"From Russia with love",or anything you wanted to know about Russia,but feared to ask

[SergeyM]

Thanks, dear Mirabel.
Somehow I think truth is better than lie almost every time. Even when truth doesn't look good.

[Mirabell]

Thanks, dear Mirabel.
Somehow I think truth is better than lie almost every time. Even when truth doesn't look good.

germans these days prefer to lie. they are also starting to get defiant instead of ashamed. and shame was NEVER the prevalent sentiment here. if you are interested at all I recommend Alexander and Margarite Mitscherlich's masterful study The Inability to Mourn: Principles of Collective Behavior, which is a tad older but has aged well.

We stay away from monuments to proper Nazis but Lothar von Trotha, a genocidal mass murderer who almost exterminated an entire people, is still honored.

[Mirabell]

To get to the thread at hand

When I travel through Siberia I travel by train in an open sleeping compartment and this has been every time one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life.

[SergeyM]

Oh, lucky you... Some of my colleagues spend their holidays travelling Russia on 4WD cars, mostly Russian made NIVAs, which is a great experience by itself, as I hear...
But I never got farther to East then Urals, spending most of my free time in Socialist days in Crimea, Caucasus and Lithuania, and only haphazardly hiking near Moscow and kayaking on Russian rivers, sometimes as far as Astrakhan... The nature is wonderful in our not too crowded places... And fishing near Astrakhan or on Seliger lake could be breathtaking.

Thanks, I will check that. I am interested in things that go below the surface that is for everybody to see, but my work, alas, takes too much of my time...

[Mirabell]

Oh, lucky you... Some of my colleagues spend their holidays travelling Russia on 4WD cars, mostly Russian made NIVAs, which is a great experience by itself, as I hear...
But I never got farther to East then Urals, spending most of my free time in Socialist days in Crimea, Caucasus and Lithuania, and only haphazardly hiking near Moscow and kayaking on Russian rivers, sometimes as far as Astrakhan... The nature is wonderful in our not too crowded places... And fishing near Astrakhan or on Seliger lake could be breathtaking.

Thanks, I will check that. I am interested in things that go below the surface that is for everybody to see, but my work, alas, takes too much of my time...

Most of my family live in Abasa, near Abakan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abaza_(town)
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%90%D0%B1%D0%B0%D0%B7%D0%B0_(%D0%B3%D0%BE%D1%80 %D0%BE%D0%B4)

we fly to moscow, spend time with my relatives there and then take the train to abakan, from where we take my grandpa's old moskvich to abasa (takes four hours). we undertook a couple of times a trip by car to tuva, since a branch of our family moved into the wilderness there.

[SergeyM]

Wow, and I had never heard of such a city... Abakan - yes, everybody knew about Abakan in USSR, I have known a friend from there, we were together in a sanatorium for children with respiratory problems in Crimea... 35 years ago or so...

Our VP took a trip to Tuva last year on his sport Jeep... It is a fashion among many Russians now to explore Motherland - to go to Kamchatka or Ekaterinburg instead of going to Egypt or Paris...

As to myself... I like warm seas too much to trade them for our vast spaces. As long as I could afford exotic places like Seychelles, Maldives or Great Barrier Reef, I like to see them on my vacations, leaving our own exotic places for the times when we will not be able to cross the Earth and live in some faraway place, where we will never return to after holidays ended...

[SergeyM]

Dear Eric, would you please post a comment to that text of mine?
A new gas problem came and went (it seems), and we keep waiting patiently...

[Flower]

Hi Sergo,
I just wanted to stop by and say hello! Long time no see, eh?

[SergeyM]

Oh, hello, my dear!

How doing?

Here in Russia the crisis is widening and getting to almost everybody...

And - I have spent a great holiday on Australian island Hamilton, the nature and the hotel were great, but property is losing value even there, so it seems the problem is world wide...

But spring is coming, nevermind the crisis, so everything comes and goes... It seems next week we will have European weather here - about +15C or so...

[Eric]

Finland is a Muslim heaven. They've got Abdullah Tammi.

[Flower]

Oh, hello, my dear!

How doing?

Here in Russia the crisis is widening and getting to almost everybody...

