days when the alarm bells toll 3

Fridays

The title is misleading, this is an alarm free day!

The de facto Israeli weekend in the last few years has become a Friday and Saturday affair, it used to only be a saturday one. The official work week is supposed to be 45 hours, which means the five day week the north americans among us are familiar with and half a day on fridays. I don't think I'd be able to cope with a 6 day week and one day weekend. I am lucky that Fridays are weekend proper for me. I usually wake up between 9am and 10am and putz around a little before heading on a bus to my grandma's house (20 min away by car, 50 min away by bus on a good day). I relish my weekly date with grandma.

We've had a friday lunch tradition in our family since forever and the menu very rarely changes. We start with fish in a tomato sauce with fresh challah, have shnitzel (almost always) or some other meat, rice and beans, and then cake. Back in the haydays when my grandfather still lived in the house (he's at a nice retirement center in the Jezreel valley these days) and there were more aunts and uncles and cousins bouncing around there would be more frequent changes to the menu and the company, but for the last two years it's been my sister, my grandmother, my uncle and his daughter, and me.

I usually get there an hour and a half before anyone else does and grandma and I have coffee together. She tells me stories, most people in my family don't have the patience to listen to her stories. Sometimes she tells the same ones a million times, sometimes she remembers ones I've never heard before. A lot of her memories have softened with time to become a sort of narrative fiction that we both are familiar with and both know isn't exactly the truth, but it doesn't matter. I can listen to her stories forever and she knows that I appreciate every word she has to say, so she feels comfortable rambling on to me. I love it.

Ever since I did the culinary arts program, I've earned a legitimate place in her kitchen. When she was younger no one was allowed to do anything to help, and in general today she isn't very happy when people try to help, except for me. She let's me make the shnitzel. During Hannukah I fry the latkes, when we make Iraqi Kubbeh I am designated frier, and in general she's finally opened up to sharing the food preparation experience with me. I feel very lucky to be able to learn from her and to cook with her and that she feels comfortable with me there. We try to get it all done before my sister and uncle come so that there isn't a big hullabloo.

My cousin, uncle, and sister come and we all have lunch, usually with some shouting, usually my grandma tries to annoy everyone with stories she knows they'll yell at her for. She likes to push buttons and get the attention involved with that. Usually she's home alone during the week, except for when she sees my mom when my mom gets off work, so friday lunch is her time to be social and to get attention.

My sister usually drops me off back in Tel Aviv around 2:30pm, sometimes we visit my mom at work on the way. My mom works at a plant and flower nursery close by and loves every second of it. I might make a separate post about that at some point....

An incredible laziness falls on me on Friday afternoons. It's my favorite time of the week. If I feel especially energetic I make my way to the farmers' market - the Carmel Shuk. Friday afternoons are kind of a mess there, with prices dropping sharply with sellers eager to go home and with a lot of other people like me who don't have any other time to go there other than friday afternoons. It's a messy, crowded experience but usually worth it. I buy as much as I can carry in fruits and vegetables and with much lower prices and much higher quality than I can find at the local supermarket.

If I'm not in the mood for the shuk, I usually do something wonderfully lazy around the house, often times involving one or several naps until the evening.