Too Much To Do, No Time for a Blog

This will be very brief since it is already well past cocktail hour and we have just returned from a day of play.  Details tomorrow.

Cindy and Wm

Namesakes Wedding

My namesake got married today, not sure if any of you heard about his wedding in London, but it went well so no worries.  I celebrated with a pot of tea and scones followed by some crustless cucumber sandwiches and a Pimm’s Cup.  I wish them well.

I took a ninety-minute walk today and thought that everyone would be happy since it is a beautiful day, but alas, there were no smiles to be had.  I read an article that confirms that Russians don’t smile.  I suppose if you came in 167^th out of 178 countries on the World Map of Happiness, you wouldn’t smile either.

My walk took me past the train station where the AeroExpress to one of the major airports departs every half hour. The place was filled with people waiting for the next train, which suggests to me that lots of folks are taking off prior to the two big holidays this week.  I’m imagining the airports are a mess today and I’m ever so pleased that we are sticking around for the festivities here. Those that are staying will be participating in lots of different marches and demonstrations depending upon what party you belong to.  Some governments are warning their citizens to stay away from these demonstrations since they fear they might devolve into riots.

We started to watch Gorky Park last night and it was strange to see it again after having recently reread the book.  First of all, we kept looking at the background scenery and there aren’t even any establishing shots of Moscow.  Stockholm, where it was filmed, really doesn’t look like Moscow did in 1983 when it was filmed. The other rather jarring thing, that I never noticed when I first saw the movie, is that they have all the Russians speaking with various British accents. William Hurt has made up his own, and being an American he sounds very funny. Then they have the rest of them with Scottish, Irish and something that sounds like Welsh. It is all very funny, but I suppose any accent makes you think it is a movie about a foreign country.  The good part is that so far, the movie is holding true to the book, which makes it rather exciting.

From CC:  I guess my namesake got married today too, given that my middle name is Catherine.  I didn’t have any scones or cucumber sandwiches, however.  The school went ga-ga over the whole affair – more people were dressed up than not, including the little kids.  Many tiaras and many hats, some of them very cool.  Wedding cake was served outside the cafeteria during the entire lunch period and it was actually quite tasty.  The middle school principal, a lovely woman from England who looks like Diana Rigg (but is much younger) wore a frothy white wedding gown and veil with a sign on her back that said, “SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME.”  All in good fun but I can’t say a lot of work got done!  I sat and watched the actual wedding with my tech support guys – because they have a big television in their office area – but that wasn’t all that much fun because somehow Russian guys don’t have the same interest or questions or comments that women of any nationality might have.  So we sat there mostly in silence until one of them wanted to know what “holy ghost” meant after a prayer (holy spirit is the closer translation; ghost didn’t make sense to him).  In case you’re wondering, I dressed in my normal blazer and slacks – although if I’d had access to my whole wardrobe in WV I probably would have put together something reasonably elegant with a hat to match.

Have a lovely weekend,  Cindy and Wm

Culture Vultures in Moscow

If you look up Organizational Theory or Organizational Practice, I’m almost certain that you’ll not find an article or book written by a Russian.  I don’t get how they beat us into space, because they simply can’t organize a one-car parade.  Last night we decided to go to a concert at a large church near the apartment.  It was to start at seven thirty and tickets were to be sold at the door.  We got there at a bit before seven and tried to get into the main door of the church since the ticket sales were in the basement.  They only had one little four-foot wide door open, even though the doors are huge and could be open to more than ten feet.  The inside of the church was just packed since they did not open the other little doors into the church until seven fifteen.  We had to fight, push and shimmy to get into the door and down the stairs.  Once there getting tickets was a piece of cake.  They only had tickets for about $18 each, which was fine, but they simply said we could side on the sides of the church and it was open seating.

By the time they opened the doors the best we could get were two seats in a pew that was at the side of and a little behind where the orchestra was to play. This meant that we had to sit sidesaddle to see the band.  As we sat waiting for something to happen we noticed that all these people were walking around with folding chairs and just setting them up where ever they pleased. They tried to sit in front of the woman behind us who was having none of it and used language; well I’m almost sure about the language that should not have been used in church. I was proud of her since it worked and she sent them packing.

Finally the music started at five to eight and it was really well done, as you would expect from Russian musicians. They did a Bach piece with oboe and violin soloists and then they did the complete Four Seasons by Vivaldi.  No intermission since they knew they would never get everyone seated again.  It took almost as long to get out of the church as it did to play the Four Seasons. Again, they only opened one little door and that was it! By the time we got out of there it was nine fifteen and we were ready for a cocktail. I had made us a small salad and tomato surprise for dinner but we didn’t dare drink since toilets are not plentiful in churches in Russia.  I think part of your penance is to hold it!

Cindy had a personal day today to catch up on appointments and things. Working ten-hour days makes it difficult to schedule personal things.  We were actually able to sleep beyond five thirty, which made all day feel like a weekend.  I caught her responding to emails from people at AAS who had written with questions and made her turn off the computer.  By the time she was done with everything in the early afternoon, we still had time to walk to the Pushkin Museum where we had promised our granddaughter Emily that we would take a picture and go and see the Chagall paintings, BOTH of them!  I somehow had thought that there would be a lot but it really didn’t matter because this is one magnificent museum. Most of the famous French artists are on display thanks to Sergei Shchukin who collected them in the early 1900s.  After the revolution the state relieved him of his collection and it is now a part of the Pushkin Museum.

We spent a few hours at the museum and then headed over to the Kremlin to look at the flowers in the park and for a snack at GUM and then headed home. They had closed the Kremlin while we were in GUM, no reason given, so we had to find an alternative way out of that area.  I suppose everything is in flux with the upcoming holidays.   I pitied the poor tourists just arriving who were not allowed to enter Red Square.  We had a nice walk home that was punctuated by a few showers, but nothing heavy.  Now the sky is dark and the thunder is rumbling and we are so hoping for lots of rain tonight.  I’m happy to be in for the night and able to have a quiet meal with Cindy, our first in several days.  Of course I have no idea what we are going to have for dinner, but something will inspire me in the next few minutes.

Ciao, Cindy and Wm.

Don't Tell Me I've Nothing To Do

We had a rather typical Russian experience last night.  Cindy’s consultant wanted to go and see the rehearsal for the Victory Day Parade, which was to start at six pm.  Two of the other guests for dinner volunteered to take him to the viewing area, which was rather close to where we were going to have dinner.  We met them there at about 6:45 and of course the rehearsal hadn’t started.  We passed lots of irate drivers as we walked to the meeting area. They were stuck in traffic having either not heard that the major roads were to be blocked off for five hours during the rush hour or because the area was just in gridlock. Whatever the reason there were lots of horns blaring and no one was moving.

We waited for about thirty minutes, admiring the water trucks that were cleaning the street prior to the tanks and trucks coming, but that was the only sign of activity. Finally someone told us that it would not start until eight so we all agreed it would be best to go and eat and then come back for the show.  We got to the restaurant and had a nice table that Cindy had reserved.  We ordered some wine and looked at the menus and asked them is there was anything that they didn’t have tonight. The last time we ate there they were out of lots of menu items.  We ordered three appetizers to share, a goat cheese and sundried tomato pizza, hummus and pita, and roasted eggplant, all of which was very good. The five of us then ordered our main courses. Ten minutes later the embarrassed waiter came back to inform us that four of the five dinners were not available tonight.  Back to the menus, a bit of discussion before we ordered and then we waited.  Mine came right away and since it was just a cold antipasto plate I was happy to wait. Next came another meal, not the right one of course.  The guest had ordered the steak, but instead they brought her a cold plate of sliced beef and salad.  She tried to tell them that it wasn’t what she ordered but they knew that and felt that beef was beef. The rest of the orders came out over the next ten to fifteen minutes and all we could do was just laugh it off.

