I was able to get in a ninety-minute walk today before the weather turned nasty. It was sunny and a brisk 35 degrees, but it was great to get outside and move my body after having been sitting in various modes of transportation for twenty hours yesterday. Last night Cindy taught me how to say, “May I” in Russian and I repeated it several times and today I couldn’t remember it for the life of me. While I was walking there was a spot were they are doing construction and there was an elderly lady having a lot of difficulty getting up on the ramp to the walkway detour. Somewhere from out of my brain I came up with ‘May I Please’ in Russian as I offered her my arm. I was rewarded with three wonderful thank yous and a great big smile. Well worth the effort to learn a few phrases.
Last night we headed out to dinner at about seven and it began to rain so we went to the Georgian restaurant instead of one that is a bit farther away. We were a bit apprehensive when we walked in but our favorite waitress was there as well as the one we had a ‘discussion’ with over the wine prices on our last visit. Our favorite came over and Cindy greeted her warmly in Russian and she gave us menus, smiles and walked away. A short time later, the other one came, we assume because she is fluent in English. Well, I don’t know if our favorite waitress told her to be nice or if she had decided that we were OK folks, but she was as friendly and helpful as possible.
We ordered wine; I very specifically ordered it by name, and two soups and a Georgian cheese dish. The soups, cream of mushroom for Cindy and Borscht for me, were just wonderful. Both came with sour cream and they were filled with lots of fresh herbs and you knew they had been simmering for a while. The cheese came in a clay bowl and was bubbling hot. We had some local bread with it and I loved it but it was far too salty for Cindy. We split a plate of roasted veggies, a peeled and grilled tomato, eggplant and pepper. It was just right for our dinner. When the bill came, I examined it like a hawk and found that we must qualify for the house discount since she undercharged for our wine. We gave her a nice tip and left feeling happy that we had recaptured our restaurant.
We got back relatively early and watched a bit of BBC news before we had to crash. I slept like a baby waking only when I heard Cindy get up. I thought she was getting ready to run, but she had done all of that and was ready to head to school. I felt terrible that I hadn’t gotten her breakfast but was ever so grateful for the extra sleep.
A Green Guy came today to hang a coat rack that I brought back from WV. We have pitifully little storage here for coats and clothes and now that we need to have heavy coats and things, we needed a remedy. We have already taken all of our summer stuff and stored it in a big suitcase that slides under the storage shelves. This coat rack will let me hang all of my winter stuff freeing up the space Cindy needs in the closet. I do hope that we’ll be moved to a larger apartment next year.
All of the leaves have departed for the season and we now have views that I’m not sure I like. In the summer we couldn’t see anything outside our windows in the kitchen and living room except lovely green leafy trees, and no one could see in. Now we have a front row view of The 54 Club clubhouse. Despite the cold and wind, they seem to meet every morning for their ritual drinking sessions. They huddle closer now, for warmth I’m sure, and drink more, for warmth I’m sure. I’ve also noted that there are two large apartment buildings that we couldn’t see all summer and fall. We have curtains that we closed for the first time since moving here; we need them for the privacy that the trees had provided.
From CC: I am so proud of Wm’s success with Russian! It is not a language that sticks in your head and when you try to learn a word or phrase it’s more like memorizing nonsense syllables. Our tutor comes tonight and we’ll get better, I’m sure.
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