Best Christmas Present Ever...?

My Grandma always comes up trumps with some fantastic Christmas presents: in recent years, I've received a spring balance type thing to weigh my suitcase with (very useful, and I haven't had to pay excess baggage since!), a great set of Bare Minerals make-up, a laptop stand so I can sit with it in bed, lots of lovely scarves and many many more.

But this year has to be the best. Surely a shoe made out of chocolate tops them all??


Merry Christmas! С новым годом и рождеством!

Bad Blogging Indeed

I have been a very bad blogger of late: of this fact, I am both painfully aware and somewhat embarrassed. When I started this blog, it served as a bit of a ranting outlet; maybe it’s a sign that things seem (I say very tentatively) to be going well at the minute...

In the past couple of months, I seem to have been able to fit in more Moscow sightseeing than I have done in the last year. I must admit that there have been times when I felt like I have wasted this year a little. When I was a student, I visited different towns and cities, and hundreds of places within Moscow. Now, when I’m working, I want to spend my weekends seeing my friends, with my Handsome Young Man or relaxing at home. Plus, of course, as I now have responsibilities like rent, an overdraft and a student loan to worry about, I have to watch what I spend... At least we had a beautiful Autumn this year and I did manage to fit in the odd lazy Sunday stroll around the Sculpture Park at Park Kultury.

Now I have come to face the fact that I have to wear glasses (and having purchased a pair), I have been making the most of sightseeing. I recently went on a trip to two underground bunkers. The first one, at Partizanskaya metro station, claimed to be Stalin’s pre-WWII bunker. I have to admit, it did turn out to be a little disappointing. First of all, it was only 8m underground. That’s right... 8m. It was never meant to be a bomb shelter, but somewhere for Stalin to send orders from if he needed to leave the city centre and the Kremlin. Secondly, all the documents that state whether Stalin actually came to the bunker remain classified, and therefore nobody actually knows if he visited or not. Excellent! It was a pleasant afternoon wandering around the place, but certainly not worth the 1000r I had to pay to enter.

The second trip was to the Cold War bunker at Taganskaya. It was built and added to throughout the Cold War period and was 18 stories underground. It was dark, damp, and at one point a bomb siren went off, a row of red lights flashed and the corridor filled with smoke to highlight what it would have been like. The bunker was designed to hold the military command for 16 days, to give them time to launch a counter attack, before supplies would be exhausted and they would face certain death. Scary stuff. One of the most interesting parts was actually a DVD (or rather propaganda film) we were shown, charting the history of the Cold War from a Soviet point of view, which included footage of all the nuclear testing that took place. From my point of view, having been born in the mid-80s, it was fascinating to watch. Definitely worth the 600r entry fee.

Finally I went on a trip to the Bolshoi Teatr workshop. This is a building in the centre of Moscow, where the ballet shoes, costumes, sets, and advertising posters are made for the Bolshoi Theatre. It was very interesting to see how the ballet shoes are made, and we were even given the chance to buy some used shoes. (I went for a red pair from Don Quixote, complete with blood stains inside from use and a natural colour pair, which are thankfully clean!)

Right now, I’m back in Moscow after a fortnight break in the UK. I returned rested and recovered, mainly from the fact I was ill for almost my entire trip home, and so had an excellent excuse not to see anyone. Whilst I adore catching up with my friends and family, I sometimes feel pulled in a million directions trying to appease everyone. Being ill meant I could turn down invitations due to being contagious, stay in bed with my gorgeous matryoshka doll hot water bottle, and watch telly for an entire fortnight. Bliss!

Blind as a Bat

I’ve always considered myself to have pretty good eyesight; particularly when taking that of my parents into account. I have to apply Mum’s make up for her, as she can’t see without her glasses, but can’t put her mascara on whilst wearing them, and Dad’s glasses have become a much more frequent feature in recent years than I remember as a child.

