Ranting in Moscow

I have been blessed with the gift of perfect selective memory.  I can remember always being a perfect child, never having made any mistakes in my life and always having made the right decisions.  It is this gift that allows me to rant, mostly to myself, but sometimes to others, about the stupidity of today’s youths. On the one hand, I really don’t care if they kill themselves ‘Planking’, or die from various cancers by smoking hookahs, but on a more personal level, these are the people who should be paying taxes to support me in my old age and I can’t afford to have this revenue stream diminished.  This whole hookah thing is very strange to me and has been since I first read Alice In Wonderland and couldn’t understand what a caterpillar was doing smoking.  We have seen lots of hookah bars around Moscow and other spots in Europe but the idea of passing around the mouthpiece and comingling bodily fluids with strangers is almost as foreign to me as smoking the darn thing.

Anyway, the idea of ranting to the wind reminded me of a distant relative, Charlie Kean, who lived with his wife Lulu on a small farm in Westport Connecticut. In the early 1950’s there were a lot of small farms in Westport, which is now one of the most expensive places to purchase homes.  In fact, Paul Newman purchased his house only a mile from Charlie’s farm.  This farm was just large enough to sustain Charlie and Lulu.  She would put up fruits and vegetables and store them on rickety old shelves in their dirt floor basement. I still have wonderful memories of going down those stairs and having my nose assaulted with the rich peaty smell of dirt, mingled with the sweet aroma of bread and butter pickles.

Charlie took care of some livestock, which I think were mostly chickens and ducks. He had what seemed to me to be the largest grinding stone I had ever seen. He would sit there and pedal away while sharpening his tools and even his pitchfork.  In addition to using the pitchfork to turn hay, he used it to spear pike and pickerel, which lazed about in the little brook that ran through the property.

My sister and I would visit and stay with them on hot summer days and Lulu would give us each a saltshaker and tell us to go out and catch some birds.  She had us convinced that all we had to do was sprinkle some salt on birds’ tails and then they couldn’t fly and we could pick them up and bring them back to the house as pets. We would run and run and try to sneak up and then run some more until we retreated to the well where we would drink the cold water out of a tin cup that was tied to the well pump handle with bailing twine.   I digress!

Charlie was the first person I ever knew that ranted and he would rant about anything.  Sitting in his chair in the morning drinking his coffee out of the saucer, he would complain about politics, weather, the darn radio, stinking commies, and a host of other topics, most of which I didn’t understand.  What I did understand however was when he would raise his pitchfork to the skies cursing the confound aeroplanes that would be the curse of man.  At that point I knew I wanted to learn to fly.

I had thought we were going to go out for dinner last night, but one look at Cindy when she got home convinced me that it would be good to just stay home.   I made a nice fluffy sour cream omelette with herbs de Provence and two cheeses.  I served them on beds of spinach with some pan-fried potatoes, onions and garlic. It all went very well with a nice Badger Creek Chardonnay/Semillon from Australia.  I didn’t know there were Badgers in Australia but it probably sounds better than Wombat Creek.

Best to all, Cindy and Wm

From CC:  Must find out how I looked when I got home last night!!!  I figured I was as adorable as ever but apparently not.

Monday Chores

Cindy didn’t have to be at school early today and so we planned on sleeping until 6:30 and yet at 5am we were up and couldn’t get back to sleep so she took the normal bus.  It was far too light for me to try and go back to bed - plus I had stripped the bed linens so that I could wash them - so I was condemned to staying awake.  I did several loads of laundry in preparation for our house cleaner to iron.  I cleaned all the jars of spices, the spice racks, the spice corner, and several hard to reach places in the kitchen. By that time the bed linens were ready so I remade the bed. I couldn’t believe it was still only 9:45 and I was pooped. The cleaner finally came at 10:45 and I exited the apartment and walked for two and a half hours and did a little shopping before returning to the clean apartment.  The Russian equivalent of cottonwood trees are all tossing out their little white fluffy seeds and it looks like it is snowing in some parts of the city.  You have to be careful walking through that stuff since it can get into your nose and mouth, and man does it suck the moisture out of your system. If I had had a camera there was a great shot of all of this tree ‘snow’ with fully blossomed lilacs and chestnuts in the immediate background. Quite lovely.

Yesterday must have been a Vietnamese holiday of some sort since there were scores of them, half kids and half adults, yelling and partying well past 10 pm right under our bedroom window.  Right now there are about fifteen kids between the ages of one and seven yelling and crying and screaming, right under my office window. I shall not miss this part of international living.

Cindy has been trying to get the powers that be at AAS to give us an inventory list of what was in the apartment when we arrived.  We had purchased a lot of items from the people who lived here before us but we can’t find the list and we don’t want to sell anything that was provided by AAS.  So far no one has given her the list, but today someone in the admin office wrote to her to say that it looks like we are trying to sell a fan and room heater that belongs to the school.  They can’t give us an inventory list but they can tell us what belongs to them!! It is infuriating to say the least. The last thing we want is for anyone to think we are trying to take advantage of the school.

Since we had a late lunch yesterday our dinner was rather meager. I made chicken sandwiches with some fantastic bread we purchased at a bakery.  Nothing fancy, just wonderful sandwiches, a few pickles, some Fritos and sliced avocado.  Since everything is nice and clean in the kitchen, we’ll go to some neighborhood restaurant for dinner tonight.  The temperatures stay well into the seventies and the sun stays high until at least nine-thirty. If we were staying I would certainly purchase some blackout curtains to keep the sun out of our rooms in the afternoon and evening.

Best wishes, Cindy and Wm

Sunday In The Park With Cindy

One-Eye, A Byxbee Tradition

It has been a most pleasant day here in Moscow. We had coffee and one-eyes for breakfast and then decided to walk.  Warm temperature and clear skies invited us to travel to parts unknown so we headed to the Metro to make the connections needed to get to the neighborhood of Severnoye Tushino.  This is the last stop on one of the lines so it took us about thirty minutes, which makes it very close to one of the major airports.  It sits on the Khimkinskoye Reservoir and is home to the Russian Navy Museum, which the guidebooks say is open every day:  It is not!  We walked from the Metro stop and found the museum, thanks to Cindy’s dead reckoning.  We could see the three attractions from the edge of the water, an old nuke sub, a large old seaplane and a rather decrepit looking troop carrier.  I was somewhat relieved that the museum was not open since I didn’t relish spending money to look at those vessels.  We carried on through the big park following the music in the distance. We were following a path near the water and could see lots of hotel boats that go from Moscow to St. Petersburg - some looked iffy, others grand - and I’m sure it is a lovely voyage.

