Category me

Mar 13 2011

From Karmiel to Mount Carmel

I stayed with a friend in Karmiel whilst on my journey around northern Israel, it is a little tricky to get there as bus times are a bit hit and miss, requiring a journey at Tel Aviv, Haifa, Akko or Tiberias.   The railway network doesn’t cover the greater Galilee area.

Before heading to Dave’s flat, I saw a fox outside.   He looked a bit different than a common British garden and dustbin explorer.   This one was grey rather than brown and red.   Sadly you can really only see his eyes glowing here.   Hes not scary though.

The beautiful, mostly ex-Russian community of Karmiel is very clean and tidy with well kept gardens and trees by every street junction.

Waking up in the morning I was greeted by bird song.

Whilst at the north of Israel, I got a chance to go with some people to a church close to Karmiel.

Only a few months ago there was a devastating fire that affected this place resulting in deaths of prison workers scrambling to get people out of the jails.

As this a short distance from Mount Carmel (two different places with similar sounding names) close the where the prophet Elijah went to.

This church is on the outskirts of an Arab village on top of this mountain overlooking Israel’s third largest city Haifa.

Where actually this one isn’t the closest to Karmiel where was staying, it is one hours drive away, it was worth it.

There is some beautiful views at the top of a steep hill which requires negotiating around some zigzag bends to get up there.  We would of been late, so thought we would do some photos on the way back down.

The church has the service in three languages, English, Hebrew and Russian, some of the Russian Israelis who don’t speak English or Hebrew had some of radio headsets I have seen at quite a few churches now.   There are also a few Arab believers here.

At the end I only got a quick chance to speak to people including the senior pastor David Davis, I was really impressed with this church and mentioned to him about some Jewish believer friends who had moved from the UK and Germany, he gave me a copy of his book the Road to Carmel to give to them, although I have read it myself, its really encouraging testimony, and on how he got to Israel, and worked with actors and people in the theatre industry and drug users in both the US and Israel.

I highly recommend checking out this congregation for both Israeli believers or visiting foreigners looking for a congregation whilst checking out northern Israel.   Its also an example of God working with reconciliation between Jews and Arabs.  I regret not being able to get a nice picture of the outside of this church which is how you imagine a congregation could of been back there with large archways all the way around the front, this church was built in the late 1990s.

www.carmel-assembly.org.il

Some amazing views, however not the amazing ones seen earlier driving up some zig zag roads as it was now foggy in the afternoon!

After another bus from Karmiel to Akko, to get a train to Jerusalem, which was a long journey, the bus station gets interesting views of the surrounding hills here.

On the train I got a glimpse out of the train a remainder of some famous names in IT that are here.   This time I get to spy on Google!  Ha ha ha!

Mar 10 2011

Nahariya – The North coast!

After finishing visting Akko, I thought I would get back on the train, and head north one more stop.

Israel’s north bound railway comes to an end at this station.   There are a couple more towns above before you get to Lebanon.

A little worrying that this buffer stop looks not really adequate for the job, and on closer inspection appears to be leaning back a bit as it looks like its bumped at least once by a train.   Behind is a simple chain link fence and a main road.   Could do with a sand bank or something maybe.

There is as well, left behind pieces of track across the road that continue further north, as it once went all the way to Beirut, once upon a time.

In the centre of town, this big billboard shows “The resort for fun lovers” The blue and yellow pattern looks like a reverse Ukrainian flag, wonder if its influenced from immigrants from the ex-Soviet states.

From what I read, this city was found in the 1935 during the British Mandate period and became a city in 1961.

This river that flows out from the middle of the city to the Mediterranean is carrying a lot less water than it ought to, showing the urgency of the drought problem here.

A tank rotating gun section in the front of the garden of this hotel, upon closer look, there is a plaque in Hebrew which appears to be there in memorial or a young soldier who died in battle.   An unusual shrine maybe.

Nahariya has a pleasant selection of different shops and nice beaches, but it is quite touristy, there wasn’t much history I could find there.  I walked a couple of miles north up the beach toward a tall hill, as I wanted to find the ski lifts that go up and down some cliffs towards the Lebanese border, but I couldn’t see them, the hills ahead were probably a good 6/7 miles further ahead, so I decided to call it a day and get the train back to Netanya.  Discovered that I am going to those cliff tops with a short break with work in a month or so. 🙂

Haifa and mount Carmel next!