A couple of months ago, I went to see Carmen at the Bolshoi Theatre: a new production of a great opera, by British director David Pountney. It was a little too modern in some places for my liking. We all know that Carmen is a floozy, but with some of the action now set in a pole-dancing club, I did feel like I should cover the eyes, and protect the modesty, of one of the girls that came with us, who happened to be just 16 years old. But I’ve strayed from the point. As I am in Moscow, the French is of course translated into Russian on the screens at either side of the stage. During one of intervals, I casually remarked to my friend, how much difficulty I was having reading the words (I even had to use the opera glasses at one point) and how disgraceful it was that it was so unclear. Yes... well... It turns out the words were perfectly clear and it was my eyesight that was the problem. Oops!

So I stressed about it a little; phoned my Mum to thank her and Dad for giving me poor vision, to match the short fingers and thunder thighs I’ve long known about! It was with some indignation that she replied it would be nice if I phoned to thank them both for my intelligence and beauty just once in a while. (Oh and modesty, clearly!) And of course I would, if only my eyesight was good enough to make it out!

In reality, my eyesight doesn’t seem to actually be that poor. I think it is distance that’s the problem; something that I never noticed, as I haven’t driven for nearly a year. Just as I had consoled myself I had completely overreacted and my vision was in fact fine, yesterday I happened to be watching Slumdog Millionaire (a film I have already raved about on this blog) with quite a handsome man that I’ve been seeing rather a lot of lately, and rather embarrassingly I had to get up and move the TV stand two feet closer in order to read the subtitles (my Hindi not being quite up to scratch). So it looks like I have another appointment to add to my list of things-to-do upon my return to Blighty, which is to get an eye test. I have to say, it is all rather frustrating, because I would much rather spend the £150 that a pair of glasses will cost on a couple of new dresses. But until an experienced professional tells me I can’t see, I am going to have to live with the TV just that little bit closer.

Autumn Days

Whoops, I haven’t posted for over a month... The weeks are flying by. I can’t believe it’s nearly October already. The days at work have been passing relatively slowly, but the weeks seem to be disappearing. Autumn has definitely arrived in Moscow- the trees are turning a beautiful golden brown colour, and the temperature has dropped. In fact, the state central heating hasn’t been switched on so the flat is extremely cold at night! Not to mention the fact that the office is so cold I’ve been wearing my jacket all week!

So what have I been doing instead of blogging? Well, there have been parties and nights out with the rugby boys. A very pleasant boat trip after the game, which resulted in a lot of alcohol partaken, my feet being vomited on by a so-called friend, and my flatmate losing his bag, containing his passport and house keys, and having to sit outside the flat for four hours, waiting for me to answer my phone. There have been shopping trips, museum trips, trips to bars and dates, not to mention the fact that I have been continuing my programme of self-improvement reading, devouring Fowles’ “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”, Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”, Maugham’s “The Razor’s Edge”, Dostoevskiy’s “Crime and Punishment” and Huxley’s “Brave New World”.

Saturday the 5th was Moscow Day. This celebrates the founding of Moscow by Yuriy Dolgoruki in the twelfth century. There were free concerts all over the city, the main streets were once again closed to traffic, and I spent a very pleasant evening wandering around the city centre, admiring the art work on show.

But really, for the last fortnight, my life has been consumed by one thing, and one thing alone: toothache. I’ve had a twinge in one of my teeth for weeks now, but considering that I’m going back to the UK for a well deserved holiday at the end of October, I was hoping it would hold out until my dentist in the UK could take a look. No such luck, unfortunately. I have been fortunate enough never to experience toothache, until the past couple of weeks. Once the pain started spreading into my ear, I decided it was about time I did something about it.

