Fallen Star

Today for the first time I seriously considered giving the cat away.

Her name is Nova Stella and she is not herself anymore. She has become nervous and aggressive. I talked to the vet about it, he said to wait and see.


Nathalie

Dazzled

Today for the first time I was checking a long document, doing my usual translation quality control stunt. All of a sudden a ray of sun hit the screen (I was in the train), my finger kind of lost control of itself and the next thing I know my document was gone.

No matter how hard I tried I kept retrieving a truncated version of my document, which did not contain my editing. It took maybe a minute before everything went back to normal, but that was enough time for my stomach to sink to the floor.

Dubbed Case

Tonight for the first time I had three big bowls of broccoli soup while watching three consecutive episodes of Coldcase on a French channel (dubbed .. ).

I am not systematically against dubbing - I once saw a dubbed version of "Titanic" in a Parisian movie theater and thought it was quite good - but in that case, Lilly Rush's presence was literally abducted by the dubbing and she seemed and sounded like a ghost haunting the police department.

The Ubiquitous Translator

Today for the first time I did something really awkward. I was looking for the adequate translation of a French word into English. I punched the word into my online dictionary. But something was not right. The program kept jumping back to the English to French dictionary instead of the one from French into English.

It took me a minute and then I saw it. The word I had typed in was not the French word but the English translation of the word. Meaning I had translated the word in my head, even though supposedly I was looking for the right translation, and what I had typed was the translation.


Nathalie

Jingle all the Way

Today for the first time I went to a Brit Mila on Christmas.


David

Fallen Giants

Today for the first time I watched the movie "Empire of the Wolves" by Chris Nahon with Jean Reno, Arly Jover and Jocelyn Quivrin.

Quivrin was a brilliant actor who started his career at a young age. I saw him in "L'enfant des Lumieres" in 2002 opposite Nathalie Baye and was fascinated by his brashness and arrogance and yet so much softness and subtlety; he was barely 23 years old and had the talent of a future megastar.

If two actors were going to influence the French cinema of the beginning of the 3rd millennium it was Quivrin, who in "Empire of the Wolves" actually managed to overshadow Jean Reno, not a small achievement, and Guillaume Depardieu, whose talent of pretty much the same quality and description was so massive, his own father, Gerard Depardieu, looked like small fry next to him in "A loving Father".

Guillaume Depardieu died of pneumonia in Oct 2008 at the age of 38. Quivrin was 30 years old when he died in a car crash in Nov 2009. At that time he was working on a scenario called "A man who thought he was James Dean". But the comparison between the young rising giants would be a mistake: Quivrin, unlike James Dean, had behind him a formidable career of 17 years in the cinema and theater and he was not a myth - he was the real stuff.

Nathalie

You Only Get Mono Twice

Today for the first time I found out you can have mono twice. It's called mono reactivation.


Nathalie

General Assembly 2010

Today for the first time I opened the general assembly of Tair Rape Crisis Center. I have been a speaker before, but somehow I still get a sort of stage fright before I open my mouth.

Romcom not

Today for the first time I saw a romantic comedy with Ed Harris and Diane Keaton called Running Mates. This disaster was a TV movie made in 1992. Ed Harris is cut out for romcoms like I am cut out for snake taming. Actually the poor guy looked like he was trapped in this movie and boy does he look dull with all this hair on. In "Running mates" he is just another blue eye pretty boy with a cheap smile. But in real life, meaning , hum, on real screen, Harris rocks. He is the best. Keaton could not offer any consolation, she was looking for the way out herself. Romcoms are not her cup of tea either, except when Jack Nicholson provides the bittersweet angry selfish male stupidity she needs to glow like an entire solar system. It worked with Woody Allen, it worked in Something Gotta Give.

Saved by Gmail

Today for the first time we had a 12 hour electricity black out. In the morning I woke up in the dark and figured it must have been the middle of the night. When I walked into the living-room I was welcomed by a flashlight in my face and thought we were getting robbed and this was my last minute on earth. Not to worry, it was my husband who thought it would be a good idea to turn on the flashlight in order to help me on my way to the kitchen. That's when I found out the entire neighborhood was in the dark.

By pure coincidence, or was it Murphy's Law sticking its ugly head out again, I had a quite large translation to submit by 2PM. Not by coincidence I had sent the material already translated to my gmail account before I went to bed the night before. So I spent the day in a cafe finishing my translation. The electricity eventually returned at 1 PM.


Nathalie

Tate' s Mini Market

Today for the first time I walked into my children' new mini-market in Jerusalem. The place is terrific but Mirl and Aaron Meir quickly became personae non gratae when they decided to test all the candy in the store.


Nathalie

Everything is from Above

Today for the first time our grandchild Yoavi sung "Maoz Tzur" with us when we lit the Hanukkah candles. At this very moment I knew the miracle was complete.


Nathalie

Edanim Farm in the Golan

Today for the first time I visited an ecological farm complete with a mud house, a bio vegetable garden, a grey water system. Sophia offers workshops on topics related to ecology and permaculture. We all enjoyed the visit at Adam LeAdam and made plans to cooperate in the future.

Check the Edanim farm's page on Facebook (in Hebrew).


Nathalie