Mar 9 2011

Jerusalem roof top exploring

I have always wondered if its possible to go on the roofs of the apartments here.  Most of the time the hatch on the top floor is locked.

Whilst I was watching some films at a friends house, they told me theirs wasn’t.

Curiosity meant I had to check it out and get some pictures…

Yes those are solar panels, almost every block in Israel has them as they run the white cylinder things which run your hot water.  There’s some garden rubbish up here, which is odd seeing its got to be tricky to carry things up the ladder.  I guess it might of been from someone who trimmed a tall tree.

I would like to be Jason Bourne and run along roof tops, that scene from that film set in Morocco has some houses that quite similar to here.

Years ago, some extra footnotes in a bible I had mentioned that people during the time of Jesus dried flax on their roofs or used it for guests to sleep on.  Not sure if there is stuff in the scriptures to prove it, or if there is evidence in archaeology.  Where I live in this area in East Talpiyot part of Jerusalem the flats were built between the 80s and the 90s.

View from here over a school and a small allotment where some residents have some vegetables.

You see a lot from up here!  my house is about 1.5Km away in about the middle in the distance….

Mar 7 2011

Akko – sad day

Lunch time I sat at a typical street side fast food place and got a Chicken Schnitzel sandwich. This was a bit cheaper than in Jerusalem, although bottle of Coke I got with it, was not proper Coca Cola but a cheap substitute made in Turkey.

When I had almost finished this, I saw two boys carrying a wreath of flowers.   A short while later there was a large group over people walking down the street, with two coffins being carried down.

I was walking this way anyway, so I walked along from a safe distance.   The man in the place where I had my lunch told me an Arab youth had been killed in accident.

After stopping at a cemetery just outside of the old city walls of Akko, there was a grave waiting.  I noticed all the people on the walk with the casket were entirely men.  I don’t know much about Islamic funeral practices but I did wonder where the mother and women of this family go to grieve, I noticed that one of the caskets was open with the lid askew.  I am not sure if there were two people to be buried or if one of them contained artifacts for the funeral.  I did notice when the body was laid in the grave, a series of concrete slabs was laid over the top before the earth was replaced.

I don’t know for certain, but I am sure this death was the result of a car accident.   An Arab friend recently showed me a picture of a wrecked Fiat car driven by a teenager who was killed after a head on crash on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.  If there is one practical thing that could be done between the Israeli government and Palestinian authority they could work together on improving road safety here.  I would like to see penalties for bad driving, people using phones at the wheel and other things which seem common here.   The fines could be invested back into improving roads and cutting accidents.

Road accidents kill more Israelis than terrorism and wars, so anything that can be done to make travel safer is good.  I took some time to discreetly pray for the family of the young lad who was buried today.

Mar 4 2011

Akko – arriving at the old city

I took a trip to Akko, as this place is very rich in history, its just a brief train ride from Netanya too.   When leaving the station it looks fairly unremarkable apart from a sign on a hill and some palm trees, to get to the coast required about a mile and half of walking.

There was signs of bad weather in Netanya, here it seems the sea has been pretty fierce indeed.

Only a few miles down the road is Caesarea which part of the ancient Roman city walls are under the sea now, it seems its easy to underestimate the power of the Mediterranean!

Islamic worship places meets a fishing community.


Fishing is a big part of Akko, and the array of fish and shellfish was quite amazing.  I was quite tempted to get some prawns as I have not had any in a long time, they are strictly not kosher, so you won’t find them for sale in a Jewish city.   Take a closer look at what’s on this trader’s table…

Next I will show some interesting discoveries, treasures and sad events I experienced in this city.

Mar 3 2011

Giving frequent flier miles away & special Libya deals

Before I left the UK, I went through boxes of old stuff and threw some things out.   Something I found was a letter from Delta airlines from 2001 (Yes I flew couple of weeks after 9/11 – to LA)  about some frequent flier miles I had earned.

