A smoking city

Over the last few weeks of this summer in Moscow, the air has been heavy with a sweet acrid smoke. The smell has been like a old pipe tobacco, drifting on the wind. The smoke has been everywhere in the city and the city has been in a blanket of smog. This place reminds me on an apocalyptic concrete city from a nightmare 1970's sci-fi movie. I try to like it, like I try to like cabbage, but it still tastes the same, bitter and horrible.

On July the 26th the temperature in the city reached 37 degrees. The cause of the smoke that has mixed in with the car smoke, has been due to peat bogs outside the city. Yes I know it sounds odd, peat bogs usually have water in them! However "Stalin" and his merry chums, decided one day after an afternoons drinking rather too many Vodkas (and in between shooting people), that the peat bogs should be drained for farming. This order was promptly carried out and today every year or so, people in the city get smoked out, like kippers for your breakfast.If you have children or if you have Asama, you may want to think carefully before making the move to Moscow if you plan to live in the center of the city. See Video

There have been fires all over Russia. Putin has been seen on TV visiting victims of the fires that have lost homes and he promises to compensate them - yeah right, lets see if they actually get the money that's promised to them. He also promised to re build villages where they had burnt and he said this will be done by "December", call me cynical but lets wait and see if he is true to his word.

This evening, as I type this, its raining outside. Miracles can happen. As I wrote previously, the mayor of Moscow cloud bombed the skies for the cities 65th National day to ward off rain and it worked but I can't help thinking that he should not have messed with the weather and that his actions have contributed to the lack of rain these last few months.

The internet, the expats friend

The expat community is big here in Moscow. Moscow is a big mega city and yet a small city, where you will know somebody, who knows somebody, you know!. Its small, because the world is now small, thanks to and because of, the Internet. Love it or hate it, the Internet has made life easier for people living away from home. I lived in Moscow for a short period, 13 years ago and there was no usable world wide web, You could only use expat language newspapers, letters and the telephone to find things out and to keep in touch with friends and family back home.

There are large communities of French, British and Americans living here. I cannot find any concrete statistics on numbers on it but after being here for a while, you can see it and feel it. Many Americans, along with other nationalities, came to Moscow over 10 to 15 years ago, chasing a fast buck to big money, in the wake of Russia opening up her arms to the free market economy. Some made some it, some did not, some came here to be with an online Russian bride. Russian brides (dating services) are big business and many a man has been hooked and reeled into Moscow, to start a new life, with a new wife, in the big stink that we call Moscow.

There are many bars catering for expats and many strip and sports bars catering for male expats, single and married. Many expats here now, are working in finance, banking, specialist law and property e.t.c, although this number has reduced a lot due to the credit crisis and corruption issues that still haunt Russia today. Expats abroad, are often on big money and Russians know this, by setting rents at unbelievable high prices assuming that all expats have their rents paid for, where this is not the case anymore. There are also many embassy workers in Russia, who arrive in Moscow with their families on long term postings.

With the Internet, you can find out about a country before you arrive. You can find out about rental costs, childcare facilities and education and other such things, where before this was not possible as the Internet was not available. This is a big help as the shock of living in a new city, will not be so hard to adjust to. You can join expat forums, if you are brave enough to do so, although as a word of caution, many of these forums are dangerous, but can be helpful, if used carefully for finding out information from other expats, in your chosen expat destination. So I say, I hate the Internet and love it, as it has made life abroad a little bit easier and the world a little smaller.

I hope this blog will help you and has many other stories and tips.

An 'oh shit' moment

This weekend, we decided to go away to outside Moscow. We wet off at around 7.30 am this morning, to go to a place called Suzal. Its a town situated in what they call here the "golden ring". Roughly speaking, since I am too lazy to look in guide books, these places are in a ring where former princess set home and built churches, lots of churches. Suzdal is situated in Vladimir Oblast.

I strapped my boy into his car seat, set up the Tom Tom sat navigation and we hit the Russian roads. We were looking forward to getting out of the smoke and to see trees and countryside. It took us some time to escape the magnetic traffic hold of Moscow, and eventually we broke free and hit the golden road to Suzal. I can only describe this road as actually being a grey ring, rather than a "golden ring", there was so much grey smoke and haze from the cars and trucks, that it was like looking through a grey fog, plus its has been mega hot here. We crawled through the traffic, like a tortoise who had just woken up. Once we got out of the traffic jam and arrived in Vladimir, I told my wife we should fill up with gas.