And - I have spent a great holiday on Australian island Hamilton, the nature and the hotel were great, but property is losing value even there, so it seems the problem is world wide...

But spring is coming, nevermind the crisis, so everything comes and goes... It seems next week we will have European weather here - about +15C or so...

Im doing fine, thanks!

The island Hamilton should be beautiful! Bet you and your wife enjoyed it a lot?

How has all your building projects come along? And your garden? And not to forget your writing?

15C may be European weather but certainly not Scandinavian! We had a sunny but cold day today and some areas has snow!

[kpjayan]

15C may be European weather but certainly not Scandinavian

...and here is someone at a place where is it already hitting 35deg C

[hdw]

I emailed a Canadian friend the other day and mentioned that my wife and I had been to a garden centre on a plant-buying expedition. She was envious, saying that her garden is still covered in ice and snow and she's looking forward to the first daffodils. Here in the UK we panic at the first sight of snowflakes and if the snow lies the whole country comes to a standstill (only slightly exaggerating).

Harry

[SergeyM]

Finland is a Muslim heaven. They've got Abdullah Tammi.

Oh. I think sometimes that Muslim heaven is everywhere in the West where Muslim people live, when western liberality and high living standard allow them have their ideas while living comfortably...

[SergeyM]

Im doing fine, thanks!

The island Hamilton should be beautiful! Bet you and your wife enjoyed it a lot?

How has all your building projects come along? And your garden? And not to forget your writing?

15C may be European weather but certainly not Scandinavian! We had a sunny but cold day today and some areas has snow!

Yes, we have enjoyed it, even after my wife had been bitten by a venomous mollusk on the neighboring uninhabited island (we got there all by ourselves on a kayak)... May be that touch was needed to show us every beautiful place always has its own hidden setbacks...
The hotel's name is Qualia - you may check the views on the internet.

Oh, everything is going forward...
The bigger dacha house is almost completed, to live there is great... And our Moscow appartment is a wonder with my wife's design - one Russian design magazine was going to publish photos of the appartment in the beginning of this year, but I doubt it now, with all the magazines trying to cut on material and publish more advertisements these days...
Garden is growing nicely. We have bought several more trees foreign to our climate last year, so we are waiting for the spring to see if they were able to survive through the Winter as those before them...
Writing is going forward too. My "Scheme" is quite fat already, so I hope to complete it this year... And I have made several "micro-stories", one of them was taken to be published in some "young authors monthly book"... Nah, young author my leg, I have turned 48 this year...

And we still have snow almost everywhere... But they say this week it will be raining, so I hope by next week it will be much more like Spring here...

Our daughter comes home from UK this week - she has spent three month studying law in Kings College... So everything goes OK... The only thing that bothers me is that my income steadely goes down for about half a year already... But what could be done about that...

You know, I have always wanted to ask you how that internet shop was going?

S.

[SergeyM]

...and here is someone at a place where is it already hitting 35deg C

Oh, that's toooo much for my taste...
You know, when it is -40C outside, you have several options: to sit inside and feed your heating equipment to keep warm, to get a good deal of clothes that will keep you warm outside, move much when you are outside and keep warm, or even have a dose of vodka that will keep you warm for sometime...
But when it is +40C outside and you do not have an air conditioner to make life better for you, I do not know what to do but sweat it out...

But to have cold weather for more than half of a year gets under one's skin too... So I am seriously thinking about going somewhere South for the rest of my life. Actually I am thinking of Borneo...

S.

[SergeyM]

I emailed a Canadian friend the other day and mentioned that my wife and I had been to a garden centre on a plant-buying expedition. She was envious, saying that her garden is still covered in ice and snow and she's looking forward to the first daffodils. Here in the UK we panic at the first sight of snowflakes and if the snow lies the whole country comes to a standstill (only slightly exaggerating).

Harry

And our garden looks like a snow desert now, with some trees poking from under snow cover here and there... And the biggest problem is some of conifers get burned on the spring sun - when it already shines and heat the tree, and it is too cold yet under the snow where the roots are, so what water is evaporated from the tree cannot be replenished from below... Many trees die from this rather than from our cold...

Actually, I envy you Britishers very much... To be able to grow all these plants is soo great... And I have bought a Cypress three years ago - it died of cold before January came... And the same Cypresses grow in about every London garden...