I usually find seem to get a cheaper deal with an airline I had not flown before, so loyalty doesn’t really come into it, and burying this letter in a cupboard somewhere, those point expired in 2004.

I have some miles with BMI, British Midland I earned in 2009 which combined with a credit card I used to have will get me a European flight but still needing to pay the taxes.

I have some points with Airberlin, which I am unlikely to use.  Is there a way that these unwanted points could be pooled together and given to a Christian organisations that have volunteers working overseas?    Of course, you would need to study the terms and conditions, something I quite can’t be bothered to do right now…

Here is a amusing email from (2/2/2011) I got only weeks ago, a bit before various different Arab nations have been taking it in turns to get a bit cross with their government, BMI have asked me if I want to try out their new route, to Tripoli, capital of Libya!!

Erm, I will think about it!!

Feb 26 2011

Viva Netanya

I returned back to this city to stay in a holiday apartment I have been kindly loaned again for free for a few days.

A like the varied styles of architecture of the apartment blocks in Netanya.  The one on the left seems to be a bit Art Deco influenced with some pastel colours and geometric shapes, and others have some air of kitsch to them with these gold rims the window balconies.  There is a lot of construction work going on with blocks of flats being refurbished with the windows and balcony fronts being ripped out showing a hollow shell of the apartments inside, presumably to have a new facade put on to freshen them up to holiday makers or those seeking permenantly dwell here.  Right: I quite like this sort of foot shaped new apartment block.

The local estate agents have ads up for property listed in Russian and French for new immigrants coming in from these nations.

This city is a world apart from Jerusalem, with wide and long boulevards which are a grid fashion like an average US city, as I wrote before when I came here, the coast line with gardens and cliffs looks like UK city of Bournemouth, which funnily enough, the two cities are twinned.

This house appears to be some sort of famous historical place, but I didn’t see any signs in English of who it belonged to.

This local chap was out with his pets, there was two of these identical dogs, as well as a parrot enjoying the nice weather which is getting warmer.

Netanya’s own Shuk (outdoor market) is fairly similar to Jerusalem’s but has less English speakers, so its a little more challenging buying stuff.   I got some oats and raisins for breakfast, a kilo of bananas, some almonds.  Some huge squash fruit here.

These cliffs have some erosion, but doesn’t look like the sand thats exposed is causing any kind of threat to people’s houses.

Out on the beach, you can tell its been stormy recently.

The concrete foundations of these lifeguard’s huts have moved considerably.  There was three of these damaged, mostly the back wall sections have broken off.

Oops the Khazi would be out of action then 🙂

Jelly fish!  Maybe just half a one, after prodded the sand around it I couldn’t see any of its legs. 🙂

I really like Netanya, its only existed since 1929, so there is not a lot of historical places but it makes a good base point to stay whilst exploring the north of Israel, its much cheaper than Tel Aviv and traffic seems quite reasonable.   There is lots of shops and a good beach.

For me there was a good place to relax and read and take a break from work, and gave me time to pray and think about plans for the future for a bit.

Feb 17 2011

Can IT assist with organ transplants?

Just read today that Steve Jobs who is away from running Apple is rumoured to be in the late stages of terminal cancer.

http://apple.slashdot.org/story/11/01/17/1433213/Steve-Jobs-Taking-Medical-Leave-of-Absence

A couple of years ago he had a liver transplant, this got me thinking.

A few years ago, a work colleague called “D” who is also a Christian who lives in Southampton has had some awful health problems and has had no less than THREE organ transplants!  Turns out after liver and heart replaced by an illness that destroyed body components, to stop his body rejecting his new parts required some powerful drugs which had the side effect of messing up his kidneys.

Now when I used to meet up with my colleagues during lunch breaks for prayer, sometimes D would not be there because he was in hospital with infection, but was back the next week, for me, this man was a living miracle of suffering a complex combination of health worries.

He told me that when waiting for a heart transplant from a match from a cadaver, it took three attempts after being opened up in a theatre to get one that successfully matched.   Each time with him and the deceased donor were not the right size parts.

I was amazed this seems to be so hit and miss and there isn’t an IT solution to aid this difficult process.

