Illustration by Denis Shifrin

What a gas! Refills for those lighters

Did you know that there is a gas refill for those kitchen gas lighters?  I found one called Brico. It comes in a container similar to some of the anti-juke sprays, size 300ml, and costs about NIS15, depending where you buy it. I have now refilled two of my gas lighters. Fortunately, I had not yet thrown out the old one!

easyJet

If you are flying with EASYJET and you need to know their telephone working hours, you should be aware that  the hours they give are their United Kingdom hours. I was told that I could reach them after 8am and took it for granted, as I was talking to someone on an 03 number, that I could ring them at 8am Israeli time, but in fact, I was only able to reach them after 10am.

Monthly bill is real cool idea

The summer is here and our high electricity bills are mainly due to our using the air-conditioners. The Electricity Company is now offering a program whereby you can pay your bills on a monthly basis. You will still receive your bill every two months as usual but if you telephone the company and advise them that you want to pay monthly, they will send you a second bill at the end of the first month that will be an estimate based on previous bills which you can then pay in your normal manner. The basic idea is to help people avoid having to pay one big sum every two months.

A friend of mine is in the market looking to buy an apartment. She complains that all the advertisements in the newspapers are useless, as very rarely is a price given together with the size of the apartment. I looked at both a local brochure as well as Yedioth Ahronoth and found that barely 5% of the flats advertised for sale, and those for rental carry any price. It may be very nice to be told that the apartment is 4 rooms and 120 sq. meters plus parking, in the area you are looking for, but you need to telephone nearly every one of  them to find out if the sale price is either NIS1.3 million or NIS4 million. Yes, that is correct.

The supermarkets splash their prices all over the newspapers, but apartment-owners and real estate agents seem to think that the price is a secret!

A list will help you to keep taking the tablets

If you are taking a number of different pills every day and arrange them in a weekly box, or doing this for someone else, then I have found this advice to be useful: I keep a list of the name of each pill, divided up in the same manner as the boxes, morning, midday and evening, as is necessary.

Not only do I write on this list the name of the pill, but next to the name I write the color, size (big, small) and shape if necessary. If some of the pills are similar, then I also write down anything that is written on the pill. For example, if there are two pink pills almost the same size, but one is light pink and the other dark pink or has letters imprinted on the pill such as TEVA, SP5 etc, then all this should be written on the list.

CUCUMBERS & SQUASH

When I first visited Israel many years ago, I stayed for a while on a moshav, and one day we had apple compote for the last course. When I remarked how delicious it was but noted that it looked different from  what I was used to, I was told that there was no apple in the compote and that squash/ zucchini was the main ingredient.

Recently, when making a meat dish in which I also use squash, I found that I had insufficient quantities, and instead added three unpeeled sliced cucumbers. In fact, in many dishes cucumbers and squash can be interchanged (except maybe in a salad), which makes it useful to use them according to their price on the market.

Lately, some of our larger chains of supermarkets have been offering various consumer goodswhich are labeled in their own name. These include foodstuffs and cleaning and other materials. It is worthwhile trying some of these items. This does not mean that the supermarkets are themselves the producers or manufacturers of these goods and you should check on the labels to see who is the manufacturer or importer.

Quite a few of these goods are a lot cheaper than those produced under a well-known brand name. Some examples which have gone down well in my household are Supersol’s own brand aubergine spread and also a red cabbage spread with mayonnaise which sell for 50% less than most of the other brands – NIS7.90 for 400 grams. A spray for collars and cuffs of shirts and other stains, before being put in the washing machine, is sold for only NIS7 for 750 grams. Most other brands cost between NIS12 and NIS18. Having tried it out, I bought two more.