When there's no room for a bidet, fix a wall spray by the toilet
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Posted:Jun 11, 2007 9:48 am
Last Updated:Feb 23, 2008 6:40 am 17005 Views
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In much of the Far East instead of providing toilet paper the toilets are equipped with a spray mounted alongside the toilet. It just like the spray you can get to attach to a bath, except that the user can operate it using a lever on the shower head instead of at the wall.
I had always wanted one and never known where to get them. Then one day whilst browsing in a bathroom shop for shower curtains I saw what I thought was a shower attachment in a pretty blue so I bought it.
Back in England I looked at it and realised it was the same sort that you get in Far Eastern toilets.
For months it lay unused in a cupboard. I discovered it when doing a general tidy up for the plumbers.
The bad news was that the pump in my central heating had broken down; but the good news was that the plumber did another little job, fixing a wall-mounted spray next to the toilet.
I dealt with plumbers fixing the central heating. The job I was told would take two to three hours took six. Because of the time it took for the tank to empty. They charged for five. It still cost more than twice what I was expecting.
They claimed they arrived at 10 a.m. I noted that they arrived at 11. Next time I shall point at the clock and say you've arrived at such and such a time. Or write down the time and put the paper on the fridge with a fridge magnet.
However, I was happy because included in that price was fixing my wall-mounted shower from a pape about ankle height.
The shower supposed to be fixed on the wall could not be fixed because the plumber had forgotten to charge his drill. He's coming back to do it next week. But after he'd left, because the head wasn't fixed on the wall in a socket, I left the head resting between the toilet seat and the pedestal.
The first acceident was when I dropped the shower head on the floor and the lever broke off. My didn't sympathize. He laughed. He said I'd bought a cheap shower head just because of the colour.
I was really depressed, until my came round at the weekend and fixed it back. I asked him how he did it. He just pushed and pulled until it went back. He was trying hard to fix it. But I was afraid to break it again.
Then I left the shower head dripping in the toilet instead of on the floor where I might tread on it. I forgot and hastily sat on the toilet seat and the toilet seat became detached.
Again the secret was simply courage and force. Push it back on the bracket. I was too nervous in case it broke.
Now the shower head is working - so handy, especially in summer, whether you feel dirty and want to be clean or you're simply hot and sticky, so refreshing. Can't wait to have it properly fixed, safe and elegant.
Learning experience about plumbers. Get everything written down. And a cap on the price. Ask if there is anything unforeseen which could make the job take longer?
I'm told that lots of Orthodox Jewish families have these shower attachments. I'm not sure why.
Maybe somebody can explain. Is it something to do with washing before praying?
The only thing I should say about the shower spray suitability, is that they are best on stone, tiles, or a least lino floor, because they tend to drip so you might not want them on carpet. I keep a small plastic container underneath to catch drips.
Warning. I liked the result so much that I asked the plumber if he would fit another in the bathroom by the other toilet if I bought another one in Singapore, or asked a friend to bring one back.
My plumber said he could not fit such a device into the pipework of the other two toilets in my home. He said there was a device for isolating the water supply to each toilet without turning off the whole water supply. This device took up half the length of the tiny pipe and prevented him fitting anything else.
He said EU regulations required the isolator. To run another pipe from another area would be unsightly and expensive.
Well, I have one. My new toy.
The actual sprayer set has a 48 inch hose and a wall bracket with two wallplugs and two screws for under twenty Singapore dollars. Plus of course the cost of the plumber.
The pipework is to the right of the toilet as you face it. I must look next time I go overseas to find out which side they install the spray. If you are right handed you might prefer it left of the toilet so that it is on your right when sitting.
My toilet handle is on the right so I didn't want the handle high and obstructing your hand as it reaches for the the toilet handle. However, most modern toilets have a double button to depress in the centre of the top of the cistern.
My spray is a great success.
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The differences between Ashkenazis and Sephardis
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Posted:Jun 9, 2007 7:27 am
Last Updated:Jun 9, 2007 7:32 am 12533 Views
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ASHKENAZIM
The spell checker insists that in writing I should say Ashkenazim, using the Hebrew plutral, although in speech it is different.
Ashkenazim are 'German' by language, mostly Polish by location, also Russian from Northern and Eastern Europe.
They speak Yiddish, a mixture of German and Hebrew with some Russian and other languages thrown in.
As physical types, they often have pale brown hair, blue eyes and fair skin. This could be from sunlight, conversion of races living in the area, intermarriage, illegal sexual relations, or , natural selection or the ones most like the majority being popular, getting married earlier, therefore having more , or a little of each.
