How Time Goes Faster As You Get Older.blog

I am not sure how many of these came about. But some I do!

That’s all folks!

Debby asked me to go with her to the annual Fresh Paint event. It is to showcase affordable art. There was lots of cool stuff

I went to stay for a few nights with my wonderful friend Sandra. We went to Eyemouth and were blown away with this statue to commemorate a sea disaster in 1881. So many boats and men were lost.

The flowers in Eyemouth were so vibrant. Really beautiful.

I went away for an overnight in Belgravia with my daughter Betsy. We visited the free exhibitions in the Saatchi Gallery before going on a shopping spree.

In the shop

Just outside the gallery on a fine Sunday morning

Toby and I went with Talulah on a 2 day holiday in the Jezreel Valley. We went to the Geva where there was a very weird museum – Shturman – with displays of stuffed 2 headed and 6 legged mammals. Then I saw an exhibition of felted pieces at the Mishkan Museum of Art.

Collective womb exhibition

From the main exhibits

From the rest of our trip

I had always had a fascination for the story about Noah, the flood, the pairs of animals going into the ark to be saved as the world would be flooded. I tried to find Noah’s wife’s name but it is not listed in the original text. Sometimes she is thought to be Naamah and at other times Emzara, but also Norea or Barthenos. But I used Mrs Barbie Pez Noah as a substitute name alongside her husband, Mr Ken Pez Noah. I bought the Pez people and sweets when I was at a cafe in Park HaYarkon with my daughter in law Gemma and my granddaughter Luna several months ago. I used tile sweets from Japan and pipe cleaners for the edges. I bought 4 sets of 10 animals. 2 were wild animals (rhinos, giraffes, lions, tigers, camels, kangaroos, elephants, deer, anteaters, wolves and monkeys) and 2 were labelled as farmyard animals (rats, rabbits, cats, chickens, ducks, geese, swans, cows, horses, donkeys, goats and sheep) but also 2 spare rhinos. They wouldn’t make the cut onto the boat as there were only a pair allowed so they are bringing up the rear every hopeful. I used some piping I found on the street that comes from the extractor fan for a tumble dryer. I attached it to the canvas I had found on the street and had spray painted white with glue and tacs onto the wood and sewed on with heavy duty thread onto the canvas with cardboard backing. I was given 5 stripey blue and white paper straws which I bent into a W to represent the waves. I stuck all four pairs of birds into clouds made from cotton pads dyes partially blue. I managed to be clumsy and made a hole hear the top hand corner so popped in a yellow flock bauble to represent the sun!

In the making

The animals

The nearly finished piece

The final piece!

I bought a pregnant Barbie in Akko but didn’t as yet have a project for her. Whilst musing in my training session with Miri, I realised I could cover her in purple flower stickers on her nude body and take her round and photograph her at the organic farm where Tova and I got a weekly box delivery. But because of the war they did not open and I used Chat GPT to suggest an alternative outing. We went to Nes Ziona (about 30 minutes outside TLV) and spent a very enjoyable couple of hours with no sirens on a lovely sunny but not too hot day. Then we went off in search of food and found a haven for coeliacs, lunch and a siren!

Some friends said she looked more like she had malnutrition as she had a swollen belly and such thin limbs. So I changed her name. She can be pregnant in another project.

Kwashiorkor Barbie visits the Nes Ziona National Park

Three nature shots

Kwashiorkor Barbie in the coeliac shop

Kwashiorkor Barbie in the flowers in the roundabout in Nes Ziona

Carly is rather bemused that she can write two stories back-to-back about dating. It is not as though she is a floozy. Or, that she has even been out with that many men. Or that was her sole raison d’être for coming to live in Israel, despite what her family and friends in the UK think. She has, for sure, made a real stab at it. The whole experience has been illuminating and, for the most part, fun. But wholly unsuccessful. She wonders if the war has helped her improve her dating. Certainly, during Covid times dating was easier than at other times. She thinks people are desperate to make connections and communicate with others in any way they can when times are hard. This time it is between running to shelters to hide from falling shrapnel from missiles. Previously, it was to maintain tight bubbles and to wear masks to reduce the spread of a virus. Carly knows any day which danger she would prefer. Bubbles and masks were the bane of her life, and she didn’t really do either fully or, if truth be told, even at all. And now when she sees people wearing masks, she sighs a little sigh, as she feels so sorry for these misguided people. Her brother told her the only protection it affords is to stop the wearer transmitting the virus. He says it with total conviction, as he always does. But he can be wrong! And, as Carly has not had a fever, and therefore, a viral infection for over seven years, she feels she really doesn’t need to wear them. Enough of masks…

