Big R

The last month or so I've been popping over to Ramat HaSharon to teach Big R. As you may be able to tell, R is a BIG geezer. A guy with a booming voice, crewcut-style grey hair, and pot belly balanced precariously on his belt buckle. But a nice guy.

Until he starts on politics. As some of you may have noticed, it was election time in Israel last week, and R, being a former member of the legendary Likud Central Committee, was half-listening to me, half-listening to the TV throughout our lessons the last couple of weeks. With the odd "You see!" boomed out across the room to his wife. You see, he happens to be a loyal Bibi Netanyahu supporter and believes that his mentor was assassinated by the media. R told me that he burnt the midnight oil with Bibi on many an occasion, just him and Bibi as they thought up further ways to haul Israel out of its (previous) financial mess. His favourite (and Christ, does he repeat them endlessly) two words to describe Bibi: phenomenon and genius. His favourite expression: He saved the country.

I decided to keep my mouth shut about my own voting tendencies.

But fuck all that. I sit in his posh house every Sunday evening, and am awash with fancy cakes and pastries and tea. Should have charged him a lot more, what with the spanking new Merc parked outside, but he is very connected so maybe it'll pay to keep him sweet.