132:Glimpses from a train window

19 degrees here in the South of England. The record-breaking heat of the last few days is slowly leaving us but at least I felt it yesterday and today. Nice.
Here are four pictures taken on/from various trains yesterday.

Don't know what this is going to be but it looks impressive!	Our commuter trains (электрички). More comfortable but much more expensive
The famous London Eye	Look - green grass!

131:On the way home (по пути домой)

Domodedovo airport. 0440! All checked-in and waiting for the big silver bird to take me back to UK for a long weekend. I'll try my hardest to cope with a G&T with breakfast once we are in the air. Never could say no to a free drink.
Took this picture yesterday. The flamboyance of the pattern/colours on the Hummer says more than I ever could about the characteristics of some "moneyed" Russians. I think if he (?) is trying to make a statement then he is doing it very well. Draw your own conclusions.

130:The Charge of the Light Brigade!

On this day, in 1854, Britain and France join the Ottoman empire in the Crimean war against Russia in a bid to halt Russian expansion. A peace treaty was signed in Paris in 1856. 
In 1954, that nice Mr Kruschev

gave Crimea away to the Ukraine. How could he, in his wildest dreams, ever have imagined the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He is seen here banging his shoe on the podium at the United Nations to demonstrate his ire.
There are many things noteworthy about the Crimean war but three things in particular spring to mind.
1.   Florence Nightingale. Considered to be the mother of modern British nursing she became famous for her work with wounded soldiers in the Crimea.

Here is a link to a BBC Quiz for schools about Florence Nightingale
2.  The balaclava. An item of headgear that covers most of the head. During the Crimean war knitted balaclavas war sent over to protect our soldiers from the bitter cold weather.

3.   The Charge of the Light Brigade. A supreme tactical blunder by Lord Raglan which resulted in many British deaths. Their bravery has been immortalised in a famous poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

129:5 stars

I'm between lessons and it's not worth going home and then coming all the way back so I'm in the cinema waiting to go in to watch The Lion King in 3D to kill some time. 
I've shown some pictures of this cinema (5 звёзд) before. It really is an amazing place. Apparently it used to be a children's theatre before it was converted into a cinema.
Sorry about the poor quality of the photos but I always try to snap quickly inside buildings in case somebody comes to arrest me for breaking some obscure law or other! It is certainly not the fault of the beer - I am drinking alcohol-free beer because I have another lesson at 6.p.m.

128:A Radisson boat trip down the Moscow river

Not just any  old boat trip down the Moscow river - this was a Radisson state-of-the-art ice-breaking boat that sails up and down the Moscow river 365 days a year. It's ice-breaking abilities weren't needed yesterday as there was not much ice left on the river, just some very thin sheets here and there.
The literature refers to the boats as yachts, which I think is perhaps a bit OTT (over-the-top). 
Here are some photos of the boat and some views of the world outside as we sedately sailed by. All in all an enjoyable 2 1/2 hours. Dinner was nice too. It was obvious the waiting staff had been trained to a high standard. 

St Basils cathedral	Kremlin cathedrals
Cathedral of Christ the Saviour	Tsereteli's controversial statue  of Peter the Great
The parliament of the Russian Federation (the White House)	Nearly time to go home
The old British embassy  - how grand and elegant	The new British embassy  - how "modern" (and ugly)
How would you like to live here?	The ancient mariner?

   

127:Winter - please go away!

All of Moscow will be pleased when Winter finally leaves us and is replaced by Spring. We keep getting glimpses of what Spring is going to be like and then Winter returns. I took these three photos today to show my UK readers how lucky they are. The first shows Russians playing volleyball with their Winter coats on, the second the ice on the puddles, and the third the snow on the trees as seen from the window of my flat.

126:A blog in 15 minutes or less?

Can I write a blog in 15 minutes or less? Probably, provided I use lots of links to other peoples work!
1.  I thought this morning I would draw your attention to the work of the Russian  photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii who did much of his work at the beginning of the last century. Here is a link to a BBC collage of 12 of his photographs showing Russia at that time (pre-revolution). 
Russian Empire in colour photos
2.  Can you believe that learning a foreign language is not compulsory in English and Welsh secondary schools beyond the age of 14. How short-sighted is that? I think many British people still think that if you go abroad and talk loudly and slowly then people will understand you! Sadly (?) the days of glorious (?) Empire are long gone. But, there is hope for the future. "All children should learn a foreign language at primary and secondary school, a House of Lords committee has said." Of course, the House of Lords is not the House of Commons but at least people are talking about it. 
All children should learn a foreign language
3.  In England we drink too much. A new report shows that deaths from liver disease have risen by 25% in less than 10 years. And yet "binge" drinking* is not a new concept, I remember being very good at it myself in my younger days. Perhaps they just do more of it these days.
The demon drink
My 15 minutes are up. Have a nice day.

binge drinking

 

Pronunciation:/bɪn(d)ʒ ˈdrɪnkɪŋ/

noun

[mass noun]

• the consumption of an excessive amount of alcohol in a short period of time:teenagers as young as 16 admit to binge drinking

Derivatives

binge-drink

verb

binge drinker

noun