Personality wise, there are more Yekkes, (yekke means jacket.
Their gravestones have a raised vertical headstone. The inscription is usually on the raised part.
Family names are often German or Russian. Surnames may be colours, or place names or trades. For example, Gold, Silver, Blue (Blau), Kaufman (shopkeeper).
Festival foods include potatoes and matzo. Typical foods: bagels; cheesecake, borscht.
SEPHARDIS
Sephardis are from Spain. Also Portugal, North Africa and other Mediterranean and Southern countries.
They speak Ladino, a mixture of Spanish and Hebrew.
The tunes of the songs are different.
Physically, they tend to have brown eyes and black hair. Disraeli was from an Italian Jewish family.
Gravestones are flat. The inscription is on the flat stone.
Festival foods include rice.
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Halevy's Opera La Juive
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Posted:Jun 2, 2007 6:43 pm
Last Updated:Jun 8, 2007 12:56 pm 10882 Views
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The jolly opera La Juive was composed by (Jacques) Fromental Halevy who lived from 1799-1862. He was director of singing at the Opera and taught at the Conservatoire. I am listening to it now as I type this. The opening is a grand chorus, very lively, although the ending is sad and dramatic, a sort of Jewish Tosca. Mahler called it 'one of the greatest operas ever created'.
This Grand Opera was much more popular in the last century when budgets were not so tight. It was first performed in 1835 at the Paris Opera, and another 562 times until 1934. The Friends of French Opera in New York helped produce the recording which I have.
Halevi worked with the aptly named Scribe who wrote the words, with the aid of assistants, I presume in French. Although the theme is about a Jewish father and his adopted suffering at the hands of anti-Semites, the opera was loved in its heyday for its spectacular drama, costumes and crowd scenes.
The opera is set in 1414, when Rachel, of the Jewish Jeweller Eleazar, falls in love with the artist 'Samuel' whom she does not know is Christian and married, Prince Leopold in disguise. Leopold saves Rachel and her father from an angry crowd.
The recording's notes give a synopsis of the plot. The five act opera has a twist in each act. These include the fact that Rachel was not born Jewish, but is the long-lost of the chief persecutor, the Cardinal. She was rescued as a baby from a disaster.
Jewish-Christian love is punishable by death. Leopold reveals the life-threatening truth about his identity to Rachel, then to her father.
To compound the embarrassment, jealousy and danger, Leopold's wife arrives at the jeweller's to buy her husband a gift.
Rachel saves Leopold from death by lying to conceal their relationship.
Eleazar knows the secret of where the cardinal's was taken, but if he is killed the cardinal will never know.
The end is the attempt to save Rachel from death at the hands of the mob if she will be baptized. But she refuses to abandon her faith and instead chooses to dramatically leap and die.
Her real father, the Cardinal, arrives too late to save her.
Eleazar's last act, before leaping to his death after Rachel, is to reveal that the Cardinal has caused the death of his own .
In the notes the portrait showing Halevy as a young man with small round glasses is from the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. I have borrowed from a friend the three cassette recording in which tenor Jose Carreras sings the part of Eleazar. Caruso also sang this part.
Halevy's pupils included Bizet. Wagner and Mahler admired the opera. The opera is in French but the notes also translate the French words into English, German and Italian. I am sure you would enjoy reading more about the opera and the composer.
Halevi's bust is on the front of the Paris opera house. Halevi's Genevieve married his pupil Bizet. When she was widowed she became the model for a character in Proust's novel. Halevi's nephew was the librettist for Bizet's Carmen.
The name Halevy means the Levite. Other famous people of the same name include the Spanish poet.
If you have any details or comments to add, I'd be glad to hear them.
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Jewish Quotations - What are your favourites?
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Posted:Jun 1, 2007 11:13 pm
Last Updated:Jun 16, 2007 10:27 am 11887 Views
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My favourite quotation is from Disraeli:
If I want to read a book, I write one.
One of the all-time favourites is:
If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If not now, when? (Hillel?)
From the bible: The psalms of David.
Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
Solomon. A woman of worth, her value is above rubies.
From Jewish writings:
Rabbi Akiva.
Halevi. My body is in the West but my heart is in the East. (Referring to Jerusalem.)
Rashi.
To a man asking for a divorce: If you had put as much effort into your marriage as you have put into your divorce, you would have had a happy marriage.
From modern politicians:
Golda Meir. Something like: Our secret weapon is we have nowhere else to go.
Israel Zangwill
America is God's Crucible, the great Melting Pot ...
(Origin of the metaphor, the melting pot.)
I shall research some more and keep coming back to this blog and adding to it.
Please add your quotations and comments.
