Friday is Party Time

Hi everybody, another week has jetted by, and it's time for the next Paint Party Friday, hosted as always by Eva and Kristin, and Darcy's Postcard Challenge, which this week takes us to Israel with Jason.

Cissie very much enjoyed her week in Holland with Thelma. She buys three bottles of gin and some more of those *herb* cigarettes as she calls them. After they arrive in England, a customs officer gets into the coach to ask if they have anything to declare. Cissie shows him the gin. He says *Sorry, Madam, you are only allowed 2 bottles. One bottle will have to be confiscated.* *That’s why I bought it*, she says. *Everyone knows that gin in hot water is the best thing if you are constipated!* The customs officer swallows, decides not to argue, and gives it back to her, saying, "Well, if it’s medicinal – that’s okay.* What a good job he doesn’t ask about cigarettes or tobacco.... Jason is delighted with his *herb* cigarettes, and spends some pleasant evenings with his mates, but can’t work out why he always feels so hung-over the next day.
During the past few weeks Cissie has been trying to keep up with her diet. She tells Jason that she now only eats one meal a day. *Great* say Jason, while thinking, *Bloody hell! Her one meal lasts from the time she gets up till she goes to bed!*
They still go out regularly for their double fish and chips nearly every day; Jason doesn’t mind swapping fish for chips, and as she only eats 2 cakes in the afternoon, that leaves four for him, as there are six in the pack. He did half-heartedly suggest that Cissie could make a pack last for 2 days, but after listening to her loud, insulted silence for 5 minutes, he told her that the cream in them was very good for the skin, and that was probably the reason why she had so few wrinkles. So she forgave him, while Jason was thinking that skin with so much fat under it couldn’t possibly wrinkle....
This week Jason is visiting an old school-friend who lives in Tel Aviv. Auntie Cissie tries to impress on him that he will really have to behave there, if he is not to provoke any international political incidents. She wants him to have his hair cut short, so he will be able to wear a kippa (skull-cap) if he visits any holy places. He refuses, promises to flatten his hair with gel if he needs to wear one, and dutifully packs the rather moth-eaten kippa from his deceased uncle.
Jason enjoys the flight to Israel, especially the Israeli orange-chocolate liqueur that they serve after the meal. After negotiating the passport control, his friend Uri meets him and they drive to Tel Aviv. Jason is very impressed with the town – beaches galore, bars and cafés everywhere, and beautiful girls wherever he looks. After 2 days of relaxing, swimming, eyeing the bathing beauties and the evenings in bars and discos, they decide to do some sightseeing.

First they fight their way into the train at the central station in Tel Aviv. Uri is not perturbed, he says it’s often much fuller. Jason squashes himself onto a seat where an over-dimensioned lady – who, incidentally, makes Cissie look like Twiggy! - and her shopping bags are taking up three quarters of the allotted space. Uri sits opposite him, squeezed in by a young girl-soldier, complete with machine gun and giant back-pack. The train is so well air-conditioned that Jason thinks he’s in a deep freeze. They get out at Nahariya, and take a taxi to Rosh Hanikra, the last place before the Lebanese border. They wait in the queue with a lot of ladies and children to get into the cable-car to take them down to the under-sea grottos. Jason finds it *Friggin’ cool*, but is very pleased when they get back to *safety* and a nice, cool Beer.

After watching the sunset over the sea,they spend the night at a little sea-side bed-and-breakfast place in Nahariya, which also has enough pubs and cafés to keep Jason happy in the evening.

The next morning they go swimming in Achsiv, a little beach, which they reach after going through a beautiful park with the ruins of some ancient houses. They swim in the ancient harbour, where Phoenician ships anchored thousands of years ago, and even Jason manages to take his eyes off the girls long enough to admire the scenery…..

The next day sees them back in another extremely overfilled train to Acre, where they visit the old crusader castle and have lunch at *Abu Christo’s*, a fish restaurant built into the old city walls.

Then, in the afternoon, they go on to Haifa, where they look round the town, and visit the beautiful Bahai Temple.

From there they hitch a lift to Megiddo, where they see excavations of the Tell (hill) which take you back thousands of years in history. Megiddo is the *Armageddon* of the Bible. They go down a long stone staircase carved in the iron-age, leading to an underwater spring. Jason is once again very happy to get back up to the light again, where he admires two very pretty archaeologists.

They spend another couple of days pubbing, clubbing and admiring the girls in Tel Aviv, and then take the bus to Jerusalem. Jason is most impressed by all the sights, and of course, having his photo taken in front of some of them. This week he writes 2 postcards, one to Cissie, and one to Thelma. The first photo has been taken in front of the the Wailing Wall, and the second one opposite the Knesset, in front of the Menorah - the symbol for the State of Israel.

And he really keeps his promise to Auntie Cissie, he doesn’t do anything worse than a bit of winking at the girls, and manages to behave. Miracles do sometimes happen; Israel has been known for them.

For PPf I have another WIP, more heads, painted with water colours, colour wash sprays and stickles. I liked those from last week better!

Well, I congratulate all who managed to stick with this post from start to finish! Have a good day, take care, and thanks for visiting!