Visiting Israel: Meeting with Ran

As my alcohol tolerance is very low, it took me some time to wake up after Thursday night in Tel-Aviv. I woke up at around 10:00am, exhausted; not enough sleep, but still couldn’t sleep anymore due to the jet lag.

So at 12:00pm I met with my friend, Ran Liebermann.

Calling Ran a “friend” would be an understatement, not to say an insult; we first met about 17 years ago, first day in high school, and remained good friends ever since. Sure, moving to Canada and the busy lifestyle of us both has caused us to communicate less and less as time went by, but still, we know each other so well that the classification of “best friends” is definitely appropriate.

Ran got married to his wife, Karin, in the spring of 2006; I juggled insane schedules and made it to his wedding – travelled half way across the earth for 4 days in Israel. The only other event I can think of, that would make me do such a thing, is a Mark Knopfler concert in Israel.

In my last post, I mentioned an extremely small group of IT professionals whom I can confidently call “brilliant”; Ran is one of them, though in a completely different area than mine – I deal with software while he deals with networking and security. I can hardly think of an individual as sharp and smart as Ran when it comes to his areas of expertise; a true guru.

I am lucky to have surrounded myself with such people.

Ran showed-up alone; his wife was busy studying. It was great seeing him, and I appreciated the time he took to meet with me despite his insane schedule.

We went to a restaurant called “Burgus” in Tel-Aviv; Burgus is a small chain that specializes in Hamburgers (Mr. Richard Bennett – if you happen to read this – if you thought Vancouver’s “White Spot'” was good, I suggest you pay a visit to Tel-Aviv and try out some burger places; trust me, you will be amazed). Food was great, however my main focus was to catch up with my best friend. We talked for a couple of hours about everything – business, personal life and whatnot. Once again I realized how sharp an individual he is – talks to the point, articulate and sensible.

We devoured the burgers, as well as an amazing dessert (“with extra chocolate-sauce” – Ran’s request, not mine!), and then decided to hit a coffee place.

We decided to go to a restaurant called “Lama Lo?!” (from Hebrew: “Why Not?!”) which is located at the entrance to Park Leumi - a major Israeli park right next to my place. Service was terrible, espresso was OK but we had a great chat.

I grew extremely tired because of the night before and the lack of sleep, so around 4:30pm we parted ways. We’re going to meet again soon, this time in his place, so I can see his wife and baby boy.

Went home, caught some sleep and woke up after a couple of hours. Time for Tel-Aviv again… see next post.

 

Isaac