I am puzzled.
If there was an item on the news that declared that the price of roofing tiles, bathroom suites, UPVC doors, carpets, insulation blocks, roof joists and electrical sockets were falling by 40% then we would all experience a satisfied glow.
Put all these items in a building and announce that the price of everything was falling by 40% and there is consternation.
I know that there is an explanation for this - something to do with building costs and availability of credit for the purchase of housing but it is still strange that we complain when we have to pay less for a major item.
The answer is simple. Let us, the great unwashed, stop thinking of our homes as an investment and just get on with living in them. It is the big time investors who are losing out and our money obsessed national press are expressing their sorry predicament and projecting it onto the rest of us.
If a householder borrows to buy a house they cannot afford then they are just plain stupid. I would love a Mercedes but I'm happy to make do with my Peugeot.
I rent :-) Hooray!

I have been quiet for a long time. I was being taken to court for a sum of money that I was supposed to owe. This had the effect of suppressing my desire to communicate with ANYONE and the preparation for court was filling all my little grey cells with undesired activity.
The hearing date was yesterday, 13th May. I had thoroughly prepared my case, put on my finest garments and feeling very nervous whispered my name to the court usher.
"You are not on the list," he said.
My first reaction was 'Oh you silly boy Graham, you have got the date wrong'.
Then we both inspected the summons and it was correct. You sort of don't forget dates of such significance.
The usher sent me to enquire at reception where I learned that my oppressor had withdrawn.
I won.
I would have liked to have enjoyed the fruits of my labour and won through carefully presented arguments. I wanted my day in court, even though it scared my pants off. It seems that the company retreated in the face of the evidence I had presented in advance.
So, small people, don't let the big boys bully you. I could have come to some arrangement with them and given away money I did not owe (£654), just for peace of mind.
It would have been nice of them to let me know, but we are talking about a multi-national publishing company (named after a flightless bird). Such manners went out of the window when the 'Witch of Grantham' taught us all the economics of conscience free greed.
I have my life back - for a short while. The first batch of 1000 exam scripts arrives on Friday. I will be paid handsomely for that diversion though!

Grayling

Olga and I have been spending some time on the Med coast of Languedoc.
One thing that made life difficult was the amount of dogshit on the pavements. Sightseeing was ruined by having to watch constantly for the little 'landmines' planted in the centre of pathways. We never saw dogs roaming free so this must happen when owners are with their dogs!
Even in the ancient citadel of Carcassonne, with its winding cobbled alleys, we found the disgusting stuff lying in wait round every corner.
It did remind me that this used to be the way things were here not too long ago. We are much better at cleaning up now. There were some disposal bins and signs in the town of Marseillan, asking for owners to clean up but they need to be educated to do it.

We are back home in Huddersfield after two months in Moscow.
It will be my last visit during the Winter months!

It was a gruelling journey: 10am Moscow (7 am UK)
Morning rush hour traffic to a Moscow railway station - pleasant one hour train ride through the snowy suburbs and countryside to Domodedovo airport south of Moscow (cost £3 each)- Swissair A320 twenty minutes late taking off in a snow storm - 3 hour flight to Zurich - one hour connection reduced to 30 mins - dash through security (first class channel!)to be last to get on the airport bus - 90 minute flight to Manchester - romantic B/W movie moment walking across the tarmac into the terminal - one hour train ride to Huddersfield (cost £14 each) - taxi home.
8.15 pm (11.15 pm Moscow)

50 kg of luggage between the two of us.

Domodedovo is Moscow's newest airport. It is very big and very modern and serves all the internal flights as well as the international. A typical Russian experience was when we went into an airport shop to be told it was just closing for lunch! It would not have surprised me if the whole airport had closed for lunch - baggage checks, security, take off and landing etc. - all closed for lunch between 1 pm and 2 pm. Russians don't seem to be able to work out how to organise around this. Many offices close for lunch, banks do and a lot of smaller shops.

We had our first ever edible meal on a Swissair flight. That was a surprise. The red wine had only just defrosted though This is a problem on every airline I have been on. I tried sitting on it to warm it up but quickly realised that the steward had released the cap!
Saw our luggage being transferred onto our plane at Zurich - very reassuring.

Spent yesterday recovering and then stocking up the larder.
Disaster!!! Dishwasher broken. Probably sulking at being neglected for such a long time.

A friend called and said if we would take the Russian weather ( -4C) back where we brought it from then he would pay our tickets.

Graham

If you are a tourist in Moscow you will miss this:
The Russian people really know how to party. A party means whenever three or more friends and a bottle of vodka come together. We managed to pull together four of Olga's friends (those who were not ill)and added food, wine and vodka - place ingredients in a room for four or five hours with some lively music and leave.

I pointed out in an entry a few weeks back that there is a way to drink vodka that minimises any deliterious effects. The secret is 'zakuska'. This is food - pickles, meats, savoury biscuits and one of these is eaten IMMEDIATELY before downing a shot. The only other male guest (Anatoly) and I practiced this technique over and over. The effect is that you know you are getting gradually very drunk but you stay in control AND I was feeling 100% fit on Sunday! No hangover whatsoever!

Three of Olga's friends speak English at about the same level as I speak Russian. So we get by and have fun in the process. Olga tells me I should be more forthcoming when out and about in shops etc. but I have problems dealing with strangers that I don't have with friends.

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I have been contemplating the motoring preferences of the Russian, wondering why they have such a liking for big, ugly, aggressive motors with blacked out windows. It is because it is what they are accustomed to. They have simply changed from big, ugly Russian cars to big, ugly European and Far Eastern motors.

