THE ANGLO-RUSSIAN MARRIAGE

ENDEARING IMAGE!

The lady in the chair was actually waiting to attend a different wedding but I thought she was wonderful.

THE WEDDING

It was quite an enviable opportunity to attend a wedding in one of the wedding palaces here. I have watched enough brides come out of them!

The wedding itself was very lovely. Very similar to any civil wedding in the UK, except conducted in Russian. I hope David knows what he is getting into! He seems happy anyway and he signed the contract regardless. The inside of the building was quite lovely and the room of the marriage was elegant. During the service we endured some really sentimental recorded music and the service was only interrupted by the gentleman in front of me who had a very old camera which made a really noisy wind back noise after each photo! Everyone noticed (probably not the bride and groom!).

After the service we were taken to the reception by bus, saving us a long and icy walk.

The photo shows the brides parents holding a bread with a dish of salt, over the top of a beautiful embroidered cloth which is probably an heirloom. The idea is that the bride and groom take as bigger bite as possible to decide who is the boss in the household. I think it's traditional for the bride to take a modest bite, although I don't suppose they do that these days. They then take a piece of bread and dip it in the salt and feed it to each other. Really, that was all that was different from a traditional wedding reception in the UK, then everyone got really drunk and danced etc. ditto!

WINTER WONDERS

This was a glorious clear, cold evening and the photo opportunities made me late for meeting up with Mike. Who could resist this though?

MUSHROOM PARTY

We enjoyed last Saturday night at the home of a work colleague of Mike's. Last autumn Mike had the opportunity to go mushroom hunting with a gang from the office, this particular chap being the expert only collected porchini, and a big basket of those he had found. He invited us on Saturday to enjoy risotto a la porchini. He had boiled the mushrooms and had then frozen them. Gosh! I didn't know that was even a possibility as I have only ever enjoyed porchini either fresh or dried. We enjoyed a couple of bottles of excellent Georgian wine which was a great treat as, naturally, Georgian wine is not allowed into Russia. This was very generous as the said gentleman had only a couple of bottles brought in from Ukraine. Of course he hadn't realised that he was not allowed to bring it through.

He had a wonderful flat, the first flat I have been into belonging to a local, albeit a rather privileged local. He did warn us, however, that he had been having trouble with rats since the Restaurant had opened beneath him. I kept my feet pretty much off the ground for the entire visit.

This guy also had the most impressive private library, probably, in the City. During the early 90's there had been a charity to gather up as much reading material, mostly from USA as was possible and send it to the literature starved Russians. Somehow, he had acquired a huge number of these books, some of real historical interest. He also had some magazines dated from the 60's which were, according to him, published and printed in Russia and sold, legally, through the news kiosks. They were in Russian but were all about the wonders of living in the USA. I think he is quite wrong about this. I think these were definitely printed in the USA and smuggled into Russia to be sold quite secretly. After all, they were would really make any Russian very envious of the lifestyle outside of the Soviet Union and why would they allow that? I was in Russia in the 70's and I know people had hardly any information about anything outside.

We enjoyed looking at some childhood artwork which included a 'City of the Future' containing glorious Soviet slogans! Really that brainwashing business started very early.

A FEW WINTER CITY IMAGES

I particularly love the ducks who have found a nice patch of water in which to swim!

The birch wood is on one of the city islands but looks a million miles away!

The sunrise was taken from my sitting room window at about 8.45 a.m.!

The ice on the canal in front of the Church of the Spilt Blood is clean of bottles and garbage, which is unusual!

IS HE REALLY GOING TO SIT ON THAT ?

I SAW A GHOST TODAY!

WHO IS PETER THE GREAT TALKING TO? MORE TO THE POINT, WHO IS THAT LURKING IN THE BACKGROUND?

IT'S BEEN A WHILE BUT I AM BACK!!!

TWO OLD LADIES

I was moved and uplifted earlier this week to come across two wonderful old ladies. Not content to sit around in their homes during the dark, cold winter days, they were out busking! These ladies clearly had a combined age of about 160+. They were both wearing red hats and warm wool coats. Perhaps they are sisters, their harmony was great as they sang traditional Russian folk songs and one of them was wearing a yellow plastic container around her neck to collect the money. I don't usually give money to buskers but I was extremely generous to these ladies as I thought they showed such spirit! They probably sing all the time at home and realised the possibility to 'cash in' on their pastime! They made my day and I made theirs!

I wonder how long it will be before such enterprise will be shown by our own British pensioners, struggling along on their 0% interest on their savings. Not even funny.

