see, hearing, and experiencing a different culture and landscape, we actually eat well too!

There is an article from the Wall Street Journal located here. that analyzes the plan. Before voting, it would be a good idea to read it. Essentially it says that given an analysis of the spending plan and the taxation plan, the numbers are far from being able to reconcile.

If the repeated associations with radicals and with ACORN and with unverified credit card contributions doesn’t worry you, maybe your own pocketbook will.

I haven’t been writing recently for a few reasons. One reason is that I have had a cold/cough that has persisted for over 6 weeks and still seems to be going strong despite antibiotics and inhalers and cold medicine and nasal spray (all prescribed by Dr. Nonchalant).

The second reason is this: I have become more and more disappointed by the US election process. I, of course, have my reasons for my preferences and I feel a responsibility to my children and grandchildren to talk about what I consider a threat to their very lives. When people with differing points of view have written me, both on and off line, I have read what they had to say and what they recommended I read, and I have watched and listened to the various video clips and sound bites they have sent me. I think it’s important to be informed.

What I don’t like are the tactics that are being employed by those on the Obama side of the fence who are saying that people who don’t vote for Obama are either stupid or racist. What I don’t like is that when questions that I consider legitimate are raised, the campaign functionaries try to kill the messenger. Poor “Joe the plumber” has been all but eviscerated. And what does Obama say about it? Nothing. Nothing. This is the same campaign that criticized Palin for not responding to a remark that after FBI investigation of over 100 people was found to have been heard only by the reporter who wrote of it. What did Obama say about that attack on Palin? Oh. Nothing. How can this party have the gall to claim the moral high ground?

Let me put myself on record as neither stupid nor racist. In all of the years I have lived, I am fairly certain that I have never acted in a manner that was racist and never judged a person by the color of his/her skin. I have already cast my absentee ballot (which is unlikely to ever be opened, because I am voting in NY and the election there will not be close) and my only considerations were the future of the United States of America and the future of my grandchildren. Honesty, integrity, and commitment to the ideals of the United States of America outweigh political correctness and the “ends justify the means” behavior of the left liberals. And, with some trepidation I want to end with a prayer that G-d indeed bless America.

See this:

As usual, things around here are busy. I have been busy signing people up for our incredibly fabulous trip to Vietnam and Cambodia (leaving on November 24). I have shared our training experience with a French speaking guide who is going to be traveling with a French speaking group alongside our group. We will be visiting sites separately, but will be staying in hotels and taking flights together. Yesterday I had a particularly fantastic morning with my daughters. Rachel picked Leah and me up and drove us to Raanana where we enjoyed shopping at our favorite store (“Big Deal”) and stopped for some delicious felafel sandwiches enhanced by goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes.

Today, instead of biking at the gym, I went into the jacuzzi and steam room hoping to knock out this cough that has been with me for the last month. I think I was partially successful since although i am still coughing, it is less often.

*This afternoon, in an effort to make it possible to upload pictures to the web, my daughter Leah tried to upgrade me to a newer version of wordpress. To say that she ran into a nasty interface would be like saying that it got a little wet in Thailand when they had the tsunami. For a while, everything I had written in the last 3.5 years was lost in cyberspace. I madly began downloading Google’s cache of each month of the site. I have about 20 gazillion pages of text and didn’t get it all, but wonder of wonders, she got it all back!!!!

And… tonight I did something I have been waiting to do for a long time. I’ll give you a hint: It’s on a par with riding the ducks for treatment of depression. What? You guessed it? You must have seen it too…..

Mamma Mia!

It was silly and over the top, but I loved it. I love the music. I love the dancing. I even love the costumes and sets and photography. For the duration of the movie and the credits, I was in another place just having a really really good time. Oh, and Sir Kicksalot liked it too.

Love her or hate her, Sarah Palin is a person, a human being, a woman, a wife, a mother, someone who was elected to political office.

Since she was named as Senator McCain’s running mate, she has been ridiculed, termed “stupid”. slandered, and lied about. People have questioned her ability to perform in office and still be a good mother. Sandra Bernhard wanted her “gang-raped” (thought that was funny).

Is that the way we express discomfort with positions we don’t agree with? Is this reasoned discourse?

The main stream media are talking about her failed interview with Katie Couric. Did anyone really listen to the questions? to the tone?

The main stream media clearly have chosen their candidate, and everyone has the right to do that, but does that mean that they also have the right to ridicule and to tear down another human being? I almost can understand the Obama campaign’s need to neutralize her potentially powerful influence, but why do the media feel compelled to do it? What do they have to gain? How do the media conceptualize their job? Is there an ethical code? Does anybody care?