Gerry Ions (19th Entry)

At a Time when the England Football Team has arrived in Israel for their international I have a tale to tell.
I worked in Israel for 6 years for the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) the peacekeeping body set up by Jimmy Carter in 1979 responsible for monitoring the peace between Israel and Egypt.
My office was located in Herzliya Petuach (HP) about three miles north of Tel Aviv. The England team is staying at HP in the Dan Accadia (The Dan) hotel less than 100yds from the MFO office. As an office perk we had membership of the The Dan sports club using the Gym Sauna and Pool and could use their beach which was more accessible than the beach directly in front of the MFO Office which was accessed by a steep 100 step staircase The Dan had an elevator down to beach level. I would pop out to the Dan and tell our MFO receptionist that if I was needed in a hurry I was spending time with a girl friend in room 131 at The Dan. I would use this ruse if I was going out for lunch with a business client, visiting members of the MFO, or for whatever reason, and it became a joke in the office.
Out of the blue the Dan installed key card door locks for the hotel and the surplus door number tags were passed down to the sports club and my locker at the club was given a new tag number…. Yes it was 131.
So after my first session with my new tag I took my key back to the office and left it with Mandy our receptionist, telling her Mandy I forgot to hand my room key back to the Dan reception if they call tell them I will bring it back later. You can imagine that within minutes the whole office now was aware that I had been seeing some companion at The Dan for months and to prove it the key was at reception.
In an office mainly staffed by young good looking Israeli women this didn’t do an older man’s reputation any harm at all The few men in the office were probably a bit jealous.
My boss an American Diplomat knew of the tagging changes because his tag had also been changed and he kept the pot boiling by saying he had seen me in Tel Aviv with a pretty young lady.
It was all good fun and my Wife Jane joined in by walking into reception and asking if Gerry was at room 131, knowing that I was at home chatting with the gardener.