. . . Don't Listen to Husband

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 1- Don't listen to Husband, when he says "You don't need sunscreen" while traipsing around Nabatean Ruins, in the middle of the Negev Desert.

2- Don't listen to Husband when he assures you the pasta salad in the boot won't go off, while exploring Nabatean Ruins for 3 hours in the middle of the desert.

Note to Self: Don't take pasta salad along with you to the desert. The chances of it going off are pretty high. Even if said Nabatean Ruins are pretty cool and the salad is awesome (home made pasta, sun dried tomatoes, kalamata olives, capers and parmesan cheese- may be served hot).

Saturday morning @ 5:30 am. It's Archeology Saturday.
Blackpetero has decided that today's destination is the  Nabatean city of Shivta. He insisted It was decided that the whole family, including the nephew, would go "archeologing" today (it's usually just him and the boy). We had been were invited to our friends Dasi and Shaul for lunch (near Shivta)- hence the taking of the above mentioned pasta salad along with us in the first place.
Our friends live on a kibbutz in the South, a stones throw away from Gaza. Literally. After finally arriving at the gates of the kibbutz (a mere 5 minutes from the Rafiah Border Crossing) it appeared that our hosts were still sleeping and we could not get though the gates.

Understandably, after exploring the wonderful and extremely educational ruins of Ancient Shivta for the past few hours we were all a tad, uhm tired. The kids wanted to go home. The moaning and groaning in the car was intense. The big question now was should we stay or should we go.

A snippet of the conversation:

Son-(waking up after the long drive from Shivta): "I've got a sinking feeling that we are not heading home."

Husband- (slightly irked by the delay at gate): "NO we are not".

Son: "I have suddenly gone blind, I'm really sick, I may have rectal bleeding and loss of height. These are symptoms we really should NOT ignore."

Sunburned Jo-(ignoring son): "I need to pee- BPO go straight, there may be a gas station along this road".

Husband: "Are you mad- There is less than nothing in that direction, Jo- just Gaza.

Daughter: "Oh  good, lets go shopping"

Nephew: "Ya, good idea- really cheap munitions in Gaza!"

Son: "But- who ignores sudden blindness?"

etc. etc.etc.

Turns out I did not have to worry- the pasta salad was ok, though I did not eat any of it.
For an educated account of Shivta and our day out see Husbands blog: http://blackpetero.blogspot.com/2009/09/shivta.html