The letters of our thoughts are the ideas present in our mind before they come to realization . . . Thoughts that are, yet not felt . . . The words of the subconscious . . . of the soul . . .

These are the LETTERS OF MY THOUGHTS.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Picture of the Week 80: New York, New York


New York City as seen coming from Washington DC on my return flight from London


Wishing everyone (even the farbissine misnagdim out there) a good Shabbos.
As a side note - this post is post 900!



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Thursday, July 09, 2009

The Grand Wedding of the Chief - The Legendary London Trip III



Click on the link for photos from Chief P's wonderful wedding, and more!

Though seeing London was a joy, and worth a trip in and unto itself, the main purpose for the trip was to rejoice at the marriage of my dear friend, The Chief.
The wedding, way out in Watford, was truly a blast!


Various members of the London Lubavitcher community



Though I came as a surprise guest, I was surprised with a brocha under the Chupa

Following the chupa there was a very British style buffet reception of various smelly fishes and fruit . . .
Followed by the dancing!


\




The Cehvra: Chatzkel, Yossi, Chief, Dear Dan and one Mottel


Yossi sings!







The breaking of the fellowship


After the wedding we spent some time going to Dear Dan's old mivtzoyim route from his days in London, visiting various people to put tefillin on with them.








While neading back to North London, we made a stop at Abbey Road . . .





V'dal


For Shevuos we went to Manchester.
To my surprise and pleasure, I would find out that our host H. (who along with his wife is a most amazing machnis orchim!) had been following my blog since the early days in Poland!


In the bus station




Stay tuned for the fourth and final installment of the Legendary London Trip!


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Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Out and About London - The Legendary London Trip II


Tower Bridge


For continued photos and experiences from the Legendary London trip, click on the link!

Through all of my travels I have become somewhat of a power traveler. Despite a general 'lazy' aspect of my "home base" personality, when I'm on the road, I run nearly non-stop - trying to take in every thing at hand.

The Warszawa Chevra, those seasoned few that traveled across Eastern Europe, the Former Soviet Union, across Socialist (I mean Wester) Europe and beyond, were all able to do it.
Not everyone else can handle the break neck speeds and constant picture taking of my traveling.
Thus I did not see the inside of the Tower of London . . . nor the British Museum.
But that's another story.


Tower of London




Thirsting for something cold, we stopped by a Starbucks conveniently located next to the tower.
I've been to Starbucks often enough to figure out their wacky cup sizes for ordering (Tall, Grande, Venti) . . . But it would seem the either Starbucks has not caught on in London (perhaps something to be thankful for) to the extent that even the baristas don't know what a doppio on ice in a grande cup, or the staff there was completely out to lunch.


Dear Dan and Yossi schmoozing over empty cups.


Detail from the Middle Tower




Memorial for the Merchant Seamen and Naval officers drowned at sea




From there we went off to Canary Wharf. Though a yeshivah student had raged about the place, it seemed that beyond a few sky scrapers, there wasn't all that much happening there.







Camden town swarming with weirdos and stands selling chachkas was much like my own Los Angeles's Melrose . . . and thus full of Israelis.


With Shachar


A Polish Store . . . oh the memories


Zonked after traveling


The next day, before the Grand Wedding of the Chief, we made a short trip to near by Hampstead.







Milk at the door


The Willow House








The Sundial House (I loved how every house had a plaque on it naming after some distinguishing mark
)

Stay tuned for the next post: The Grand Wedding of the Chief!


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Friday, July 03, 2009

Picture of the Week: Mottel and Kallah


Wishing everyone a good Shabbos

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Wednesday, July 01, 2009

The Legendary London Trip - Part I



This post is long in the making . . . over a month.
So let's not waste time - click on the link and enjoy the pithy comments a wonderful pictures of
My Last Trip Abroad (before marriage) to London!

My grandmother was born in London, and her persona, as engraved in my childish mind, was one marked with all things British . . .  So I've always felt a connection to the country.

Yet, save a five hour layover in Heathrow on my way to Gan Yisroel Lithuania - Rimini, I've never been there.

So when my dear friend and partner in arms, the inimitable Chief of Staff, Mendel got married in London . . . despite it's close proximity to my own wedding (I'd ultimately return six days before my own) . . . I grabbed one of the 340 dollar tickets floating around the interwebs and along with Dear Dan (of Colorado Springs Two and a Half Rabbis fame) set off for one final adventure abroad before tying the knot (of the gartle that is . . )


Mind the Gap

The first day in London, brimming with excitement, I grabbed my Kasket, my brand new Leica D-Lux 3 camera (a wedding present fun di heilige Mama), and with Dear Dan and Yossi in tow, began to cross the street. Walking past an elderly lady, we stopped on the parkway in the middle of the street for the (backwards) traffic to clear.
As I stood by the light, the elderly walked over to my side and, with a stern look of annoyance in her eyes, declared in the Queen's English
   "How rude! Don't they teach you any manners in the Yeshivah?"
With a huff she then preceded to walk off, leaving me none the wiser to what I had done to so greatly offend her.

