Christmas in Tel Aviv

I've always liked Tel Aviv. During my 40 years or so of living in Jerusalem, I came here as often as I could - lived here during my army years (that's a story worth telling, in some future post, as we lived in quite weird places, I'll never forget getting up to take a shower every morning, I had to, was a soldier, they would have court martial me is I was late - walking in front a raw of women with sawing machines, it was a sweatshop on some sort, over General Alenby street, looking at me blankly like pigeons - me and my girlfriend at the time rented a room there, for $100/month if I'm not mistaken - and this was not the worst setting we've found ourselves in back then, not by far) - anyway, I've worked here too, the office of inter8ing, my previous startup, was at Tel Aviv harbor, so were most of my business meetings before and after, came to the city on every chance I had. It's a great place.

During the last decade or so, I've also developed a very deep sympathy for the sea. Not swimming pools, mind - I don't know, just hate those, with the typical smell and the people swimming, all wearing the expressions of someone who had just peed - did you see the South Park episode? But I do love the sea. And the beach. It's very sandy, sunny, really nice. During the summer before last I went there almost daily. Got myself goggles, and - well, didn't really swim, but went like 100 meters off the shore and floated there happily, it's unbelievable how well can you float, even over high waves. And the funny thing is, if you go past the raw of people near shore, just at the point where they can still stand (and, says the little Eric Cartman inside, pee on each other happily) - there's, like, nobody. The sea is empty. I swim in a little, and then you can hardly even hear the sounds of the crowd over the waves, not so much, it becomes like a white noise, and the beach is really crowded during the summer - when I float there, I'm on my own. All alone. I took my two middle boys with me on weekends, the eldest wouldn't dome, they love it too - and at my favorite beach the lifeguard lets me take them deep, we swim around and play, separated from the masses by 50 yards of water in which they fear to trade. The whole thing is really beautiful.

But then, in 2010, October came, and I had to give up the sea for the whole winter time, until June or something. Didn't even go to the beach. What for. Was just looking at the water miserably, waiting for them to warm, like an old lady for her bath. This year, I thought I might change my ways - read about winter swimming - learned that the water temperature here is considered not half bad, and that in general, the waves are lower during the winter(!) - and that some old people are coming to swim at 6 am or something, never awake on such hours - so I got a wetsuit from Amazon, and just went to the sea. I go twice or three times a week, not every day. I always miss the winter lifeguards, they're there until 1:30 or so and I always have morning stuff to do, so it's always a little bit scary, nobody watches me -and I have to run a mile before getting in, so it won't be too cold. I still can't really swim. Never learned. I advance somehow in the water, for 20 minutes or so, then take my bicycles back to the office, it's funny, going through the streets with the suit (which is quite wet at this point, really). When in, the water are crisply cold, very clear. Migratory birds, not too many people (though some bikini clad Europeans tend to be around, if even half sunny). Beside the surfers I'm almost always the only one in the water. Either I'm crazy for being there, or the whole town is for not coming too.