Our daughter says Spring is blooming already in the UK... They went to Kew Gardens last week, and she spent several pounds to tell me about it afterwards...

S.

[Flower]

Yes, we have enjoyed it, even after my wife had been bitten by a venomous mollusk on the neighboring uninhabited island (we got there all by ourselves on a kayak)... May be that touch was needed to show us every beautiful place always has its own hidden setbacks...
The hotel's name is Qualia - you may check the views on the internet.

Oh, everything is going forward...
The bigger dacha house is almost completed, to live there is great... And our Moscow appartment is a wonder with my wife's design - one Russian design magazine was going to publish photos of the appartment in the beginning of this year, but I doubt it now, with all the magazines trying to cut on material and publish more advertisements these days...
Garden is growing nicely. We have bought several more trees foreign to our climate last year, so we are waiting for the spring to see if they were able to survive through the Winter as those before them...
Writing is going forward too. My "Scheme" is quite fat already, so I hope to complete it this year... And I have made several "micro-stories", one of them was taken to be published in some "young authors monthly book"... Nah, young author my leg, I have turned 48 this year...

And we still have snow almost everywhere... But they say this week it will be raining, so I hope by next week it will be much more like Spring here...

Our daughter comes home from UK this week - she has spent three month studying law in Kings College... So everything goes OK... The only thing that bothers me is that my income steadely goes down for about half a year already... But what could be done about that...

You know, I have always wanted to ask you how that internet shop was going?

S.

Nice to hear that all seems well and fine!

So what design did your wife end up using? I remember you going on about some Italian and some Danish designed furnitures?

Sounds nice with the extra trees. Are they fruit trees? I have recently bought some coffee plants and have them at my kitchen window. In a year or two they should actually grow coffee beans. They should be easy to maintain and grow and in the summer you can put them outside in the garden.

Ah, so you have actual become a published author now! Congratulations! Will we ever see any of your stories translated into English?

My son has moved into an appartment and is finishing his last year of highschool. He lives with two friends who are students of journalism. He is doing fine starting his life on his own becoming an adult but still needs his mum?s advice every now and then.

I havent been focusing on the internet shop, I have sort of just left it there, once I realised just how much work you actually had to put into the whole thing.

You are not the only one whos income has gone down lately. I believe this is happening all over the world now with the finans crisis.

Take care!

[SergeyM]

Nice to hear that all seems well and fine!

So what design did your wife end up using? I remember you going on about some Italian and some Danish designed furnitures?

Sounds nice with the extra trees. Are they fruit trees? I have recently bought some coffee plants and have them at my kitchen window. In a year or two they should actually grow coffee beans. They should be easy to maintain and grow and in the summer you can put them outside in the garden.

Ah, so you have actual become a published author now! Congratulations! Will we ever see any of your stories translated into English?

My son has moved into an appartment and is finishing his last year of highschool. He lives with two friends who are students of journalism. He is doing fine starting his life on his own becoming an adult but still needs his mum?s advice every now and then.

I havent been focusing on the internet shop, I have sort of just left it there, once I realised just how much work you actually had to put into the whole thing.

You are not the only one whos income has gone down lately. I believe this is happening all over the world now with the finans crisis.

Take care!

Wow... I have tried to paste a tree name from Wiki here, and lost all the text that I have printed before... OK, so I will try again:

My wife wanted minimalism, and it is exactly so, save for our daughter's room, where the walls and drapes are different shades of crimson, the bed is circular and custom made, etc.
In the end she decided against Danish furniture, actually, we haven't got much choice at the moment, so everything we have now is either Italian, or custom made in Russia by my wife's design. In the whole the appartment looks wonderful and it is fun to live there...

