Flying High

Monday, January 31, 2011

I’m sitting in the Scandinavian lounge in Arlanda, Stockholm’s airport.  It is a very beautiful place filled with lots of wood, Scandinavian design, of course and very friendly staff. How often do you get to go to an airline lounge that has a fireplace and burning candles on the mantle??

As I feared, security at the Moscow airport was very, very tight.  It took almost eighty minutes to get from the front door of the airport to clearing the final security, customs check.  Normally it takes about twenty.  Everyone gets patted down, even if you don’t set off any alarms.  In keeping with the old classless society, women pat down men as well as women.  Closest thing I’ve come to a massage in years.  I am carrying all my luggage so as not to have to deal with waiting for checked baggage, but my oh my do they do a serious exam of your stuff.  Luckily I’m a very neat packer and didn’t bring anything that would arouse suspicion, like the five music students who were carrying their instruments.  I thought we might get a bit of a quintet but they didn’t make them play.

All of the elementary and middle schools in Moscow are closed for the week, so what do parents do with the kids?  They take them on vacation!  The airport was jammed with families who decided to take vacations since there was no school.  They should have renamed the airport H1N1 what with all the kids coughing and hacking all over everything.  All of the personnel in the passport area were wearing masks.  Makes you feel really wonderful.

What do you get on a plane going from Moscow to Sweden?  You get a planeload of drunks who you can’t understand!  As I was walking around the gate area I saw about fifteen twenty somethings sharing a big bottle of water.  I thought it a bit strange but figured they were on a budget, especially the way they were dressed.  When I went into the bathroom, it all became quite clear.  The wastebasket was filled with discarded duty free bags and empty liters of vodka.  They had obviously transferred the vodka to the water bottles and were killing three liters among them.  The Russians meanwhile had more money and were a bit older and they were drinking at long tables in the bar, at least those that weren’t in the smoking cage were drinking.  I was condemned to the back of the bus and was right in the middle of these two groups of drunks, what a lovely flight!  Fortunately they were all asleep within an hour of taking off.  However we were delayed an hour for deicing and the flight attendants had their hands filled trying to keep these guys in their seats.  They finally figured out what they were doing and confiscated their ‘water’.  Adds new meaning to the term Flying High.

I’ve told you before that Russians are made of sterner stuff.  While thousands of international tourist scramble to try and get out of Egypt, 30,000 Russians tourist are refusing to leave.  Ya gotta love ‘um.

Only three more hours of waiting before my next flight.  Time to take a walk. 

Best wishes, Wm

Dashing Through The Snow

It has snowed all day and it is being whipped around by the strong wind. We took a walk this morning and Cindy convinced me to wear those Stabilicers that we got from LL Bean. Man, what a difference. I walked with confidence the entire way and made sure we took the most treacherous route, all without incident.  (From CC: in case you’re worried, I have my own pair and have been wearing them all along.  They are marvelous.)

Most of the day has been spent doing laundry so that Cindy will have clean sheets while I’m gone and I’ll have clean clothes to wear on the trip. I’m all packed, mostly bringing things home that we no longer need here, as well as bringing some of Cindy’s clothes home to be dry cleaned.  I know it sounds ridiculous, but one pair of slacks cost $20 to dry clean and a skirt and jacket cost the same as the gross national product of Peru. 

We went to a party last night to celebrate the wedding of two of the teachers at AAS. They threw the party and it was a good one. Lots of great food, the best of which was pulled BBQ pork that was just out of this world.  I continue to be impressed with the intellect and commitment of these young teachers. Even at the party I heard bits and pieces of conversations as to how they could improve their teaching and curriculum.

I tried to get my boarding pass online but that is no longer allowed in Moscow, a direct result of the bombing incident I’m sure.  So, I’ll have to go and get in the long lines tomorrow to clear the first hurdles to flight.  Also just found out that even though I’m ticketed on SAS, which is a Star Alliance carrier, it is a code-shared flight on Aeroflot, which is Sky Team.  Oh JOY, Aeroflot; I just don’t get it.

I gave all the plants big gulps of warm water today and it smelled just like springtime in the garden.  Just what I needed while looking at the frozen tundra.  All of the plants have thrived since I salvaged them from the garbage when we moved here in August.  They were a sorry looking bunch, but I felt that they looked so bad due to lack of water so I’ve nursed them back to health and now surround myself in my office with green.

Everyone is rather jumpy in Moscow so now even crank calls about bombs are treated as the real thing triggering the shut down of airports and malls.  Yesterday four large malls were closed because of bomb threats.

