Leave Phil Alone!

punxsutawney phil
Originally uploaded by ewaldmario.

The current ongoing winter in much of the Northern Hemisphere has caused millions to cry out for a scapegoat, and they have found it in lovable rodent and well known meteorologist Punxsutawney Phil.

It dates all the way back to February 2nd of this year, Groundhog Day, where Phil, in his infinite wisdom, declared that there would be an early spring this year, after emerging from his grounhog hole, and not seeing his shadow.

Well, anyone living "literally" anywhere on earth, that is the Northern Hemisphere and particularly places that get cold at all, know this to be utter bunk. Nevermind early spring, it's March 26 already.. 6 days into official full on spring and well.. I may have mentioned this myself once or twice but... it's cold. And people are enraged! They're saying Phil maliciously and deliberately deceived people. They're calling for his head!

I for one, however, do not blame Phil. Phil is but merely an adorable burrow dwelling squirrel hedgehog or whatever he is, and he did what he was told to do, see his shadow or not, and deduce the facts from the evidence he found. There was no shadow.. so he said it's spring! A simple mistake. Or was it...

This is what happened. Phil did not see his shadow. This was not a mistake of Phil's, or the conditions at the time, just bear with me.. I will explain.

Back in late February, I went to Eilat in Southern Israel. It's a very warm place, you may imagine, like summer.. even in the (we thought then) dying days of winter. Oh what a beautiful week it was, after a long enough already winter, it was like paradise to lie by the beach with the hot sun upon our backs, but of course, all holidays must come to an end, and after a week we had to return to Prague where it was still winter. I did not let it get me down though, do not mope, I said, the day after we return it's March, and spring will soon follow.. the days will get longer, warmer, buds will blossom, birds will sing... etc etc etc.. and I said it again and again and again.

Needless to say, I was mistaken. And that is not all.. you see, young Phil, our furry friend, was merely doing a job, he reported what he saw.. and at the time, I believe he was correct. He did no wrong. I however, did what any human over the age of 6 should know well better than to do. I tempted fate. To wish and hope and be so fucking sure.. and vocalize one's idea of the future should be? Utterly irresponsible. You see, fate hates it when smug knowitall humans talk like they know what's fucking going on.. and fate, total asshole. It wasn't enough to fuck up the weather here in the little part of central Europe that I inhabit, or even all of Europe.. but all of the fucking Northern Hemisphere*.

So don't blame Phil, blame me, for, in my foolishness are the cause of all of this. The worst part of it is knowing that those people are suffering is because of me,  that Phil is getting persecuted over something that is my fault.. and that if no one else does, I deserve all of this, and more, fully.

Leave Phil alone. Take me.

wot i did on my holaday

It was quite a fun filled eventful trip after all. With all the us going to a chilled out seaside city.. if you'd call it that at all.. wanting to have a relaxing holiday for once, and actually quite succeeding.. me being me who.. well there is a pretty decent list of things I did, some I haven't before which includes:

• swim in a coral reef
• walk in the desert
• drink beer
• see dolphins
• go to a basketball game
• have carrots with beer
• dip my feet in the Dead Sea
• walk around a city with luggage going into random places
• drink beer on the beach
• stand on the edge of a rocky desert
• lie on the beach
• be accosted by religious people of confusing denomination and get free coffee and listen to music
• go to pubs, and have beer
• see a lot of birds
• meet a lot of fish

and other things.. probably. Of course there is lots more to do in and around Eilat.. so it's an excuse to go there again. Plus we know people there.

Fish watching is a thing.

I guess it is. I don't know if anyone calls it that, but people do it. I've been doing a bit of that. I'm here by the sea, with a coral reef, swarming with many colored fish, staying with people who have diving equipment... well at least the kind that someone of my extremely limited ability could possibly use, so how could I not? Most if it has been me getting in the water a bit, sometimes with goggles, and then spending a lot of time on the beach. We've gone to the beach 3 days... 3 different beaches here in Eilat.. and saw plenty of amazing fish right away.. certainly compared to anything I'm used to.. although I never stayed in the water very long, or got very far, and sometimes didn't even bother with the goggles. Today I went in "properly". Just swam out a little bit from the beach, with the help of a pair of too big flippers and found myself in the middle of a beautiful coral reef swimming with a school of many colored fishes. Well.. a lot of various colored fish, big and small, some in groups, some just hanging out with the general fish community. It was pretty awesome really. We got a waterproof camera, which can be used underwater and took a few pics of the fish.. though no idea if you can tell any of them are fish, I did use a lot of the film on self portraits of me underwater.. though I don't know if that worked either. So I've been in Eilat about 5 days now and it's almost time to take off. Done of lot of being at the beach. Some walking in hills... seeing a lot of desert and rocks, birds, dolphins and fish of course. One more event tonight which I call "hanging out in the pub" and tomorrow we're on the bus.. still have a little bit of time in Tel Aviv after the long bus ride.. but we're mostly finished here. I think I'm a bit sunburnt.