Somewhere about twenty minutes into the meal, another AAS person came over to the table to say hi and told us she had just been to watch the rehearsal. It was only about 7:45 and it was over!  So much for our after-dinner walk to watch it for ourselves.  This all goes to show that things aren’t always as advertised in Moscow.  We think we are going to a concert tonight at a nearby church; stay tuned for further announcements.

Now here is an idea from Kyrgyzstan as to why the US Congress hasn’t done anything positive in so many years.  The joint is filled with ‘evil spirits’ and the Kyrgyz lawmakers know just what to do to correct this problem.

I’m pleased to say that the forsythia is finally out and the infusion of all that yellow is doing wonders for those that notice. I saw lots of tulips yesterday at the embassy and there were more today in some of the little pocket parks around the neighborhood.  We certainly need rain and we need it soon, but the days are warm and bright and I’ll take whatever nature throws at me this spring. It is infinitely better than winter.

If someone were to say to me, ‘William, what’s the most interesting thing you did today?’ I wouldn’t have to hesitate for a moment.  It certainly wasn’t the two loads of laundry, or the waiting until 2:30pm for a delivery that was to have happened at 11.  Nope, I can say without fear of contradiction that it was the changing of the vacuum bag and filter!  I had noticed that the vacuum cleaner was covered with dust, not a good sign for something that had a lot of use yesterday. I found that the filter was filthy and the bag full. Changing the bag was easy, but the filter was one of two stenciled onto the filter material and I had to cut along the lines. I’ve never been good at staying within boundaries so this took quite a bit of time and taxed my limited talent.  However, it was the first time I’ve had to do that and anything that isn’t repetitious is most welcome.  Don’t tell me I’ve nothing to do!

Peace, Love and Tie-Dye, Cindy and Wm.

The Bells of Moscow

The trees outside the house have big fat buds on them, so many that I can’t see through to the other side of the street as I could in winter.  I wandered around town for three hours today and things are really starting to look wonderful. Part of that is a result the upcoming May Day and Victory Day celebrations where Moscow makes sure it looks perfect. They have armies of people out planting flowers and cleaning the streets and the results are starting to show. I was outside the East Wall of the Kremlin today in the Alexandrov Gardens and it is ablaze with flowers all neatly arranged. They have begun to water all of the tulips and daffodil beds to make sure they are up and shining for the holidays.

I don’t know if it was my timing or if they don’t ring church bells in the winter but between 11:15 and 11:30 today, I heard more beautiful bells ringing all over the Red Square area. Some of these were thunderous bells, which could be heard for long distances, others were as soft and light as a summer mist. It was very, very intense and I was literally transfixed at times trying to find out from which belfry the bells were ringing.

I found a whole new area to explore this morning, very close to Red Square. Part of the area is made up of very, very exclusive shops while just around the corner are funky bars and cafes.  There are some magnificent examples of turn of the century buildings in various pastels all tucked away from the most visited spot in Moscow and yet devoid of all the pedestrian traffic.  Just a lovely little find to add to my guided tour of the Embees Moscow.

I decided to diagnose myself yesterday in order to cure my stomach ailments. (I would like to thank all of you who I’m assuming are medically trained, for your insights and suggestions regarding my health.  I spent hours on Mayo.com trying to find out if I had all the things that were suggested I had.)  I figured I would destroy whatever bad organisms were in my gut so I made a very hot and spicy chicken curry. It was filled with vegetables, raisins, chicken and lots of strong curry, cumin, coriander and chili flakes.  Terribly afraid that I might not be able to deal with the intense spices, I added a few tablespoons of rich sour cream at the end with a sprinkle of mint.  I served it over a hot bed of chicken and turmeric rice, which could also be used in quantity if it was too over the top for me.  It turned out to be just perfect and really delicious, especially served with a bottle of light and effervescent Vinho Verde.   I slept like a baby and feel great today.

Cindy is hosting a consultant that she hired to help with the professional development of AAS in regard to Interactive White Boards. These were just coming online when I left SDSU but they are really great tools for teachers and Cindy’s school has lots of them so they all needed to be trained in how to go beyond the basics.  She had to drive into school today with the consultant and just wrote that they are closing lots of the streets that she needs to use to get home to rehearse for the May Day and Victory Day Parades.  I may eat alone tonight!

Salvation, Cindy made it home and we are now going to have to get ready to party since she is entertaining the consultant tonight.  I’ll leave you with this wonderful article that I could/should have written.  It reminds me of Dieter, the world’s most annoying man.

Best wishes, Cindy and Wm.

If You Can't Weld, Learn to Paint

I woke up this morning at about 3:30 with a real stomachache. The pain came in waves and basically I wasn’t able to sleep for the rest of the night.  I’ve not done anything today, just stayed in the house despite it being a lovely day, and did laundry and rested.  It is most likely just a flu bug or something since Cindy felt fine, so it wasn’t in the food we had for dinner.

When we were coming back to the apartment yesterday we were noticing how everything is getting painted, everywhere in Moscow.  Three days ago they installed some pipe that goes from a manhole in the middle of the dirt area in front of our apartment to some other manhole about thirty meters away.  I watched them doing some welding and yesterday I noticed that they had painted the pipe a bright blue.  I couldn’t help but notice that the welded joints were really sloppy and I told Cindy that my father would have been very disappointed in the quality of the work.  My dad taught welding, as well as doing a lot of welding during his career in construction.  At one point he had a welding school and almost all of his graduates would be hired by Electric Boat in New London, to work on the construction of submarines.  He used to volunteer to teach welding one night a week at the Danbury Federal Correctional Institution.  It was a long commute but he enjoyed teaching mostly young first time offenders a skill that they could use when released to secure good paying jobs.  He even had G. Gordon Liddy, of Watergate fame, cleaning his floors and my dad said he did a fine job.  He quit doing that after a few years when he would see some of the men he had trained coming back to prison after he had already gotten them good jobs.   They tried to tell him it wasn’t his fault, the skills they learned from him helped them get involved with bigger crimes!  We still have some of the rather creative gifts the prisoners gave my dad when he left.

He, of course, taught us all how to weld, but it never really took with me.  My brothers became rather good at welding but I was reduced to cutting, as opposed to joining.  I could use an Oxy-Acetylene torch well enough to cut I-beams and rebar if the tolerances were within an inch or so, but I never had the finesse to do any arc welding. It was yet another example of my lack of construction skills that my father used to make sure I got an education that would allow me to work indoors without tools.

