Reporting from Israel: December 13

Thursday turned out to be another great day. I first got together for breakfast with my good friend Dov Gordon from The Gordon Group whom I met online several years ago when implementing Alan’s Forums, the great online community we’ve created for International consultant writer and speaker, Alan Weiss. Dov and I discussed business ideas in general and strategy in particular. Dov has this unique and very smart ability to analyze and dissect a topic and turn it into a great and practical learning experience. What also fascinates me about him is his courage to have moved to Israel and conduct most of his business in English.

I then met my family at the Jerusalem open market (Mahane Yehuda) to do some shopping. It is an amazing place bustling with interesting people. The great smell of the fresh food and its sight is just amazing and tempting. I found myself having this immense craving to taste most of it:

We came across this amazing Halvah (Sesame Candy) store with every possible flavor available. It was just too hard to resist the aroma and temptation created, especially when we were offered to taste it. We purchased several kilos to take back to the US with us:

This next store had amazing spices and tea of all kind. I thought I already figured out their tricks and was prepared to say no. “Here try some”, said the nice man at the store. Who am I to argue? I found myself purchasing another $200 worth of stuff I probably did not need, but I couldn’t say no:

Although the fruit was quite appealing, watching the seller stand there with a cigarette and ashes dropping was not:

The cakes at this store were to die for. I watched my daughter buying there and what struck me was the fact that the seller has his hand covered with protective plastic yet he never took it off when picking up the cakes and exchanging the money. Oh well, it tasted too good to worry about it:

Perhaps not the most sophisticated method of transportation but it was quite effective to transfer the bread on the cart to the stores:

The open market was a place where several suicide bombers previously attacked and killed many shoppers. You would not know or feel that, walking the streets of the market today. But suddenly, at one place of the market, we see a huge crowd of people gathering watching something with great interest while taking pictures with their cell phones. When i asked one of them what is going on, he tells me that they found a suspicious suitcase. I don’t get it. What is it that intrigues people to put themselves in harms way for a quick thrill? Luckily it turned out to be nothing and we returned to our shopping spot.

I observed so many interesting people doing their business:

Among them was even this Jerusalem beauty selling at her clothing store:

And of course my own family beauty, my wife, daughter and son-in-law:

I met this awesome guy and started a great conversation with him. He immediately cut up some fruit for us to taste:

He then told me that he loves to sing so I put him to the test. I took out my new Flip Video gadget and started to record. (See my next post to view it)
He did not believe me that this amazing gadget is a video camera, so I let him watch his own recording and promised him that I will upload it onto YouTube:

We had to say goodbye to this marvelous place and as we were walking out of the market we saw this young kid selling Israeli jelly donuts. Ok, so I had to get just one.

The best part of the day is the fact that it is my daughter’s birthday today. Her neighbor from across the hallway, stopped by with a sign she prepared saying Mazel Tov and welcome Mom and Dad. She was so sweet and also brought with her some flowers and balloons to hang on the door. You guessed right, she made us all take part in helping her hang up the sign on the door and decorate it.

We had a great time and after a terrific dinner we went out to an amazing dessert place to further celebrate. We had everyone sing Happy Birthday in Hebrew and English and as you can see, my daughter is enjoying watching her husband singing. Happy birthday Sharon: