Wednesday, August 25, 2010
What an interesting mix of reactions to the online blog. About half of you prefer to stick with the email and the other half like the idea of an online version. So, for the time being, I’ll do both, as I try to learn more of the secrets of online blogging. Always feel free to ask me to drop your name from the email list if you so desire.
I took a three-hour walk yesterday afternoon, just because it wasn’t raining and I needed to do a few things at the embassy. The embassy part was much faster than I had thought it would be, mostly due to the fact that I got there at about 11:45 and most of the offices I wanted to visit were closed for lunch. I did some quick shopping at the Liberty Store, solid white albacore in water and Hellmann’s Real Mayo in a squeeze bottle. I tell you, I’m living the best of all possible worlds, foreign when I want, domestic when I need, and it is lovely.
Directly across from this building is a modern mini mall filled with the most expensive shops I’ve seen thus far in Moscow. The exclusivity of these shops might explain why there was no one shopping in them. All the clerks in all the shops seemed to be women and they were dressed like fashion models. The one shop I went into was the Nespresso store, made famous by George Clooney’s ads. Several of you have told me about your Nespresso makers and how much you like them. I certainly hope you got a good deal on yours since the cheapest model they had in stock was about US$500, and that doesn’t come with any of the coffee capsules. I must say however, they are stylish, make a heck of a good cup of coffee and they are neat and easy to use. I have an old reliable espresso maker at home and love it, but geez it is messy. The capsule idea is brilliant for those of us who like an occasional espresso and don’t want it to take ten times as long to clean up as it does to drink it. For those of you who don’t know about this, check out this link. (I think there is a dress code you need to adhere to before opening it, it is that classy.)
After having spent enough time in this mall to feel really poor, I decided to go for the cheaper thrills of walking though parks and courtyards. It doesn’t take long to leave the main drag and find a parallel side road that is filled with trees, mini parks and large houses or apartment complexes. This still remains the biggest surprise to me, along with how clean everything is. I had expected Moscow to be blighted with concrete communist style building, devoid of green, but it is just the opposite, at least in the area where we live.
Traffic here is always horrible but it is the worst in the morning and evening commute and during lunch, when it appears that everyone wants to get to the same place, on the same road at the same time. There were many intersections that were suffering from a bad case of gridlock and try as they might, the large hated, baton waving traffic cops could do little to sort things out. Later in the day, just as I was heading to the apartment, it started to rain and that created even more confusion and chaos. There was an interesting article in the paper today about Moscow Traffic:
A group of Italian engineers from the University of Parma’s Vislab are testing sensory technology that allows unmanned vehicles to avoid obstacles on the longest-ever road trip of driverless technology. But Moscow drivers, it turns out, are not ready to share the roads with autonomous vehicles — so the automatic driving mechanism had to be turned off.
For the 13,000 km journey from Italy to China, the driverless vehicles travel in pairs, with the driverless vehicle taking cues from a lead van being driven normally. But in Moscow, drivers cut in between the vehicles, blocking the signal, and the unmanned vans’ impulse to stay within the traffic lines was futile given the chaotic driving patterns, project leader Alberto Broggi said Tuesday. “It was impossible. In crowded areas, if no one is respecting the rules, there is no way to navigate. The only thing you can do is avoid hitting someone,” Broggi said, who is monitoring the journey and troubleshooting from Parma.
When Italian drivers think that Moscow traffic is horrible, we’re talking world class horrible!
I walked to about three fancy hotels/newsstands looking for a copy of the International Herald Tribune but couldn’t find one. There do not seem to be any international English language papers available here, with the exception of the locally produced Moscow Times. Every other major city in the world has lots of options but not here. You can subscribe to the IHT but at a cost of more than US$1200 per year. I’m perfectly content to read it online for free.
This is cute. Apple doesn’t like German humor, who knew there was such a thing?
Okay, time to get this into an online format, which might take a moment or two. Best to all, Cindy and Wm
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