What started as a grass roots movement to depose a despised ruler has now turned to chaos in Egypt. Mobs are looting stores, robbing people in the street, freeing hundreds of Muslim militants from jails and thousands of other inmates all across the country.  It is sad to see this turn of events, which of course will give perfect cover to Mubarak to instruct his military to turn up the pressure.  We talked with several people last night who have booked trips to Egypt for the April vacation and they don’t know what to do now. Most embassies, including the USA, have begun the systematic evacuation of non-essential personnel and the airports are clogged with anxious tourists from all over the world wanting to get out as fast as possible. It is all too, too sad.

In all likelihood, I’ll not be doing a daily blog for the next several weeks since I’ll be out of Moscow. I’m sure things will crop up that I think need my attention and analysis and if so, you might receive an email. Otherwise, it will be up to Cindy to discuss Moscow, if her schedule and energy allow.

Ciao, Cindy and Wm

What's Going On? (sorry Marvin)

It has been a lovely, quiet and restful Saturday. We were able to actually sleep in until about 8:15, a record for Cindy.  We took a nice wake-up walk around the neighborhood and ended up at our local café for a macchiato.  We are now able to say a lot more in Russian to our favorite barista and he made us excellent coffee as usual.  We had to wait around for the groceries to be delivered from the Liberty Store and used that time to catch up on housework and emails.

Moscow is a-buzz with the publication of the photo of the suspected ringleader involved with the bombing of Domodedovo.  He is believed to have been based in Stravropol, a Black Sea city much closer to Turkey than Moscow that is a stronghold of radical Islamists.  The paper has begun to detail the new security measures that are to be but in place immediately, and it will involve delays, delays and more delays.  There will be metal screening, baggage screening, profiling and dogs, and this is all before you get into the airport proper.  Can’t wait until Monday!

As I suspected and told you on Tuesday, it has not been confirmed that international passengers were the targets for the bomb attack.  The terrorists, in addition to trying to keep foreigners away from the Olympics and World Cup, are trying to discourage foreign investment in Russia as a way of impacting economic growth here. 

In further discouraging news, Moscow has shut down all of its 1,500 elementary schools due to the H1N1 flu.  That means that 500,000 kids have nowhere to go for the next week. Glad I’m leaving!

Here is the good news, it appears that text messaging can have a positive effect as this article discusses.  A woman was set to blow herself up along with hundreds of others gathers in Red Square for New Year’s celebration.  It is reported that an SMS from her mobile provider wishing her a happy new year triggered the bomb and she was the only one killed.  Keen planning. 

Forget what I said in paragraph two about the identity of the bomber.  Now they say it was a 20 year old from the North Caucasus.  This is such a volatile situation and rumors run rampant, especially when they are published in the Moscow newspapers, as well as at BBC. Com, as fact!

It is a good thing that most of the Middle East is all desert; this enables the tyrannical leaders of the various countries there to dip their collective heads deep into the sand.  The Saudi King labeled the demonstrators as infiltrators! His exact words were, “No Arab and Muslim human being can bear that some infiltrators, in the name of freedom of expression, have infiltrated into the brotherly people of Egypt, to destabilize its security and stability and they have been exploited to spew out their hatred in destruction, intimidation, burning, looting and inciting a malicious sedition.”  How in the world can you portray 10, 000 local citizens coming together against overwhelming armed resistance as infiltrators? Things will be all right however because his highness Mubarak says that the situation is stable.  I guess he doesn’t get BBC.

Well the groceries didn’t get here until four this afternoon, which meant we were condemned to staying in the apartment. Not that we had any pressing plans but it would have been nice to take a long walk since the weather has been quite pleasant. We did go out for a quick walk just as it was getting dark to grab a few things from the local grocery store. Just my luck, they were having a cat fair and the place was filled with people leaving with their cats in carriers. I’m still breathing with difficulty.

I invented a new salad dressing last night. I call it Six Tablespoons because you take one tablespoon each of mayo, olive oil, balsamic, sweet relish, Jamaica Jerk sauce and whole grain mustard.  Mix it all together with some fresh black pepper and you have a really different and lively dressing.  I threw in two chopped tomatoes, a shredded carrot and some old brown bread that was cubed, stirred it up and let it sit for about an hour before tossing with fresh spinach. It was very, very good.

