What the desert beholds

Mitzpeh Ramon Army Training Base - Officers' Ceremony

Orly went to gan this morning. its growing on he greatly! the ganenet said that she was opening up a lot to the other classmates and speaking lots in english to all the children. bossing them around and playing imaginatively... lauren and ben reckon that there is a greater chance for all the children to learn english faster than orly will learn hebrew! having said that, orly voluntarily used the word 'todah' today, instead of the english equivalent! she was mightily pleased with herself :)

It was Neryah's officer course completion ceremony today on his desert military base. we set off to Mizpeh Ramon having stuffed the car with food, food, food and toys (and more food). after half the journey we take a pit stop... at this point the car decides its had enough 250,000km is too much! one stall, 2 stall, 3 stall.... o dear. after some angry israelis, i managed to rev enough to convince the engine that theres no point in stopping in the desert leaving a family of 4 with a single humous sandwich. "daddy, is the car broken again", "no orly, its just a little poorly". the car did fine, we carried on. but it didn't like the fact that we were stopping to turn right onto the motorway "thats just unacceptable" said the car. more revving and hey presto, back in shape.

we arrived at the mitzpe ramon base, and were greated by a few thousand spectators, a large amphitheatre and food (everywhere). sophie saved some seats and we watched the scenes unfold. a few hundred soldiers marching in lines to a brass band. orly was transfixed from start to finish "daddy, why are they doing a silly walk", "daddy, why did the marching go away", "daddy where did the music go?". Neryah shone like a knight in shining army, and couldn't hide an appreciating smile at the banner sophie had made, and the raucous waving that came from our direction. all caught on tape :) after the final pomp and circumstance things wrapped up and Neryah came to say hi. WELL DONE.

we went home by car. it had decided that it was better to not leave 4 tired people in the cold desert. thank you car. quick stop for dinner break, and home. and EVENTUALLY yael went to sleep... zzzzzzzzzzz

(Bird alert: syrian woodpecker on the tree outside our front door! 2 jays playing happily in our garden. and hundreds upon hundreds of eagles (short toed?) being carried up by the thermals in the desert, there was also one very large eagle (possibly imperial!))

The cheerleaders

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