I am thinking software could be designed to take away a lot of guess work of doing this surely.   I think sucessful organ transplants depend mostly on your height and build.   By using other statistics such as ethnicity/skin colour, blood group, age, location etc, as well as some critically important aspects such if the patient has ever had HIV or Hepatitis would need to be added.   Also, if its feasible to fly someone to another country, or a deceased person as a donor, as well time of flight, how much time from bureaucracy a particular country would take to get through to fly them in as well.

Health care IT and innovation are two subjects are something that is rarely seen together.  As I have worked in IT in a hospital and find it very interesting (I wanted to be doctor as a child)  a lot of the time you are supporting very old and very awkward to support apps.

Now I know Apple have not been backers of free software, where as Google has done, maybe Apple’s developers could write some software and release it publicly for free to enable health professionals to enable more people to have successful matches in organ transplants maybe?   As hospitals rarely have Macs or iOS devices something web based (and OS independent) that would hold a database securely in the cloud.  Maybe if a developing country has a 3G mobile GSM network, a database could be accessed by a healthcare professional on a smart phone.

I am praying for Steve and his family, and that he would find Jesus through this severe illness.

Feb 17 2011

Why I like Foxytunes for listening to music at work

Not stuff life in Israel today, but just some handy little known snippets of things I use both at home and work.

I almost always listen to music whilst I am driving or working.   There is quite a lot of similarities for me between these habits.

Good old iTunes.   Lots of people like it and lots of people hate it.  I don’t own a iPhone, and I think it would be better if Apple spun off the phone controlling features into a separate application.   iTunes does a grand job of cataloguing your music, occasionally there are some funny quirks, but in general its a nice application.  I am quite a big music collector and have most of my 200 odd CDs imported and on my (now old school rotary controlled) 30gb iPod.

Various friends have recommended Spotify if you want an “all you can eat” monthly diet of music.  I have yet to try this, but I tend to use Youtube for music I don’t yet own, whether this is legal or not as i am just watching it, I don’t know, but I do know this does strongly influence what CDs I buy next.   I still prefer to buy CDs than download, its cheaper, I like having the tangible copy on a shelf with the others in my collection, some songs are best played as part of a collection as they can often tell a story together which is not so significant if you buy one song at a time.

Now you can notice Firefox has some extra buttons at the bottom.

Clicking this little button above lets you choose your preferred music player, iTunes, Windows Media Player, Winamp and many more.  If you stop iTunes and open up another tab in your browser with Youtube, I can listen to a song on here, switch back to what I am doing on the web and control the music with the buttons at the bottom, Foxytunes will shift the functionality of these controls to the appropriate music player transparently.

The controls on Youtube are horrible from a usability point of view.   Try adjusting the volume, its awkward and fiddly, even more so when the phone rings and you need to quickly silence the song in a hurry.

This method is similar to way I like the last car I had had audio controls on the steering column, I think Renault were the first to do this, with original Espace in the early 1980s.   A lot of generic car radios have scrolling messages of how many channels it has, and the buttons are small and awkward to operate, a truly hideous experience to use whilst you are trying to operate a car.  The stereo on this car was a simple one, the four directional joystick, one axis for volume the other for radio or CD track, just for the main essential features of the radio that doesn’t distract you from driving.

Now I am not currently a car owner for the time being, I still have the same tastes of making controls for things not more complicated than necessary.  Here these buttons just have which music player, backwards, play/pause, forwards, volume slider, and some other bits I haven’t used as of yet 🙂   There is a faint red line under the title of the artist and song that shows how far through the song you are.   You do have to switch to your music player to pick a different artist of course.

Anyway Foxytunes is just a very pleasant way of controlling your tunes whilst busy on the web, and can’t recommend this little app more.

There are some extra little ways it helps out, in terms of letting you play MP3 content on a web page without having to download it.  I haven’t used this enough to comment on it though.

As in 201xs more software operates via the web via browser via cloud technology, I think Foxytunes may become more and more popular to listen to music whilst using the web or browser based applications.

Recent surprise, Foxytunes is developed in Israel by a small team, and they are now owned by Yahoo.

The other good news it works on Firefox on all Windows (XP, Vista and 7) Macintosh and Linux computers with the Firefox browser 🙂

Get your Foxytunes add on for your Firefox here

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/foxytunes/