(click for large image)

There seems to be a lot of 'lane changing' accidents. Lane discipline is non-existent. Combine this with windows that stop you seeing out and this is the result:

(click for large image)

This situation continued for over an hour as ALL accidents require the presence of the police before any vehicle can be moved.

We return to the UK tomorrow, after two months here. I have lots of reports still to make so watch this space.

Do svedanya,

Graham

A trip to the Moscow Conservatory last night to hear one of
Moscow's favourite violinists ... and a little Japanese girl play like a demon.

The Moscow Conservatory. Tchaikovsky on the left.

Vladimir Spivakov is a tall, white haired violinist and is very popular here. The classical artistes in Moscow (and Russia) are highly venerated. The primary reason for going to a concert is to hear the artiste perform and to hear the composer's works comes second. On some concert posters the actual work performed is not advertised or is hidden in an obscure corner!

I personally think the composer is the star. The performer is the interpreter, not the author.

Spivakov conducted his own Moscow Virtuosi orchestra. The first piece was Bach's Double Violin Concerto and he requisitioned his virst violin to play alongside himself. Whilst the work was very enjoyable I felt that the orchestra should have had their conductor. He was neglecting his role as leader to step into the limelight and the orchestra did not provide a seamless accompaniment.

Then he took up his conducting role and Hayd's Surprise Symphony was just a delight. It is a joyful work. It reminded me of Haydn's unusual life - succesful, talented, modest, rich, popular, generous... and he lived to a ripe old age. Unusual compared to the shorter, difficult agonies of his contemporaries, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert.
The orchestra came alive when they had their leader facing them.

Aimi Kobayashi has been performing in front of concert audiences since the age of 3. She played Beethoven's 1st Piano Concerto and was simply amazing. It was as if the combination of the orchestra + its leader + plus this astonishing talent had been planned so as to build up to a climax. Nearly right! After numerous curtain calls and acres of flowers she played a solo encore. We were not told what the piece was (perhaps more Beethoven or possibly Schuman) but this was the real climax. I leapt to my feet when she finished but the great majority of the Russian audience stayed firmly seated (they are very reluctant to move outside of convention. Moscow audiences tend to be very knowledgable, very well mannered and very appreciative).

I went to hear Bach, Haydn and Beethoven. The fact that their works were interpreted by such brilliant musicians was the icing on an already very rich cake.

Do svedanya,

Graham

Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940) was a novelist and playwright who spent his short life trapped in the Soviet regime he despised. On numerous occasions he requested permission to leave the USSR and finally he received a personal phone call from Stalin telling him that he would never be allowed to leave. He spent the rest of his unhappy life trying to achieve success in various Moscow theatres.
His greatest work was 'The Master and Margarita'. This book was never published in his life time but was widely read 'underground'. The novel is a satire and an all-embracing indictment of the corruption, greed, narrow-mindedness, and widespread paranoia of Soviet Russia. It is also a wonderfully entertaining read, full of fantastic figures and weird adventures.

Yesterday Olga and I went on a little Bulgakov tour of the city. My son Stephen is a fan of the book and this is for him!

The book opens at a place called Patriarch's Ponds, a familiar landmark to Muscovites.

Near by is the building in which Bulgakov had an apartment and in which he places much of the early action. It is now a museum. The Cyrillic words above the passage say 'Bulgakov House'.

The passageway into the house is filled with illustrations from the book which demonstrate something of the mystical and anarchic nature of the book.

It is a classic and a work of genius. It has most meaning for those who suffered Stalinist oppression but there are layers of meaning within the story. Most importantly it can be enjoyed by anyone at the level of a fantasy novel.

Another recommended book of his, with more obvious satirical references, is 'Heart of the Dog'.

Website - www.masterandmargarita.eu

Thanatos instinct - death urge (late Freud) Look at us. We build giant highways and murderously fast cars for killing each other and committing suicide. Instead of bomb shelters we construct gigantic frail glass buildings all over Manhattan at ground zero, a thousand feet high, open to the sky, like a woman undressing before an intruder and provoking him to rape her. We ring Russia's borders with missile launching pads, and then scream that she's threatening us. In all history there's never been a more lurid mass example of the sado-masochistic expression of the Thanatos instinct than the present conduct of the United States. The Nazis by comparison were boy scouts.

Herman Wouk wrote this in 1965 in 'Don't Stop the Carnival'. I don't know where this guy is now but I suggest that any comments should be addressed to: Mr H Wouk, c/o Guantanamo Bay Gulag, Cuba. That seems to be the most likely place to find him.

Whilst driving down a narrow Moscow street the other day I smashed the nearside wing mirror on someone elses. They were all double parked and cars were sqeezing past each other so it serves him right for parking stupidly. I was horrified. I once had a mirror smashed on my SAAB CD and it cost 200 pound to replace. I suggested to Olga that we repair the unit and just replace the glass. So we went along yesterday to the motor part shop: complete mirror unit - 5 pounds and sixty pence! Then it took me about 10 minutes to replace with the only tool needed being a screwdriver.

What is this car that has such wonderfully cheap parts that are so easy to fit? I hear all the men ask.
Here is one:

Yes - it's a LADA. This one has broken down on the busy Suchosky Val and it looks as if Victor Meldrew is the driver. Fortunately ours is not one of these 'boxy' things but a smaller model - a Lada 'Sputnik'! It has a 1500 engine and is economical, fast and nippy and reasonably comfortable, but a bit noisy.

Imagine my surprise when I first came to Moscow to see men working on the underside of their Ladas and making the job easy by tipping the car on its side!