We found the source of the music and it was an elevated stage that had a troupe of young dancers in colorful costumes doing various folk dances. They were just superb and so well choreographed.  They did four routines, all with different costumes and songs and we just stood there surrounded by families with lots of kids, enjoying the dances until we decided to head for our next destination, a large church and a mansion.  We found neither, despite our long, long walks.  The map we had was useless and no one who lived in this town knew where they were.  The town itself is filled with Khrushev-era mass housing called ‘khrushyovkas’ and it is very depressing. It is also the most littered area of Moscow we have ever seen. The entire walkway through the woods was filled with the remains of parties from the night before. Tons of bottles, bags, paper plates; it was like we were in another country since we have never seen any litter in Moscow.

We walked until we were too tired to go on and gave up on finding the Bratsevo Mansion and the Church of the Holy Virgin and found our way towards the Metro. We stopped in what was billed as a café but it was really a restaurant so we had a nice late lunch of lamb meatballs and sliced roasted potatoes and ice-cold beers. A much needed rest stop.

Speaking of food, last night we stopped on the way home from our walk through Victory Park and purchased a roasted chicken from a street kiosk.  They first wrap the chicken in a huge sheet of flat bread (like a soft tortilla) and then wrap that in foil.  By the time we were ready to eat the bread had absorbed lots of the chicken fat, which made it taste simply divine.  We had a nice spinach salad with tomatoes and red peppers - and it was a great chicken and cheaper than purchasing a whole fresh chicken. Nice to know, now that we are selling most of our kitchen stuff.

Yesterday afternoon I was really flagging and couldn’t get it together enough to label photos and add prices on our sale goods.  I told Cindy I was too tired to continue and she seemed surprised I was so tired until I reminded her that I had traveled without sleep for 34 hours only two days ago.  Oops, said she – that was a big thing to forget!  Later on I told her that I had researched bottled water delivery in Charles Town since she had told me she has gotten used to the convenience of bottled water.  I explained how often they came, the various dispensers they offer and all the while she is looking at me like I’m from another planet. She finally said, “ I never asked for bottled water in Charles Town, we have two filtered water sources that are just fine.”  It appears that I had dreamt all of this and acted on my dream as though it was fact.  We are seriously thinking of committing ourselves.

Happy Sunday,  Cindy and Wm

Victory Park Excursion

Slept for about ten hours thanks to being exhausted and the wonders of pharmacology.  Feel wonderfully refreshed, as does Cindy who always needs the weekend to catch up on her sleep.  We had a lazy morning after our exercising and then started to work on getting all of our ‘stuff’ sold before we leave.  This involves spreadsheets, pictures, computers and emails.  We have priced everything well and think we’ll get rid of most of it. What we don’t sell, we’ll give away. We are attached to nothing.

Mahi with Lemon/Balsamic Sauce

Potato Pancakes with Sour Cream and Salmon Roe

Last night I just barely had the energy to make a quick dinner of Mahi, carrots and rice.  The rice was cooked in the carrot water, the carrots were just boiled and then tossed with butter and nutmeg and the Mahi had a new sauce I created.  In the same pan that I used to sauté the fish, I added the juice and zest of half a lemon, three chopped cloves of garlic, a quarter cup of lemon marmalade and a quarter cup of balsamic vinegar. I reduced it all to about half, added a teaspoon of butter and stirred a bit more and then covered the fish, which was on a bed of raw spinach.  The heat from the fish and sauce helped to wilt the spinach and it was a darn good meal.

This afternoon we took the Metro to Victory Park because it is on the list of things to see before we depart.  What a treat for us. It is huge, lovely and as an unexpected bonus, there was the Russian Army Choir singing lots and lots of great Russian music. They must have played for at least an hour, accompanied by a very good military band and some costumed dancers for some of the numbers.  Our favorite, well everyone’s favorite, is Kalinka, and if you think you have never heard it, you would be wrong.

I could go on and on about the park but I’ll let this video and these photos tell you the story.  It was a lovely afternoon and there were thousands of folks enjoying the beautiful day, most of them DRUNK or in the process.  It seems like today was National Let’s All Drink Beer Day. In reality today is the National Day of Border Guards, and there were hundreds of them identified by their green dress hats.  That was the only professional thing about them since the rest of their outfits were mostly shorts, ill-fitting shirts and flags. They ranged in age from mid-twenties to late fifties and they seemed all drawn together in their love of beer.  Each of them had a plastic bag filled with bottles of beer and/or vodka as they processed to the concert area.  We did witness the marching of some hundred security guards and they took up positions for monitoring the events that are scheduled for later today.  I’m sure I’ll read something about it tomorrow and suspect it might involve unruly behavior.

Speaking of beer, the Russians are about to declare beer an alcohol starting next month. This supposedly means that it won’t be sold to minors, as it is now since it is classified as a food.  There have been several attempts to limit the sale and public drinking of beer - they even raised the tax on beer by 200% last year - but still drinking beer is endemic to the Russian psyche.  Here are two great articles on some of the issues related to beer in Russia.

Time to get working on finishing our ads for our For Sale posting at Cindy’s school.  Hope you have a lovely weekend, Cindy and Wm.

From CC:  Wm is right, today was delightful, and he gets all the credit for choosing to visit Victory Park today.  We were perusing a Website with lots of various walks described but they all seemed to be a bit much given that we were starting out past noon.  Victory Park got the nod and it was such a wonderful surprise to be treated to the military concert, in addition to the many stunning fountains, buildings, and monuments.  The weather was perfect to boot.

Back in Mother Russia

Greetings from Moscow; I have returned.  It seemed like a very short trip to the states but it was good to be there despite having lots to do in a short period of time.  The main purpose of my visit was to drive up to New Haven to visit my brother Kevin. I planned that for Saturday/Sunday giving myself a full day to rest before the drive.