Carly has been very open about introductions. She has let it be known that from the get-go she isn’t concerned how she meets someone, and this was a way that has always worked in the past. First there was a man from Ramat Gan who was a quantity surveyor. This was through a medical colleague. He had been divorced for years. And had stopped seeing his son recently – oh no – red flag. But he was by way of a personal introduction, so Carly decided to continue to see him. However, it then became clear he had never cooked a single meal for himself since his divorce many years ago. And his idea of a fun date was to drag Carly to Ashqelon where he had to deliver a surveyor’s report for damage caused by shrapnel. This was going to take a while and might be quite acrimonious, so Carly, avoidant of confrontation at all times, went off to take a tour around the town centre. She wishes she hadn’t. What a dump. When they reconvened, he hadn’t even found the person who needed the report. They were in the car driving off when said customer phoned him and Carly still had to witness the argy-bargy between her date and the customer about the report content’s. They went to eat in a deserted fish restaurant on the beach. But all in all, this was not the man for her. The other introduction was Zadok (as in the high priest). Carly found him very attractive and the conversation flowed well. He seemed to be on a path of self-discovery and was off the next day to meditate for a month in Costa Rica, having sold his paint factory. This seemed like a journey from the sublime to the ridiculous. She wasn’t sure which end was which. But he told her he didn’t feel there was a spark. Carly was rather dismayed and remonstrated with herself, “We are in our later middle life, and surely no one expects butterflies and love at first sight anymore,”. And Carly thinks she is quite attractive. And her friends have told her this too and not to lower her expectations. But clearly, she was not deemed gorgeous enough to this high priest. Even the friend, who she’d met at her workout class, and arranged the introduction, was upset about this. 

There were some short flings with men she’d met on dating apps. Mosh was a lovely local guy. Her dog adored him, and he was a great masseuse. But clearly there was a family issue about commitment as neither he nor his four siblings had ever been in long-term relationships and none of them had children. “What had gone on in their childhood?” mused Carly. And he smoked so that was always going to be a non-starter. There was Eilan who just wanted to use her car parking space. And Arik who bored her senseless with prolonged video calls showing off the amazing property he looked after. There was Itzik who was always on his phone. Udi who was a little bit religious and wanted Carly to play a psychological game with him so they could get to know each other better. Carly felt she was undertaking some sort of test. And she failed as he ended the relationship citing yet again, he wasn’t attracted to her. Harrumph.

And then there were some non-dates. Ethan had met Carly on two different dating apps. He was young and attractive and lived in America. Carly kept him on the back burner as she had no intention of going to the States. She told him she would be in London all summer and he insisted he’d fly over for the weekend. They hadn’t even talked on the phone. He has once previously tried to impress her with how rich he was but that wasn’t a big draw for Carly. Just before he was due to fly over, he petitioned Carly to accept a parcel in the UK for him. He just couldn’t get there in time for it to arrive from Dublin. Immediately, Carly was suspicious. What was in it and why would she receive it for him? He told her $350,000 was in the package. So clearly either cash, drugs, or gold bullion. Carly said a firm no, even when he continually pushed her to receive it. She could not believe she had been scammed. And who doesn’t get on a flight to the UK from the USA for such a large sum of money? She then blocked Ethan and reported him to both dating app sites. Phew. Lucky escape. Carly couldn’t believe how long she had carried on communicating with him. She consoled herself that people, including her, are always looking for love.

One particularly bad dating app episode had led her to look at another way to date. Lani was a slightly older, but nonetheless good-looking bloke. They arranged to meet by one of her favourite cafes in Jaffa. She set off with Talulah as her safety blanket, and he then kept calling her. Firstly, she had chosen a spot where there was no free parking. Secondly, he couldn’t even stop to meet Carly as the police kept trying to move him on. When they finally met up, he tried to insist on her coming into his car. She firmly declined and told him about the large car park next to their meeting place. He parked and returned to meet Carly but was clearly rather upset and told her categorically that the way she treated him was unacceptable. She knew he was in a car, and they should have met by Café Alma which had free parking nearby. He proceeded to give her a lecture on how she should be much more considerate of others if she wants to be in a long-term relationship. He then calmed down and asked if she wanted to meet him again. Carly shook her head decisively. He asked whether she found him handsome. She told him he was, but being told off, before even starting a relationship didn’t bode well for the future. Off he went in a huff. 