You still see a lot of LADAs here. They keep them going. The other common Russian car is the VOLGA: even bigger and 'boxier' than a LADA and a real gas guzzler.

My brother had one in Belgium. He used it to tow his big boat about. He called it 'Olga da Volga' - cheeky devil.

Do svedanya

Graham

There is a sound that we hear from the apartment every day, at least once, and I find it depressing. It is the sound of bottles tumbling and smashing as they are tipped from the bins into the disposal truck. The trouble is they are not seperate, but part of the general rubbish that is carried away daily.

I take pride in my recycling habits back home in Yorkshire. The regular (too regular!) trips to the bottle bank are a happy duty. Besides, don't you just love hurling the wine bottles into the containers and listening to them smash and tinkle

Two or three large, roll top bins service about 400 apartments here, and they are emptied regularly. They go to landfill:

Russia has lots of land and much of it has large holes therein. The problem faced at the moment is that the landfill sites near Moscow are filling up rapidly (22 million tons per year) and the cost of transportation to distant sites starts to hurt.

There are aluminium can recycling machines around the city, which give 1 rouble for three cans approximately. It is mostly the homeless who use these.

There is not a recycling culture here. In Britain we were educated, over a number of years, driven by political will and economic nessessity. The same could happen here. Apparently there are some domestic recycling schemes but they don't work because the users have not been educated in their proper use (source: Moscow News).
Legislation is in place to restrict wholesale dumping by industry and metal/paper recycling is done on a large scale.
There could be a good business opportunity for someone to take advantage of the potential in domestic recycling.

There is an army of street cleaners (doubling as snow clearers in the winter) and they do a splendid job. For tidiness Moscow compares well with many a British city.

In Soviet times bottles and jars were re-used but this has gone the way of the Soviet Union itself. I remember taking my empty Ben Shaws lemonade bottles back and getting a sixpence. If they did this now with wine bottles I'd be quids in.

Do svedanya,

Graham

The trouble with reporting on a culture so very different from one's own is that if you do not know the language then misconceptions can occur. My own experience on this blog provides an illustration:
I wrote, about a month ago that 'Prospect Mira' means 'view of the world' Well it doesn't! I could have checked, as there are plenty of willing helpers here, but if you try to check everything then you get nothing done.
I used literal translation. Mira can mean 'world' but it also means 'peace'. In English a prospect is a view, an opportunity or aspiration that can be taken advantage of etc. In Russian it is a wide street.
I should have reported that Prospect Mira means 'Street of Peace'. So now you know

Stalin had many fine buildings placed along its length- good quality office and apartment blocks. Some can be seen above.

I will let you know if I find any more 'errors'.

Do svedanya,

Graham

After yesterday's general views of the palace and park of Tsaritsino in south Moscow I thought we could share some of the more interesting shots:

(click on images to see large version)

The patterns of the ducks' footprints in the sunlit ice/snow prompted this shot.

Two little girls were having a wonderful time sliding down the hill. We like this because it looks as if they are sliding UP the hill.

A view down the park from an arch in one of the bridges leading to the palace.

A sample of the decorative architecture of the palace and surrounding buildings. This is one end of the opera house and it has the Russian double headed eagle as its theme. The double headed eagle represents Russia's position between Europe and Asia - looking towards both. The eagle carries the royal insignia of the orb and ceptre: symbols of male and female and balance in the exercise of power.

Do svedanya,

Graham

Yesterday we visited a magnificent park and palace in the south of Moscow - Tsaritsino.

It was commisioned as a summer residence for Catherine the Great in 1776 (some dacha!) but they never got round to putting the roof on - until very recently.

We were lucky with the weather, as can be seen in the pictures.
Here are some views:
(click to see enlarged view)

This is the view across the park to the palace on the hill.
I don't kinow what the plastic dome is in the middle but I wish I had taken a large pin with me to deflate it. (Probably been bought by 02)

This is just one part of the palace. There are eight of the towers with their lovely new green roofs.

This is the view across the park to the tower blocks of the south Moscow suburbs. I wonder what Catherine the Great would have made of this view?
The only ducks on the lakes in winter are the ubiquitous mallard. The lakes extend round the bend to the right and are very big.

This bridge leads up to the palace and crosses one of the three small rivers that feed the lakes.
The palace is sited in a huge area of hills, lakes, forest and parkland.

There are a number of great parks within the borders of the city and all were the estates of the aristocracy, which were gradually overtaken by the city as it grew.

Desirable Rountry residence, close to Volga, ripe for conversion.

Ripsukasov and sons offer a large, timber constructed country residence for the discerning buyer who enjoys a challenge.

The building stands in its own mature grounds and access is by an off road track (unadopted), space for double garage. River Volga 5 km.

The accomodation comprises: G/Floor - large kitchen/living area with characterful open wood burning stove, one large bedroom, cowshed/chicken run attached at rear. 1st Floor - large loft conversion bedroom/playroom.

The property has a plentiful, free supply of natural spring water. Sanitary arrangements are accessed from the garden.(electricity 10km).

The attractive riverside market town of Kalyazin is close by and has all amenities (i.e a shop)

500,000 Ru (ono)

click for large image

Just to ensure against any comeback - THIS IS A SPOOF!

Do svedanya,

Graham

I have moved all the old blogs from my other site so that all are now in the same place.

It has messed up the sequence but I can't be bothered with all that cutting, pasting and editing...

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Snow - at last!
Last night (20th Jan.)it snowed on Moscow. It is still snowing as I write.
Now the city looks as it should in the middle of January.