The flight from Moscow to Houston on Singapore Airlines was, as usual, simply delightful.  It was a very empty plane so almost everyone had three seats enabling the luxury of sleep.  The service, food and wine were great and I slept for six out of the eleven hours.  We got in a bit early and I found out that had been upgraded on the flight from Houston to Dulles on Continental.  I still think that Continental is the best US carrier and this flight proved it.  It still has great service, excellent food, individual monitors for movies, TV shows and other entertainments. I fear that the merger with United will reduce them to the lowest common denominator.  I can assure you that none of the flight attendants are happy with the merger. The flight had to circle for a bit due to heavy thunderstorms and there was quite a lightning show as we approached Dulles.  We finally landed and had to sit on the tarmac for another forty minutes due to weather and aircraft movement.  We didn’t get to the gate until about ten pm and I was most grateful that I had planned on staying at an airport hotel, since I was exhausted and in no condition to drive on a dark and stormy night.

The next day I was at the National Rental Car Company at ten having had a great sleep.  I recently switched from Avis to National when AMEX sent me an Executive National Card. This enables me to book an economy car, but then I can pick any car I want that is in the Executive section. There were pickups, mini-vans, convertibles, full size cars and lots of SUVs. Since I knew I was going to be on the road a lot, I found a Ford Edge which had lovely leather seats, sat high for highway driving and had lots of safety features. It also had a computer panel that I might have been able to figure out in several weeks of professional development, but I never got to use a third of the features built into the car.

I got to the house at about 11:30 and started going through all the mail that had accumulated.  It was fortuitous that I was there since there were several unsettling pieces of correspondence, two from the IRS and several from companies where I use credit cards to automatically pay bills. Seems some of my credit cards were once again hacked and the fraud alert had stopped payments on all of my cards, so I had to call the credit card companies, then the companies that hadn’t been paid, and oh my, it seemed to go on forever.  All is well at this writing. 

The IRS was another matter. It seems that we got some misinformation from international tax counselors here and we underpaid our taxes resulting in long conversations with an IRS representative - who I might add was absolutely fantastic in being informative and helpful.  After writing a check much larger than I had hoped, I resolved that issue only to get another note from the IRS three days later telling us we under-declared our income for 2009. Now I take great pride in doing my taxes early and well, but it seems that one of the online companies that Cindy had done some work for had declared her income to the IRS but never sent Cindy a 1099 so we didn’t include it.  Well there is really nothing you can do but swallow hard, pay the difference along with interest and penalties and vow to yourself to double check everything.  It is very hard living far away and trying to gather all the forms you need to do the taxes well. I just hope that we don’t get put on a ‘watch list’ by IRS for these two mistakes.

On Saturday morning I headed up to Connecticut via Pennsylvania, Jersey, New York.  Normally I would take the Tappan Zee Bridge to cross into NY and then the Merritt Parkway to Milford but I thought since it was a Saturday afternoon, I’d just take the GW Bridge to the Cross Bronx Expressway and on to the Connecticut thruway.  BIG, BIG mistake! The bridge was jammed due to three accidents on the Cross Bronx and it took me on hour to go about ten miles.  Then it started to really rain and there were jams for miles. It took me seven hours to get to my brother’s and less than five to go home on Sunday.  It was however all worth it and I’m glad I had time with him and his wife.  I also got to learn more about the car I was driving and found something called Sirius Radio. I could only find two stations, Classical Vinyl and Elvis, so I really, really know lots more about Elvis than anyone should know.

The rest of the time was spent doing yard work, cooking with Colin and visiting with Meagan and the grandkids before they leave for New Zealand. Well, only one grandchild is going for the summer but it is always great to see them, however briefly.  I did discover a new restaurant close to the house where I took Colin and Meagan for a bon voyage dinner. It is at the casino/racetrack and it is an elegant steakhouse with a great bar and the best wine list at affordable prices in the entire DC Metro area. Cindy will be most impressed.

All too soon it was time to return to Russia.  I had booked on Air France using a mileage award since this was going to be a one-way ticket.  It looked good on paper, leave IAD in the late afternoon, arrive early in Paris, connect quickly and be in Moscow by noon.  Of course it didn’t happen that way. We pulled back from the gate on Air France and once the engines were going the captain thought there was a problem with the weight and balance of the aircraft so he pulled back into the gate for about fifty minutes while they opened all the baggage compartments to check if all was well.  Weight and Balance is something you learn to do the first week of flight school!!  We were delayed by an hour, which meant that I would miss my flight to Moscow. I asked the flight attendant if they would protect me on the next available and the curt retort was, you’ll have to do that when you land!  Not what I wanted to hear.

The actual flight was horrible. First of all, sitting for an extra hour back at the gate was no fun. The flight was completely full and economy in Air France is nothing like economy on Singapore Airlines. Whereas SQ has seats that are 19” wide with 33”of legroom and a 10.6” monitor, AF seat is only 17” wide, 31” between seats and a 6.5” monitor. That plus the fact that they squeeze in one more seat per row makes everything seem very cramped and uncomfortable. There was certainly no evidence of French cuisine on this flight.  On a seven plus hour flight I would think they would have time for a civil cocktail service before dinner but no, everything came at once and the tiny trays don’t allow for two glasses plus the food tray. It was obvious that the flight crew was in a big hurry to get to their rest stations and after they threw the meals at us and cleaned up, you didn’t see anyone for a long time.  It was impossible to sleep since the person seated next to me had to get up several times which meant I had to get up and into the aisle. I was exhausted when we finally hit Paris.

It took them a very long time to taxi to the gate, always a problem with CDG, and since they only used one door to disembark, it took another fifteen minutes for me to get out of the plane.  After a long walk, I found the Service Desk and finally was able to confirm that they could get me on the 9:30 flight, so I had a few hours to kill at the airport.  Thankfully, I was able to talk my way into the AF business class lounge and found a computer to let Cindy know I would be delayed.  I spent the rest of the time eating croissants and drinking Champagne - there are worse ways to spend a morning - until the next flight. This flight was on time, packed, but the service was very good and the food was much better than the long haul.  I didn’t check baggage and I know the airport well, so as soon as I was able to get off the plane, I made a beeline for immigration and then ran to the train all the while getting my exact fare ready.  I threw them my money as I ordered a ticket and then ran to the track with two minutes to spare before they departed.

