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
No comments:
Post a Comment