113:Daniil

Every time I go to visit 11-year old Daniil for an English lesson I count my blessings*. 
He lives, with his parents and grandparents on the top floor of a 5-story block of flats. He and his parents live and sleep in one room of the flat and grandparents have the other. They all share kitchen and bathroom.
Daniil has just had a baby sister. I saw her yesterday - how lovely she is, and so tiny. 
So now their living/sleeping room has a double divan for the parents, a single bed settee for Daniil and a cot for Darya. Plus the TV and computer and the odd cupboard. There is not much pacing up and down to be done in that room and certainly no room to swing a cat*.
When I went for my lesson mum decided to take baby Darya for some fresh air (to get them both out of the way). Mum carries the baby downstairs and Daniil, hero that he is, carried the pram wheels down 5 flights of stairs, came back up,  carried the pram base down and then came back up for his lesson. Not a murmur of complaint. Of course, when mum gets back, she will phone Daniil and the whole operation will be carried out in reverse. I can't lavish enough praise and I am always humbled by how well they cope with life.
I sometimes come away from there feeling guilty at my own circumstances. By comparison I live in a mansion.

count one's blessings

be grateful for what one has:when you find that many people are worse off than you are, you’ll learn to count your blessings

no (or not) room to swing a cat

humorous used in reference to a very confined space:there’s not even room to swing a cat!

[cat in the sense 'cat-o'-nine-tails']

112:Not more politics...

The third 'political comment' in a row. After today's blog I promise to return to the more mundane.

Here is a photo, taken a few days ago, of the ice melting on the vodootvodniy canal here in Moscow.

It is a sign that Spring is on the way. Having said that, it is -8 today with a strong North wind. Oh well, perhaps next week...


Another reason for including this particular photo was so I could talk about thaws and to express a hope that there might be a thaw in relations between UK and Russia. Unfortunately that seems unlikely. The UK has granted political asylum  to Berezovskiy, who is wanted by the Russians to stand trial in Russia and Russia has granted immunity to Lugovoy, who is wanted by the Brits to stand trial in UK in connection with the murder of Litvinenko. Both countries appear firmly entrenched in their positions. As many readers will know, both Mr Putin and Mr Lugovoy are former members of the KGB.

Boris Berezovskiy

Andrei Lugovoy

Alexander Litvinenko

No more politics, for a while....

111:Welcome back Mr Putin - if indeed you've ever been away

So, most of the results are in and that nice Mr Putin will be with us for a while longer. My prediction turned out to be true.


I wonder how many other Russians are crying after the result.


A note for my students, completely unrelated of course:
Crocodile tears (plural noun)
"tears or expressions of sorrow that are insincere"

• they weep crocodile tears for the poor and disadvantaged, but are basically happy with things as they are

Origin:

mid 16th century: said to be so named from a belief that crocodiles wept while devouring or luring their prey

110:A day that changes the world?

Today, Sunday 4th March, is a really important day. It is the day that millions of Russians will go to the polls to elect a new president. Here he is:

Everybody knows that the next president will be Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. But nobody yet knows how the country will react after the elections. Will the opposition protests continue and grow or continue and slowly die down? 


Interesting times lie ahead. It's anybody's guess what will happen next. 


The title of today's blog alludes to Sergei Eisenstein's famous movie "Ten days that shook the world". 

109:Moscow-City

Moscow International Business Centre (aka Moscow-City) is the impressive sounding name for this impressive complex of buildings. You can read more about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_International_Business_Center#Federation_Tower

It has been under construction for some time. Work on much of it was halted during the "credit crunch" of 2010 but is now continuing apace as the photo I took yesterday shows. The Wikipedia article suggests that 250,000-300,000 people will be working, living or visiting the complex at any one time. That's a quarter of a million people. Mind-blowing! One of the towers, Federation tower, will be the tallest building in Europe - 506 metres.


It is already a working complex. I had some classes a while back with IBM, who have a suite of offices there. 

108:Credit where credit is due

The word "credit" has quite a few meanings.


The expression in the title means you should praise someone who deserves it, even though you might dislike some things about them. Credit here means praise (похвала). 


A credit can be a unit of work in a school or university course. I've got two credits towards my degree.


Credit can mean money in your bank account. I was relieved to see from my statement that my account was in credit.


Credit can also mean a method of paying for goods or services at a later time, usually paying interest as well as the original money. I bought the car on credit.


In Russia too the word credit (кредит) has several meanings. Most often though it is taken to mean "a loan". Today's photo shows many adverts for loans. My guess is that many of these loan providers are "loan sharks" (ростовщики), who would be charging an exorbitant rate of interest.


One of my students, no names, no pack drill*, earns his money by phoning people who have taken out loans and "reminding" them that their payments are due. He uses several "techniques" for persuading them it would be in their best interest to pay - before he tells their friends, employer, work-mates etc. Apparently he is learning some colourful new language. He tells me the target is to make 400 calls a day! If he recovers a certain amount of money for the credit company then he gets a bonus on his small basic salary. 


It's certainly not a job that would appeal to me but "needs must when the Devil drives" (a proverb meaning sometimes you have to do something you would rather not).

*pack drill

noun

• a military punishment of marching up and down carrying full equipment.

Phrases

no names, no pack drill

punishment will be prevented if names and details are not mentioned:that way there’s no names, no pack drill - if anyone asks, I’ve never heard of you, ok?

107:Art for Art's Sake

The title of the 1975 song from 10cc. 





If you're a foreigner, like me, and you quite like art, but don't want to pay the premium for foreigners at the Tretyakov then be aware there is plenty of free art around Moscow. Here is a small sample of what I have seen on my travels around the city...

   

There is also a metro train that has seats on one side and pictures on the other. Art on the move.