Straight away teams of snow clearers and clearing machines were busy everywhere. At bus-stops and other strategic points the snow is actually loaded onto lorries and taken away. Scraping it to the side of the road is just not enough.

The driving style does not alter. It is still crazy. The 4x4 owners are in their element!
I put on my thermal long-johns, trucker boots and wooly hat etc. and went out for a walk. Olga says I look like a proper Russian and I think she is correct: I was stopped three times and spoken to. I guess it was to ask directions but I have no way of knowing!

I walked to a major road heading North out of the city, Prospect Mira. It was carved through the old suburbs by Stalin and is bordered by the very distinctive Stalinist style of buildings. It takes one to an extraordinary monument situated outside of an extraordinary park. The monument is to the Russian cosmonauts and is a pleasing sweep of concrete heading up to the sky with a rocket at its pinnacle. (I would post a picture but the Blogger system will not allow me to). The park is the D V N X, usually called 'davenkha', and it is a celebration of Soviet culture, commerce and economic achievement. The old exhibition halls are now a celebration of capitalist enterprise. I hope the old tyrant is feeling sick, spinning in his grave.

Do svedanya,

Graham

Factoid: 'Prospect Mira' means 'View of the World'

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Saturday, 19 January 2008

Red Square and the Metro
Olga and I went in to the city today.
We went on the Metro. The Moscow Metro has an enviable reputation, and rightly so.
The stations are architecturally magnificent and have high vaulted ceilings that take away any claustrophobic effect. The trains arrive every two minutes. Today I saw a young man give his seat up to a blind (white stick) passenger and a young girl kindly offered her seat to me. Manners and respect are evident; even if the young lady implied that I was a frail old git! I declined her offer!

You often see passengers with their heads buried in a book; not just on the trains but on the escalators as well. Some escalators are very long. The handrails move slightly faster than the stairs so you find your hand gradually creeping away from you and your arm round the waist of the person in front (she didn't seem to mind!). Olga remembers this from when she was young. No progress on that little problem then.

The Kremlin is impressive. It is huge and the walls are very high. You see tantalising glimpses of towers and spires within. There are still illuminated red stars on the spire pinnacles. There is the 'Tomb of the unknown soldier' just outside the Kremlin walls. It has an 'eternal' flame and always there are two guards, standing stock still, on either side of the tomb. The guards today were young women. They were in perspex sentry boxes to protect them from the excessive cold.

Red Square has an ice rink built in the centre and the department store opposite the Kremlin, Gum, is outlined in lights. It tried to outshine the Kremlin but it is a frivolous nonentity compared to the ancient, massive presence of this powerful political symbol. St Basil's Cathedral also had an understated magnificence in its floodlights at the far end of the square.

A service was in progress in the little church in a corner of the square. The bell ringer stands amongst the bells in the bell tower and rings out the peals from there. The Russian Quasimodo.

We did not stay long. It was too cold.

Do svedanya,

Graham

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Friday, 18 January 2008
More on Moscow traffic

Once I get here it takes me a while to get used to the idea of driving. Eventually I climb into the drivers seat and then wonder why it took me so long.
Once you are accustomed to the peculiarities of the Moscow driver, and the 'wrong side of the road', then it is fairly straight forward. Some of the road signs are subtely different; for instance there is no negative indication of turns and when you come to a junction you are directed where you CAN go but not told where you CANNOT go. So when I look for 'no left turn', 'no entry' or 'no U turn' it just ain't there.

On Wednesday I took Olga to run some errands for her parents. When we set out I knew we would be returning in a) darkness and b) rush hour. The darkness is not too much of a problem as the streets are all well lit but the rush hour is terrifying. Most of the problems that occur are down to driver indiscipline: ignoring red lights, ignoring lanes, ignoring speed limits and monumental levels of impatience. If you leave a reasonable distance between your car and the one in front someone will fill it - and they can come at the gap from all and any direction. If another driver thinks you are not quick enough to get out of their way or too slow to take an opportunity then you will get a blast on the horn. Cars move off from lights at the change of the opposing light to red and not at the change of their own light to green. I like anticipation in a driver: it makes for better driving but this is an anticipation too far as it leaves no margin for error.
The major junction outside of the Belorus station is chaos. We had to come through it. Congestion was so bad that the crossing point was never free of traffic, so we had cars blocking our way through and it was just a matter of inching forward and squeezing in when a chance came. On top of this some cars were trying to cross three lanes at the junction because they 'forgot'(!) to get into the correct lane before the junction. 'Why don't they make a box junction?' I hear you say. Well, there would be no point as they would just ignore it. The powers that be also chose to place bus-stops on our exit road from this junction and so three lanes were trying to squeeze into one.

You do not have to commit an offence to be stopped by traffic police. They stand at most major junctions and other random places stopping whatever they fancy as it passes. I have dreaded this happening to me. Today it did! Fortunately we had a pleasant, very smart young man who looked at my European licence and dismissed us instantly. What a relief. Olga's first reaction was, 'I hope we have got enough money on us'. (For the spot fine).

I am getting cynical. I have stopped exclaiming my surprise and annoyance at this bad driving. There is no point.

Do svedanya,

Graham

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Thursday, 17 January 2008
Fauna and Avia
There are no wolves or bears in and around Moscow. Not even in the great forested North East section of the city. This is a bit disappointing.

There are plenty of feral dogs running around the city. They run around the streets and the parks in packs and I have never seen happier dogs. They are very different from the neurotic creaturers that think they are a member of a human family; totally confused when they can't cope. They trot about in happy gangs doing what dogs do naturally and their tails are constantly wagging.

