Sweden in images

I find it hard to put words on our Sweden trip right now, but these pictures can speak for themselves...

Hot weather

Special places

Me and my Magnum Gold

Love

The first kiss ever... ;o)

Aiki wedding

Serenity

Heavenly flavours

Celebration

Wonderful aikido

Swedish night sky

Last day in Sweden

Tomorrow we are returning to Israel, and the emotions are ambivalent as usual. I wish I could pick and choose between elements of both places and combine them into a personal utopia. My aiki suitcase is filled to the brim with new material and inspiration and I look forward to bring it home to the Israeli aikidokas. I just wish I could have put some particular persons in that suitcase too. And my parents.

Mrs Shanir

Happy couple

Wow! Over a week and no posts. Sorry for that. This week was just really prioritised differently than sitting around the computer, which I guess is a health sign. Anyway, we got married! I am now Mrs Shanir. The week served every-other-day weather, and on our wedding day the sun was shining from a blue sky all day long. We were around 40 persons eating, drinking, laughing, doing aikido and so on. We had made a very appreciated buffet and Neli and Emma surprised us by setting up their coffee machine, so no boring filter coffee was needed. We had our own private baristas! Everybody spread out on the grass already before the quick but beautiful ceremony was over. No pretentiousness, only relaxation and comfort. For a good 12 hours we laughed and loved, before the last guests left around midnight.

Yesterday we left already, moving up North, passing Emma's parents who live close to Västervik, where I also have a large part of my family, and soon even my parents. Yoram was watching small red houses with white corners, and the dream about a small summer property in these surroundings are crystallising.

Today we are heading to Lillsved, and go figure that there will not be much written this week either. Only aikido, food, love, nature and peace of mind...

Sweden bubble

After four days in Sweden I do not really have peace and quiet to blog about it. Maybe I will make a longer review later. Anyway, on Saturday I was abducted for a bachelorette party that at first only involved girls, but later turned into both female and male friends. Yesterday I was a wreck. Other than that we have chilled ourselves with Rosita bitter with grape tonic and the garden hose, in this crazy Swedish heat wave. To be continued...

Takeoff to Sweden

Dogs are installed where they will stay while we are gone and suitcases are packed. Now we can relax for a few hours after getting some food. 1 am we leave the house to go to Ben Gurion, for a morning flight at 5 am. We will arrive in Malmö 2 pm tomorrow. Next week at this time it is the evening before our wedding! Crazy!

Pepito - Two too many balls in the house

This is how relaxed he became in the house last evening

Gracious dog

Kind face

Outside the vet yesterday

Pretty, but skinny

Yesterday afternoon we took Pepito to the vet and scanned him for a chip, but found none. After that we took him home to us. Yoram took the Shepherds out and we walked for a while with the two males leashed. Goshen approached Pepito quietly, and after some guidance from me, they were fine with each other. When everybody was calm, we could unleash Barak and Pepito too, and it worked pretty well. There was tension in the air though, and some competition over Goshen. They had one small argument, but it was quickly over, and Barak was pinned to the ground for it, since he attacked Pepito. Later, at home in the house, they also had a small fight, but nothing serious. The peacefulness was soon involving everybody.

He was amazingly quiet all night, sleeping close to Goshen on the floor below our bed. This morning Yoram had them all out together in the morning, and apparently Pepito and Goshen had played nicely, although Barak attacked him again once. Yoram left for work, and I was with them in the house for a while until we got a ride to the shelter. I could tell that it would have been quite a challenge to make Barak accept him as a family member, so we had to acknowledge the fact that he will not stay with us. He is now in the shelter in Kfar Tikva, and possibly there is already someone who wants to adopt him. We wish him all the luck!

The dog collectors

Yesterday evening we went to a mall in Haifa to get a hard-case for Yoram's 12-string guitar, so it can fly to Sweden. The kids were with us, and we bought some pizza for them. I took some sushi takeaway and we headed home. I was munching on the sushi as we drove through the industrial zone of Haifa bay area, as we suddenly saw a Doberman male running in the middle of the street. Yoram halted the car in the middle of a roundabout, and went out. The young wretch was first a bit cautious, but soon approached Yoram. I munched a bit more sushi, and then went out too. The dog had a collar on, but was very dirty and smelly, and considering that you could see every bone in his body, he had not eaten properly for weeks.

We made him a bit more comfortable with us, and then lifted him into the car. He was not protesting much, most likely because he was too weak to do so. However, it is not a dominant or aggressive dog. Only a bit anxious, but he soon started to trust us. I was sitting with him in the back to keep him calm all the way home, and we brought him to the children's mother's house, since she has an enclosed garden. He got one can of wet dog food and one cup of dry food and he ate it all. He was barking a bit during the night, but he poohed several times, which shows that his tummy is working fine. I will go there during the day and see if he allows me to give him a bath, and then in the evening we will bring him to our vet Pini to scan him for a chip and check his health status. Then we take it from there.

They say that you are doomed to keep the animal if you give it a name. Yoram already named him Pepito. Yoram is a bit prejudice against Dobermans. He thinks that they are unreliable and unpredictable. I claim that Yoram is wrong, and that he is just affected by a false stereotype. Maybe Yoram sees Pepito as his Doberman therapy, and already yesterday we noticed how fast he got attached to us. However, we leave to Sweden in three days, and have nowhere to house the dog. It was difficult enough with Goshen and Barak. During 10 days they will stay with Pini, but his pension costs a lot of money, so the kids mother will help us during the rest of the time. Anyway, I cannot see how we would be able to have three large dogs in our present flat, but maybe it is just wishful thinking that we will keep him. To be continued...

The hunt is over

On Shabbat we went to the open-air market in Daliyat al-Karmel, since I wanted to buy something for my mother. It turned out that I found a very suitable wedding dress for 40 ILS. Bargain is in this case an extreme understatement. I do not think highly about prestige and materialism, and paying thousands of money for a dress that you most likely will use only once, is just plain stupid. However, my family had promised to pay for any dress that I found, but now they do not even have to. It is a simple all-white long halter-neck dress, in some shiny heavy stretch-fabric. I immediately wanted to announce my finding, but Yoram was initially a bit embarrassed about the cheap price. I explained to him that we are not getting married to walk around in expensive clothing, but to celebrate our love, and then we were all fine. Now the question instead is what the groom is going to wear. He looks awesome in very pale lilac, so a nice lilac shirt and white pants would be great. Then I could have lilac flowers in the hair. Well, we will get back to that. No pictures until after the wedding! Now, only three days until takeoff to Sweden!