Necessity Over Beauty

The bridge in the above picture is  built over a busy, major city road connecting a tower complex (Azrieli) on one side, and a military base (Hakyria) on the other side. The bridge is 100 m long ,10 m wide, and has three sets of stairs:  regular stairs in the middle, and two escalators (up/down moving stairs), placed one at each side of the regular stairs. There's also a small elevator nearby, but not always functioning.

stairs to and from the bridge

walking on the bridge to the Mall entrance

The tower complex itself is comprised of three impressive towers: a circular shaped one, a triangle one, and a square one; the geometrical shapes make the tower compound one of the most photographed  in the country.

the three 'Azrieli'  towers

There's security checkup at the entrance of the towers; also at the entrance of the military compound. No security check at the steps leading to the bridge, but I've seen a guy with a gun patrolling near the stairs and along the street segment. Not that it helps much, once a terrorist decides to take some lives and on the way his own too; but ,still, we wish to believe the presence of security people might prevent such terrible acts.

bottom figure: gunman near the stairs to the bridge

gunman patrolling with female colleague

The Towers and some adjacent buildings, belong to the canadian-israeli entrepeneur  David Azrieli and his family, and bear the name of 'Azrieli Center'. In the lobby of the shopping mall (circular tower) there's a bronze statue of the owner sitting on a bench. People (me included) are usually tempted to take a selfie 'with Azrieli' on the bench. Not a bad idea, as in this way he's immortalized in everyone's photo album.

Azrieli on the bench - bronze statue

touching his shoulder

sitting 'with Azrieli' on the bench

The Azrieli towers are not the only towers in the area, and the above pedestrian bridge is not the only one connecting the two sides of the tel-avivian Begin road. I suppose that after the erection of several towers , it has become  necessary to build bridges to ease the congested traffic and find adequate solution for pedestrians. This is what I would call 'necessity over beauty.'

                                                     view of the under road from the bridge

Arm Stretcher and Going Sleeveless

'Great  things come in small packages', they say.  The 'thing'  I'm referring to is a light arm stretcher, roughly resembling the form of the '8' digit. It's a cheap product , but one that could prove to be quite effective. 

I  doubt if it creates the muscles shown on the little box; it helps, however, tone the upper arms, and that's good enough for me. You can use it at home, take the little pack with you to work or on travels. You can practice stretching anyway you feel comfortable; but practice, you must, if you want results. A few minutes, several times a day, is all that's needed.

Summer is here and we wish to be able to wear a sleeveless top if and when we fancy that.(I usually don't go out sleeveless, but sometimes, the weather is so hot here that  I'm tempted to wear something that looks like a  'beach outfit'- that is, bare arms and shoulders). 

It's common knowledge that certain places of work have a dress code which doesn't allow sleeveless outfits during working hours. In addition, entering religious sites dressed in a sleeveless top , is regarded as disrespectful. 

If you ask me, the showing off of bare arms by the lady stars at events such as the Oscar festivity is not elegant, and far from glamorous. The same goes for sleeveless wedding gowns ;  no sleeves gives a casual, common look to the dress worn by the bride on her most important day.

Anyway, during summer, I often wear sleeveless tops, even if mainly inside my home, and it's a good feeling to try and succeed to improve the condition of the upper arms.