Havin a whale...

of a time. here in Eilat.

And I'm there

So.. all the vexing stuff is done with, the waiting, the traveling, the carrying, the waiting, the being interrogated, the waiting, the schlepping, the turbulence, the getting off on the wrong tram stop and having to go back, the numerous versions of what seems like the exact same customs need, the waiting, the traveling at midnight so you get exactly no sleep for one day, the being in a car 6 hours, the changing from one mode of transport, then another, with a schlep and a wait in between ok you get the picture? It wasn't so bad. By the time we got to Jerusalem, well the house we got to rest in for a bit, it was ok. A lot up to that point, but.. as one is done, then you're slightly closer to your goal. Anyway did that and then a long car ride and now we're here. Stayed up even though little sleep was gotten on the plane, barely two hours at best at our rest stop and none in the car, and socialized and ate.. now it's just rest time, and ready for a fresh start tomorrow. We're by the sea, and it's warm here. This is good enough already.

Off on a midnight train..

Yep, I totally am. I am "literally" going on a midnight train tonight, to sunny Eilat. I mean, it's actually due to take off at 5 minutes to midnight and it's not a train it's a plane and it's not going to Eilat it's going to Tel Aviv from where we, at 3am or so will make our way to Jerusalem to refresh ourselves and rest and wait for the ride to Eilat. Which is sunny, and by the sea. Oh it's cold here, did I mention, and snowing, hasn't stopped actually, it's kind of weird in a way, and it's getting colder and should be like.. super cold tomorrow. *smirks* It's like.. mid to high 20s in Eilat. And it's by the sea. *tries not to look smug and fails* So.. for now we've got all the "traveling" part of the traveling to do.. and well.. it's a whole lot of schleppng and waiting and passport control and being in airports and cities in the middle of the night so I'm looking forward to that part being done and being in Eilat, which is warm, oh and it's by the sea, did I mention? Yeah, I'd kind of like it to be that bit. By this time tomorrow, it will be that bit, so I hope for it to be then. Catch ya later.

*counts the days, months*

I'm over this winter thing. I wasn't all that interested in the first place, to be honest. I mean, I like snow and stuff.. but, there really isn't enough of it for the whole time that winter is around, and if there was, I'd probably be as over that as well, like people who grew up with it, and grumble as the snowflakes start falling, turning the landscape all beautiful and stuff.. when kids and dogs come out to frolic and.. ok I like snow. We had another shower last night, well, quite a heavy fall.. it was particularly wonderlandy this morning, complete with snow on the end o the branches of the trees where the leaves are supposed to be. It was very pretty.. of course, this morning was the morning the fixit dudes came in to fix the windows in the bathroom, and they came late, and took their time starting, and then the 2 or 3 hours estimate they gave us for the time it would take turned out to be wildly inaccurate and they were here all day and thus, I have not been out once. Except to go downstairs to buy a few things.. and well, it seems to have melted pretty quickly giving us that "recently snowed and there's some lying about but it's not all that pretty anymore" look. It seems to be like that most of the time, except for when it's just grey, and the days are still to short and to be quite honest it's too cold. And in just under a week we're going to Eilat, a particularly lovely warm town by the sea in Israel so.. nice break from this all. After that we're back, and it'll be March, and it will probably be cold to very cold for some weeks yet and might even snow more and it's not even officially spring until the late part of the month according to these northern hemisphereans which I've never really gotten used to but apparently it's like that.. but, nevertheless it is going to be March.. and March is.. spring, sorta. So it won't be so bad after that. Just 5 days.. and a couple of hours we're off on a midnight flight. Quite looking forward to that.