It was a lovely day in Moscow and I was too tired to read my book so I just looked at the monitor they have in each of the train cars.  I was watching one that was just puzzling until the very end.  Tell me what you think.  You don’t need to understand Russian to figure it out.   There seems to be a general theme here in Russia that you can sell everything with sex. There is a commercial where a beautiful woman is sitting in front of a computer and she is taking her blouse off and in the other frame of the split screen there is a very eager young man watching.  Everyone gets very disappointed when the speed of her computer causes the images to freeze or stop.  The answer?  Get a much faster connection with a Smartphone, which is what they do and now she can undress at her own speed!  One last word on commercials.  WWF has a commercial where a beautiful woman is walking to a bathtub shedding her clothing as she goes.  She steps into the tub that has bubbles in the right places and all of a sudden the music changes, she gets a panicked look on her face and there is an angry Panda standing by the tub.  He comes over and sticks his paw into the tub and pulls the plug while handing the now more and more exposed woman a showerhead.  The point seems to be that taking a shower is a better use of water, but goodness what a commercial. And they are all on public transportation!

That is certainly enough for today and perhaps when I’m better rested, I’ll be more concise.  Best to all, Cindy and Wm

Dinner and a Show

We went out for dinner last night to a local place called Ragout. It is a very trendy place and was completely filled on a Monday night.  We were able to get a table in the non-smoking section, which seems to be far from the glitz and glamour of the ‘front’ room.  It has a very interesting menu with lots of things that we wanted to try, but first there was the wine to consider.  It is a nice wine list with almost all of the wines available either by the glass or bottle. They had a very nice Montes Sav Blanc from Chile for only 900 Rubles. My mind still boggles over being able to say an inexpensive wine is only $33.  The wine came and I saw that it was a Sav Blanc and we continued our conversation as it was opened and served. It was a very, very good wine and the server kept it behind me in an ice bucket, almost unheard of in Russia.

Cindy started with a Carrot and Ginger soup while I had the Onion Tart. Her soup was great but my tart lacked character and flavor.  She then opted for Butterfish wrapped in bacon with some wonderful vegetables. The fish must have been wrapped with bacon for a long time and it was imbued with bacon flavor, which isn’t one of Cindy’s favorites (from CC: it said “crispy” bacon so I thought I could take it off, but it was very soft and it completely encased the fish). I had something called flattened veal chop.  If that chop had been any thinner I could have used it as a screen protector for my iTouch; we are talking about four ounces of meat flattened to the size of a small hand.  I would like to say it was filled with flavor, but I can’t. The best part of the meal was the caramelized fennel, which was perfect and the whipped celery root, which again was delightful.

They had some very interesting desserts, which normally we wouldn’t even consider but given the portions we had for dinner we were both a bit peckish so we ordered the weirdest dessert on the menu: Beetroot Ice Cream with Rye Bread Ice Cream.  I mean really, how Russian can you get.  When it came the colors were really vivid and the beetroot was very good capturing the natural sweetness of beets.  The rye bread ice cream was a bit of a stretch, especially with the chunks of frozen rye bread mixed in with what appeared to be a honey ice cream. We were happy we tried it since we don’t experiment with desserts nearly as much as we should.

When the bill came I was rather surprised to find that the wine had jumped in price from 900 to 1500 rubles.  Not only that, but the name of the wine had changed!  Consulting the wine list again before calling over the server, I couldn’t even find the wine that they were charging us for, and of course the empty wine bottle had been taken away.  I showed the mistake to our server, who really doesn’t speak English but Cindy was very good with her Russian and the server left to get a manager. The manager showed me the wine we had consumed, it was on the other side of the menu, the expensive bottles only section. We tried to explain that we had never seen that side of the menu, that I had pointed to the wine I wanted and that mistakes happen. We had to sit at the table for another ten to fifteen minutes while they figured it all out and corrected the bill.  As we left we wanted to hand our server a rather large tip, since it wasn’t her fault that they didn’t train her well. She wouldn’t take it, so we went to the manager again and asked her to give it to the server and she seemed overjoyed that we would make such a gesture.  We are many things, but we are not cheap, ugly Americans!!

On the topic of interesting menus, you just can’t make this stuff up!  Here is a photo of the scallop dish I did two nights ago. 

Poached Scallops with Casarecce

Casarecce Pasta

It has rained all day so I have used the time to take photos of everything we want to sell or give away. Now I just have to get it into a format for Cindy to post at her school.  I’ve also been up to my eyeballs filling out forms.  Insurance forms for my dentist visit, exit visa forms, insurance forms for the movers, power of attorney forms, and three or four forms that I don’t even understand.  Goodness, they don’t make leaving any easier than they made arriving.  The good news is that we had a representative of the moving company come to look at what we are sending back and we are well under our limit so it won’t cost us anything.  Believe it or not, it takes 2.5 months to get things from Russia to Charles Town; how is that for convenient?!

Speaking of dentist, on my walk yesterday I went past the German Dental Center, The American Dental Clinic and The French Dental Centre, but not one Russian dentist office.  I know they exist since someone has to put those steel and gold teeth in Russian mouths, but I certainly can’t find them.  Cindy had her teeth cleaned the day after I had mine cleaned.  You’ll remember that they charged me three thousand rubles since it took them 27 minutes.  In Cindy’s case, it took them ten minutes and they didn’t even charge her.  I would like to believe they were trying to make it up to us, but I think it was more a question of Cindy having better dental hygiene than me. (from CC: this was not what you’d call a good cleaning job!)

I depart for Charles Town tomorrow morning. I have to leave with Cindy at 6:45 in order to take the Metro to the train station for the 7:30 express to the airport.  You have to allow lots of time for international flights to the USA now so getting to the airport at 8:20 for a 10:20 flight is even cutting it close.  I’ll fly with Singapore Airlines to Houston and then have a three hour wait for my Continental Airlines flight to Dulles which, if all goes well, will get me in at 9:30 pm.  I’ve arranged to stay at the airport Hyatt Place so as not to be driving tired and in the dark.  Unless Cindy decides to write about Moscow, you can expect a one-week lull in communications, which I’m sure will be a welcome respite for all. 

Best wishes, Cindy and Wm

Lilacs and Chestnuts in Blossom

The day started off gloriously but quickly degenerated into a very cool, very cloudy day, perfect for a three-hour walk.  I walked familiar territory today but because every day brings forth new flowers and blooming trees; it was a delight.  There was one spot, near the train refurbishing plant, which has a row of very mature chestnuts on one side of the sidewalk and equally mature lilacs on the other. At many points they connect at about fifteen feet in the air and form a marvelously colorful and fragrant arc.  I wandered around several parks and took some photos with my cell phone, which in bright light does a grand job but in dim light I’m afraid they aren’t the best but they will give you a feeling for the parks.

