I took a long walk today in lovely melting Moscow. For the first time in more than four months, I was walking briskly and fully erect, a sure harbinger of spring. At times I felt like I was walking along a path filled with waterfalls. Water was pouring from every rooftop, gutter and drain. The gutters that were damaged due to ice produced torrents of water, some from as high as ten stories. You can imagine the lengths one had to go in order to avoid a very cold shower. It was all worth the effort however and I was just overjoyed to once again be out and about in Moscow. I even had to take off my gloves and hat because it was just too darn warm!
Those of you who know me well realize that I’m a flawless judge of character, which is why you are my friends. I had this point validated again today. If you’ll remember, on March 2nd I wrote: “The flight from Munich to Lisbon was smooth and comfortable; I had a lady with impeccable manners next to me.” Well it turns out that lady is Her Royal Highness The Princess of Bulgaria. We had had just a lovely conversation about so many things and in the course of the three hour flight I found out she was on the board of The American University of Bulgaria and that she was close personal friends with our US Ambassador here in Moscow. I don’t know the ambassador, but I was very well acquainted with the American University of Bulgaria - in fact, in 1990 I almost had Boston University selected to be the US partner for that University, which was originally funded by USAID and George Soros. So, HRH and I talked about the progress they have made over the past twenty years and I most likely will go and visit them sometime this spring.
I did a lot of fruit shopping today at the local market at the end of my long, long walk. Things are starting to look much better in the produce department, which again is a very good sign of spring. The sidewalk vendors on the way to the market that usually are there only from Friday to Sunday have taken to opening some of their trucks on Thursday and selling out of them. I’m sure there are bargains to be had there but still, nothing looks very ‘local’.
We had seafood again last night due to the fact that I made an embassy run and they had some lovely fresh frozen scallops. I pan seared them and finished them in a teriyaki sauce and served them over a bed of yellow rice, yellowed and flavored by the turmeric. This was served with a lot of freshly sautéed Brussels sprouts and garlic; quite colorful. The wine was one I had picked up at the embassy, white Bordeaux, but it was corked and we resorted to boxed Italian.
I saw a mind-boggling assortment of car accidents today on my walk. None looked as though there was any injury, but lots of car and truck pieces spread all over the roads. One in particular was on a very small street where you wouldn’t think there could be anyone doing any more than 20 miles an hour, and yet both cars, one a service van and the other an SUV, were really mangled. Of course this led to complete gridlock since there was no way around the accident and the horns were blaring so I got out of there fast. As I was walking I suddenly realized that I’m always telling people the amazing statistic that at any given time 30% or more of Russians are drunk. It never occurred to me that of course many of them are also driving, which now explains a great deal.
For a hundred or so billionaires that are in Russia, accidents like the above are not an issue because they can just get new cars. Forbes confirms that Moscow is the Billionaire Capital of the World! This is great news since we’ll be here long enough for me to scout around and befriend one or more of these folks to help us launch our next careers.
Cheers, Cindy and Wm
No comments:
Post a Comment