Will someone please tell me... General Chat

its lovely malka and so easy.

@katygeorge - everything is easy. Well it is if you are like me and only "do" easy!

This is now getting ridiculous. I only ordered the soup maker last Thursday and I know it can take two or three weeks to arrive, and yet I am getting withdrawal symptoms already!

I would not care but it is still not really soup weather!

No banana soup for me. The only way I can stomach a banana is smothered in sour cream and topped with a little sugar.

UPDATE: Due to various "happenings" I forgot all about the soupmaker which never arrived, so I have sent a stinking email to the supposed supplier and to eBay and told them to, well, I will leave that to your imagination.

Telephoned the Shopping Channel to order the Morphy Richards one from them and guess what - out of stock and they have no idea when they will get more.

Hadda look at the MR on Amazon and to my surprise they actually will deliver to Israel and it is the latest model and it is cheaper. Even the delivery is less than the one from eBay and although I have to pay up front for possible customs charges, it still works out cheaper.

So I ordered it.

Well, why not?

Why not indeed! Amazon is usually my first port of call when I'm looking for something - if nothing else, the reviews are useful - but generally the prices there are better than elsewhere. Good to know that they deliver to Israel.

Will you get a refund OK from the eBay supplier? Of course, it may still turn up and you will end up with as many soupmakers as spectacles!

Janet, I had originally looked at Amazon and all I saw was "cannot deliver to Israel". Fair enough but it is the same voltage [220-240v] and the only thing I would have to change is the plug. No problem. And it is the latest model and not the one that the Shopping Channel had advertised which I was not keen on. Hence buying the one from eBay which has not arrived.

But I was on the telephone to the Shopping Channel [after sending off emails to eBay and their supplier] and as there are problems with their website [you can only get the first page and then get an error message] and he eventually found it but said it was out of stock. So I clicked on Amazon and to my surprise saw "this item can be delivered to Israel"

It is the Morphy Richards 48822 Soupmaker but the price is £37.49 not as shown on Amazon. P&p is £21.85 and Import Fees Deposit £10.09 which suits me fine as most electrical items are far more expensive here than in the UK. That is if they are available here in the first place. The thing is that if I want something I have to pay the extra. No choice, is there.

OK so what will I do if the one from eBay arrives? I will cross that bridge when I come to it!

I keep forgetting your not in England & that some sites don't ship to certain countries.

Tina, unfortunately so many sites that used to ship here have now got us on a boycott list that I suppose I have gotten used to it. But it is extremely frustrating at times when I want more of something that I used to be able to get. It is then a matter of either finding someone in the UK who will accept whatever it is and then mail on to me, or going without.

So I have learned to go without things that I used to be able to get.

It is not the end of the world after all, is it!

I have a similar problem here in Hungary. I can't order from the USA because everything has to go through Customs which is a big hassle, and a lot of the UK sites either don't deliver to Hungary, or if they do the delivery charge is absolutely exorbitant!

Luckily, I'm usually able to find most things I want over here although I do order books and any supplements and non prescription medication for the dogs from the UK, but that's only because my Hungarian isn't very good.

Can someone in England buy the items you would like & ship them off to you, or is that not allowed.

@Pork1epe1 - I get all Pereg's and my supplements and vitamins from the USA - at $4 postage per order [not per item] up to 4lb in weight and under $80 they come through with no problem.

I just want a soupmaker so I can chuck stuff in, switch on, and in 20 minutes have soup without having to stand over it and then blend it. Thassorl.

Oops - I might very well end up with two! I have just received the following email from the eBay supplier [in the UK]

But there is no Aramex delivery office in Israel so I have no idea which country it might be in.

The Amazon order has not yet been dispatched but I am not going to cancel it in case the eBay one does not arrive. It will actually be quite helpful to have two as I can keep one for meaty soups and one for parve/parev ie not meat and not dairy as Kashrut, ie dietary restrictions mean you cannot use the same item for both. So I will be able to make meaty soups [adding some cooked meat to vegetables] and also neutral soups, ie vegetable soups or fruit compotes. I have separate pans for things like a cheese sauce or heating milk etc, to those I use for meat products. Food that Parve, being neutral, can be eaten with either.

