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Life
Updates on our world tour
Aug 27th
Introduction to the update
As some of you already know, me and my wife are planning to see the world, all while working and making money. We first left Israel and traveled to Finland, where my wife worked and studied at Helsinki University. After 5 months of working and seeing Finland (and Lapland), we took a taxi to St. Petersburg, Russia, where we spent some wonderful time walking around one of the most romantic and beautiful cities on our planet. My wife then flew to Israel to give her thesis for her masters degree, and to be with her parents before we start our “Big” tour. In the mean time I stayed some more in St. Petersburg to explore it a bit and learn the Russian language, and 4 weeks later here I am in Morocco, staying with my dad, until my wife joins me and we’ll continue our trip.
Why did we start this trip at all?
My wife wants to see the world. She spent almost 10 years in academia. I thought about it long and hard, and decided it suits me as well, and thought it would be a great idea to do this together. I also wanted to travel but never got around to doing it. Friends of mine travelled immediately after they completed their military service, but I was working in the hi-tech industry, being the geek that I am. India could wait, with its promises of endless beach parties, hallucinogenic drugs, and women.
But why a boat?!
I looked at the map of the world, and said, ok, Europe, Russia and Africa, no problem, huge landmasses. much of Asia as well, like China, Japan, Vietnam, etc.
But the islands, and all the way to Australia, is mostly water, plus we want to see the great barrier reef, and..! we need to keep working, so having an office with internet and electricity is critical or else we won’t have money to fund all this.
Where next?
If all goes according to plan, here are our next steps:
- Buy a camper, and fit it with internet connectivity & solar panels
- Travel for a month in Morocco, discovering the country’s beauty and culture
- Take the ferry to Spain, and start criss-crossing europe, all the way to Russia
- Criss-cross all over Russia, all the way to China
- Once in China, travel to Hong Kong, where we will try to build a boat!
With the boat built, these are our next steps:
- Reach Japan and explore it
- Reach Vietnam and explore it
- Reach Thailand, and the Philippines, and explore them
- Reach the Great Barrier Reef, and sail around Australia
- Reach India and explore it
- Cross the suets canal, into the mediterranean sea
- Explore the countries in the mediterranean
- Reach Morocco again, rest there for a while
- Sail up to the nordic region, all the way to Sweden
In Sweden, my wife plans to start working on a doctorate, this means we’ll stay there for a few years, and also means the end of our “big” tour.
A possible extension of the tour, wold be to cross the atlantic, all the way to Canada and the Thousand Islands region, which we want to explore with the boat.
Curry Noodles, an improvised repice
Nov 9th
Ok first of all, nice to meet’ya all. my first post here, as requested by mister Skaag Argonius himself, is my recipe for improvised curry noodles.
Here goes:
ingredients-
- 1 big or 2 medium onions
- 2 garlic teeth (or cloves.. or whatever you call it)
- 1 yellow pepper
- 2 red peppers
- Handful of rinsed coriander
- 1 bag of fat noodles (egg noodles)
- 1 can of coconut oil
- 1 can of syruped diced pineapples
- Soy, Chilli, Curry, Sugar, Salt
Make the magic:
- Boil the noodles and screen.
- Pour a 1/4 cup of oil (Canola) into a wok
- Cut the Onions to 4 quarters and then separate to layers
- Chop the coriander
- Cut peppers to thin strips
- Crush the garlic
Toss the veggies in order of appearance: onions, peppers, garlic, coriander. Add soy (generously), salt and sugar. Toss in the wok. let it fry a bit. Add 2 spoons of Chili sauce.
Add the diced pineapple as you wish, then add a cup of the syrup.
Add the noodles, stir until the sauce colors the noodles. Add more soy generously, add the can of coconut oil, add yellow curry generously and more sugar (at least 2 spoons).
Stir fry until texture thickens and the coconut is fully yellow, along with the noodles.
et voila! curry noodles. if it’s anything like what I got here, then you’re in for a treat! bonap people! 
Couch Surfing
Oct 22nd
I first heard about Couch Surfing from my wife. We both joined the site, because we loved the concept and were curious about trying it.
Since joining, I hosted one cool person, and joined several real life meetings (last one being yesterday night). We are also about to host a lady from France this coming Saturday.
I have to say that so far, my experience has been very positive. The members of the site who seem to “get” the idea, are positive and friendly, and that’s really great because it gives you a sense that something is right with the world, and that it’s easy to make new friends, hear amazing stories about their travels around the planet, and learn from their experience.
They are also extremely helpful when someone comes with a question or request, and I believe this is the spirit of being “good” to each other as people. If only more people lived their life in that spirit, the world would look more like a big family, than a bunch of people living their life alone.
My love and respect to the organizers of the site, and to the participants who really put their soul into the thing.
Their site: http://www.couchsurfing.org
Update: I have hosted another guy from Michigan, USA. He was simply awesome!!! I really love CouchSurfing.org
Bash Hackers
Aug 30th
I’ve recently discovered something quite wonderful, and I’ve been thinking whether or not to reveal this to the world. However, looking at the statistics of my blog, I realize not many people read my blog so it’s probably Ok.
The realization I’ve come to, relates to technology chat rooms and the kinds of people that frequent them. You have chat rooms for subjects such as Linux, MySQL, PHP; you will find a lot of noobs in there, and the population is quite varied, sometimes rude, sometimes just plain stupid, but definitely full of trolls and other creatures 
And then you have a channel such as #bash and this is where things get quite wonderful. So, What kind of person goes to a channel about Bash? (Bourne-Again Shell). What I found was a bunch of hackers, with a great sense of humor and the ability and willingness to help people, and educate them about proper bash scripting. They are the right mixture of geek / mature IT person / mature developer, that I have come to appreciate and respect over the years.
“Asli” Yemenite Soup
Feb 28th
One of the positive effects of the creation of the state of Israel, and the ensuing “import” of Jews from so many exotic places on the planet back into their original homeland, is the culinary richness we now enjoy in the country. Every family brought unique and exquisite recipes from their host country, and some of them have opened little food shops that dispense their special outlook on what recipe “X” should really be like.
One of my own personal favorites is the Yemenite soup and the accompaniments, and for me it’s no longer just about the soup but also about the ritual
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