It has been a lovely, quiet and restful Saturday. We were able to actually sleep in until about 8:15, a record for Cindy. We took a nice wake-up walk around the neighborhood and ended up at our local café for a macchiato. We are now able to say a lot more in Russian to our favorite barista and he made us excellent coffee as usual. We had to wait around for the groceries to be delivered from the Liberty Store and used that time to catch up on housework and emails.
Moscow is a-buzz with the publication of the photo of the suspected ringleader involved with the bombing of Domodedovo. He is believed to have been based in Stravropol, a Black Sea city much closer to Turkey than Moscow that is a stronghold of radical Islamists. The paper has begun to detail the new security measures that are to be but in place immediately, and it will involve delays, delays and more delays. There will be metal screening, baggage screening, profiling and dogs, and this is all before you get into the airport proper. Can’t wait until Monday!
As I suspected and told you on Tuesday, it has not been confirmed that international passengers were the targets for the bomb attack. The terrorists, in addition to trying to keep foreigners away from the Olympics and World Cup, are trying to discourage foreign investment in Russia as a way of impacting economic growth here.
In further discouraging news, Moscow has shut down all of its 1,500 elementary schools due to the H1N1 flu. That means that 500,000 kids have nowhere to go for the next week. Glad I’m leaving!
Here is the good news, it appears that text messaging can have a positive effect as this article discusses. A woman was set to blow herself up along with hundreds of others gathers in Red Square for New Year’s celebration. It is reported that an SMS from her mobile provider wishing her a happy new year triggered the bomb and she was the only one killed. Keen planning.
Forget what I said in paragraph two about the identity of the bomber. Now they say it was a 20 year old from the North Caucasus. This is such a volatile situation and rumors run rampant, especially when they are published in the Moscow newspapers, as well as at BBC. Com, as fact!
It is a good thing that most of the Middle East is all desert; this enables the tyrannical leaders of the various countries there to dip their collective heads deep into the sand. The Saudi King labeled the demonstrators as infiltrators! His exact words were, “No Arab and Muslim human being can bear that some infiltrators, in the name of freedom of expression, have infiltrated into the brotherly people of Egypt, to destabilize its security and stability and they have been exploited to spew out their hatred in destruction, intimidation, burning, looting and inciting a malicious sedition.” How in the world can you portray 10, 000 local citizens coming together against overwhelming armed resistance as infiltrators? Things will be all right however because his highness Mubarak says that the situation is stable. I guess he doesn’t get BBC.
Well the groceries didn’t get here until four this afternoon, which meant we were condemned to staying in the apartment. Not that we had any pressing plans but it would have been nice to take a long walk since the weather has been quite pleasant. We did go out for a quick walk just as it was getting dark to grab a few things from the local grocery store. Just my luck, they were having a cat fair and the place was filled with people leaving with their cats in carriers. I’m still breathing with difficulty.
I invented a new salad dressing last night. I call it Six Tablespoons because you take one tablespoon each of mayo, olive oil, balsamic, sweet relish, Jamaica Jerk sauce and whole grain mustard. Mix it all together with some fresh black pepper and you have a really different and lively dressing. I threw in two chopped tomatoes, a shredded carrot and some old brown bread that was cubed, stirred it up and let it sit for about an hour before tossing with fresh spinach. It was very, very good.
From CC: I can vouch for the deliciousness of Wm’s new dressing. He made me guess the ingredients but it wasn’t fair because even he doesn’t know what’s in Jamaican Jerk sauce. I was right on the rest of the ingredients and then guessed curry and cinnamon, either of which could be in the jerk sauce (and since curry can be a mix of up to 40 spices, who can tell?).
Best to all, Cindy and Wm.
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