We pulled into the petrol station and got out. My son finally stopped screaming and my wife looked at me with an ashen face and said "I have forgotten my wallet, its on the kitchen table". Oh shit.

We did not have much gas left in the tank and I asked how would we pay for the hotel? She then began to panic and her hands were shaking. I asked her if she had a credit card or any cash? She said no, sobbing into her hands. Trying to help as only I know how,  I suggested that she call the hotel where we were booked to stay and ask them to lend us money for gas. The hotel had not taken her credit card number, that was back home on the kitchen table, so we could not stay the night and they told us they did not keep cash. I thought of selling my body to the nearest truck driver but changed my mind, I have my dignity. We then desperately asked the grumpy looking woman in the gas station, if she could lend us money and told her we would pay her back and leave our passports with her, but she refused, she stood fast in her decision, even at the sight of a tearful woman and a disheveled man holding a small dirty child.

I looked at the cars computer and it said 200 km remaining in the tank, the sat navigation map said it was 200 km back home...... we could just make it to our door. We got in, buckled up and went back the way we had come. The roads were clear on our side, as the traffic was on the opposite side of the road, the very same traffic that we had just spent hours sitting in! Gripping the steering wheel, till my knuckles turned white, I drove at a steady 60 along the road. The conversation in the car consisted of the following, "how far to go, how much petrol is left", reply, "90 k of gas left, 60 k left to go". This format was repeated every 15 minuets as the gas and distance slowly reduced. My wife, chained smoked and my boy screamed from behind me. I turned the ignition key off at all the traffic lights and took my foot of the gas peddle when going down hill, in a desperate attempt to save the last drops of dirty gas. Every gas station on the road, looked like a piece of apple pie in a cake shop window that you wanted but could not buy as you had no money. Much like our situation.

When the city came into view, I almost cried with joy and I don't like Moscow. At 6 k left to go home, the gas reading said zero and my pants changed to a dark colour. Breaking down, on six lane roads, in Moscow, would be about as much fun as eating boiled cabbage. We prayed to the giant banana in the sky, that we would make it, while my boy gently screamed and threw bits of paper at me from his back seat. Eventually, we got home at 3.30 pm, having survived on just vapor fumes and I kissed the ground and swore never to take a trip outside Moscow again, so next weekend we will repeat the journey, as my wife wants to visit this place. Another road trip awaits me.

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Keep cool

Its been absolutely baking here in Moscow. Our flat has been 29 c inside and outside almost 40 c. It faces the direct sun from midday till sunset. After a few days of slowly roasting like a chicken in the oven, I snapped and met with the landlord. We asked her (no demanded is a better choice of words) to install air con or we would leave. In Russia and perhaps, its the same in many places now, you have to speak tough and act tough when you want something. You cant be soft and polite as it gets you know where. She begrudgingly agreed, and the next week she put one unit in the living room. The living room is now very pleasant to sit in. All the windows of our Moscow flat face the sun so there is no air flow through the flat.

As a double protection, I came up with a cunning, if not slightly eccentric plan. I would add double protection from the suns rays, by covering them all in sun shields. I went to a home improvement shop here called OBI and I got many packs of those silver carshields and small kids car sun shades that go on the windows with suckers. Just to explain, many flats here have balconies covered with glass and our bedrooms back onto it, its hot, very hot. I put these car sun shields on the windows and inside the flat I put those kids car shades and got rolls of that silver sheeting that reflects the sun and put that up with sellotape on the bedroom windows that back onto the balcony. I can now say the temp has dropped by at oh.... at least 1 c! Only joking, by at least 2 c. So its better.

Russians say its not usually this hot and is normally 26 c in Moscow but I have to say I have big concerns that global warming is now biting us all on the tail and saying I told you so. This weekend we are off to a another part outside Moscow for a tourist trip. I will report back later dear reader.

 

Good bye to a furry friend

Our much loved cat fell from the window last night. He had been in the family for about 12 years and was Russian. We found him in a Benetton shop in a big shopping center in Red Square Moscow, when my wife was posted here about ten years ago for one year. He was just a kitten when we found him sitting in a ladies changing room in the shop.