I ended up at the embassy where I did some shopping and paid our TV bill. We only watch three channels, which works out to about $12.50 per channel per month.  My friend was in charge of the cash register so I took the opportunity to purchase some gin for Cindy.  It seems that I everything I needed was heavy: milk, olive oil, mayo, tuna, wine, etc.  It was a heavy load to carry home and my shoulders are still protesting, but I think that will be our last big run to the embassy store. 

Yesterday afternoon when we got back from our shopping trip, we had tea and a little pastry we purchased from a new store we found. It was a very thin crust, almost like toasted bread and covered with little lingon berries.  It wasn’t at all sweet and the berries were very tart and it was a delightfully tangy treat.  While Cindy went to a neighbor’s apartment to practice her music for the upcoming parties, I surveyed the kitchen to see what I might create for dinner. By now I was determined not to leave the apartment for any ingredients so I challenged myself to create a new masterpiece.

A quick survey of our micro-freezer produced a package of scallops and a half package of peas, both of which I began to defrost.  I found the leftover caramelized carrots and took those out and then found a package of Casarecce pasta that we had purchased in Cremona.  Casarecce is a specialty of that area and they are designed to transport lots of sauce with each little scroll of pasta.  So now I knew I needed to use all the above ingredients to make a pasta dish that had a wonderful sauce.  I decided to make a spicy curried scallop/pea/carrot casserole.  As the pasta was boiling in salted water, I poached the scallops in butter. Yes, I know it sounds decadent, but it is wonderful and Thomas Keller made his reputation with lobster poached in butter so I figured, how bad could it be?

I slowly melted two-thirds of a stick of unsalted butter in a small saucepan.  When it was just simmering I added the scallops and let them very, very slowly poach for about eight minutes before removing them from the heat.  I removed the scallops with a slotted spoon and placed them in a large bowl.  I reheated the butter and used it to make a roux, to which I added three cloves of finely chopped garlic.  I let that cook with the flour until everything was bubbling softly at which point I added a cup of chicken broth and kept stirring until everything started to thicken.  I reduced the heat to almost nothing and added a half-cup of skimmed milk and a mixture of curry, turmeric, chives, red chili flakes and black coarsely ground pepper.  I mixed that up until everything was velvety smooth and had a dynamite yellow color.

Just before the pasta was done, I threw in the still semi-frozen peas for one minute and drained it all, saving a cup of the pasta water.  I removed the roux based sauce and added a half-cup of yogurt and a half-cup of grated Parmesan, mixing it all very well.  I placed the drained pasta back into the pasta pan and stirred in a bit of olive oil to make sure none of the pasta stuck together.  I then incorporated the sauce and then added the carrots and scallops stirring gently until it was all well mixed.  I placed it all in a square glass baking dish, topped it with a mixture of fresh bread crumbs and Parmesan and threw it into a 400° oven for thirty-five minutes.  When I brought it to the table it was still bubbling and the breadcrumbs had browned and crisped nicely. It wasn’t fiery hot, but it was spicy and the scallops were as tender and flavorful as if they had just come from the sea.  Cindy enjoyed the meal immensely.

Here are some interesting facts regarding Russia and the fact that it is just not a tourist friendly country, which I’ve been saying all along. Of course, don’t say that to these two who seem to be having a wonderful time in Moscow. 

Best to all, Cindy and Wm.

Moscow Market

Many of you feared that you had missed Cindy’s birthday. Fear not, it isn’t until June 3^rd but we thought we would get a leg up and begin the festive event a tad early and then extend it until we are home.  Many of you also marveled at how great Cindy looks as she approaches sixty.  There is a secret to how she does this and I’ll share it with you today. The secret is that she allows me to do all the housework, shopping, cleaning, laundry, cooking, dishwashing and drying and assorted other tasks that could age anyone. So while she continues to look like Doriana Grey, I’m having seventy-year old women with crutches and canes giving up their seats on the Metro for me!!

We have had a fine day thus far.  In solidarity with New Orleans and the pending water issues they are again facing, I made Creole French Toast.  We had some day old multi-grain bread that I sliced into good-sized chunks and soaked for thirty minutes in two eggs that I had whipped with some milk, vanilla, and cinnamon - and here is the New Orleans part - a touch of bourbon.  I fried them until they were crispy outside and soft and tender inside and served them with sliced bananas, flaxseed, maple syrup and a touch of butter.  This gave us the strength to tackle our shopping at the big outdoor market at the far eastern edge of Moscow.

It only took us one transfer and about thirty-five minutes via Metro. I still marvel at how efficiently that system really works.  There was only one person trying to sell stuff on the Metro today. She was a woman in her thirties and she got on and once the doors closed she immediately went into her spiel trying to sell duct tape!  Yep, good old-fashioned duct tape, a rather thin roll but still in original wrapping.  I couldn’t understand what she was saying, but knew I could add about fifteen things to do with duct tape to her lengthy list.  No one purchased her duct tape so she moved on to the next car.

That's a Cosmonaut Suit to the left

Lots of Russian Dolls

Wolves and other furry things

Tons of Fur Hats

 I had thought the market would be really crowded but with overcast skies and fifty-degree weather, most sensible folks stayed home.  We had a shopping list of ‘typically Russian’ trinkets and gifts we wanted to purchase and this is the place to do it.  There are hundreds of stalls selling every item you can imagine and the price of everything is negotiable.  I love to bargain and Cindy hates to bargain so for the most part I would see what Cindy wanted and then start the process. Sometimes they wouldn’t budge, other times they would engage in serious discussions on price, especially when we walked away.  For the most part, everything is made in Russia, and the people selling their wares make much of it by hand.  We found a man we liked who didn’t speak any English but was making beautiful objects while we watched so we did a bit of negotiating with international sign language and we now have some really lovely pieces of his work.  They are signed by him and we took his photo with them, just for fun.

GenUwine Faberge Eggs

One of the most amazing deals at this market is the black market DVDs that they sell for one dollar. These are newly released movies that are in any language you desire. We purchased the King’s Speech and The Social Network, each for a dollar.  They will start negotiating price if you purchase four or more; amazing what they can do with technology.