There are plenty of pet dogs; of the neurotic variety. Some are very large and they live in very small 10th floor apartments. They can be seen in the courtyard beneath our window being taken for their toileting by women in long, heavy fur coats and round fur hats.

Dog shit is everywhere. In a normal, freezing, winter it stays around - frozen, like pizza or TV dinners. It builds up over the winter months; never being washed away or decomposing, and by the time the thaw comes it is thick on the streets and decorated by the bright little kopek coins that were dropped by their owners whilst out with them. Come to Moscow in Winter by all means, but get out before the thaw!

In the courtyard can be seen the regular city birds: pigeons, sparrows and crows. The crows are what are known in the UK as 'hooded' crows. These have grey bodies and black wings and can only be found in N W Scotland back home. There are Jackdaws and Rooks amongst them occasionally.
The local residents put food out for the birds and sometimes they hang feeders on their balconies. These feeders attract Great tits and Coal tits but I have never seen Blue tits.
All three of these can be found in the local parks but the Blue tits stay away from the apartment blocks. The Blue tits are much bluer than the UK variety.

Most types of British woodland bird can be found out in the forests in Summer. Plus there are Orioles, Hoopoes and, of course, the Nightingales. The Chaffinches and Blackbirds sing a regional variation of the song we hear in Britain which I had trouble identifying when I heard them at first.

Do svedanya,

Graham

Factoid: The double headed eagle on the Russian national emblem looks East and West and represents Russia's place between the two hemispheres.

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Wednesday, 16 January 2008
Russian Humour
One of my favourites is about soup.
Everyone in Russia knows that soup is at its best the day after it is made.
"Would you like some of yesterday's soup?"
"Oh, yes please!"
"Well come back tomorrow. I've just made it."

There is a lot of humour about the trials of life and its misfortunes:

Political candidate making speech - "Whilst in power my rival robbed the people of everything to make himself rich. I implore you to now give me a chance."
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Politician -"The banking crisis is over and the customers having nothing to lose."
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'It's as crazy as advertising vodka.'
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'No matter how much vodka I drink my body is still 80% water. I keep trying though.'

There is a lot of dark humour:

"Oh husband why are you beating me. I've done nothing wrong."
"I know. If you had then I would kill you."

and

"Husband I have a terrible pain in my head."
"Good. I have no need to hit it with the pan."

(n.b. There is no evidence to suggest that Russian men beat their wives. No more than any other nation!)

The language does not allow me to fully appreciate the stand-up comedians on the TV but I see a lot of physical humour in the acts - a lot of clowning.

Communist joke:
A train breaks down in the middle of Siberia.
Leninist: "The noble communist railway engineers will work costantly and diligently until the train moves again."
Stalinist: "The railway engineers are useless. Shoot them and find some more."
Neo communist: "Let's shut the curtains, go chuff-chuff-chuff, and pretend the train is still moving."

A favourite film from 1975 is a story about the uniformity of life in Soviet Russia. A man gets drunk with his friends. He ends up on a 'plane from Moscow to St Petersburg. When he gets there (still drunk) he tells the taxi his address. The taxi takes him to an identical block on an identical street. He enters an identical hallway with the same piles of clutter. He finds a door identical to his own and (eventually) the key fits! He enters and the furniture and layout are identical to his own in Moscow. When the (very pretty) owner arrives he tells her to get out of his house. The love story then gets going.

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Tuesday, 15 January 2008
Russian National Hobby

Are you curious?
Well - the Russian National Hobby is 'Ill Health'!

The first suspicion I had was on my first visit to Moscow. There are pharmacies on every street corner, in every supermarket and all available spaces in between. A bit like pubs in England.

If you ask a Russian how they are you will get a full, detailed and comprehensive answer!
Many drugs are uncontrolled. You can go and buy any anti-biotic for instance in the local pharmacy. There is little consideration of which anti-biotic is suitable for which type of infection. The decision is based on non-professional advice and hearsay.

'Ill Health' is a favourite topic of conversation. Olga will chat to her friends for hours on the telephone about various conditions that I might suffer from e.g. a skin rash, a stomach complaint, and the advice will come tumbling in. There is apparently no need to interview, nor examine the patient. Of course the advice you recieve will be different depending on which particular friend was consulted :-)
The amount of common knowledge on health issues is considerable.

There is little faith amongst Russians in the body's ability to heal itself. A medicine is a must and to tolerate a condition patiently, whilst the body does its work, is considered ridiculous. Why suffer when you can take drugs? There is no understanding that the drugs (uncontrolled) might be doing more permanent harm and that the body will be less well prepared when the next outbreak happens. Nature's ability to do the healing is not trusted.

I am not sure of the reasons for this obsession. It could pehaps be the inhospitable climate, the polluted atmosphere of the city, the 24 hour lifestyle or another, particular phenomenon, which I have not heard referred to in the same context: atmospheric conditions and related fluctuations in the earth's magnetic field...
Olga and her family are convinced that these natural phenomena are responsible for changes in health. I cannot speak for other Muscovites. It usually is identified by default -
"I feel a bit 'off colour' today"
"Must be the change in air pressure/magnetic field."
End of discussion.
I will concede that that these phenomena tend to be more dramatically intense in the centre of a large land mass.

The Moscow (Russian) public health system is generally good. You can see a doctor without too much trouble or waiting time. There is one major organisational system that the NHS could learn from: the local surgeries have a selection of specialists on site (ear/nose/throat/, neurologist, gynaecologist etc.) and these can be seen without long winded referrals. In fact, if you know what the problem is, you can more or less go straight to the specialist.

