This blog started at speed and has slow down a bit because a) I half feel I am writing to myself which was part of the idea anyway of doing it as it's a stay at home therapy and b) I have not been anywhere to write about. Life as stay at home dad is really the same most days, but I plan to change this. I am going to get a small part time job to help with the costs of living in Moscow which comes 3rd after Tokyo in money terms. I don't know why its so expensive? Russian wages are not high but a lot of things are imported. Rents are high as I have mentioned before, but then again, I think Russians try to milk foreigners for every ruble they can and they still have the idea that all foreigners have their rents paid for by their employers, which annoys me a lot.I hope to experience the real Russia outside of my cocoon and womb existence of life in my tiny Moscow 4 X 4 flat. I aim to mix with, and meet Russians as that is the only way to get a feel of the country and the people. At Christmas, I plan to go to St. Petersburg by train for three or four days. This should be interesting. One thing I have noticed, is that Russian like children, they are not subject to smiling in the street but when I carry junior in his backpack they all look at him and smile. Children are good at creating peace and happiness in the hardest of people. I am going through the "manopause". Yes, the manopause like the menopause. This is when a man is in his early 40's, symptoms include some but not all of the following- hot sweats, an attraction to girls in their late teens and 20's, a yearning to try extreme and dangerous sports, the need to own a motorbike and any gadget and other such symptoms. There is no known cure other than a cold shower and a hobby such as stamp collecting, dominoes, insect study or cricket. I will take up all four in between housework and nappy changing.
Funny how life works out and where you end up in it. Ten years ago if anyone had said to me I would be married, with a child living in Moscow, I would have looked at them as if they were mad. Also I have learnt in life, that what is here today, may not be here tomorrow. I was once working in a gherkin factory, I worked as a Shepard in Australia and took a degree in my mid 20's and went onto to become a top manager in statistics and I hate maths. Life is funny, you can have it all and lose it or be in a situation that you can see no way out of, but later find a way out, look back and laugh about it and it becomes just a bad or good memory.
I could write to you about soft full smelly nappies, how to make soup and other such things but this would not be interesting. I could write about sex scandals and lies but I have not seen any or experienced it. But I still live in hope. My off spring is still crawling and as yet cannot walk and I ate a tuna sandwich for lunch. I hope to write later about life in Russia, my travels and experiences and I won't disappoint you dear reader. Just give me time. A blog is a blog and just for fun after all and I don't believe in airing ones dirty laundry in public, well maybe if you ask me nicely.
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Greeting Englishman!
ReplyDeleteThis latest entry about nothing in particular I found very enjoyable, maybe because at times it reflects my often stay at home life in St Petersburg. If I were younger and had better health, I think I would like to be a tramway driver or a hawker on an electrichka, selling plasters and such.
Having a tunafish sandwich for lunch may be commonplace in Britain, but a real accomplishment in Russia.
I've mentioned your blog a few times at the breakfast table to 'she who must be obeyed' and we hope we can meet you in person when you come to St Petersburg. I added Englishman to my Recommended Blog list and hope you can reciprocate.
All the best,
A Scottish-American Presbyterian in St Petersburg
...Loquacious
Hi Whats your blog address? I'll flow it. I may see you sooner than you think as we are going to St Pete at Xmas. Can you suggest any good mid range hotels there???
ReplyDeleteI would like to add a notion about Russian hardness, I mean, I often read that foreigns consider us "unsmiling" people, people with hard faces. And there is a truth, well, kind of. We just have different mentality. I`ll try to explain, well, I do not know a thing about British smile, so I`ll hold American one as an example. American smile is an "I-message", which means something like "I`m fine"/I have a good mod/I`m ready to work/I`m a kind of guy you can trust" and other stuff. They have this kind of polite smile which does not mean you want to talk to a person, but you want to show you are not agressive. Russian one is a "You-message" - "I like you (as a friend, or as a good company, or as a man/woman) and I want to have a chat", well, in general, we smile when we have good news, when we are with friends, when we feel attraction to someone, when we think about something pleasant (Americans and other nations do the same, that`s a sure thing). But as polite smile to strangers - unfortunately, we almost do not have it. I wish we had this polite smile in our customer service at least, but that`s an extremely rare thing over here. I would love to talk to a smiling shop-assitant or a woman at the counter, but normally they have only too conditions - calm or rude. And I never smile to the male strangers (I`m a girl) whilst in underground or just outside if I do not want to talk to them, because normally they would consider this a flirt. There is also another possibility - they will decide they have something wrong with them (their shop doors are open, whatever) and I find them funny. But when I`m abroad I smile to strangers without any reasons apart from being polite and I love it. Over here you need a reason to smile to a stranger. Well, sorry for souch a lenghy monologue and I hope I expressed myself clear (my English isn`t very good, sorry).
ReplyDeleteLike your blog by the way.