From CC: I can vouch for the deliciousness of Wm’s new dressing.  He made me guess the ingredients but it wasn’t fair because even he doesn’t know what’s in Jamaican Jerk sauce.  I was right on the rest of the ingredients and then guessed curry and cinnamon, either of which could be in the jerk sauce (and since curry can be a mix of up to 40 spices, who can tell?).

Best to all, Cindy and Wm.

Plodding, Planning and Published

Since they aren’t scheduled to deliver the groceries until tomorrow, I took a long walk to the embassy and got some more bulky stuff, like TP, olive oil and more wine.  It was a rather cold and grey walk but it felt good to get off the sidewalks and into the little parks that I know along the way, where I felt much more comfortable walking.

Poor Cindy has another full day of Strategic Planning.  They have a committee of thirty people that is supposed to come up with a new Mission and Vision statement as well as a Strategic Plan. I can’t imagine trying to do that with a group of thirty!  With luck they’ll be done by four and Cindy can take the early bus home so we can get a jump on the weekend.

We had the lasagna and sauce for dinner last night and I swear it got a whole lot better.  We started with a carrot and arugula salad, which hit the spot.  The night before I made Tuna Teriyaki and served it with big wok full of fried rice.  I first made a few cups of turmeric-flavored rice, which I love to do not only for the flavor but also the great yellow color.  I then cut up onion, garlic, red pepper, mushrooms, parsley and green onions and arranged them on a big platter and covered them with plastic wrap.  About fifteen minutes before we wanted to eat I started heating the wok that had about a quarter cup of peanut oil in it.  I also started to heat the griddle that I was to use for the tuna steaks.  Once the wok was hot I added the onions first, stirred them around for a bit and then in went the rest of the vegetables. Just before they were ready, I placed the two tuna steaks on the griddle and let them brown on both sides.  I added the rice to the wok and stirred everything around until the rice was very hot.  I then added one egg to the rice and mixed everything up until the egg was cooked and I turned off the wok and covered it.  I added a bit of teriyaki sauce to the tuna and the juice of a half of lemon and let that sit for a few minutes while I plated the rice. I added the tuna steaks and drizzled them with the pan juices and served it to a most appreciative dinner companion. 

For as many years as he has been publishing it, I’ve been reading it. In plain fact, anyone who travels often should be reading it.  The ‘it’ is Joe Sent Me, a weekly online publication for people who travel put together by Joe Brancatelli, who knows his business.  In today’s edition there is a little piece by a member based in Moscow.  It might look familiar to you: http://joe.biztravelife.com/joe.html

The TSA has announced that it will be doing away with the color coded threat levels since they really didn’t provide that much specific information. Today the Russian government announced that they would soon begin to color code the threat levels!

Enjoy the weekend, I know we shall.  Cindy and Wm

Mindless Housekeeping

Today was filled with so much excitement that there were times when I feared my heart would not be able to take the unbridled joy of the moment.  I had to sit home all morning and most of the afternoon waiting for a delivery of groceries that I had purchased at the commissary.  I wanted to stock up so that Cindy wouldn’t have to worry about shopping and there was far too much for me to carry so I arranged with the boys to have it delivered.  They were supposed to come between 10:30 and noon and they were to call before they departed. Neither of those things happened and so I was condemned by my own weakness to sit and wait.

Having completed all of my reading of the news, my emails and my writing, I cast about for meaningful opportunities to better the apartment.  It is amazing how much you can find to do it you really look long and hard.  First came the showerhead, which has literally been flying off the handle if too much water pressure is applied.  I think I’ve fixed it but we can only be sure when Cindy uses it next since she likes lots of pressure, at least from the shower. 

Next came the most fun.  We have a humidifier in the bedroom to try and keep some moisture in the room when we are sleeping. We also have a fan that is used to move the hot air from the radiator to the cold spots in the room.  I took a close look at both and realized that the blades on the fan and the fan on the humidifier were both filled with thick dust. I broke apart all the pieces and took them to the shower for deep cleaning. While doing that I decided to clean the big wick unit in the humidifier as well.  This occupied a stunning thirty-five minutes of wet labor, but everything is ship shape and in Bristol fashion.

The blame game is in full swing here in Moscow and both Medvedev and Putin via for the position of ‘guy most in charge’.  People have been fired, agencies dismantled and theories laid out and then withdrawn. The latest is that this was an effort by Islamic terrorists to destroy foreign investment in Russia.  This is the third attempt to try to focus on reasons and groups, but thus far real answers are just blowing in the wind.

Okay, what did I tell you about flat roof in Russia?