I feel a little unwell. Must have sat on a magnet at some point today.

Do svedanya,

Graham

Factoid:Russians do not steal sink plugs - they have the very healthy habit of always washing under running water and have no need of them.

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Monday, 14 January 2008
Who's afraid of the big bad bear?

Russia still holds a secure place in Western paranoia and prejudice.
Some of Olga's ex-pat relatives in Canada speak fearfully of returning to their home country; quoting street shootings, bombings by Chechyans and control of Moscow by thugs and criminals. This paranoia is fed by the N American media. US citizens suffer generally from paranoia. It accounts for their foreign policy -"They're all out to get us, so let's get them first".

When Vladimir Putin declared his annoyance and intended intolerance of having vast ranges of US missiles placed in neighbouring countries he was immediately cast as the bad guy by the Western press. You don't have to stand back very far to see that he might have a point!

Five years ago (when things were supposed to be considerably more insecure)I found myself cut adrift in the centre of Moscow (Pushkinploshad!)late in the evening. I did not speak the language and I was on my own. I felt as safe as I have in any town or city anywhere on the planet. It was certainly a lot, lot safer than the centre of Huddersfield on a Friday night at 'chucking out time'. The atmosphere was friendly and relaxed. There was no boisterous or unruly behaviour and the pavement cafe's were full of happy people. I caught their mood and loved it.

Moscow is not a war zone. So you can safely assume that it is mainly full of ordinary people going about their ordinary business, with no interest in attacking foreigners etc. There is a custom of flagging down passing motorists and requesting a lift (for a small fee). In the UK this would be considered a high risk move because our press persuades us that the streets are swarming with rapists, muggers, child molesters and murderers. In Moscow it hardly gets a second thought.

Before the revolution Russia was part of a greater Eurpopean cultural movement. After the revolution we even let it continue to take part in our wars! It belongs with us historically and should be treated as part of our culture again.

It is a very cuddly bear if you are nice to it.

Do svedanya

Graham

Factoid: Moscow has 6 mosques

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Sunday, 13 January 2008
Alexander Pushkin

Alexander Pushkin is Russia’s Shakespeare.
He holds the unassailable position of the father of Russian literature, raising it to a new height in the early 19th century, and all Russian authors since his time acknowledge his influence and supremacy.
His work is not well known in the West, other than through certain musical interpretations*. The reason for this is that he brought a new subtlety of expression to the Russian language which is very difficult to translate. I have read translations, enjoyed them immensely, and fretted that in not knowing the Russian language I am missing so much of his genius. I particularly enjoyed his humour.

He was born in Moscow (to the pride of this city’s intellectual community) but spent much of his life in what was then the capital: St Petersburg. He was of aristocratic parentage and, interestingly, his great-grandfather was a page in the court of Peter the Great and had been brought to St P. from Cameroon. The African blood can be seen in his dark skin and curly hair. As a radical political thinker he upset the authorities frequently and was sometimes ‘exiled’ from the capital. His greatest work, the play ’Boris Godunov’, was disapproved of by the state and was not produced in its original, uncensored form until 2007!!! We thought the Soviet Communists were repressive but their historical predecessors were just as bad, if not worse.

His memory is celebrated in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and in Pushkinploshad (square), the second best known square in Moscow after Red Square. There you will find his statue, clean and unspoiled and always honoured with a few bouquets at his feet, left by the adoring Moscow public.

He was killed in 1837, most romantically, in a duel fought over the honour of his wife. He was 37. Just like Mozart, the world lost one of its greatest geniuses before he had hardly started.

Do svedanya,

Graham

*Musical works based on Pushkin:
Ruslan and Ludmilla – Glinka
Queen of Spades, Eugene Onegin – Tchaikovsky
Mozart and Salieri – Rimsky Korsakov (and the play ‘Amadeus’ by Peter Shaffer)

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Saturday, 12 January 2008
Money
There are about 50 Russian Roubles to the pound and 100 kopeks to the rouble. You can't buy much for 1 kopek!
The streets are scattered with low denomination kopeks; once they are dropped they are not worth searching for and no-one seems to bother picking them up. When the snows go in March/April they are even more evident than usual.

There are kiosks and offices all over the city where US dollars and Euros can be exchanged for roubles. These are the 'hard' currency of Russia. Pounds sterling can only be exchanged in a bank.

There has been a steady increase in the number of wealthy and moderately wealthy people in Russia over the past few years. The excesses of the post communist years are almost over and now those that cashed in on the confusion and made billions are comfortably established and almost accepted. Putin has tried to bring some of them to heel, with moderate success. Roman Abramovich, Britains wealthiest ex-pat Russian is a governor of a province in Eastern Siberia. He is rarely seen there, preferring Sussex.

The wealth of the 'Oligarchs' drifts down and many benefit from the opportunities that wealth creates. Rich people enjoy goods and services and others get rich providing them - Little fleas on bigger fleas...and so ad infinitum.

You already know how drunk one can get on a few roubles (If you missed it the answer is - VERY), but what else does the rouble (2 pence) buy:
10 aspirins - 4 roubles
Loaf of bread - 20r
1 kg tomatoes - 100r
1 kg cheese - 195 r
10 Lemsip - 200r

Fruit, vegetables and breakfast cereals are expensive.