Easter Dinner was fun to make, but it again involved chicken.  We went shopping for lamb but at about $21 a pound for chops, it just wasn’t worth it.  We don’t eat beef or pork or veal, and fish is just too expensive and usually not fresh, so we mostly have vegetables and chicken.  Most cooking, like most music, is simply a variation on a theme, so last night I did several variations.  I changed Cypriot Eggplant into Italian Eggplant.  I still sliced the eggplant the long way and roasted it for fifteen minutes with a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper and herbs.  Then I took it out and placed sliced tomatoes on each piece, more oil, oregano and topped it with slices of fresh Grana before placing it back into a 400° oven for another fifteen minutes or until the cheese was brown and bubbly.

I cut up lots of carrots, potatoes and onions and placed them in the bottom of a large roasting pan. I coated them with olive oil, salt and pepper and herbs de Provence and placed pieces of chicken on top of them so that they were all covered.  Earlier I had taken the cloves of two heads of garlic and soaked them in water for about thirty minutes, with skins on. Now I tucked them under the pieces of chicken so that we could have a modified Easter Egg hunt, but with garlic, when everything was cooked.  We had stopped at the real French bakery on our walk so we had wonderfully fresh bread to go with dinner.  It was a lovely Easter Sunday feast.

I just looked out the back window and low and behold, all of the children’s playground equipment has been painted bright reds, yellows and blues.  No signs are up so I hope it all dries before the kids get back from school.  So, it is off to the kitchen to see what I can make for Cindy’s dinner. 

Best wishes to all, Cindy and Wm.

Easter Sunday, Moscow Rules

Happy Easter

We were up late last night having gone to dinner at a lovely spot not far from the apartment.  The food and wine were wonderful and we didn’t care about the price since we go out so infrequently.  I was a bit worried about the restaurants being crowded on Easter Saturday evening, but we were almost the only ones in the restaurant, which ensured great service.   We ran into a friend of Cindy’s from work, one of the Russian teachers. She sat with us for awhile and shared stories of Russians and her recent vacation to the Dominican Republic.  She also helped us with some restaurant words and we now know how to order an ice bucket for the wine.

We got up late at about 8:30 and while Cindy ran, I spent twenty minutes on the treadmill.  After coffee and a very light breakfast, we cleaned up, dressed up and headed out for a walk to the Old Arbat so that Cindy could see it for herself.  I somehow had pictured Easter Sunday on the Old Arbat as being like the Easter Day Parade on Fifth Avenue in New York.  I was wrong! You would think that after a hard winter a beautiful Easter Sunday would make Moscow smile, but alas the Muscovites are still somber and sullen.  For the most part the Arbat was filled with young kids looking for love in all the wrong places, skinheads looking for trouble and drinking enough beer to cause their own, a few tourists and lots of “Stans” (from Khazakstan, Uzbekistan, etc.) walking around on their day off.  All of them joyless. Even the parks were filled with empty faces and emptier beer and vodka bottles.  About the only place where you could hear any laughter and see lots of smiles was around the Zoo, which was jam packed with families today.

Unfazed, we walked for several hours enjoying each other’s company, stopping for a coffee and marveling at all the old and ever so beautiful buildings and offices. My but this is grand city if you look in the right spots.  I’m predicting that by Wednesday most of the trees will have some tentative leaves and Moscow will once again start turning green.

With the good weather comes the opening of windows, which is a mixed blessing. While the cool breeze is most welcomed, there is a lot of dust that comes with it since we have had no appreciable rain in weeks.  Cindy had to get out the Swiffer Duster and go around our bedroom, which was coated with fine white dust and dirt.  The open windows also let in lots and lots of the music of the streets.  Our parking area has become the skate board/inline skate hotspot of the neighborhood.  We have lots of Asian families that live in this complex; most of them are from Vietnam and all of them seem to have four kids.  On the weekends and after school now that the weather is fine, they are out in force and at times the noise can be overwhelming and is always annoying.  Punctuate that noise with two or three car alarms and a few ambulances arriving at the clinic next door and you have a cacophony of chaos.

So, as the sun sinks slowly in the west, I’ll chill the Champagne and we’ll toast our first Easter in Russia.  I hope you all have an interesting day – Let me leave you with this Happy Easter rap.  Cindy and Wm.

Easter Saturday Moscow

Another lovely day, and Cindy, being moved by my blog yesterday, demanded to be taken to the Vagankovo Cemetery. There were about a million people there, most of them in a non-moving line to enter the very small church on the cemetery grounds. We don’t know what the tradition is; I assume it is to bless things, but there were at least a thousand people waiting to get in.  This article might shed some light as to why there were so many people. The line went clear out the gate and across the street, fortunately the streets have been blocked until after Easter. 

We walked completely around the cemetery and enjoyed watching everyone cleaning and decorating the gravesites. Some of the gravesites are very simple and some are very, very elaborate as you can see from these photos.

One long part of the cemetery borders the railway tracks that serve Beloruskya Station. There is a three-car train, all in red that is parked near the cemetery. After lots of research using Google Language we translated it as the Fire Train Headquarters.  It seems that they have several of these trains that can be taken to remote fire areas that trucks can’t reach.  The train has the HQ car, a large armored car for personnel and equipment, and a huge tanker car for water.  Quite the setup.

We walked from the cemetery to the park that Cindy runs in. We wanted to take photos of a statue with some poems on either side of the marble block and translate them, which took us lots of time.  Anyway, they are interesting but not that interesting. I suppose you had to be there when he was reciting them.  Right behind the park is a museum, which I call the Museum of Funny Art. There are some rather whimsical statues out front but every time we go there the joint is closed so we have to try and figure out what everything is all about.  Some of the photos are attached in the above link.

Since Easter Week and Passover share a lot of days, I thought you might enjoy this cartoon.

Here are some picture postcards of Moscow in the 60’s.  Only the buses are the same today!

Happy Easter Saturday, Cindy and Wm

Our Train Station in the 60's.  It doesn't look this good now!

Our main drag, everything that is green is now pavement!

Good Friday at Vagankovo Cemetery

The days just get better and better. I had decided not to do any long walks today so that my legs could recover from yesterday.  The day beckoned however so I thought I would just go for a short one-hour walk. I had wanted to visit the Vagankovo Cemetery, which is only about fifteen minutes from here. (If we could explain what to click you could see our building, but there is  no way to mark it.)  It is the second largest cemetery in Moscow and it is where those who didn’t qualify to be buried in Novodevichy are relegated.  It is known as a sports and artist cemetery and there are some rather unusual markers.  One in particular is shaped like a football pitch (from CC: he means soccer field) and is the marker for one of the great Russian soccer players.  It is a very, very large place and it was very crowded since today is Good Friday and everyone is making sure that the grave sites are cleaned and filled with fresh flowers for the Easter pilgrimage that most Russian families make to honor their loved ones. In fact, as I think I mentioned, most roads around the cemeteries are to be blocked this weekend to make sure everyone can walk in safety.  I saw lots of police presences today.

Vagankovo has a much different feel than Novodevichy. It far more densely populated and feels much more like a burial ground than a must-see stop for tourists and a photo op for newlyweds.  It is very pretty and I’m sure that in the summer it is just as lovely as this 360° photo.  Here are some other photos that you might enjoy. I didn’t feel comfortable taking pictures today with everyone working on the graves.  The flower vendors that line both sides of the road to the entrance were doing a brisk business in both fresh and plastic flowers, and to tell you the truth, the plastic ones looked better. It turns out my one-hour walk turned into two hours but it was very pleasant and peaceful and I was happy to be off the major roads.

