Another day, another adventure. I’m off to Krasnodar, a city in the South of Russia, not far from the Black Sea. I’m looking forward to seeing an old friend, whom I haven’t seen for more than 25 years. He too is teaching English, although he wasn’t when we last knew each other.
Back to the story. I left my flat in good time to get to Byelorusskiy Station to catch the aeroexpress to Sheremetyevo airport. There is a choice of ways to get there and suddenly a bus appeared, as if from nowhere, and made the decision for me. It may have been a bad decision because it kept breaking down. Every few hundred yards the bus stalled and the driver had to restart it. After a mile or two the driver suggested it might be better to get off and find another route.
I got off and put my hand out for a private car to stop. Sometimes known as “black” taxis these drivers are enterprising private citizens who are willing to stop and pick up passengers for a small(ish) remuneration. The practice is widespread in Moscow.
Today is International Women’s Day. с праздником to all my Russian female friends, colleagues and students. Almost nobody in UK will have heard of this holiday but it is widely celebrated in “many” countries around the world. In Russia it is a big thing and today is a public holiday. Women are treated especially well on this day by their men folk and bosses. For the last few days I have seen an increase in the number of women in the metro clutching flowers, which had obviously just been presented to them. I was at one of my corporate clients yesterday and senior management were standing inside the turnstile system to hand out flowers to every female employee who came through. There was also a photographer on hand to record the event. Never mind that the girls had just come in off the street and might have wanted to add a dab or two of make-up, stand there and have your photo taken for posterity.
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