Oh no, not fruit trees... When I was a boy, my parents had spent a lot of efforts to grow apples at our dacha and deliver them to our Moscow appartment... We had no car then, so the apples had to be packed in big baskets, and first we had to go with them to the train station, several kilometers away... Then we had to board a train, overloaded already with all other such apple growers who lived further from Moscow... After going about 40 km on the train, we had to change trains, and go by metro train another thirty minutes, than change again, ang go another forty minutes... Then board a bus, and go twenty minutes more... After that another kilometer by feet, and that's it... I am sure one could get weary from the description, let aside from the real thing...
So - there are almost no fruit trees in our new garden, save for two small apple trees my wife wanted to have...
So the trees we have bought last year were a Catalpa Syringaefolia and a Japanese pine, and several smaller things... And we have a Gingko Biloba for three years already, as well as other conifers and deciduous trees, which supposedly shouldn't grow in our climate, but somehow do...
And we have a small Coffee tree too, but it is growing indoors and in a very bad shape... Maybe we should try to put it outside for Summers too...
But, I have learned not long ago that Moscow is the only capital city in the world with the average annual temperature less than 0C: actually, it is -2C, so...

Oh, oh... Maybe if I retire and go more seriously about writing, I could do something really serious... But as it is, I do not think that ever happens...

Oh, that's good... Our daughter started meeting a boy, but then decided that didn't interest her at the moment... Hm, hm... So I cannot wait to meet her today and hear about her life and study in London... It is the first time in our lives that we were parted for three month...

I thought so about the internet shopping... But some people I hear of still do it...

Yes, I know it is not only me whose income has dropped... But that doesn't make me any happier, alas...

BR,
S.

[Flower]

Wow... I have tried to paste a tree name from Wiki here, and lost all the text that I have printed before... OK, so I will try again:

My wife wanted minimalism, and it is exactly so, save for our daughter's room, where the walls and drapes are different shades of crimson, the bed is circular and custom made, etc.
In the end she decided against Danish furniture, actually, we haven't got much choice at the moment, so everything we have now is either Italian, or custom made in Russia by my wife's design. In the whole the appartment looks wonderful and it is fun to live there...

Oh no, not fruit trees... When I was a boy, my parents had spent a lot of efforts to grow apples at our dacha and deliver them to our Moscow appartment... We had no car then, so the apples had to be packed in big baskets, and first we had to go with them to the train station, several kilometers away... Then we had to board a train, overloaded already with all other such apple growers who lived further from Moscow... After going about 40 km on the train, we had to change trains, and go by metro train another thirty minutes, than change again, ang go another forty minutes... Then board a bus, and go twenty minutes more... After that another kilometer by feet, and that's it... I am sure one could get weary from the description, let aside from the real thing...
So - there are almost no fruit trees in our new garden, save for two small apple trees my wife wanted to have...
So the trees we have bought last year were a Catalpa Syringaefolia and a Japanese pine, and several smaller things... And we have a Gingko Biloba for three years already, as well as other conifers and deciduous trees, which supposedly shouldn't grow in our climate, but somehow do...
And we have a small Coffee tree too, but it is growing indoors and in a very bad shape... Maybe we should try to put it outside for Summers too...
But, I have learned not long ago that Moscow is the only capital city in the world with the average annual temperature less than 0C: actually, it is -2C, so...

Oh, oh... Maybe if I retire and go more seriously about writing, I could do something really serious... But as it is, I do not think that ever happens...

Oh, that's good... Our daughter started meeting a boy, but then decided that didn't interest her at the moment... Hm, hm... So I cannot wait to meet her today and hear about her life and study in London... It is the first time in our lives that we were parted for three month...

I thought so about the internet shopping... But some people I hear of still do it...

Yes, I know it is not only me whose income has dropped... But that doesn't make me any happier, alas...

BR,
S.

I bet your appartment looks very nice as I recall your wife is very good at decorating! I have been buying shelves today, to get some places to put all my stuff. Storage always seem to be a problem.

The long travel you did with the apples as a child sounds like an old Russian movie about the hardaches in the old days. When I asked about fruit trees, I did it as you mentioned exotic trees and I picture orange/lemon and olive trees. When I got my small coffee plants, I did a little research and read that you should give them fertilizer every other week, and if possible the fertilizer for orchids. And so I am now and they love it. Maybe you should try it, if you can get hold of the special fertilizer?

I can understand you missing your daughter and being a wee bit worried when she lives in another country, but she sounds like she is doing fine.

I think you have nothing to whine about, when you still can go on travels to places like Hamilton island. I know you dont like it, but lots of people are far worse off.

What are you reading right now?