NEW TROLLEY BUSES

Things have changed even in the short time I have been living here. All the battered old mini buses that used to clog up our main roads have been banned from use and have been replaced by beautiful new buses. This is making the main shopping street of Nevsky Prospect much, much cleaner and safer. Good things DO happen here!

ON THE OTHER HAND

I thought I was being sensible crossing at a pelican light this morning but hadn't accounted for the fact that big, dark windowed, 4 x 4's park on the crossings and don't think anything of backing into pedestrians crossing! I nearly got caught, but I will be looking out in future. I really think people in cars assume that the pedestrian is some sort of inferior being, seriously!

SNOW

At last I can report that the weather here is now worse than the weather in the UK. Thank goodness, I thought I might start to be considered a fraud as every time I speak to my son in Newcastle the weather has been considerably colder and snowier than here!

I can confirm that the river and canals here are well iced over and I have seen people walking on the ice on the main river, crazy! I think the swimmers are still swimming at Peter and Paul. It takes all sorts.

DARKNESS AND LIGHTS

SHORT DAYS AND LONG NIGHTS

The daylight hours are now between 10.00 am to around 3.30, but what I hadn't realised is how dull it would be between the daylight hours, making it very difficult to get enough light inside. I think we need to pick up some stronger light bulbs! It's quite hard not to turn over and go back to sleep in the mornings and very easy to hang around in one's pyjamas until at least 10.30! However, it does make lots of lovely hours to indulge in all my indoor hobbies (don't ask!) and a lot of time to socialise amongst all the great people I have met here.

PETER' VISIT

How good it was to have our son here last week. I really enjoyed hitting the bricks with him and showing him around town, even plucked up the courage to go on the metro! Of course, this wasn't too difficult because he would certainly not get lost even if I did. I am finding myself a lot more confident using the public transport around town these days.

We walked around the summer gardens to find all the statues boxed up for the winter and around Mars Field to find tramps laying on the ground around the Eternal Flame for the Lost Soldiers, just to keep warm. I can't see how anyone can object to this as they surely need the warmth but we did see the police moving them on.

The market people are really struggling to sell things and it is possible to knock down the price considerably. However, I feel so mean doing this as I know they find it really hard to make any money. I never realised before how bad it feels to get a real bargain. I try to be really fair so they feel happy and I feel happy (I am a silly sucker really, I am sure they feel happier than me with the final deal!)

Whilst buying Peter a hat for his ski trip it was important to keep in mind that his trip was going to be in Western Europe as the choice of fur was ranging from fox to raccoon and in between some pretty outrageous choices! Having tried several Davy Crockett styles with tails etc. he finally settled for a black rabbit which could be taken for faux!

THE SCOTTISH BALL!

The night after Peter left we went to a Scottish ball. It's amazing, everywhere I have ever lived there is always a Scottish ball and a large number of locals seem to have kilts ready for the occasion. It was really fun to dance with lots of Russians in kilts who really knew how to 'Strip the Willow'. Rather a lot of fine whiskey was consumed that night (not by me, I hasten to add!)

THE INCIDENT IN THE 24 HOUR SHOP

Well, this isn't a huge incident to mention but a typical example of what one has to deal with regularly here.

I was having a luncheon party and needed to nip out very early in the morning, whilst still dark, to buy bread and a couple of other things. It was cold so I put on my big coat and hat and looked pretty unrecognisable as a foreigner.

When I came to pay I handed a note to the girl on the till and she looked away from me and rudely slapped the plastic counter in front of her to indicate that is where I was to put the note and not hand it to her. Being annoyed, I persisted in trying to hand it to her whilst muttering expletives under my breathe. She tapped the counter again! I was in half a mind to tell her to stuff the goods 'where the sun don't shine' but I needed those items and had to swallow my pride and put the money on the counter. She made me feel like some sort of 'down and out' and I struggled not to allow that incident to really get to me. Then I realised that she will probably always be miserable and work in that nasty little shop and I felt a whole lot better!

007 JAMES BOND PARTY

What a fun night we had at the British Consulate. Although I did feel slightly idiotic to start with. I had decided to dress as a spy, wearing one of Mike's suit jackets and bow ties with a huge spy glass in my pocket. Walking into the room to find all the other women who were nearly all Russian at that point, dressed absolutely beautifully as 'bond girls' was a bit mortifying to say the least. However, a couple of glasses of red put that problem to rest and the remainder of the evening was enjoyed immensely, not least sitting on the Harley Davidson and enjoying the dancing with men and also some women who seemed to find my outfit attractive! What an experience!

LEAVING FOR CHRISTMAS

Well, it doesn't seem long since my last trip out of Russia but I am really looking forward to Christmas and New Year and I will be returning to the blog in February! Bye for now!