One of the books on my shelf is Jewish Wit and Wisdom edited by Herb Galewitz. Dover Publications Inc. Don't laugh - Thrift Editions!
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Advice On Writing Novels
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Posted:Jun 1, 2007 11:00 pm
Last Updated:May 6, 2024 5:38 am 10723 Views
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There are loads of books about writing novels.
I've taken courses in novel writing and romantic novels. If you go on a course they ask you to send a summary of each chapter and the characters and their functions in the book.
If you have a series of incidents from real life and no real theme, this exercise does help you sort out the muddle. You have to focus and present a consistent theme, plot and story line. You also focus on a clear couple of linking characters.
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The Advantages of Blogs
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Posted:Jun 1, 2007 10:58 pm
Last Updated:May 6, 2024 5:38 am 10505 Views
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1 Blogs preserve one's words of wisdom.
They can be diaries but also comments on life.
Emails disappear into archives and get wiped at the end of the month. But blogs preserve handy information one might want to keep and refer to later.
So anything I write in emails which is not personal, but general useful information or advice, I copy into a blog.
2 Blogs aimed at a general audience have to be edited. Letters and emails tend to ramble on answering every point made by the other person.
Modern blogs are cut and condensed into handy thematic pieces. Such a good exercise for writers.
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Vegetarian & Kosher
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Posted:Jun 1, 2007 7:39 am
Last Updated:May 6, 2024 5:38 am 11056 Views
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I have a friend who is vegetarian and kosher, very happy to invite me over but never eats in my house.
A relative tells me that sometimes people pretend to be vegetarian because they don't like to refuse to eat other people's non-kosher meat and think it's more tactful.
I used to have a very kosher friend who never caused any controversy, just carried an apple in his pocket.
What's your view about tact and feeding others or visiting?
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Novel Writers, Published and Aspiring - Jewish Novels
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Posted:Jun 1, 2007 7:36 am
Last Updated:May 6, 2024 5:38 am 9806 Views
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I am writing a series of novels starting with the time of my great grandfather in the East End of London. (That's London, England, not Canada, in case any Canadians are reading this.)
If you are also interested in novel writing or research or just a reader and fan and have any comments or questions I'd love to hear from you.
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Disraeli - Was He Jewish?
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Posted:May 28, 2007 4:43 pm
Last Updated:May 6, 2024 5:38 am 50201 Views
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I have always regarded Disraeli as Jewish.
Technically he wasn't, because his family converted whilst he was still a .
But he had Jewish friends such as the Rothschilds, suffered from anti-Semitic remarks in parliament, and defended Jews and Judaism.
How should one accurately describe him? I supposed one could say Jewish-born.
If he wasn't Jewish, why is he in the Jewish encyclopedias?
Perhaps one reason is that so many people at certain points in history had to convert to save their lives, that they were regarded as Jewish even after they had been forcibly converted.
In fact a prayer on the Day of Atonement was written specifically for those who had been forced to renounce Judaism.
If you look at the cartoon of the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland, I read somewhere that this represents Disraeli. (I've been hunting for where I found this comment. If anybody knows, please tell me.) Certainly, the cartoons of Disraeli show a typically Sephardi face, in my opinion.
If one can turn the joke 'Funny, you don't look Jewish' around, I would say that Disraeli might not have been overtly Jewish, but he certainly looked Jewish. Good-looking Jewish.
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Would you like a bling? Ask me. Or make your own.
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Posted:May 26, 2007 6:20 pm
Last Updated:May 26, 2007 7:59 pm 9703 Views
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Would you like a bling?  What's a bling? 
(Little pictures made up of squares of colours.)
You are welcome to take one of mine. Free!
I have made blings of stars and hearts and menorahs, which are the most popular, as well as lips,  faces  and letters such as GSOH (good sense of humour, OHAC (own house and car), and NS (non smoker).
Stars of David or Magen Davids or six point stars, whatever you like to call them, are in blue lines on white like two triangles, solid blue, and blue on a red background.
The menorahs are the seven branch candlesticks which some people say represent a candle for each day of the week. The hanukiahs, for hanukah, are the nine branch candlesticks for hanukah, the eight-day festival, plus one candle to light the others. I have also done a candle.
If you have any symbols or short words you would like me to make, just ask.
If you want any advice on making blings, write to me or add a comment here.
Bling Etiquette
It would be very nice if you were to take a quick peek at my profile, then send a quick email saying: 'I took one of your bling. Thanks very much.'
Please add any comments you would like to make on blings. They seem to be a novelty on this site, but on other sites there are loads of blings.
Your comments are welcome.
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