Texting while walking is becoming an epidemic here. I can’t tell you how many people have been bumped and bruised by people aimlessly walking with their heads turned down typing or reading some message.  Yesterday there was a serious case of a pedestrian chain reaction as one woman just stopped in the middle of a narrow sidewalk to type a message and she was darn near run over by those behind her. Things just stopped until everyone could get back into a walking rhythm again.

We have no real plans for Easter Weekend.  One of our granddaughters, Emily, asked us to go to the Pushkin Museum and take some photos since she is studying Chagall in school. She is like in fifth grade and they are studying Chagall??  I think I was still learning colors in fifth grade, but hey, that’s progress.

Dinner was a simple affair.  I pan seared some tuna fillets and finished them with a lime/teriyaki glaze and served them with assorted vegetables.  We had a lovely white Bordeaux to accompany the fish and that added a touch of elegance. Speaking of wine, I found two bottles of Vinho Verde at the Liberty store. They were only eight bucks each and only have 10° alcohol so I scooped them up and we’ll try them this weekend.  It will be a lovely way to celebrate Easter.

Happy Easter Weekend,  Cindy and Wm

The Kremlin Wall

Today is by far the most beautiful of the year.  It is a gloriously sunny day, in the 50’s and very clear.  I decided to take a walk this morning since I had one task that I needed to accomplish.  I had purchased two sets of tickets online for the Bolshoi, one on the 14^th of May for the Opera Nabucco by Verdi and the other on the 2^nd of June for the ballet Swan Lake. These tickets are to kick off the gala two-month celebration of Cindy finally reaching the age of enlightenment on June 3^rd.  I wanted to bring my two vouchers down to the ticket office and exchange them for the real deal, so I headed to Red Square, turned left before the gates and was at the Bolshoi four minutes later.  I presented my vouchers and she asked me for the credit card I had used to pay for them.  Well, this started a wonderful discussion about credit thief, the lack of mail coming to Russia from the USA and the fact that that particular card had been cancelled since purchasing the tickets. Fortunately for me, she was a very friendly person and we muddled though lots of the above before I realized I had a trump card.  I whipped out my Kartichka - that is the diplomatic card written in Russian explaining that I’m a dumb American, but please treat him with respect.  She took a look at the card, then looked at my name on the voucher and bingo, two sets of tickets were printed and we smiled as we exchanged our Do Svidanyas and I was off.

I had left the apartment at 10:30 since I knew the ticket office didn’t open until 11 and now it was 11:20 and I didn’t want to go back the same way so I decided I would walk around the Kremlin Gate.  I walked through Red Square and just followed the enclosed gate for about fifty minutes; it really is a lovely walk and the weather was just delightful.  I then walked another hour until I reached the Old Arbat street, which now is a pedestrian way filled with western food chains, Hard Rock Café, tons of street musicians, panhandlers and tourist souvenir shops and bars.  It used to be the street of diplomats and wealthy merchants, but that was hundreds of years ago. Today there was a lot of construction going on as the cafés and bars were installing their outdoor seating areas. I’m assuming on a Friday or Saturday night that place is jumping.

I ended up walking by our embassy where I popped in for a few items and then headed home having walked for about four hours.  I know I’ll suffer tomorrow, but I feel very righteous. You can start to feel that spring will burst on the scene in a few days. Unlike Charles Town where our spring is slow and long, here everything will pop overnight, especially if we have some much needed rain.

And now for something completely different.  Who says that the Russian President is too stiff?  Here is a wonderful clip and I just know that Elaine from Seinfeld and Medvedev could really boogie all night. Here is an amusing little article; unfortunately it is 100% accurate.  Just two weeks ago I got on a packed Aeroexpress and grabbed one of the last seats and the seat back went straight back. I ended up seating on it like a bench for the whole 45 minutes.

Chicken and Vegetables

You are all going to think that all I cook is chicken or chicken parts and this week you would be correct. However, when you see fresh chicken at reasonable prices, you just have to buy it.  I found some very fresh and rather modestly priced deboned chicken thighs on sale at the market so I grabbed them.  I roasted them with salt, pepper, herbs de Provence and paprika. Next to them on the roasting pan I placed sliced potatoes.  In a wok I flash fried broccoli, garlic, onions and red peppers. I kept basting the potatoes with the rendered chicken fat as they cooked and you can see the lovely brown crust that developed.  We started with some chicken liver pate that I had made with the left overcooked livers. Without electronic kitchen devices, I was forced to do things the old fashioned way, using two knives in opposition to one another, to chop up the liver and then the hard cooked eggs. I served the pâté on a bed of spinach with a side of cornichons.  

Let us talk about hard cooked eggs for a moment since many of you will be cooking dozens of them for Easter.  I have, over the course of fifty years, tried every method of cooking eggs you can think of. I’ve pierced them, plunged them in ice water, added vinegar to the boiling water, made them dance in the pan to crack them after they have cooked and let them sit in cold water and yet, I’ve not found a foolproof way to get easy peelers all the time. Someone once said that the fresher the egg the harder it is to peel, but I don’t know if that is true.  I’m open to any and all suggestions!

Ciao for now, Cindy and Wm

Moscow Dresses Up

As Moscow counts down to the big May Day celebrations and Victory Day on May 9^th, the city is getting itself all prettied up for all the visitors.  Everywhere you go there are people outside painting buildings, fences, bus stops and other public areas, especially in and around Red Square.  Even here in our little housing area, there has been non-stop work on painting all the fences that surround the parking area and the little grassy spots between the nine doorways into the apartments.  I note with great amusement that they still do things the old Soviet way:  They paint over the rust, thus making sure that next year they’ll have even more work to do.  One fence outside the apartment area was being painted a lovely green but there was so much rust under the paint that one section just collapsed.  The members of The 54 Club will be delighted to see that the city has repainted their clubhouse so it is nice and clean for their first meeting.

I did my normal workout with my rubber bands and then spent about twenty minutes on the treadmill.  I was quite stiff after the long walk yesterday so this worked out all the kinks.  I then took a brisk walk around the ‘hood ending up at the grocery store for some fruit and vegetables.  There was a long line to get all the vegetables weighed and priced, and it took me about ten minutes to get to be the next in line.  I heard a noise as if something had fallen from a shelf and as I turned my head to look at it, a woman jumped right in front of me. Before I could react, the babushka behind me was all over her like white on rice.  Man, she was vicious and while they were having it out, I started to place my fruits and vegetables on the counter to be weighed.  The woman that cut the line was from one of the Stans, and I’m sure that the vitriolic response from the other woman had more to do with her ethnicity than her cutting in line.  It is always an interesting experience to shop in Moscow.

Dinner last night was a great big spinach salad with chicken livers, caramelized onions and walnuts.  I tossed the spinach with a sesame dressing before adding the pan fried livers and onions.  I gave them a nice toss to help wilt the spinach before adding the walnuts.  I then plated the mixed salad onto large dinner plates and then added freshly shaved Grana cheese that we had brought back from Italy.  Earlier in the day I had reduced a pint of balsamic vinegar to about four ounces and I drizzled some of that onto the cheese.  It was really very good and certainly good for us.  I had found a bottle of Italian dry white for only about four dollars so we gave it a try and I’ll be going back to the store for lots more of it if it is still there.  It was crisp, fresh and 11% alcohol, perfect for our dinner.

