Paris

In Paris we revived the ancient art of flanerie. In the 1800s, some young and wealthy types clearly had too much time on their hands and came up with flanerie - largely wandering with no purpose but the joy of aimless meandering. The strict rules included having no destination and no end time. You wandered in whatever direction took your fancy until you decided not to any more.

I thought we were following these principles very closely until I realised Eve had subverted the process to lead us to her favourite ice cream shop.

Onwards

After three days of packing up our lives in London, it was off to our first stop (Brussels) for Mark and Wiebke's wedding. I was on ushering duty (executed with aplomb in case you're wondering).

Brussels has often struck me as a decent place to live - huge apartments for decent rent and a gravy train so long that there's space for all. It also appears to be the place for drink driving. Someone told us about when he was pulled over for a random check. He was asked whether he'd had anything to drink that night. He replied that he'd had three beers. The police invited him to take a 30 minute break before blowing into the breathalyzer if he needed it.

My general impression of Brussels is that it is decent if not world beating (as the guide book puts it: not a city you immediately fall in love with). A helpful indication was provided by the paper someone was reading on our trip from Brussels to Paris. It had a special section on the previous day's 20km run - not a marathon, a 20km run - just less than half a marathon. Brussels - probably just about less than half a world city - but I guess you may not be looking for a world city.

Shabbat

Compete abstinence from work for 24 hours can be tricky when work is broadly defined (although that will depend on your rabbi). This has led to a few work arounds. Take the Shabbat elevator - pressing the button would be work, so the solution is a lift which stops automatically on every other floor - annoying I imagine if you live high up. The Shabbat mobile phone is also on the market - I'm told that there is a chance (very small though it may be) that your call may not connect (there is some setting which means one time in a thousand or something the call won't connect). If it may or may not connect, apparently that puts it more in the leisure than work bracket.

When quizzed a recent covert said that God may have given the 600 or mishvot, but he gave no guidance on compliance, so it can be about the letter rather than spirit of the thing.

We were told about a newly arrived diplomat who made the mistake of driving through an ultra orthodox Jewish area of Jerusalem on Shabbat. The story ends with her car literally being stoned and a rescue car having to be sent by the Embassy.

Conundrum solved

Found out why there were loads of Thai people in Neot Hakikar. Apparently, after the intifada started, the Arab workers were told to seek alternative employment elsewhere and needed to be replaced. Their replacements needed to be used to working in the fields in pretty extreme heat - the Thais fitted the description.

Even today there is difficulty for other South East Asians getting into Israel, because there's an agreement with the Thai Government.

Ah ha

We spent a couple of lovely days with friends in Tel Aviv - relaxing and hugely informative! Three years as a diplomat has apparently taught him a thing or two about the country and the political situation. I was interested to hear how the settlements may end up backfiring. Time was apparently when they were set up so they could be given back in land swaps (although some also no doubt thought that it was important to populate all the land). Now there's little hope of dismantling some settlements which are too established, so they may end up giving up bits of the land inside the '47 borders in order to keep the settlements.

I also learned that the plan would be to create a Palestinian State with the West Bank and Gaza. The slight problem being that they aren't next to each other. I'm told the solution could be to connect them with an enclosed road - novel.

Not so anonymous generosity

It feels that almost all public spaces in the bits we saw of Israel owe their current state to a named benefactor - who in turn takes the opportunity to dedicate it to (usually) a relative. It appears that loads of people want to leave their mark. We read about one audacious bid to have a national museum of some repute take the name of a donor in return for USD20m (the equivalent of The National Gallery in association with Richard Norridge) - initially accepted, but it seems that certain things are untouchable - after an outcry the name and money returned.

Kibbutzim

I had this image in my head that a Kibbutz was some kind of modern day communist ideal and I think it probably was at some stage. However, times change. The ones we saw had diversified a little - primarily into 5 star tourist resorts.

I was told that the ideal is also struggling a little due to a lack of younger people keeping the idea going. A lot of the originals are moving into retirement and the model only works if there are enough young people to keep the kibbutz going and pay for the retirees. One kibbutz with a number of pensioners fairly recently went bust - the government stepped in.