text: Midlife Singlemum: February 2019
  Posted by Rachel Selby at 2/28/2019 09:11:00 PM 8 comments:
  Here are my reasons 2B Cheerful for this week. The laid-back linky is on Michelle's Mummy from the Heart for the month of February, with more R2BC posts from around the world.
  On Tuesday morning I was free so DD missed school to go and get her passport renewed. That took an hour and then we went shopping. New shoes and a top for me and we both came away with new leather-look covers for our previously naked phones. We feel very sophisticated. Then we went out for coffee. DD had three scoops of ice-cream with whipped cream and sprinkles. I had some aubergine pate and toast. We also tracked down a tapestry pattern for my cousin in London. This involved lots of photos and chatting via Whatsapp so she got exactly what she wanted. Then we came home. DD has half day on Tuesdays and a friend came over after school for lunch, which I provided before going off to teach my afternoon classes. A thoroughly satisfactory morning.
  With some help from two 6th Grade girls, I spent my breaks at work this week colouring little posters for the English library. I got all enthusiastic to spruce it up and organise as I'd ordered 40 new books which arrived this week. Next week I'll be covering them all in protective sticky-back plastic. I find this quite a relaxing job and it keeps me away from the biscuits in the staff room.
  A friend from NYC was in town and I invited her for Friday night dinner. She arrived at about 7 pm. DD said hello and then decided to go and lie down for a bit because her eyes hurt. She didn't make the connection with having been up since 3.30 in the morning to watch the space launch. I did and wasn't surprised that she fell asleep and was out for the night. Which meant that my friend and I had a lovely catching up session over a leisurely dinner.
  Posted by Rachel Selby at 2/23/2019 03:01:00 PM 11 comments:
  Labels: life in Israel, lifestyle, old friends, school
  This morning Israel (and Nasa) launched the first Israeli Moon Lander. This is huge. Only three other countries in the world have ever landed on the moon.
  Russia landed the first unmanned rocket on 13th September 1959. America was first to put a man on the moon on 20th July 1969. And China landed an unmanned something in 2013. We are the fourth country in the world to go to the moon!
  I'm writing this at 4.10 am. No this is not part of my get up early regime. This was a special early rise to watch the space launch. Although it wasn't actually planned. I mean the space launch was planned obviously, but as we went to bed last night I said to DD, "do we really want to get up at 3.30 to watch the launch?"
  "Nah," she replied, "we'll watch it in the morning."
  Then I woke up with a headache so seeing as I was awake anyway I woke DD and she came to watch the live streaming with me. We listened to the commentary in English from America. There were flashes and flares, the rocket went up, every so often the people on the ground at Nasa clapped enthusiastically.
  DD said, "We don't understand any of this, I'm going back to bed."
  Then the first stage rocket was ejected, then it made re-entry into the Earth's orbit, and finally it landed safely. More clapping from Nasa, I joined in. I wan't entirely caught up in the excitement yet but it would have been rude not to clap.
  They announced a short break. Oh good, time for coffee. I made coffee and found the live streaming on the big smart tv screen, ready to watch the moon landing, or at least see more of the journey. My channel was still on a break but they showed how you could get an app on your phone to see pictures of the Earth from space. I won't bother - Design Home is taking up far too much phone memory already.