On our walk back to the Metro we noticed that there was quite a bit of horse manure right in front of the entrance. We had noticed a woman on horseback ahead of us and she must have decided to just ride her horse on the sidewalk in front of the Metro, as opposed to on the street in front of the Metro - after all, it was more convenient for her.  Meanwhile everyone is walking all around this stuff causing needless confusion and congestion.  I’ll not miss that aspect of Russian culture.

The temperature has only hit about 52° for the past three days, which means that now our apartment is a cozy 62°.  The central heat has been turned off for several weeks and I don’t see them deciding to turn it on again until sometime in October.  According to the locals, Moscow always gets about a week of ‘unseasonable’ weather in mid-May. I have no idea what seasonable weather is in this city.  The five-day forecast has the temperatures gradually rising into the upper sixties by Friday.  Luckily we still have all our warmies at the ready.  This will be an excellent night to make a spicy dish to get us warm and toasty before bed. Last night I made a lovely garlic/sour cream/chive/Parmesan smashed potato dish to go with caramelized carrots and simply grilled tuna steaks with lemon.

Have a lovely Sunday, Cindy and Wm.

Moscow Kickoff to Sixty

Today marked the start of the two month celebration of Cindy’s sixtieth birthday extravaganza.  To get things going I had purchased tickets for the matinee performance of Nabucco, which like all operas, is longer than it needs to be to get its point across.  It is one of Verdi’s early pieces and if it didn’t have the showstopper Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, it might have gone down the toilet like his first two operas, but that one piece has saved it and it really is a lovely opera.  Actually, I would go and watch a Punch and Judy performance at the Bolshoi and think it was fantastic. The New Bolshoi is a marvelous and intimate hall with one of the most beautiful chandeliers I’ve ever seen, although it appeared that there were seven light bulbs that were burned out.  The mural surrounding the chandelier is glorious and the colors of the interior are pastels with lots of pure white crown molding around everything. Some of these pictures will give you a good sense of the grandeur of this theater.  Our seats were just behind the guy in the red shirt on the right.  They were really excellent seats with perfect sightline to the stage so we seldom needed opera glasses to feel closer to the performance.

The performance itself was very good but I had two major complaints.  First of all, the costuming made all of Nabucco’s army look like SS troopers while Nabucco himself in the opening scenes looked just like a Nazi general.  A little heavy handed I thought, but given the animosity between Germans and Russians, not unexpected.  The sets were simple but stunning and they worked in this production. I really, really didn’t like all the intermissions.  There were three of them for a production with a run time of only two hours and ten minutes.  It wasn’t as though there were lots of stage sets that had to be changed and there certainly weren’t any costume changes to speak of.  There would be one act of about forty minutes and then a fifteen-minute intermission. This was followed by another act of thirty to thirty five minutes and then yet another fifteen-minute break.  Gracious, the breaks were almost a third of the total time in the theater. By the third intermission we were done, well I was done and Cindy was surprised I had lasted as long as I did. I knew the fourth act was mostly about one of the character’s dying with a very long aria, so rather than have her and me die of exhaustion, we left.

Belorusskya Metro Connection

We had thought we would go to the embassy to do a bit of shopping - two backpacks can carry so much more wine - but it was raining to beat the band by the time we left the theater so we opted for the Metro, which was very close.  We got off at our stop and decided to try the newly opened connection between two lines that come to Belorusskya. The connection had been closed for eight months but now that it is open it gives us a much better sense of the monumental aspects of the art and architecture of the Metro.  Here is a photo of a recently cleaned statue between the two stations.  We exited close to Il Patio and decided to get a late light lunch, which was a very good idea. After that we walked in the pouring rain for perfect little espressos before heading back to the apartment.

The rain feels wonderful and is so much needed here. If it is gone by tomorrow we have an excursion planned that will take us out of town and into a huge park where we hope to see lots of lilacs and more chestnuts in flower. If it continues, it will be a nap day! Either way, looks like a swell Sunday.

Hope yours is as grand.  Cindy and Wm

from CC: Remember that we live in the land of no smiles and no English, so imagine our surprise the other day at the grocery store when we put our goods on the conveyer belt and the cashier looked up, smiled, and said, “Would you like pah-kyate?”  She was adorable!  In Russia, like most civilized countries other than the U.S., you either bring your own bags or you buy them for a nominal fee.  Luckily we had heard this question many times entirely in Russian so we knew that a “pah-kyate” is a shopping bag and we could politely decline.   As we left she smiled again and said, “thank you very much” and we walked out shaking our heads in wonderment at the nice smiles and the valiant attempt at English.  Maybe there’s hope?!

This afternoon had no smiles and no English, but it too was filled with wonderment of a different sort:  as reported above, William took me to the opera Nabucco by Verdi.  The staging and the music were fabulous, and thanks to Wm we had perfect seats in row one of the first balcony, pretty close to the center.  In the New Bolshoi Theatre (the one they’re using until the big one’s renovations are complete), the first balcony is actually only a few feet above the main floor, so we were more or less at stage level and not too far back to see well.  It was a swell way to start celebrating my birthday.


 

Friday the 13th

Cindy is home again today, feeling much better than yesterday but still a bit on the tired side so I’m delighted she is taking care of herself by not pushing and rushing back to work.  It is a cold - what the Russians call ‘bird cherry cold’ which means a cold front in May - and rainy day here, perfect for her to do nothing but rest and recover. Always best to stay close to home on any Friday the 13^th.

The Arab Spring certainly is starting to fizzle.  What started as a great opportunity is turning into a tragedy of epic proportions.  Egypt, with no plan to replace a stable government, is now being taken over by criminals and violent Islamic factions that want to destroy the Christians.  Libya is a mess and has become a deadly stalemate; Bahrain continues to demand pledges of allegiance from its citizens or face deportation or imprisonment, Tunisians are overrunning Europe and taxing all of their resources and threatening the Schengen Agreement, and Syria has decided that Bahrain’s model of brute force and the hell with public perception is the best way to handle the protestors. 

I’ve mentioned how the dollar is sinking against the ruble, but what I didn’t know is that Putin, when he was president, told the central bank to increase their stockpile of gold as a hedge against the dollar and euro.  Five years ago they purchased lots of gold at $450 an ounce and it is now above $1500 an ounce.  Nice move Vlad!  On the other hand he may have plagiarized significant parts of his dissertation for his PhD in economics in 1996.  One never knows, does one?