So be it, we bought a Oyster Card, the charge card used for metro transit in the buses and the Tube, and set off.

Buckingham Palace:
Home of the Hassids


Our first stop was by the palace . . .


O Canada, our home and native land!




The sorta changing of the guards . . . on the days that they don't change the guards


Chldren by the gate


For some reason, people by the Palace felt that it wasn't enough to have their picture taken in front of the home of the sovereign monarch of the British Common Wealth . . . No they needed their picture taken in front of the home of the sovereign monarch of the British Common Wealth with Hassids.

First a large Russian man came over to us and asked to take his picture with us . . . fine.
When he was done, he said,

   "Fank You" in such a way that it was hard to tell if was saying Thank you with an 'F', or something else with an 'N' . . .

Next was the Italian man who wanted to take his picture with Dear Dan . . . Yossi got one for our own record as well.



Then, as seen in the striped shirt in the right hand corner of the picture with the Italian, two Israelis decided that they needed a photo Im HaDosim. So they two got a picture.
As we were walking away from the palace, we were pulled over by one final group . . . from Indonesia (near East Timor to be exact).
They too needed their Hassid photo . . .




Yossi in front of the Grand Australian gate




A reminder to the tourists not to be run over by cars


Walking around, I noticed that on literally every street corner there was a surveillance camera recording our nearly every move - serving as the first of several reminders that London is one of the least private cities in the world.


Famous red phone booths - no tourist can return to his native land with out photographing one . .





Asking a cop for directions "You're going to Watford, out in Hertfordshire? Quite nice. Now to get to the London Eye, uou're going to go strait ahead. Not left, not right . . . strait ahead."



10 Downing Street - home of the PM












After a local marathon . . .


The London Eye





The Eye with Big Ben and Parliament over the other side of the River Thames.

 

Street performers






The London Eye and the Sun




From the Salvidore Dali museum that kicked me cruelly out for trying to take a picture with a statue of melting clocks.



Big Ben


Here ends part one of the Great trip . . . stay tuned for more!



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Hey, People Actually Read My Stuff?

In years past, when traveling abroad on Merkos Shlichus, I wrote for Chabad.org's Roving Rabbis blog.


This year, on the inaugural post for the new year of posting, LE7 brought my attention to the followng comment.

Reader Comments
Latest Comments:
Posted: June 30, 2009
It's that lovely time of year again!
Oh joy! I remember last year's Roving Rabbis blog and can't wait for this year's edition!

Is that Chanan character going to blog again? And what about the Lightstone dude?
Posted By Sammy Ekole

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Thursday, June 25, 2009

Picture of the Week: 3 Tammuz Edition



15 years . . . 15 long years.

Last night I covered the special address given by George Rohr for Lubavitch.com . . .
and I must say that his words, to certain degree, inspired me more then anything else I've heard over the 24 hours of Gimmel Tamuz . . .
He mentioned a trip he'd made to the Ohel last Sunday - how standing in the muggy drizzle of the New York summer- he asked himself what we could tangibly expect the Rebbe to say about our work.
And the answer was simple: It wasn't enough. He wouldn't be satisfied. He would give us a blessing, encourage us to go on . . . but we couldn't remain complacent with what we'd done in the past.

Now I make no claims to know the inner workings of Mr. Rohr's exact philanthropic actions . . . I wish only to dwell on one point.
At times we get caught up in the profundity of our own existence . . . We shep nachas from what we've accomplished. We get excited about the news coverage we garnered for Gimmel Tammuz (50,000 people were reported as coming today)

Yet here stands a man, who by all means has something to truly be proud of . . . He's philanthropy has proved invaluable in the Former Soviet Union, on Campus Chabads, and various other initiatives. True, he has the easy part of the job (in his own words, "You [the Shluchim] are the ones who have the hard part - I just write the checks) but surely knowing that your actions have reached out tens of thousands of Jews - G-d alone knowing the numbers and the extent of its long term effect - is something to be proud of.

But standing in front of the Rebbe, wet and in the rain, we all realize.

We've only just begun . . .

----
On a side note, I'd like to link to a new blog from my old friend:


Check it out and give it some love!



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