Retrospective: Pancake Day/ Farewell

On my final evening in Jerusalem, my flatmate faced me with a look of horror when I told her I had never heard of 'Pancake Day'. Basically, it's how English people make religion awesome. So, on a suitably delightful send-off, they made us pancakes - first with mushrooms, and then with lemon juice and sugar for dessert.

Aside from saying good-bye to the fine city of Jerusalem and my charming flatmates, I also had to bid farewell to a material possession which has held a particularly dear place in my heart. Every city I live in for 3 months or so (I don't really have a strict rule), I make sure to buy myself one 'luxury purchase' to remember the city by. Preferably something I can wear or some other form of 'Useful Aesthetics.'

Almost two years ago, in Hanoi, my luxury purchase was the beautiful 100% pure silk velvet coat below. As you can see from this picture, I loved it entirely to death and it seemed imprudent to take it with me, given my extreme shortage of bag space and my belief in the importance of letting go. My flatmate Yael made this farewell slightly less painful by adopting the coat as a particularly fine dressing gown. Also, I'll hopefully be in Hanoi for a week in June - and will find myself some new soft, stunning thing to wrap myself in.

My downstairs neighbours joined us, we drank together (I tried to keep this in check due to the impending flight) and took some final photographs in my bedroom. Also, see picture below for my new coat - one of my Jerusalem luxury purchases - designed and made in Israel.

These people waited up with me almost until my shuttle to the airport came, in the middle of the night. My friend Barak waited on the side of the road with me and listened to me fret about whether I had been forgotten, and chided me softly for not staying longer. Hanevi'im street was almost empty, except a few particularly strange orthodox people walking around and us, and when the shuttle did pull up, I hugged Barak and got in, putting my ipod on LOUD and trying not to cry.