BITS AND BOBS

Just to show you that we make too much fuss about health and safety in the UK. What is the problem with going through this tunnel onto the main river?

I don`t think it really matters that the commentary was in Russian and that this is a tour boat with a lot of people who don`t speak Russian. I guess she probably told us to duck down a little bit but I was too busy standing backwards taking a photo down river to try to interpret. Fortunately I turned around in time to take this shot and avoid having my head left behind as a decoration on the bridge!

Well, I thought you might enjoy that one! This is not a trick photograph, it really was that low!

BACK TO THE AIRPORT!

I forgot to mention that when we returned to St.Pete`s after our lovely few days in Monte Carlo we experienced what I think we have to get used to at the airport.

A couple of large aircraft arrived just before us meaning that the queues for passport control were rather long to say the least. This situation was not improved by the fact that the controllers like to read each passport from cover to cover before begrudgingly letting you into their country.

We had a gaggle of about 25 school girls from Greece in front of us who`s teacher had not had the foresight to make them fill in their landing cards on the plane. As they were writing them out all over the place in front of us, we decided it was a good time to slip in front of them from behind a post! We are not queue jumpers generally but have decided that in Russia, its the only way. Unfortunately, it didn`t go unnoticed either from the girls nor the security. As the man in uniform came up to us to tell us to step back in line, we completely ignored him and pretended we didn`t understand and said in English (he didn`t understand either) that the girls should have filled in their forms on the plane like everyone else and they were holding us up unreasonably (this was true). He didn`t actually care so we continued to the background noise of boos and hissing, quite embarrassing really but I would do it again!

Considering that the above mentioned controls result in people coming through passport control at about one per every two or three minutes, wouldn`t you think they would simplify the system and also delay the luggage to stop it from piling up on the carousel eventually spilling onto the floor. This is clearly not a problem for them but only for the really tired and frustrated people coming to visit their town who have to shift through to hopefully find their bags intact. I hope this was a one off!

A MOSCOW TALE

This seems like a fairly negative blog so far today but I have one more to tell before I get back to some positivity. This was told to me by someone I met over the weekend who lives in Moscow.

A friend of hers is expecting a baby in about 4 weeks. A week or so ago the landlady informed her that now there is going to be an extra person in the flat that she wants another 1,000 euros per month. Do I need to say anymore on that one?!