121:Winter's last gasp & the Moscow monorail system

Winter! Every time you think it's gone away it comes back and bites you. We had been having milder weather but today was a salutary reminder that Nature is the Boss. During the day it was -8 with a really biting North wind. Now, this evening, the temperature has risen to around 0 and tomorrow sunshine is promised (with a temperature of -4). I am quite envious when I see +15 or 16 in parts of UK.
I think people in Moscow will be ready for Spring when it finally arrives. I know I will. Of course those people lucky enough to live in Siberia will need to wait a little while longer. 

Took this picture a week or so ago as I was walking past Moscow's monorail system. It spans only a fairly short distance, almost 3 miles, and has 6 stops running from Timiryazevskaya in the North of Moscow to Sergei Eisenstein street in the North East. It costs the same as an ordinary tube ticket (about 50 pence regardless of how far you want to travel) and proceeds at a fairly sedate pace along its magnetic rail track.
These Moscow monorail pictures are a lot better than mine (my talents lie in other directions!).
I use the monorail system sometimes, when I want to visit The "All Russia Exhibition Centre (ВВЦ)" previously known as VDNKh (ВДНХ). I go there occasionally to have some fun karting. There is an outdoor track and, just opened last year, an indoor track.

120:Send in the clowns - don't worry they're here!

Written by Steven Sondheim for the 1973 film "A little night music", this version of "Send in the Clowns" is performed by "Tiny Mouse". Thank you, Tiny Mouse, whoever you are.

I chose it to highlight the theme of the day, which is clowns. Unfortunately my very own clown, who periodically visits my site and liberally sprinkles his barbs, has developed verbal diarrhoea as you will see if you look at his comments on blog 117. With reluctance I have decided to switch off the ability of any Tomski, Dickski or Harryski to add comments. Thanks to my family, friends and loyal supporters for their encouragement and kind words whilst my blog has been "under attack".
Today's picture is of a clown entertaining children in a local shopping centre. Nice.

119:The British Council

Can I draw your attention to the British Council. Their job is to promote "Britishness" all over the world - perhaps think of them as a window into Britain. Here in Moscow they are located at No. 1 улица Николоямская. There were also offices in St Petersburg and Ekaterinburg but the Russian government, in its wisdom, decided to close them a year or so ago, accusing them of harbouring a hotbed of spies!
If you want to find out more about the British Council in Russia then click on
British Council
They are also on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/britishcouncilrus

Coming home on the metro last night at about 10.30. p.m. I was surprised at how busy it was. Even at that time of night I had to stand. There is often a Sir Galahad to jump up and offer me a seat but yesterday must have been his day off. I was dog-tired, just like this little chap!

118:Kievskiy and the aeroexpress

Moscow is served by three main airports (Domodedovo, Sheremetevo, and Vnukovo). Each of these can be reached by aeroexpress trains, starting from different termini in Moscow. (Domodedovo from Paveletskiy, Sheremetovo from Byelorusskiy and Vnukovo from Kievskiy). The service is reasonably fast,  efficient, and not too expensive. I used the Sheremetovo->Byelorusskiy train last week to take me to and from the airport for my flights to and from Krasnodar. It's a little bit unfortunate that the train passes almost right by my flat but doesn't stop there so I have quite a trek to get to the terminus, only to sit on the train and watch as it goes past my apartment.


The trains are very new and comfortable:

By comparison the stations are very old, and Soviet-style ornate. Here is a photo I took in Kiyevskiy station a week or so ago when I met a friend off the train. Isn't it magnificent? More like a cathedral.

117:Not a nice day

A bit of a down day today. I suppose partly because it's Sunday and I am working and partly because it's snowing - again - and making slushy roads and pavements. Today I thought I would use my "briefcase on wheels" to save my arms becoming any longer from the weight of all the books etc. Unfortunately, as the wheels turn they chuck up slush all over my chinos, which have only just come out of the wash.

I came across this dead bottle of vodka a few days ago and thought I would use it to illustrate today's blog which is largely about the Russian post-modern writer Venedikt Yerofeev. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venedikt_Yerofeyev
I am currently reading his novel - Moscow Stations.It is mostly about the inordinate amount of alcohol he consumes on a train journey between Moscow and Petushki. I have asked several Russian people whether this man really did consume the type and volume of alcohol he talks about in his book and to a man they said yes. As an example he describes a cocktail called Canaan Balsam which consists of 100g of meths, 200g of dark beer, and 100g of clear varnish!!! It is clear from his book that he is a very erudite man. I find it difficult to understand why such clever people turn to drink - at least not to the extent that he apparently did. He died at 51 from throat cancer. RIP.

116:Krasnodar

I wondered how long my numbering system would last before I made a mistake. No. 114 is conspicuous by its absence.
Today your roving reporter is in Krasnodar a substantial city in the South of Russia about 200km from the Black Sea. It is the capital and administrative centre of the Kuban region, traditionally the breadbasket of Russia. If you want to learn more about it, here is a link to the Wikipedia page.
Krasnodar
The pace of life here is slower than in Moscow and prices are significantly cheaper (but so are salaries). I have enjoyed my break away from the hustle and bustle of big city life but look forward to flying back to Moscow this afternoon ready for a long day of lessons tomorrow. The government decreed that Thursday would be a day off for International Women's Day. They also gave us Friday off but decided that Sunday would be a working day to make up for Friday. This week about to start is going to be a long one... And no more public holidays until May.
Here is a small selection of photos to help give a flavour of Krasnodar. The last one shows me with my old mate Robert, who works in Krasnodar. I hadn't seen him for 26 years so we had lots to talk about!

115:Международный женский день (International Women's Day)

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.