Do svedanya

Graham

Factoid: The basic state pension is 1200r per month (24 pound) Other benefits are quite comprehensive,

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Russian People
We suffered for a long time in the West from anti communist propaganda which caricatured the Russian people. On top of this they got a bad showing when tourists started to visit and could not understand why people who looked like them and lived in similar cities etc should behave differently. For example, the smile - in Russia strangers do not smile at each other. There is no hostility, just bland indifference. A shop assistant will serve and say please and thank you but generally with a solemn expression. Western insincerity is creeping in though, which is a pity because once you get accustomed to the Russian way you are pleased not be told to 'have a good day' through a clenched smile!
Whilst walking the forest paths near the dacha you can pass a similar being, out for a stroll and, unless they are known to you, pass by without any acknowledgement of each other's presence. This would be unheard of in Yorkshire!
So the Western visitor can feel as if they are being treated in a hostile way. This is simply not true. Smiles and friendly greetings are reserved for friends and people to whom you are already kindly disposed.
If you want to feel a real Russian welcome you must get to know some real Russian people. If you are invited into their homes then the warmth and friendliness is wonderful. They feed you, water you and make your visit into a party. After having had the Western capitalist imperialist portrayed as some sort of aggressive ogre I wonder if this treatment is a display of relief at discovering that we are just like them.

The women!
There is a disproportionately higher number of women than men in Russia. Add to this that many of the women range from moderately attractive to absolutely gorgeous, and that debilitating rampant PC feminism is not well established, then a visit to Russia can be a trip to the sweet shop for the average red blooded hetrosexual male. There are head-turners everywhere and there are not enough Russian men to keep them all happy! I should know I married one these head-turners :-)

The men.
The Russian men I know personally are gentle, well mannered and pleasant. They are also good company and they all drink - some more than others.
The drinking of vodka is something of a curse on Russian manhood. It is cheap and readily available and the culture that surrounds it is dangerous:
Russian man: Why do you sip at your vodka?
Western visitor: I don't want to get drunk.
Russian man: Then why drink vodka at all?
And that sums it up - you drink vodka to get drunk. I like a vodka and there are ways to down it like a real Russian without getting legless; but that's another story.

Do svedanya,
Graham

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Wednesday, 9 January 2008

I sat at the computer all day yesterday and worked on my novel. This is the first time I have revealed this on here.
The novel is a romantic fantasy entitled 'The Waterborne'. It is about a married couple who are separated when the wife (Alex) is drowned whilst swimming in the Med. Her husband (Philip) is an angler and after her death his anger at his loss leads him into conflict with an evil bird - a cormorant. Philip is unaware that those who have an affinity with the water become Waterborne spirits after their death. When his loss becomes unbearable he jumps in a river and finds himself as one of the Waterborne and discovers that they can be re-united in this world.
Unfortunately the evil cormorant, who has the power to destroy the Waterborne spirits, knows of their quest to find each other and does all he can to prevent it.
It is a love story, a fight against evil, a fantasy about life after death and an exploration of the world beneath the surface.
One of the driving forces that leads a person to become an angler is the fascination of the mystery of what goes on beneath the surface of the water and angling is about going part way towards unravelling that mystery.
My novel started as an attempt to fully unravel the mystery of what lies beneath.

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Tuesday, 8 January 2008
The dacha
The dacha is a country residence.
Whilst the idea of a second home in the country is not unique to Russia the concept of the dacha is.
Only the very poorest of Moscow families do not have a dacha of some sort. If you fly into Moscow during daylight hours you will see patches of development; hundreds of little 'housing estates' in the forests around the city. This where most dachas are.

We used to have a dacha but because we spent so much time in the UK it was neglected and hardly used so it was sold. We spent some happy days there so I have the privelege of being able to tell about dacha life from direct experience.
The Communist government alloted plots of land (a commodity of which there is a great deal in Russia!) on which, for a nominal fee, Moscow residents could build a retreat from the city. The plots were 600 Msq and arranged in chequerboard communities cut into the forest. Access roads, potable water and electricity was delivered and the owners were free to build whatever they could afford, free of planning restrictions. The result is a range of sizes and shapes and varying quality of construction from small wooden huts to grand brick villas.
Ours was brick built with wooden extensions. It was spacious but primitive in it's accommodation. There was a wide enclosed veranda with toilet and shower room off, a large kitchen, a similar sized living area with two small bedrooms off. Upstairs was one big space, as yet undeveloped but with room for two more large bedrooms.
Non-drinking water was pumped from a well in the garden but it was always contaminated with fine sand and a previous attempt to make a plumbed bathing/toilet system just got clogged up. Waste went into a deep cess pit.
There was a brick chimney stack that climbed through the centre of the house with a wood burning stove in the living area. There were mature pine and birches in the garden as well as some apple, plum and currant bushes. Across the lane was the endless forest (although further development had started to erode this outlook.)
Our dacha community was about 200 km from Moscow and was on the site of some old peat diggings. This meant there was a lot of standing water surrounding us and standing water means MOSQUITOES :-( We were plagued with the little blighters but proper precautions made life bearable.
My most enduring memory was arriving there late one day in May and as we settled in to the evening we were treated to the song of a nightingale. I was enthralled. It started as an intermitent trill and occasional resonant piping and gradually developed into a full-throated glorious feast of varing scales, trills and sweet melodies. How poetic and romantic you think. Think again! You cannot switch a nightingale off! That bloody bird sat in the bushes close to our window and let rip at full volume all through the small hours of the night. I could have strangled it! Just as I started to drift off to sleep it would explode into song. It is now a nostalgic memory and I am now glad I experienced it.

Four years ago we went with friends to their dacha in the far North close to the Volga. This was not in a square community but in a straggling old village with straggling old Russian villagers still living there all year round. It was pointed out to me that one of these old wooden village houses could be bought for 500 pounds. I was not tempted!
We were treated to the song of the nightingale again but on this occasion nothing woke me - I was out of it on vodka :-)

Do svedanya,
Graham

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Monday, 7 January 2008
Talk Russian!