Spinach Salad

Not much else to report, mostly working on keeping the house in order and doing a little spring cleaning.  I’m off to the kitchen to prep for tonight’s dinner. 

Almond Crusted Cod

Seared Tuna, Risotto and Caramelize Carrots

Ciao, Cindy and Wm

Presnya and Politics

My day yesterday was filled with shopping and cooking so I never really had a chance to get outside to walk. I made up for that today with a three hour plus walk which took me to some fascinating locales.  I wanted to walk through some of my favorite parks to see what April has brought in the way of flowers or budding trees, but alas, it is still too early here and the best I found was a little clump of tulip shoots just breaking through the still cold soil.  It was a cool day with a strong wind that encouraged a brisk pace and before long I had a nice sweat going despite the chill in the air.

My plan was to follow the bus 54 route to see where it turns around, but as they say, “mortals plan; the gods laugh.”  I was heading in the right direction but came to a little pond and wanted to walk around it to see if it drained into the Moscow River, which was rather close at this point.  The pond ended rather abruptly at a little shack, which dispensed some type of oil for cars. There were lots of guys gathered around with five liter jugs getting them filled and then filling their engines. For all I know they drained their oil right into the pond and then filled up at the shack; nothing is beyond the scope of Russians.

I headed towards the river and came to a rather elaborate gate that led to a beautiful park that I later discovered is called Presnya Park and is filled with canals and decorative bridges. Today there were lots of mothers with kids on bikes, on scooters and tucked in prams, all enjoying the lovely morning sunshine.  It appears that at one time there was a grand palace on this property, which faces the Moscow River. The canals were all man made and for decoration as opposed to functioning as waterways as they do in Venice.  The park is named for a river, The Presnya, which used to feed the canals as well as fill Patriarch Pond and the two large ponds at the Zoo. Now the river has been diverted underground but still empties into the Moscow River at this park.

From there I headed down towards a large enclosed pedestrian bridge that I saw in the distance that I hoped would take me across the river. It is a very modern looking structure and once inside I marveled at the high-end shops that lined the walk over the river.  Lots of nice restaurants, food and ice cream kiosks and, as everywhere in Moscow, loads of places to buy cell phones and SIM cards.  It also afforded fabulous views up and down the Moscow River, which is once again fill with all types of tourist boats.

I followed the river all the way up to the bend before finding stairs up to a bridge, which took me back to the other side where I then headed for the embassy.  I did a little shopping there before heading back to the apartment.  I was tired and hungry when I got here but it did feel great to get out and do some serious moving.

I continue to read with great anxiety the continuing saga of the collapse of civility in Bahrain.   Yesterday they suspended and held for trial 111 teachers who had the audacity to peacefully protest for greater human rights and recognition. Their real crime, of course, is being Shi’a in a Sunni ruled land. The authorities continue to round up doctors and ambulance drivers who treated those injured by the security forces of Bahrain during their peaceful demonstrations; their crime was helping the wounded.  Even athletes and Peace Activists are not immune from the threat of suspension if they are Shi’a.  They now have involved troops from other Gulf nations, mostly Saudi Arabia, in house to house searches for those they believe to be protestors, all again who are Shi’a.  Imagine troops from Mexico or Canada coming into a home in the USA looking for ‘terrorists’ without warrants or due process.  It gives pause que? eh?  They have gone to great lengths to make sure that Bahrain TV only tells the government side of the issues and BTV makes Fox look liberal.

If you want to see what some of this is about, I encourage you to take a look at this link which shows rather graphically, with the aid of Google Earth, how much land and resources are controlled by the small royal family of Bahrain.  The people want representative democracy so that they can all claim a fair share of resources but it is not going to happen any time soon and it certainly isn’t going to happen with the assistance of the USA.  We pick our battles by first demonizing the leaders and then destroying the infrastructure of the country as we did in Iraq and Afghanistan. We can’t do that in Bahrain since it is home to our Fifth Fleet so we condemn all the other countries of the Middle East for not allowing democracy to flower, while turning a blind eye towards the tortures and torments of those outside the gates of our base in Bahrain.  The government is even monitoring Bahraini students, all Shi’a, who are studying overseas and had the audacity to protest in London, or Manchester, Oxford or Essex. They are summoning them back after canceling their scholarships!

Enough with politics!  Let’s talk dinner.  I made two dinners last night, well one dinner for two families.  I did a variation on the theme of Basque Chicken. In addition to the chicken, sausage, red, yellow and green sweet peppers, garlic and onion, I added diced potatoes and lots of paprika.  It was, according to Cindy, the best of the many times I’ve cooked this dish. We went over to the family’s apartment with their dinner about 6:45. In addition to the Basque Chicken we brought over some fresh crusty French bread, an apple strudel, and a bottle of dry Tokaj.  He is Hungarian - thus the wine, the paprika, and the Basque dish since the only languages that are similar to Hungarian are Basque and Finnish and I don’t have any Finnish recipes.  We also brought a cold bottle of Champagne to toast the new baby Zsofi. (I did mention he is Hungarian?)  She is a lovely child with a full head of thick black hair and the longest fingers I’ve ever seen on a one-week old baby.  It was lovely to meet her.

Best to all, Cindy and Wm.

Gorky Park and Pussy Willows

Cindy and I just reread Gorky Park and we were going to watch the old movie, but decided that we should first go and walk through the park.  We headed for the Metro and in four stops we were within a ten-minute walk to the park.  It is a physically huge place that spreads out along the Moscow River.  The first part of the park is mostly tacky children’s rides and amusements, none of them open yet, but work is being done to get them ready for the Easter opening.  All along the water are the adult, make it teen, rides. We had seen these rides in operation when we were on a boat trip on the river last fall. These things are designed to make my stomach sick, but they seem to be very popular with teenagers.  You can click here for some nice photos.  We wandered around and tried to find some of the exact locations where the bodies from the novel were found.  We are sure we found the spots, but of course the film was shot in Sweden so perhaps nothing will seem as familiar in the movie.

We had to climb a lot of stairs to cross over the river on a very cool pedestrian bridge. As we entered there were five signs that said what you couldn’t do in the glass covered bridge: no smoking, no bike riding, no drinking, no pets, no food.  We took bets as to how many violations we would see in the crossing.  We both thought it would be three but it was four!  We didn’t see anyone smoking but all the other prohibitions were ignored.  Once we saw two uniformed police stop two kids riding bikes but shortly thereafter two teens raced by us in the other direction with their bikes.  Russians do not like laws that impede their desires. 

Our walk home took about ninety minutes and all along the way we saw lots and lots of people with little bunches of pussy willows.  It dawned on me that it was Palm Sunday and that perhaps they used pussy willows instead of palms. Sure enough a search on Google confirmed our suspicions. One article even said that if the sick eat nine pussy willow buds on Palm Sunday, they would be healed. Happily we were both feeling just fine.  The crowds around the newly opened zoo were thick with families and loud with the shrieks of delight from the kids.

Unfortunately, since it was a Sunday, I decided to wear nice pants instead of play pants and when I got home I found all sorts of grease and dirt stains on my slacks.  The bottom of my left pant leg looks like it got caught in a greasy bike chain. They are soaking as I write before I wash everything.  It hasn’t rained much and there is a lot of dirt in the air. Our cloths really looked horrible after our long walk requiring yet another load of laundry today.