I headed off to see a Russian dentist (after recalling horror stories of the American Dental Centre charging up to $1000 for treatment), who recommended I had root canal work on the tooth that was giving me grief. Two 90mins appointments later and I am pain free! I have heard that the Russians are pretty keen on performing root canals, when it isn’t always necessary; however at that moment, I really couldn’t have cared what she did, providing she stopped the pain. Even better, is that it was entirely covered by the health insurance I received through work. I didn’t even have to pay a penny, as the clinic directly billed my insurance. When I return to the UK, we will see what the British dentist says about the work done on my tooth... But I must say that I have been mightily impressed with the treatment received so far!

Tonight, I’m taking it easy at home; catching up with some rubbishy British TV on youTube, finishing off this week’s Russian homework, enjoying a glass of orange squash (yes! I finally found a shop in Moscow that sells orange squash, and it's near my house!) and planning on the purchases I’m going to make when I return to the UK. Sometimes, you just can’t beat a Saturday night in!

101 Uses...

101 uses for a man vs 101 uses for a woman

Plus a little bonus article I found whilst chuckling at the above!

The Women's Crusade- The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/magazine/23Women-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&ref=magazine#

The article is one I found through a link to an article on The Guardian website and is definitely worth taking 10minutes out to read.

Birthdays

This month it has been my birthday, and I think it's time I became an adult. In the eyes of society, one generally becomes an adult at 18; I managed to prolong putting off growing up until I was 21, and even then I felt not quite ready to give up the life of a student. But now, at the age of 23, living overseas, and working in an embassy, I feel like the time has come to (albeit reluctantly) accept the fact that I have to start making my own decisions, looking after my finances a tad better and generally being a bit more organised.

This was my first birthday away from home. One of the benefits of being a summer baby is that even when at uni, or travelling, I've always been back in the UK for my birthday. As a child, I remember one of the downsides being that my friends were always on their summer holidays when it came to having a party, which meant that numbers were always depleted. Even now, it's a similar scenario due to the fact that my friends are spread, not only all over the UK, but all over various parts of the world.

Whilst my family may not have been in town to celebrate with me, my surrogate and extended Moscow "family" were here to help! The girls in the office took me out for lunch, a friend took me out to dinner in the evening, who has unexpectedly reappeared in my life after moving to Kiev in the Autumn (gaining extra brownie points by buying me flowers). Of course there was the obligatory night out on the Friday, involving multiple G&Ts and a brand spanking new dress (fulfilling all the necessary requirements of a dress for a birthday night out: the cost of the dress being inversely proportional to the amount of material used in it's creation).

But the main event of last week was the Afisha Picnic in the Park. This was in an old country estate that was the tsars summer residence, called Kolomenskoe. This is a sort of one-day arts and music festival in the south of Moscow by the river. The headline act was Madness: that's right, the 80s British group, and the Russians went mad for it! (Excuse the pun.) It was so lovely to feel the grass in between my toes, sit on a hill and listen to some live music, then have a bit of a dance to some classic British tunes. Lovely way to spend the evening! Madness themselves were pretty good- the only slightly dubious moment being when they dedicated "Love is the Best" to "All the Georgians out there"... not the best thing to say in a park in Russia on the anniversary of last year's conflict.

Last night, my flatmate and I decided to have a few drinks in the embassy bar. I was on the Diet Coke (I still happened to be nursing a hangover from the previous evening, after going to a friend's place for dinner). He seems to think he does a good job of hiding how, shall we say, slightly inebriated he was... and I suspect he did from our colleagues. I, however, have spent far too many evenings with him in an equal state and can spot it a mile off! Particularly as I wasn't drinking. I was also vidicated (and very annoyed) after getting in around 1am and getting into bed, only to be woken by him at 3.30am phoning me, as he was outside our flat and "the keys just wont work!". Hmm... Considering they worked fine this morning, I think his argument may have a flaw. We also found his shoes in the corridor this morning- they obviously weren't Russian enough looking for anyone to think they were worth pinching! That's got to be either a sign of his good taste, or really bad taste, and I know which one I would prefer!

People-Watching

This is an excellent example of the very odd Russian phenomenon of sunbathing standing up. Speedos, however, really never are a good look.