I am no good at foreign languages. I think it is something to do with my creative intelligence ;-) Actually, learning new words is just a drag and I can't be bothered. At odds with this is my fascination with 'language'. I know a lot about the roots and origins of english words and this can be very helpful when trying to decipher foreign languages.
I only spend two months at any one time in Russia and so I have a limited time to aclimatise myself to the language. I have a well established vocabulary now of about 80 words. My finest hour with the Russian language was when I bought and paid for 5 kg of potatoes from a street vendor.
Enough about my stupidity!
As most of us know Russian has its own peculiar alphabet - Cyrillic - named after an Orthodox Saint called Cyril. It has 33 letters, many shared in common with our own alphabet. It is almost consistently phonically regular i.e. with few exceptions each letter keeps its own unique sound no matter where it is found.
Once you have mastered the alphabet it becomes surprisingly easy to decipher many words as there is a significant common vocabulary with english. Words such as computer, menu, telephone, minute, technology etc. are there in their Russian shape.
A car in Russia is feminine!Yes, like a lot of foreign languages it is complicated by the mysterious need to give a gender to inanimate objects. I have not yet worked out why this is necessary, or how it should evolve in one language and not in another. No one seems able to explain it.
English is taught in all Russian schools so if you visit you will be able to get by with english. I was approached by a shop assistant once and replied 'Ya ne gavario pa Ruski'(I don't speak Russian). He replied, 'OK then, we'll speak in English.'
His accent was perfect:-)

Do svedanya,

Graham

Factoid: The word in Russian for man (Mooshina) is feminine.

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Sunday, 6 January 2008
Traffic in Moscow

Factoid: there are 7 roundabouts in the whole of Moscow.
Driving in Moscow is traumatic.
The congestion is terrible and most journeys take at least twice as long as they should. Car ownership has expanded faster than the roads have have been able to be developed to cope. Added to this is the bad driving style of the great majority of drivers - there is no lane discipline and there are two speeds: flat out and stop! The consequence of this is that there are bottlenecks and a lot more exhaust fumes than need be.
There is a constant programme of improvements of junctions and carriageways but it is never enough.
Fuel is 40p a litre and fuel economy is not a consideration.
I am not a fan of urban drivers in 4x4s but there is an excuse for the Muscovite: Road surfaces can be very uneven, snow and ice is a problem for 6 months of the year and many people have 'dachas' out in the countryside at the end of long unpaved tracks.
There is though a macho attitude amongst the owners of these vehicles and they 'bully' other car drivers. Many cars and 4x4s have blacked out windows - sad eh?
There is a single fine for speeding of 14 GBP and no 'points' system so there is no incentive to stick to speed limits. I have seen BMW's/Mercs travelling at speeds around 80 mph on the 'Garden Ring, close to the centre. There are no speed cameras.
Cars regularly shoot through red lights and anticipate the change to green. This makes crossing the road at traffic lights quite hazardous. Going through a red light attracts a fine of 12 GBP... so why worry?
There is 'zero tolerance' of drink driving (I am not sure about the penalties).
The public transport system is very good with the Metro, buses, trolley buses and mini-buses abounding. There is an attitude though of 'why should I use public transport if I have the convenience of my own car'.

Car ownership still has a feeling of novelty about it here and they all drive like kids with their first car and the girlfriend in the passenger seat. I don't hold out much hope of the Moscow motorist emerging from his adoloscence in the near future

Do svedanya,
Graham

Factoid: Street parking is free. There are no meters and no ticket machines. There are some roadside parking restrictions.

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Saturday, 5 January 2008
Drinking in Moscow

Vodka - 3 pound a litre!
Yes. It really is that cheap. You can get it even cheaper if you know where to look but I would not recommend drinking the stuff.
A good bottle of beer (500ml) only costs about 30p. Red wine costs from 3 pound upwards. Price is not a good indicator of quality so the best way to go is to find one you like and stick to it. You can pay a lot of money for undrinkable rubbish.
Every supermarket has its stack of vodka on offer; somewhere in the middle of an aisle.
The outcome of this availability of cheap alcohol is that there is a high level of early deaths amongst men due to intemperance. Average male life expectency is about 59 years.

There are some extremely pleasant drinking establishments in and around the city At one time we would have called it 'Continental' style: relaxed, family, cafe type establishments and there is a scattering of English/Irish theme pubs. One of our favourite, uniquely Russian, establishments is called The Rakes. It is spacious, comfortable and the food is good. The newer Russian eating/drinking places are very quirky and original with their decorations. The men's toilet at Rakes is lined with astroturf - walls and ceiling!

Unfortunately drinking on the street is common and there are empty bottles located on various corners throughout the city. There is a step behind a shop that we can look down on from the apartment and it is used as one of these outdoor meeting points. We call it the 'picnic site'. One of the picnicers was lying, sleeping it off on the freezing ground in temperatures well below freezing the other day. Fortunately one of his friends came and took him home.

Do svedanya,

Graham

Factoid: BALTIKA, one of Russia's biggest breweries, is owned by Scottish and Newcastle Breweries - the makers of Newcastle Brown Ale.

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Thursday, 3 January 2008
Music

There is a distinct difference in the way in which 'classical' music is treated in Russia from how we treat it in the West.
Russian artistes are highly revered and well known amongst certain circles (outside of 'popular' culture) so when a concert-goer looks for entertainment they look for the artiste first and the composer second. This is refl