Things are really starting to bloom here in Moscow. Yesterday I saw no evidence of any blossoms on the many chestnut trees in town.  Today, they all seemed to have popped open at once.  The lilacs are threatening to explode in color and scent sometime this weekend. These to my way of thinking are the real harbingers of late spring and I hope they stick around for a while.  We are off to the Bolshoi tomorrow for a matinee of Verdi’s Nabucco. If the weather holds we look forward to a long slow walk home through several parks to admire the new blossoming trees and shrubs.

I think there must be a Russian superstition that you can’t cross someone’s path from the back. Time after time I’m almost bowled over by someone coming from my left or right and racing in front of me, even when it is the longer route.  Kids do it, old folks do it, I would guess the most refined Russian lady bugs do it; it has to have some significance other than just being a pain in the rear.

Have a lovely weekend,  Cindy and Wm

Cooking from a Recipe

Poor Cindy is exhausted and fighting a cold so I insisted that she stay home today to rest and recover. I think this is the first sick day she has taken in twenty years. I’m being a good trailing spouse and making her garlic soup and a light omelette to get her healthy. There is plenty of spinach in both and, of course, enough garlic to choke a horse.

If you need to truly understand why Russia will not be a part of the twenty-first century for a while, just read this article.  It is all so very true and no one really can understand why they still have these arcane rules and regulations. Most Russians can get anything at any time, and without all the fuss. You just have to have some money and a friend in the black market.  Yet, ordering something from outside of Russia continues to be a problem for the average person.  Imagine Amazon having to complete thirteen forms to send a small package to Russia.  The fact that they can send things to Iraq with no problem is the most damning statement of all. 

Chicken Stroganoff

Yesterday I had decided to make chicken stroganoff and went to the store to purchase the things I thought I would need.  I came back and started to review some recipes since I hadn’t made this in more than twenty years.  On a whim, I decided to follow a recipe EXACTLY!  I found the one recipe that I thought would be the most fun to cook and the best tasting and except for the addition of two tablespoons of paprika to the flour mix and having a layer of fresh spinach under the noodles, I really did this just the way they said.  My goodness it is hard to cook from a recipe. It felt like all of my freedom to create had been taken away and my normal rhythm in the kitchen was replaced by stop and start bursts of doing this or that.  I really didn’t like the experience but the dinner was a big hit and it all was worth the effort.

Plating the dish(Note Recipe)

Not much going on other than nursing Cindy back to health so I need to go and minister to my patient.  I’m pleased that The Islamic Republic of Pakistan has decided to increase their security as a result of the recent events in their country. Here is a great photo of what a great nation can do when motivated.

Best wishes, Cindy and Wm

Note from CC:  I’m not quite as sick as Wm thinks, but the extra sleep - not to mention the extra garlic - was certainly needed.  His chicken stroganoff was FABULOUS – while I hated to read that his creativity felt squashed, he certainly got excellent results.

Moscow Medical/Dental

My marathon walks over the past six days finally caught up with me yesterday morning.  We woke up at 05:55 and as I stretched my legs in bed, a searing jolt of pain went shooting through my right calf.  I was absolutely immobilized by the pain and couldn’t even get out of bed to stand on the leg. I finally was able to get some weight on the leg and I started to rub it as the pain subsided until I was able to walk a little to ease relax the muscle.  I’ve had charley horses before but this thing was unreal.  All day long it was sore, like I had been kicked in the calf. I walked gingerly for about forty minutes and that took a lot of the tension away. I’ve taken three Aleve’s in the past two days and if I take another I think I’ll have to check into the Betty Ford Clinic.

I’m very accustomed to walking long distances here in Moscow but Moscow is, for the most part, flat.  On Sunday we walked up, and up and up lots of stairs and lots of paths.  Then we can down like mountain goats so I’m sure that my muscles were not used to that motion and in the night they just tightened until I tried to stretch in the morning, which caused them to convulse.  I have learned a valuable lesson and will be doing lots more stretching before and after my walks, especially if they are up and down.

I had my teeth cleaned at the German Dental Center this morning. I had gone there early in our time in Moscow to get a tooth fixed that had chipped while eating. I liked them and they were very professional and today’s experience was just as satisfying.  One of the great benefits that I hadn’t thought of was the fact that the hygienist spoke only about six words of English, left, right, open, close, sensitive, rinse; therefore there was no small talk. I just hate it when they stick sump pumps and sharp objects in your mouth and then start asking you questions.  Bill Cosby did a great bit about that many years ago that is worth eight minutes of your time.  Cindy had gone to this dentist for a cleaning in November and it cost her 1500 Rubles, so I figured that is what it would cost me, and as usual, I was wrong. It cost me 3000 Rubles and when I asked why the big difference, I was told that they bill in fifteen-minute increments and it must have only taken fifteen minutes to clean Cindy’s teeth.  At that point I wanted to get out before they piled it even higher and charged me for it.

After the dentist I decided to walk for an hour to get my calf back to normal. Most of the time my walks take me towards the river or Red Square but today I wanted to go and find a real working class neighborhood without the glitz and glamour of central Moscow.  I was surprised to find it only about twenty minutes away and it was a delight to walk around and see real folks going about their business. The shops were very nice but not fancy, same thing with the cafes and restaurants.  I’m assuming the prices were rather less expensive also. I’ll take Cindy to lunch there some weekend before we leave, could be lots of affordable fun.

Part of my walk yesterday took me to the embassy for a few items we needed.  I ran into one of the folks I know from having done the College Recruitment Fair at AAS.  She lives in one of the ‘big’ apartments on the embassy compound and was coming out as I was walking towards the planted gardens.  I told her I was going to be taking photos of the tulip beds and she very nicely told me that was a very dumb idea without permission from security. It never dawned on me that taking photos on the embassy grounds wouldn’t be allowed, especially since the Russian’s own everything around the embassy and they make sure they have excellent views into the courtyards and grounds.  Take my word for it; the embassy grounds are quite lovely with all the flowers. 

As I was checking out of the Liberty Store I asked the clerk, who I had worked with when I helped them with inventory, if I was allowed to purchase hard liquor. I knew we could buy wine and beer but we had all been told that hard booze was out of the question for AAS folks.  She looked at me and simply said, ‘When I’m on duty you can buy anything in the store.’ Needing no more hints, I grabbed a bottle of Chivas Regal.  I wish I had thought to ask earlier since it would have saved a lot of hassle with my duty free runs.