So, Carly thought she should try her hand at speed dating. She found one for people from 55 to 65. And she signed up. Well, she would have done had her credit card not been declined. The bank called her but only spoke in Hebrew. She ran into the nearest shop asking for some translating help. Only the woman on the till offered to help. The bank wanted to know if Carly had signed up for speed dating. By then the whole shop knew what was going on and it became a huge joke. It was embarrassing as she was asked to verify her spending history where she normally shopped. Oh dear. She told them it was the grocery competitor across the street. Carly laughed about it and the payment went through. When she turned up at the event where she was told she was lucky to get a place, there were only half the number of people that had signed up because of the rain. It meant the whole experience couldn’t be dragged out for too long. Most men spoke limited English or were way above 65. She did meet two lovely men, and it restored her faith, albeit temporarily, in dating Israeli men. She went out for a wonderful Mexican meal with Yossi who was ever the gentleman and paid. Carly was a bit put off by Yossi having a four-year-old son.  He was a bit put off by the lack of kissing as it was still raining and Carly was freezing cold. So that was that. 

Later, she met the other man, Kobi. He was super nice, friendly and lovely but was clearly already in a relationship and had been persuaded to come to the dating event without paying to make up the numbers on the male side!

Carly was not having much luck in love, but she will continue to look with some focus but not in extremis. It can be so overwhelming and soul-destroying. Poor Carly. But she will pick herself up. She always does!

Like most people, Carly has a number of different ways to become inspired. She used to think she could only really do this when away on holiday. For sure it helps with partially silent writing retreats. That means she just has to get on with the business of writing, as that is how these holidays are billed. But she usually starts with some rituals to get the creativity going. She chooses three angel cards and writes about them. For instance, the three words might be gratitude, knowledge and power. She interprets them in her own personal freestyle, but also, using the official meaning the accompanying explanatory booklet provides. Then she moves on to play a game of patience with real playing cards. She will often light scented tealights as these help too. For the last few years, when on holiday, she uses handmade A5 card to make 2D dreamcatcher pictures. She has made several hundred, and once photographed and uploaded to her blog, she sets about giving them away. They are always based loosely around the colour purple and often have buttons or beads as well as bits of nature encased in embroidery thread. They don’t take long to make, and people always take one when offered. It fills her with a lot of joy to think of her purple offerings all around the world. 

When she visits her friends in Limoges, she squirrels herself away in their workshop, which is full of fabulous sewing machines including a Sashiko machine. This does an elegant running stitch. She often doesn’t plan exactly what she will do, but for sure she loves to use this machine. But she must be very careful as a needle alone costs €500! And Carly is a supreme klutz. She wonders if she has dyspraxia. She certainly drops and breaks a lot of items. She always thought it was because she was rushing around hither and thither, but maybe not. Whilst there, she recently learnt how to make patchwork woodwork. This was really fabulous. It houses all her keys and hangs up by her front door. She has put together all these lilac blocks which are glued and embroidered together. She has decorated it with old keys and steampunk clock parts. And, of course, lots of hooks for keys. And, hey presto, now she never loses them!

For a very long time, Carly felt she needed the distance and permission granted by being on holiday to get going. But that wasn’t really the point of moving to Israel in her late 50s and not working there. During regular training sessions with the marvellous Miri, she can let her mind wander and freely associate. This gives her the ideas behind her projects. She then needs to have some time. If she tries to allocate a whole day this becomes overwhelming. And she needs to her steps, have her second coffee, deal with one totally annoying Israeli bureaucratic issue. So just a few hours clear of what her daughter Boo calls Admin Nonsense she can get going on her imaginative projects. Often, she has more than one project on the go at a time. But that is fine. It makes more sense to get out her glue gun and get busy on a variety of things. She feels that being in a state of contentment really helps. When she is angry, she doesn’t feel she can be productive. She wants to have the right level of energy, her mojo activated, but for her to also be somewhat serene too. 