It is actually very easy keeping Kashrut although it does mean having two of certain things, and these soup makers are only the size of an electric kettle so not very big. In any case, when not in use small electrical appliances are put back in their boxes and kept on a shelf in my back room which adjoins my teeny tiny kitchen.

I can see that two would be very useful for you. I used to have two grill thingies, one for meat eating foster children and one for my vegetarian son.

I wonder where in the world your eBay soupmaker is - let's hope it finds its way to Israel soon!

I am so glad you understand having to have two thingies!

Another email has just come in:

So this is the current state of affairs:

06-Nov-2014 23:37 Booked Parcel Monkey Ltd
10-Nov-2014 11:11 Accepted Received at Hounslow Depot
11-Nov-2014 22:05 En Route Departed Operations facility – In Transit
12-Nov-2014 09:53 En Route Received at Operations Facility
13-Nov-2014 13:58 En Route Held in Customs - Awaiting Inspection and Release
13-Nov-2014 14:18 En Route Cleared from Customs
13-Nov-2014 14:55 En Route Forwarded to Aramex delivery office
17-Nov-2014 08:40 En Route Out for Delivery

I wonder if "En Route Out for Delivery" means delivery to me or delivery to whichever delivery company there actually is in Israel, only there is no Aramex delivery office that I can find so I have no way of checking.

If it meant en route to me, that was 6½ hours ago...

......exciting! Don't go to the toilet - they're bound to come if you do.

Yeah, well, that email came in while I was at the macolet - first time I had been out since Friday week ago [7th] and what happens is that the driver telephones to find out where your house is. And as my voice-mail is not working...

So. Delivery drivers telephone "where is your house?"

- Where are you.

- At the kikar.

Now, "kikar" can mean "square" as in Trafalgar, "roundabout" as in, well, roundabout, or what is neither but if they come from up the road there is a road to the left to a different Moshav, and to the right is the road that leads to the entrance to this moshav a bit further down. And that can mean that as well.

There is, indeed, a small roundabout once on the moshav if they come from down the road - so it means asking from which direction they are coming, telling them to go straight on and if from down the road look for the macolet on the right [not that much further on] - or - if coming from up the road, telling them "yeshar, yeshar, yeshar" - in other words come straight until you see the macolet on the left. And that my house is opposite the macolet.

Either way I have to plonk outside on my crutches watching out for a hapless driver.

But as there is definitely no Aramex delivery office there is nowhere I can check, so I have no idea where on earth it can be.

SIGH

Definitely left Tel Aviv for delivery to me at 8.40am - ten hours and ten minutes ago. And it is not Aramex but GCX.

And at 6.50pm I cannot see it arriving today.

I mean heck, I am only 45 km away from Tel Aviv and with highways all the way it does not take ten hours and ten minutes to get here.

SIGH

Soooo frustrating, waiting for deliveries. I'll be waiting in tomorrow for the barbell and weights I've just ordered. I hope they've got the sense to pack it in several boxes because otherwise it will weigh over 60kg and as they're doing road works at the end of my drive the driver will have to carry it quite a way. I think he might swear at me.

I have opted for my deliveries to go to Motorworld, its only 10mins away from where I live, it means I don't have to wait in all day, I have to pass the motorworld shop every day so its easier for me to poke head round door to see if anything there for me. Plus its free delivery to Motorworld otherwise I have to pay £3.50p to £7.50p to have items delivered to my door.

It had better turn up tomorrow as Pereg is due to go to the Vet for her 6-monthly blood tests on Wednesday so I will be out for at least a couple of hours, as I always wait for the results and then discuss them with Ram.

I also want him to check her left front leg/shoulder as she is limping. She did it once before a couple of years ago but I cannot remember whether it was the same leg, and he could not find anything wrong. That cleared up by itself after a couple of days but this time she has been limping on and off for more than a few days.

If it was not for the fact that she is due for the blood test this week I would have taken her last week about her leg, but that would not have been any good for the blood test as she needs to go 14 days seizure-free before a blood test, and it is a bit of a performance to get there and back, what with taxis and my manual chair and stuff.