Ya just never see it coming!

Here is one for the ‘Didn’t I Tell Ya!”  And here is a picture of a Moscow Tram that had a bit of a problem.

Cindy has to stay late tonight since she is rehearsing with her quartet members for two upcoming performances. Therefore you will be receiving an unedited blog, all errors are mine!  Best wishes, Wm

The Fireworks: Sweet

As expected, the boat trip was much longer than published.  We walked with a group of eight people from the complex and headed to the Metro at about seven pm to make sure we were there for the eight twenty departure. The Metro was packed; I have never seen it that crowded.  Everyone was coming from or going to a party to celebrate Victory Day.  It was a lovely opportunity to see a wide range of drunks. There were the young drunks, some wrapped in the Russian flag, all with glazed eyes and open cans of beer and every other one about to puke. There were the 30 something drunks, much better dressed and carrying open cans of much better beer, and then there were the older drunks, who seemed to have reverted back to their youth since they looked and acted more like the young drunks.

We managed our connections and got to the station that serves Gorky Park, which was filled with people waiting for fireworks. We had to walk a bit, cross under a bridge and then walk some more to the area where the boat would dock. We got there in plenty of time and had a chance to talk with other AAS folks while waiting. There was a huge boat docked next to ours and it was decorated with hundreds of balloons that spelled out Happy Fifth Birthday Jika.  What the heck are they going to do for this kid’s sixth birthday? The boat was only about a quarter filled when it took off. Perhaps it was making another stop but it sure looked like they didn’t need that big a vessel.

We finally boarded our boat and everyone staked out spots on the upper deck, except the Russian employees who all took over the lower deck. It was as if there were two separate parties going on. Since the food was on the lower deck the Russians had first crack, but there was plenty to go around. I had carried three cartons of wine with me so that we would be able to share with those that forgot or those that drank more than they thought they would. The wine was very much appreciated by the above.

We pulled away from the dock at 8:10, much to the consternation of a couple from AAS who had just arrived at the dock as the boat pushed away.  Several folks went to the captain to get him to turn back but the die was cast and our castaways missed the boat. It was very sad seeing them on the shore-waving goodbye to us. According to the captain, there was another boat that needed the dock so he left early, which to me is garbage. It was just another example of Russian arrogance and disregard for schedules.  It was more convenient for him to ignore the schedule so, as with all Russians, he did what was most convenient. Sadly, we actually came back near the dock some twenty minutes later and they were still standing there waving at us.

The boat just cruised up and down the river killing time until the fireworks were to start.  There were nine places along the Moscow River where they were going to be setting off fireworks and our boat positioned itself near the State University of Moscow.  Here is a nice link to the route we took and some commentary.  This link actually shows you our boat.

The fireworks were fabulous and we were so close that the concussive explosion of air from the detonated fireworks could be felt on the boat.  Cindy took some good photos but of course you needed to be there to get the full effect.  The pyrotechnic display lasted for a full fifteen minutes and you could see bits and glimpses of the other fireworks up and down the river. When it was over we thought we were heading back to the dock but instead we blew past our mooring and went back up the river to places we had already seen, TWICE.  We were told that there was no room at the dock but it sure looked empty to me when we passed it. 

By the time we got off the boat, walked to the Metro, connected to the other line and walked from the station home, it was five minutes to midnight and poor Cindy was exhausted, as were all the other AAS folks who needed to be at work bright and early.  5:55 came all too suddenly and I made Cindy an extra cup of coffee to take with her to work since I knew she would need a quick jolt.  Tonight will be a very early evening in a desperate attempt to catch up. It doesn’t seem fair that the three-day weekend had to end so very late and that instead of returning to work well rested all the teachers were dragging.

There was a celebration in Victory Park for all the veterans of WWII.  They are all in their late 80’s and 90’s but as this photo shows, they are Russians ‘til the end. 

Best to all, Cindy and Wm.

Victory Day

Happy Victory Day

Moscow was in a festive mood today to celebrate Victory Day.  The parade in our neighborhood only had armored vehicles since all the cool stuff was in Red Square, which was by invitation only. It was there that they had all the troops, bands and flyovers, but we were happy to be outside with the masses enjoying good weather and breathing lots of lovely diesel fumes.  I took a few pictures and for every one you see, we saw twelve of the same thing, so it was a long parade!   Notice the orthodox domes in the background; they seemed a bit incongruous.  Here is what the swells saw in Red Square.

We walked over with our friends from the apartment complex, one of the few couples close to our age.  We have had some fun times with them since they are irreverent and quite independent thinkers.  At the end of the parade we marched over to the German Beer Hall, which on Victory Day over the Germans seemed appropriate.  Most Russians still have a hard time dealing with the fact that sixty-six years ago they defeated Nazi Germany and yet today they can’t hold a candle to the wealth and productivity of the vanquished.  We settled in with big mugs of Hacker-Pschorr and then ordered lots of good old-fashioned German dishes.  It was a lovely end to the parade.

Cindy and I went back to the espresso place we found yesterday and enjoyed another perfectly prepared coffee before taking a forty-five minute walk to stretch our legs.  Tonight is the big boat ride and fireworks display so we are resting to make sure we can stay awake until 11:30. Poor Cindy has to go to work tomorrow, which seems like poor planning to me on the part of the school – she should have a 4-day weekend, not just a 3-day weekend.

Perfect Daiquiri

Plu-Perfect Daiquiri

Last night we were too full from lunch to have dinner so at cocktail time I decided to do something a bit different.  I had a few limes and some nice rum so I made some good old-fashioned Daiquiris.  I haven’t made these in a while but they sure were fun to make and even more fun to drink. About eight Cindy was a bit peckish so I made her a small bowl of fried rice with egg, which was just the right amount of food.  We watched a little of an old movie, The V.I.P.s with Burton, Taylor (both Elizabeth and Rod), and Louis Jordan. It is a strained movie but there was a really good scene with Orson Welles talking to a very young reporter played by David Frost. Have no idea where the movie was going but it was entertaining until we went to bed.

Time to get assembled for the boat ride.  Details tomorrow.   Ciao, Cindy and Wm.