Grocery Update: After sitting around until 1:30 I was getting stir crazy, especially since the sun was shining. I called the Liberty Store and after a few transfers finally got though to Ismail, my friend and the boss man.  He knew who I was but couldn’t find my order anywhere.  “There is no order for William” he said. I told him to look for Emmans and sure enough there it was.  “Oh, I’m so sorry. I would have delivered that to you yesterday but I didn’t know who Emmans was. I don’t have another driver until Saturday, but I’ll make sure he comes to you early!”  They write the names on the delivery the way it comes up on the computer and when they scan my card it comes up Emmans since she is the sponsor and I’m the attachment. And so it goes.

When I finally got outside I decided it would be good to have some serious exercise so I borrowed one of the green guy’s shovel and dug out Cindy’s car.  I haven’t shoveled snow in quite a while and I remember now that I never liked it. At least for the time being Cindy’s car is clean and ready to roll, and by morning I’ll have new muscle aches to take my mind off my shoulder and knees.

Ciao, Cindy and Wm

Normal is Subjective

It is a bright, clear and cold day and Moscow seems to have recovered from its shock at the events at the airport.  Everything is running normally and I suppose denial keeps things together here.  Of course there are always those who will seek profit from tragedy and the gypsy taxi drivers were the first to try and cash in on people’s panic.

I actually went for a long walk and didn’t fall, so this is a good day.  My knees and arms were a bit achy from the fall yesterday but I seem to have worked all of that out during the walk and I very much enjoyed the sunshine.

With all that has been going on I forgot to mention that we went out to dinner on Monday night and tried the other Georgian restaurant that is close to our grocery store.  Just walking in we knew it was going to be a much better culinary experience.  The first thing that you see is a large tank with trout and carp swimming around unfazed by the fact that they might be dinner within the hour.  There were two smiling - I’ll repeat that since it is worth repeating - SMILING hostesses. One took our coats and winter gear and the other showed us to a table in the spacious and smoke free restaurant.  Like the other Georgian restaurant, this one has lots of exposed wood, but it is really done nicely with tables that are set with real tablecloths and real napkins. There were all manner of deer heads and horns adorning the walls and best of all was a great big open grill right in the center of the dining room so that we could watch what was being grilled.

The menu confirmed the fact that this was a bit more upscale.  Everything was perhaps ten to fifteen percent more expensive, but as we would find out, it was well worth the extra rubles. The only downside was that the wine was twice as expensive for half the wine, but it was good wine and served very cold, so once again, we really didn’t care.  To be fair in our comparison, we ordered mostly what we always order at the other restaurant. Cold grilled eggplant rolled around a knob of crushed walnuts and spices, a hot dish of local cheeses between layers of pasta, and the grilled quail.  Everything was wonderful, but the quail was simply superb. It was cooked to perfection and was meaty and spiced just right.  We also had a lavash, which is a Georgian loaf of bread that is tapered at both ends grilled just before serving.  We shall surely return for the food and also for the fact that they have the cleanest, brightest and most delicately scented bathrooms in all of Moscow. They even have earth music: frogs chirping and water falling.

Dinner with the new director and his wife was lovely last night. They got here about forty minutes late due to the hectic schedule and the traffic, but I had anticipated that and the meal didn’t suffer.  After cocktails we started with smoked salmon on hot crispy broccoli blinis with sour cream and dill.  It was a big hit and it is so easy to make.  I had made a very large vegetable lasagna the day before and just before heating it up I added slices of mozzarella that I sprinkled with herbs du Provence and let it all get bubbly hot and brown on top.  I had decided to make this more of a Provençal dish as opposed to Italian so I alternated layers of pasta with layers of sliced roasted eggplant.  I mixed cottage cheese, ricotta, Parmesan and pecorino with three eggs, spices, two cloves of minced garlic and a half pound of chopped raw spinach.  I spread this on the various layers of pasta and eggplant, which had already been slathered with my rich tomato, garlic, carrot, red pepper and mushroom sauce. I baked it hot, 400°, for about forty minutes and it rose up like a soufflé.  I let it cool completely - it of course fell - and then covered it and placed it in the fridge. 

After it was reheated for dinner, I served it with a side of the thick sauce and some extra Parmesan and crusty fresh bread.  I was all swelligent. The new director is a big fan of technology and will be a wonderful addition to the school and a strong ally as Cindy continues to move the school further along the path of innovative technology.