This poor chap was sat opposite my friend and I on Saturday night at 10.30pm as we made our way home from seeing Madness at a mini-open-air festival type thing at Kolomenskoe- one of Moscow's parks/ former country estates of the Tsars.

I think he may have peaked too soon... Never a good move.

This delightful ensemble was being modelled by a babushka who is old enough to know better at Serebryaniy Bor- a clean section of the river with beaches and banks for sunbathing. I personally feel that the pearls really set the outfit off.

Nothing beats a good spot of people-watching in Russia!

The Hard Life of Summer in the City

Well, I know that I promised to upload another post at the weekend, after the shamefully sporadic posts of the last few weeks. And I was all ready to do so... until that was, I went out on Saturday night and didn't crawl in until 7.45am on Sunday morning. So forgive me, for the short delay!

A couple of weekends ago, my flatmate-friend-colleague-and-general-partner-in-crime and I decided that we should start actually doing something on a weekend, and not just wasting them away in a haze of hungoverness! This weekend, due to the lovely weather, we decided to go to the "beach". Moscow obviously doesn't have a sea coast anywhere near it, but in the Northwest of the city, as the river flows into town, there is a stretch of the Moskva that is certified clean for swimming, with cafes, a stretch of sand, and green grass all along the river bank. We went up there, with a friend from work, and spent a very pleasant afternoon gossiping about work matters and our colleagues, drinking beer, and eating a picnic packed by my own fair hand. (Well, I say packed, I mean bought from the supermarket and carried with me!)

After spending the entire day lounging about by the side of the river, we were in no mood for a quiet night in, so after changing and ditching all our beach gear, we went to meet a friend from university. We spent a few hours sat in a park at Kitai-Gorod before heading to a party in an outdoor courtyard. The music was very cool, and we were having so much fun in the gorgeous overnight weather that we completely lost track of time, hence why upon leaving the indoor section of the club, my friend and I emerged, blinking like moles, into the bright sunlight of 6am. Obviously, no night out is complete without the obligatory food on the way home, so we decided to make a stop at one of our favourite American diners. It was so early that they hadn't even started serving their breakfast menu- I had to make do with a burger instead!

This is the first summer I've really spent in Moscow- the only other time I've spent here over the summer months was a few days in late July in 2005, and I have to say I'm rather enjoying it. There have been some spectacular thunderstorms, and whilst the heat can get quite oppressive at times, there's always something going on that makes up for it. Tonight is the Pimms and Strawberries party for all the Embassy staff at the Ambassador's Residence. Once that's over however, I am not drinking until my birthday... a whole two weeks. Sounds easy enough, but there's always something happening in Moscow that involves alcohol! I've been invited to a party on Saturday night, but I'm going to stay strong and stick to my detox. Watch this space...

It's Been a Busy Month...

I know I haven't blogged for a month. It makes me a very bad girl. The next few weeks I endeavour to make up for that. But first...

It isn't very often that I'm ashamed to be British. On reading the opinions of British Expats living in Dubai in this article, I was.

However, this week I've had other pressing and amusing matters on my mind.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/600/42/379430.htm and http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/5784149/British-diplomat-in-Russia-quits-after-being-filmed-with-prostitutes.html

Nothing brightens up the week, like a good old scandal!

Feeling Hot...

This weekend (a public holiday here due to Russia Day on June 12th) has been unbelievably hot. It's too hot to move and certainly too hot to blog. When the temperature drops back below 25c, normal blogging service will be resumed.

Until then I urge everybody to amuse themselves on the following site: www.textsfromlastnight.com
(Although it isn't for the easily offended... whilst the texts are hilarious, they are pretty graphic in parts and of a grown-up, naughty nature. They did provide us with some excellent entertainment one afternoon this week, however!)

Charlie Brooker

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/01/charlie-brooker-women-men-power

Charlie Brooker... How I adore thee...