Often, Carly is inspired on the back of something completely unexpected. She was recently sent a video of how some family in England had made completely over-the-top preparations for Passover using foil to cover absolutely everything – the walls, the floors, the ceiling and all the appliances. The video was farcical and hilarious. The tradition is to completely change over all sets of crockery and cutlery, which is like a massive spring clean and a lot of hard graft. Carly remembers fondly when she did this. However, most people only have one oven, fridge and larder. So, it is usual to give these items a good clean and there are various rules about what you do. For instance, to enable the microwave to be used over Passover, you just need to heat up one glass of water at maximum power for one minute. But for the oven, and especially the gas hob you need to cover them in tin (aluminium) foil. Some do it very delicately whilst others are rather ham-fisted. This is rather a fun word to include (ham) when describing a method for obeying a Jewish rule!

 And whilst Carly certainly could undertake this task with care and precision, she felt it really was a waste of her precious time. Her method was as speedy as humanly possible, but at the end of Passover, certainly the foil had pretty much disintegrated. Hey ho. On this video, sent to many people a family had covered the entire surface of the kitchen with foil. The chairs and tables and fridge and oven and microwave and drawers and every single surface. It was making a funny point and Carly had been wondering what to do with her five voodoo Barbies and now an idea came to fruition. She would make them live in a home that was made completely kosher for Passover. She had recently been to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and for not too much money had picked up a set of doll’s furniture for four rooms. All flat-pack as if they were from a mini-IKEA, the living room, the bathroom, the kitchen, the bedroom. They would be about the right size for her collection of these five small dolls Tracey had kindly brought her from South Africa. There is nothing Barbie about them at all. But Carly doesn’t really care about that. She can designate them as she sees fit. After all, she renamed Princess Peach as Pez Barbie. She hopes Meital, who make Barbie, don’t sue her. But she is small fry, and Carly is hopeful they have their eyes on the big guns. Like Donald Trump and King Charles. She is not (unfortunately) in that league!

Then there was the small matter of the spray paint. She went to her local art supply shop for those who indulge in street art and graffiti. Silver is the most popular colour and almost invariably out of stock. Don’t other customers realise that Carly is now in a panic? She cannot spray the whole art piece gold. It would look tacky and have nothing to do with Passover. In the end, she found it in a garage. She can never really understand in such a vibrant country as Israel why all the cars are monochrome. White, silver and black. Ho hum. How very dull. She recently went with Debby, who was buying a new car, and she settled for pillar-box red. Thank goodness Carly has friends, who are bucking the trend. So, she was ready to start. She assembled all the doll’s furniture and sprayed them all silver as well as the canvas she had found on the street. She used her glue gun to attach all the items in each room on the canvas. She kept them roughly in four quarters according to each room. And made all the textile accessories like rugs, bathroom mats and table runners out of tin foil. The next design issue to plague Carly was whether she should stick them on the canvas as if they were on the floor or perpendicular and coming out towards the viewer. She compromised and stuck them randomly. And being a person of haste and poor planning, she had put the picture string at the bottom of the picture, but that was easily rectifiable. She also glued the five dolls in place. One in the bath, one at the dressing table, one in the bed, one at the dining room table and one popping out of the kitchen sink. Carly showed restraint and didn’t put one either in or on the toilet. She is rather pleased with her ability to contain her exuberance. She is rather delighted with the end result, although items do sometimes fall off. But Carly whips out the glue gun and gets busy sticking. Besides her labelling, sewing and knitting machines, her glue gun is utilised very regularly. Recently, she found coloured glue sticks. One set were opaque and the other set glittery and transparent. Oooooh, so much joy from something quite simple!

The one thing that she will always tackle almost immediately is mending. She just loves this. She is the mender for all her friends. Some are much clumsier than others and repeatedly rip their clothes. She is happy to alter clothes to fit her friends. But this is only possible if they have actively lost weight or shrunk with old age. Her favourite thing is to repurpose clothes. And this has given her carte blanche to give items a new lease of life. And, if they don’t like it, they tend not to say. She only really knows her mends have been successful if she sees her friends wearing them. It does mean these friends do think she must be the repository for all their unwanted but previously loved fabrics. She tries to say no to the truely ghastly ones. Sarabeth gave her some really old and worn-out tapestry which Carly was unlikely to ever use. But then Carly suggested she make some cushion covers for Sarabeth out of the material. She was delighted with them and commissioned loads more. Now the fabric is all used up and so everyone is happy. 

Carly’s friends wanted her to turn her mending into a business – Carly’s recreations. But Carly just likes mending for friends. She is, however, setting up a Jaffa Port Repair Café. This is only second one in Israel, and it will be fun to be part of a large international foundation. Carly can then mend items every month for total strangers who will, hopefully, in turn, become friends.