Blog/January 2008/Jan 18th
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January 18th (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!
Last shabbat, Sarah mentioned something which I had just been thinking: that the oranges here are incredible! I know it sounds like an ad for the Jaffa Orange Growers Association, but it's true: I have never had such sweet, juicy oranges in my life. I don't generally like oranges that much, but now I'm eating them every day when I can.
It reminds me of [file:///home/ron/mtrweb/p/pt/pt0413.htm#2 the story of the spies] - the fruit here is larger and better than anything I ever saw in the US - at least, if you shop in the right place it is.
This week I was making another attempt at "Pad Thai" - I was in the finishing stages, with all the ingredients in the wok - when the gas went out. Thinking it may have been just a flameout, I tried to get the flame ignited again - to no avail, we had really run out of gas.
Now many of you will wonder how it's possible the gas "went out" - was there an earthquake or something? The answer is simple: we have gas "balloons" (tanks) which provide gas to the house, we do not have a 'centralized gas' supply like most in the US have or some here do. You might assume that we could call up the gas supplier and get a refill, and you would be right if they owners here had a legal and safe gas installation. But it seems they don't, so the regular gas companies won't give us gas unless the hookup is brought up to code. Now we are not going to pay thousands of shekels to do that, and it seems the owners aren't either. So how did the gas get supplied before? Our landlady says she had a fellow from a neighboring town who came out and supplied them. Well, he moved to the north of the country six years ago. The previous tenant used some "charitable foundation" in Jerusalem - but they no longer provide gas. The only alternatives are: 1) get the landlords to pay $$$ so we can get a kosher gas supply, 2) take the balloons to an Arab village where they'll fill them with contraband gas or 3) do without gas in the meantime.
Ah, I forgot to mention that the gas supply is shared with our nasty downstairs neighbors, who apparently used up the gas to heat their portion of the house. So I'm not too keen on paying for gas when I'm 99.999% sure I won't get remuneration...
Shabbat shalom!
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