"With the Greatest of Ease," Acrobats!

For modesty's sake, you have mostly shadows to see, but they do give a taste of the amazing acrobatics performance I saw the other night in Shiloh. I know that some of the women who performed so daringly on the "sashes" and swings wouldn't want me to post anything very recognizable, so I photographed their shadows, which do give a good idea of how impressive they are. 

Most of the women who performed have only been studying this form of acrobatics, or anything like it, for less than a year. 

I was very impressed, and in all honesty, I'm not tempted to join up next year, not even if I was a generation or more younger. This sort of sport is not my cup of tea for two reasons.

• You must be fearless.
• You must have really good upper body strength. 

I fail both those tests, especially the first. The second can be rectified with proper training. I'm terrified of doing anything like this. The "monkey bars" wasn't my favorite place in the playground as a kid. But I have a feeling that some of my children would be tempted and certainly some of my granddaughters. One granddaughter took gymnastics this past year, and I attended her end of year show. That made me nervous enough, since it can be a dangerous sport.

As the very first girls gym teacher here in Shiloh, I must congratulate the teacher of this club for doing an excellent job.

What's More Embarrassing...?

Haven't we all had a wardrobe malfunction? I know that I've had them, probably more than I can count. And I've always been grateful for those who had the guts to let me know about it, whether strangers or friends.

Not long ago I noticed that a good friend, a very modest and well-dressed woman had a skirt on that seemed surprisingly sheer. She was about ten feet, three meters from me or more and I could easily make out her underpants. It didn't take me long to decide, and I was quickly next to her and whispered:

"Your skirt's too sheer."
"Mine?"
"Yes."

Within seconds she was gone and returned later with a different one on. She was very grateful and explained that in the rush to get out she hadn't realized which she was wearing.

Most men have stories like that concerning their zippers, which may be open or with the shirt stuck. Buttons sometimes have a life of their own and open up. And of course we may not be aware of rips and stains. Sometimes wardrobe malfunctions are easy to repair, and sometimes they aren't at all.

One thing for sure. I've decided not to be shy about informing people who are most probably unaware of the malfunction. I'm certainly happy when people tell me. It may be embarrassing to hear it, but to think that I've been walking around like that is certainly worse.

Shopping, School Supplies to Wear, Don't Wait

The other day at work, Yafiz, Sha'ar Binyamin, we redid the store.  Our big sale is over and we're getting ready for school.

We also got in gorgeous clothes for the "chaggim," Jewish Holidays- Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Succot and Simchat Torah.  But I didn't take pictures yesterday, because I was certain that I had photographed them on Sunday.  Sorry, that just means that I'll have to post an additional blog about the store.

There are still lots of bathing suits for sale at very reasonable prices, including the tzniusdik, "modest" ones.  I saw similar styles in Jerusalem for almost double the price.  As soon as the first delivery of the two-piece short sleeved top and shorts for girls arrived I called my daughter to get approval to buy for the older granddaughters.  When the season opened the manufacturer only made them in women's sizes, but we and no doubt others requested smaller sizes.  So now we have them to sell and they are popular.  Last year many girls bought boys bathing trunks and wore them with tee shirts.

For the past few years in Israel there has been a law requiring school uniforms.  No, these aren't the type my eldest wore when we were in London. It's much simpler, less uniform here.  Depending on the school there are requirements for whatever skirts or slacks/shorts to be worn with plain tee shirts of various colors and sleeve lengths that have the school's logo ironed onto it. 

We have one of those heavy industrial irons and a wide variety of iron-on logos for schools in the area.  If you buy a shirt from us, the logo is free, but if you bring in a shirt from home or another store, you pay for the logo and the service of ironing it onto the shirt.

Since school let out, we've had a special sale on "school shirts," so many families have already stocked up and aren't waiting until the last minute.

There's a reason!

Yes, there's a reason why my recent pictures have looked so awful. Somehow the "function setting" changed on my camera. I must have mishandled it somehow. Oy, what a shame that nothing came out looking decent from last night.

At first I thought that it was because the batteries were too weak, but even after changing the batteries, the pictures were horrendous. Of course, some of you may have thought that I had done it on purpose for modesty's sake, so the females wouldn't be identifiable. If I wasn't the honest type, that's what I'd claim.

Just to show that it's fixed, there are a few I took this morning, including the sunning cat, who was so cute, it just had to crown the page!