I roasted a big chicken last night, with all the trimmings; I even made stuffing from some old bread.  The lousy oven betrayed me, yet again.  Somehow I can never adjust it for the right temperature and when I thought it was ready, I found that the thigh meat was still uncooked, so I separated them from the bird and cooked them a bit longer.  It was all good, but by the time we had finished Skyping everyone and eating dinner, it was far too late to start Gorky Park, so we’ll try it again sometime this week.

Today I’m cooking dinner for one of the AAS families that just had a baby.  Someone here organized a ‘meal service’ whereby a different family makes dinner for the new parents for the next week. I think it is a lovely idea and I’m only too happy to be able to contribute.  We’ll bring them the dinner, complete with wine, and visit a bit to welcome the new child.  Cindy purchased lovely little gifts for the new baby and her older brother, as well as for the parents; very thoughtful that Cindy.

On a cheery note, never let is be said that the entrepreneurial spirit isn’t alive and kicking in Russia:

From The Associated Press, April 18, 2011 - 06:17 a.m.

US investor reveals $39 million fortune of Moscow official who approved $230 million return

By The Associated Press

MOSCOW - An American investor barred from Russia has made public documents revealing a multimillion-dollar fortune of a Russian tax official. The documents revealed Monday by William Browder showed that a Moscow tax official who approved the fraudulent $230 million tax return in 2007 has bought luxury real estate in Moscow, Dubai and Montenegro and wired money through her husband's bank accounts worth $39 million. Olga Stepanova managed to do that with a registered household income of $40,000 for four years.  Lawyer Sergey Magnitsky who uncovered the tax fraud died in jail in 2009 after being denied medical treatment.  Browder has revealed documents incriminating officials of Moscow's Tax Office No. 28, which arranged the $230 million tax return in 2007.

Penniless in Moscow, Cindy and Wm.

Rude Russians and Bella Italia

This is one of those days where I wish I were somewhere else, almost anywhere else.  Moscow is not pretty when the snow has melted and the flowers are still making decisions as to whether to bother or not.  Walking around is like looking at an archeological dig, as the layers of snow depart they reveal the layers of garbage that had been thrown on the snow before each storm.  I’m sure they will clean it all up sometime soon, but for now it isn’t a pretty sight.

We took the car to Auchan for some heavy duty shopping.  The traffic wasn’t bad getting there but the store was crowded and the kamikaze carts of the babushkas created their own traffic jams in all of the aisles. My ankles are black and blue from being bumped repeatedly by these rude Russians.  On two occasions today I extended myself to help some Russian women.  One was with a family and the little kid in the stroller threw his hat to the ground. I picked it up and handed it to the woman and I wasn’t sure if she would seek to have me arrested for theft or cut my hand off.  She reluctantly acknowledged my assistance but you could tell it hurt her.  The next time I saw a woman struggling to open a door and get her baby carriage out so I went over and held the door for her and she simply walked right by me with zero acknowledgement.  Rude is too nice a word for some of these Russians.

I suppose part of the problem is that we are just back from seven days of smiles, polite gestures, friendly conversations and helpful clerks and waiters. It isn’t fair to compare a Mediterranean culture with a Slavic Culture, but I do!  We did have a lovely time in Italy and only wish that there were an easier way of getting there without the hassle of flights. 

Our friends Bob and Mary took such wonderful care of us, driving us all around Milan and their town called Opera and making sure that our desires for good wine and fine food were satisfied.  On Sunday they drove us out into the hills of Emilia Romagna, home of legendary restaurants and food products.  Our destination was one of their favorite little restaurants perched high on a hill and basically the only place for miles around. The views were stunning, like being in Tuscany or the hills of Burgundy, but the food, oh my.  There were platters of cured meats, roasted vegetables, pickled vegetables, pan fried pumpkin slices in butter and herbs, fried shrimp and tempura vegetables and this was just appetizers.  The pastas were all home made and were deep yellow from all the fresh egg yokes.  Some were prepared primavera style with tons of fresh vegetables, some with porcini and fresh truffles - and mine was delicate pasta filled with fresh creamy ricotta and herbs and then twisted to look like little firecrackers.  We were all relatively sure that we were done eating after this, but the flesh is weak and we decided to order two main dishes and share them.  Ours was a perfectly cooked piece of goose with grilled apples and a honey cinnamon sauce.  The wines were from the area and they were perfect with the food. At the end the owner, who knows Bob and Mary, came by with two local digestives so we could try them before trying the ice cream he made with them.  It was a sad parting, and I would have liked to have gone for a long walk and started all over again for dinner, but we had miles to go.  Before crossing the river back into Lombardia, we stopped at a winery where Bob and Mary are regulars and we got the big family treatment of hugs and kisses and glasses and glasses of wine that we simply had to taste.  For some reason the ride back was much shorter than the ride out there.

On Monday Cindy and I took a bus and then a tram and did a quick tourist review of downtown Milan including La Scala, the lovely and sparking clean cathedral, the Galleria and some of the more lovely pedestrian streets.  It was fun to see it all again but we longed to get back to the countryside and quiet of Opera, where we had a penultimate dinner with Bob and Mary.  The next day we were off to Cremona via train.  According to the hotel brochure, it was to be a short ten-minute walk from the Cremona train station to the hotel. Either they have moved the train station or the hotel, since it was more like a twenty-minute walk. The hotel was simple and perfectly placed for our walking around the old city. We were just a few minutes away from the main square and the beautiful buildings that surround the grand tower.  We stopped in the tourist center and found, much to our delight, that it was Culture Week and nearly all of the events and museums were free.  We were also told that we could purchase tickets to listen to the ‘audition’ at 15:30. This is when someone is allowed to play one of the priceless Stradivarius violins in the museum.  We toured the museum first looking at about twelve Strads, a few Guarneri and other instruments, and watching Cindy was like watching a kid in a candy store.

We were finally seated along with about fifty grade school kids - all of whom were wonderfully behaved - and the violinist came out to play.  In rapid Italian he told the kids a bit about the history of the violin and the important role Cremona played in the evolution of the violin and other stringed instruments.  He then introduced the violin he was going to play, all the good ones I found out have names, and then he played.  It was magic, just sitting in this ancient room filled with tapestries, paintings and frescos and listening to the dulcet tones coming from this instrument.  (From CC:  dulcet, yes, but the power and beauty of the tone was overwhelming.  I kept looking for the amplification system!)

We then took a walk to the big museum and spent another hour or so looking at more instruments, tools, and manuscripts and drawings. We saw a really good video that gave the history of Cremona and the luthiers (violinmakers) who made the town famous. In order to get to this part of the museum we had to walk though acres of huge paintings from old locals, none of which grabbed our attention, but the museum itself was just spectacular with one of the grandest staircases in the world, all made with multicolored marble.

By now it was almost five thirty and we settled in for a glass of wine in the main square smack dab in front of the cathedral and tower.  What a lovely view and what a lovely wine.  In Cremona when you order a drink you also get plates of little snacks, chips, crackers, olives, small sandwiches, little plates of meat, nuts … it all depends on where you go, so my task for the next day was to find the best places for aperitivi.  More on that tomorrow. Ciao, Cindy and Wm

Milan to Moscow

We arrived back in Moscow late last night.  Our flight from Milan was an hour late and they didn’t make up much of the lost time.  By the time we dropped other AAS faculty off at their residences, we didn’t get in the door until nine pm.  That old expression, ‘getting there is half the fun,’ needs to be retired, especially when talking about flying.