I would like to figure out how anyone who has lived in Moscow for one winter could design a structure with a flat roof.  My walk today had lots and lots of little detours as workmen were on top of large building shoveling the flat roofs covered with snow. There were times when it was like a blizzard with all the snow coming down from the roof.  If the icicles don’t get you than the big chucks of snow will. With the weather clear and crisp, there is a lot of snow removal going on all over the neighborhood. Large dump trucks filled with snow were processing across the main street like so many elephants in a circus parade. Someday I’ll have to follow one of these trucks and see where they dump all the snow. I’m guessing the river. 

Best wishes to all, Cindy and Wm.

Bombs, Bullets and Bruises

It is an inescapable fact that we live in dangerous times. The bombing here in Moscow yesterday, less than a year after the Metro bombing, goes right to the heart of the issue of security. If it can happen in Moscow, where there are more police, secret militias and security agents than anywhere in the world outside of Israel, it can happen in any country.  Any free society that allows people to move about without constant checks is going to have the potential for serious acts of terrorism.  The real issue is what will nations do about it.  I can assure you that Russia will not allow the terrorists to win. They will not close the airports, they will not limit flights, and they will not impede the free movement of people on trains, buses or the Metro because of this act.

I would suspect that there will be more delays as a direct result of more security in the USA than there will be here in Russia.  I’ll let you know next Monday when I attempt to fly to Stockholm to connect to Paris to connect to Washington.  I’m going to walk over to the Metro later today to see what the security is like there, which will give me some hint as to what it is going to be like at the airports.

It is no secret that the bombing was timed to coincide with the arrival of international passengers from Italy, England and Germany.  As I mentioned before, one of the aims of the terrorist is to try and prevent events like the Winter Olympics and the World Cup from being successful. They hope to engender fear and a sense of foreboding on the part of international visitors to Russia, thinking that the Russians will negotiate with them to protect their economic interest and their sense of Russian pride.  I personally do not think that this will be a successful strategy, but I think we can look for more and more of these incidents to occur the closer we get to these major international events.

Since March, when the bomb went off in the Metro, there have been waves of anti-Muslim attacks here in Moscow.  Roving gangs of skinheads and other disenfranchised youth have violently attacked anyone who looks different.  Very few prosecutions have taken place, which of course gives a green light for expanded violence. 

Speaking of violence, what am I missing?  When six people are killed in Tucson and many others injured, the NRA uses that as a reason to argue that more people should be armed!  There were three bystanders at that event that we know were armed.  Only one had time to draw his weapon and then he almost fired at one of the two men who were trying to get the gun away from the nut job. Even he admits that it would have been horrible to have shot the wrong person.  These things happen too fast for any citizen gunslinger to respond. If highly trained law enforcement officers can’t prevent these events, yahoos with pistols that they have only fired at static targets don’t have a prayer.

Thirteen law enforcement officers have been shot since Thursday and yet in three states they want to make it legal for professors to carry guns in the classroom.  Having been a professor for thirty-five years, I can assure you that these are NOT the people you want carrying a gun!  The USA is just upside down on this issue and it is another example of political/social polarization, which will not allow common sense to prevail.

I don’t know what the big fuss is over the fact that China has been able to develop a stealth jet fighter having salvaged parts from a downed US stealth fighter.  This seems like a good situation if we play our cards right.  We’ll fill in the gaps for them if they promise to sell us the finished product. You know it will cost half of what it would cost to build in the USA.

Later today:  I would like to report that there seems to be no evidence of any tightening of security around embassies, train stations, Metros, banks or other public places.  I walked all around for ninety minutes and everything and everyone seemed quite normal.  The most dangerous things that I saw on my walk were icicles hanging from the top of tall buildings getting ready to fall. They cordon off about three feet from the edge of the building in hopes that gravity will take the six-foot ice spears directly down.  Last week a six year old boy was killed by an icicle falling onto his head.

According to the airport web pages, all flights are running on schedule. They do recommend arriving at the airport a bit earlier for departing flights, which suggests to me that there is some increased security.  Let’s hope things settle down before Monday. One of the best ways to keep informed here in Moscow is to watch Russian Television, RT, in English. You can also take a look at it online. Quite good and well balanced, from what I can see with lots of information on the bombing. http://rt.com/on-air/

With all my pious preaching about people walking while distracted on the slippery sidewalks of Moscow, you would think I would be the last person to fall, but fall I did.  I was just walking down a gentle hill and the next thing I knew I had fallen on my hands and knees and was sliding down the sidewalk like a big blue walrus sliding down a beach heading to the ocean.  No real damage, just sore knees, but I did feel stupid for a little while.

Again, thanks for all the concern, Cindy and Wm.