We departed Cremona on Thursday afternoon, taking a train from there to Milan central station and connecting seamlessly with a bus that took us to Malpensa airport where we connected with another bus to take us to the Crowne Plaza hotel.  All in all it took about three and a half hours and by the time we arrived we were very hungry and thirsty. Luckily the bar served a nice salad and two cold glasses of wine set us up for a lovely nap.  During out post-nap walk around the neighborhood - this hotel is about a mile from the terminal and in a residential area - we found a trattoria that looked promising.  We headed there about eight pm for a drink and a look around and decided it would be fine, and it was.  The décor was nothing to talk about, brightly lit and mostly plastic, but the food was delicious and the wine half the price of the wine we’d had at the hotel.

The next morning we took the shuttle bus to the terminal to check in for the flight. We allowed three hours for this process and we used almost all of it just trying to navigate Malpensa.  This has to be one of the worst airports in the world.  Like many things Italian, the focus was on design, not function.  Think Italian plumbing and Italian cars:  very pretty to look at, but they really don’t work well.  We had to walk to a far end of the terminal, which is really long, to check in. After waiting there for forty minutes and then finally checking in, we had to walk all the way to the other end of the terminal to get into a line for security that took an hour and a half to get through.  Not once did we see any staff trying to speed things up or stop people from jumping the line. There are huge pictures of what you have to do to pass security:  take off your jacket, take out your phones and computers, take off your belt, etc., and yet to a person, everyone forgot to do one or more things resulting in them having to go back and forth through the metal detector.  Finally we got through and were in a short line for immigration and passport control only to find that the woman ahead of us was taking out papers to show the officer.  That is always a horrible thing – separate pieces of paper mean that their passport isn’t good and it takes forever - so we had to change to another line.  Finally through, we were blocked by Asian tourists, mostly Japanese, in a tangle to get their VAT refunded.

We now had only about twenty minutes before boarding and we headed to the Alitalia lounge for a coffee for Cindy and a drink for me.  The lounge lady was lovely and told us our flight would be delayed and then she got us better seats and blocked the middle seat for us, which was a godsend given how packed the flight was.  The lounge offered beer and Prosecco and there must have been a promotion on Gordon’s gin since there were rows and rows of the little travel-size bottles on the counter.  It made me wish I drank gin!

We had to take a bus to the plane because Malpensa wasn’t designed for the number of flights it now has so they employ gates for almost all flights less than four hours.  Just before they closed the doors to the plane, in comes a woman with two kids and sits right behind us. We must be rotten-kid magnets since our inbound flight had a woman with two rotten kids also, and now this.  She, like the other woman, was young and attractive and she most likely never thought that finding and marrying Mr. Right would involve having kids and sitting in coach.  Neither part of that situation suited her, and the kids were just horrid. It was a very, very long flight, punctuated by two girls getting caught smoking in the bathroom.  Man oh man, you should have seen the Alitalia crew in action, they were fast and furious and those young ladies, who at first were smiling and thinking it was all a game, were really in big trouble and were met at the gate by security.  I would imagine they are somewhere in the bowels of the former KGB building by now.

Moscow is much as we left it but with much less snow. This morning was a lovely 44° and bright sun.  I went for a quick walk around the block and two people asked me for directions!  In Italy, no one asked me for directions; I just think Russians get lost a lot.  The Russians seem to have embraced spring by drinking lots and lots of beer.  There were three clusters of people, mostly men, who were drinking huge amounts of beer and smoking cigarettes at 9 am.  Not a tradition you read much about in tourist magazines.  In between doing four loads of laundry we managed a nice long walk around a new neighborhood that had lots of lovely old and stately homes, and it was quite nice to be walking without hats, gloves and scarves.

Italy was lovely. We were in the Milan area with our friends for five meals, all of them wonderful and one of them spectacular. Cremona was a delight and I almost got Cindy a Stradivarius but the guards were watching.  More details on Italy tomorrow.

Ciao, Cindy and Wm

Moscow to Milan

This evening will start Cindy’s spring break and we are heading to Milan.  I’ll meet her at the airport at about 1730 for a 1920 flight.  Living in Moscow means that some of the niceties we have become accustom to in the US just don’t exist.  There is no such thing as printing your boarding pass before heading to the airport, which might entail a loss of jobs for the hundreds of people who issue boarding passes.  You can’t request a seat assignment until you actually check in at the airport, which means if you are late, you are in a middle seat.  I don’t even know which terminal the flight is departing from since they don’t let you know that until you arrive and check the monitors. It makes for some thrilling adventures.

We are trying to travel green on this trip which means that we’ll be using only public transportation, no rental car, no taxis, just planes, buses and trains. Since we arrive late tonight we’ll stay at the airport hotel and tomorrow morning we’ll take a train to downtown Milan where we’ll meet our dear friends Bob and Mary who live and work in Milan. After three days of playing with them, it is back to the train station via Metro and a connection to Cremona, home of famous violins and violinmakers. We’ll wander around there for two more days before taking a train and then a bus back to the airport on Thursday night where we’ll stay until our flight on Friday.  With all these transfers we are packing light and therefore no computer or all the junk associated with a computer.  No missives for a week so you can all relax.

Dinner last night was one of those clean the fridge deals, yet again.  I rummaged around and made a salad of spinach topped with Fritos, topped with my homemade avocado dish, topped with sour cream topped with sprinkles of paprika. It looked like the national flag of Mexico. The avocado dish is simple but elegant. It is just chunky avocado mixed with a clove of garlic, chopped cherry tomatoes, lemon juice, salt, pepper and chili flakes.  It is best served after having sat in the fridge for two to three hours.  The main course was cod fillets breaded in crushed almonds and pan fried in a little butter and olive oil until the crust was brown and crisp. I served that with cauliflower florets mixed with some of the crushed almonds, two cheeses and baked until everything is bubbling.

Since I have most of the day before departing I decided to wash the bedding since that is an all day project given the size of our washer.  It is always nice to come home to clean sheets and pillowcases.

Finally, this bit of budgetary wizardry from the US Government. It is about to purchase 21 Russian made Mi-17 helicopters. We shall then, as per a NATO agreement, turn them over to the Afghan military for their use in counter terrorism.  Now comes the tricky part.  These helicopters sell for about 7 or 8 million a piece. We however are paying 17.5 million a piece; supposedly the additional expense is for spare parts and training.  I would think that we could buy 2.5 helicopters for 17.5 million and use one of the them for spare parts when needed? What ever happened to Sikorsky, that lovely US based maker of helicopters?  Wouldn’t it be nice to see a US company get a bit more work out of our fiasco in Afghanistan!

On that happy note I’ll bid you all a happy weekend and a marvelous week until we are in touch again.   Cindy and Wm 

Moscow Moisture

I had a lovely long walk before going to the Embassy. There are hints, innuendos, and suggestions, if you will, of green on the bleak lawns and trees. I have a feeling that when things pop here they all pop at once and we’ll go from late winter to mid-spring in two or three days.  I’ll take whatever they throw at me as long as it involves more warm weather and gentle breezes.

I did a little shopping for basics at the Embassy and paid our cable bill while there. I had to bring back a bottle of corked wine that I purchased there and had to explain to them what a corked wine was and how it came to be that way.  By the time I was done explaining about TCA, white mold and cork trees, their eyes were glazed and they couldn’t get rid of me fast enough.  I purchased too many heavy things and by the time I got home my back was killing me from shouldering the one bag I had brought. My timing was stellar and just as I got to the door to our apartment complex, the rains had begun and continue in a gentle and soothing patter.

Two more signs of spring; the kiosks outside the zoo are all open and trying to draw in the customers. One is a photo joint that has people dressed like Disney animals attempting to get parents to take pictures of their kids with these models.  The other is a sausage place that has irresistible smells coming from the little grill, and the lines testify to the excellent product they are selling.

I watched a car repo job right outside my window this morning.  It was a big black newish looking Range Rover and it took three people to get the thing up on the truck.  It is always fun to guess what happened and why it was being repossessed, but judging from the way these yahoos mangled the bumper to get the towline connected, I’m sure they aren’t going to be selling that car as new.

Bahrain continues to struggle with the concept of democracy and equal rights. Instead of using the recent unrest to explore ways of engaging in dialogue, the way the Crown Prince wanted to do, they have returned to the heavy handed bungling that has become the trademark of the Prime Minister.  These two articles speak volumes regarding the direction the country is taking.  The ruling family is making a classic mistake:  When you can’t understand the big picture, focus on the little stuff, like taking coins out of circulation because the have a picture of the Pearl Roundabout on them. Instead of keeping their best hospital open and serving the public, they have made it into a jail.  I fear for what will soon happen when the people have had enough of this second-class treatment.

Since we are heading to Italy on Friday, I wanted to use everything I could in the fridge for dinner. There was some cooked chicken, one carrot, an onion and lots of garlic, some dried figs and a green apple, so I decided to do a chicken curry.  I cubed the chicken, cut the vegetables and fruits and flash fried everything in a wok.  I added curry powder from Bahrain, cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, chili flakes, a hint of mint, pepper and a bit of salt to a cup of hot chicken stock, mixed it all up before adding it to the wok where I incorporated it into the chicken mix.  Just before serving, I added a half-cup of milk and a half-cup of sour cream to the chicken mix and gently heated it all up again.  I served it on top of rice and decorated it with fresh chives and served it with hot Naan.  It was a fun meal and the spices did much to help keep me awake.

Parting Shot:  Reason 37 for not shopping at Wal-Mart

Stay well, Cindy and Wm

Beating Feet with Sneakers

Happy Birthday Mom – you would have been 86 today.

I’m in Moscow, the sun is shining, the temperature is in the upper 40’s and the snow is melting faster than the wicked witch of the east.  The trip home was as easy as it can get.  I was upgraded on the leg from Dulles to Houston and I must say that Continental is a very fine carrier.  The flight was lovely, great service and video at each seat; I wish United would learn from Continental.  I had been worried about connections but everything was spot on time despite the storms enroute.  The connection to Singapore was perfect - they kept a seat next to me open, which is almost like being in Business class - and my bag was the first to arrive so I was out and on the train in no time.  As much as I love the Metro here in Moscow, after having used the Singapore subway system things here look a bit shabby, due I’m sure to the fact that they have fifty-year-old rolling stock.

I was too tired to go out to dinner so I whipped up an appetizer of pan fried little potato dumplings that Cindy had had for dinner one night.  I browned them in butter and garlic and served them with fresh chives and a touch of Parmesan cheese.  I then made a little onion, garlic and red pepper omelette and served it on a bed of spinach. By 8:30 we were both falling asleep so we headed to bed early. I took something Cindy gave me and slept until 8:15 this morning.  I’m still feeling a bit tired but that will pass with some walking.

Every place has its harbingers of spring:  The swallows come back to Capistrano, the bluebirds return to Charles Town and here in Moscow, the boys of The 54 Club return to their clubhouse.  I was thrilled to see five of them convening a meeting this afternoon.  Refreshments were being served, well at least the bottles were being passed around, and everyone seemed to be in a fine mood with lots of greetings being extended to passersby.

Speaking of celebrations, it appears that my alma mater has won the national championship in basketball for the third time.  I’m told that is quite an accomplishment and I was dismayed that some of the students at UCONN used this victory as an opportunity to trash the campus and vandalize the area.  It is quite a tribute to stupidity when you can turn victory into defeat.

There is a third international airport here in Moscow that not many people are aware of since it is mostly used for the big shots as their private airport. It is called Vnukovo and it is about to get another runway, which will close if for while. This means that the politicos and other wealthy will have to use Sheremetyevo, which can only be reached by one road.  This means huge, huge delays during holiday periods or other times that these folks will travel since they actually close the entire road for top government officials as they travel to the airport.  Last year they had three-hour delays and this year they expect those will double.

At least the Bank of Moscow president, Andrei Borodin, won’t have to worry about travel delays. He left Russia yesterday, just before he was to be arrested on charges of providing a half-billion dollar loan to the wife of the then Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov.  Turns out the loan went into her personal account. Rumor has it that Andrei flew to London where Yuri and wife are living quite comfortably.

With a big nod to the Cold War era, Russia passed a new Criminal Code, which states that the sale or purchase of ‘…special technical devices intended for the covert collection of information’ is outlawed.  This has been interpreted to mean any device like an iPhone, Blackberry or other PDA that can record conversations. You have to read the details to truly understand the lunacy. 

This was the first day this year that I was able to go walking with just regular sneakers and man was it fun.  Just being able to get up a head of steam and not worry about ice or snow was a joy.  On my walk I noticed a few more Russian signs that it is spring.  The young girls have either hiked their skirts up about four inches or they are wearing much shorter jackets, there is a lot more drinking while walking going on, and as a result, there is a whole lot more public drunkenness, not just from the likes of The Club 54 members.  I saw two “fall down, stay down” episodes of drunks today in just 90 minutes.   I think a lot of people who had just abandoned driving for the winter are back on the roads since there was gridlock everywhere I went.  There was one traffic cop by the intersection where our road meets a main road. It is always a mess there, mostly because no one respects the Don’t Block the Box rule so that even when lights change no one can go anywhere. So the cop is out there trying to direct traffic and make people stop at the light, not inside the box, but this is Russia and authority figures, especially those not armed or in bigger cars, are just ignored.  Even when you have a traffic light as well as a cop, there is still no movement.  Finally the cop just threw up his hands and walked away: Score one for civil disobedience.

The Russian store clerks don’t seem overly caught up in the spirit of spring. I had to get one banana weighed and I’m standing there while the clerk was cutting up a printout of three columns and six rows of new prices. She had one little pair of scissors and she was very focused on her job.  I gave here a few pozhaluistas (please) and one or two izvinite menyas, (excuse me) but she was not to be distracted. Finally a few of the babushkas behind me said a few more forceful words to her and she responded by grabbing my banana as though I had been holding a pistol to her head.  Goodness, they need to have more laxatives in their diets! 

On a happier note, there are clusters of little Snowbell flowers near our door and about forty tulips have just extended the first inch of leaf though the thawing ground.  It is all good. 

Best to all, Cindy and Wm.