He survived the Russian streets before we found him then went to the UK in London and survived six months quarantine, then survived Slovakia where we lived for five years, then he survived the trip back to Moscow, only to die here. Its been so hot here and the flat is in direct sunlight from noon till dark and gets very hot. My wife opened the window fully rather than just half way and he went out onto the window ledge, we tried to catch him but he fell 6 floors. I stayed with him and he died after 20 minuets. It was very sad and very painful for him and us.

When moving to Moscow, make sure if you have children and animals that your windows have locks on them and are twist and turn, the type that open in and half way. You can also put nets on the outside as a double protection and to stop flies getting in. We persuaded the flat owner to put locks on and nets onto some of the windows but flats are still very dangerous places. I grew up in a house with a garden, so they are not really my thing but needs must when you live in a big expensive city.

I hope he is up there sleeping in the sun, eating a nice piece of fish or if there is such a thing as reincarnation, that he comes back as a happy person and has a good long life. He was a much loved friend.

Bake for 30 mins on maximum heat

How to cook a family till golden brown. I've just returned from a short family holiday in the South France. I was nice but HOT. Now since we returned back to Moscow, which is not one of most favorite places in the world as you may know, its really hot here. Although the holiday was great is was hot and I was looking forward to a cooler environment back at our temporary home in Moscow. Its been plus 32 for several weeks here. Our small flat has no air-conditioning and faces the afternoon sun. Consequently, it heats up to the temperature of an oven, fans and blinds make no difference.

We meet the landlord on Monday to pay her the rent in hard cash (they like cash here) and hope she will see reason and install air-con. Dealing with Russian landlords here is not easy and many are greedy and uncooperative. We can guarantee her at least 3 years rent that will run into the price of a decent sports car by the time we leave, we pay on time and are quite and clean. We will plead with her or threaten to leave depending on her reaction.

I think my advice is  if you are thinking of moving to work and live in Moscow, at a minimum get your employer to pay your rent and get a flat with air conditioning. Although our single salary is good, the rent eats up a lot of it and we cook in the summer and froze last winter. I was once told that Russia is like a smelly sweaty armpit in the summer and like a freezer in the winter. This may now be very true. Finding a flat without help is not fun and many flats are sub standard and come at a high price. If she does not play ball, we will have to hunt again for a flat.

The mayor of Moscow, Yury Luzhkov had the sky bombed with chemicals this summer to prevent rain for their National Day celebrations in Red Square. He threatened to do the same in the winter to prevent snow as he said it costs too much to clean the streets of snow although its mostly done by lowly paid men from the far reaches of the former USSR that flock to Moscow for work. His wife is very rich (as is he) from various suspect property deals, maybe she or he (or a relative if theirs) owns a factory that produces air-conditioning units? Bomb the skies, stop any rain and clouds and watch the cash roll in. This is not as paranoid or crazy as it sounds, since this is Russia, where anything is possible for a price, some would sell their own grandmother for cash.

We asked about the price air-conditioning units today at a big electronic shop in Moscow, waiting times for air-con installation takes weeks (or so the girl in the shop told us today) and you pay for it, prices range from 29,000 rubles for a basic machine plus 7,000 rubles for installation. In Russia, installation and servicing are not in the dictionary of sales and customer care.

The French

The French. I know this has very little to do with a blog on Russia but please indulge me. I have just read a great book while on holiday called "Talk to the snail" its all about the French, how they are and their culture. Lets write one about the Russians. The French are very polite to each other even when they are insulting you or insulting each other. They love fine cheeses, food and wine. They have a unique approach to love, sex, education and driving. I would love to hear on anyone's opinion on Russians and their attitude to these things. The book is very funny and I recommend it to anyone who goes to France or who likes France. They have got a lot right and make the UK look bad (which we already knew anyway). They are not perfect as a nation no nation is, but still its interesting reading and very funny.

Home to Moscow

Back to Moscow. When I return to Moscow, a kind of dread fills the pit of my stomach. The feeling you get when going to see a relative you don't like or the feeling you get when waiting for an exam result. We flew via Nice to Vienna to Moscow, to save air fair money on our return trip to Russia from a short summer holiday in France.

While sitting at Nice airport, eating my pre-made homemade ham sandwiches, I felt very poor. There were people of all ages, suntanned and heavy with shopping bags, dressed in white linen and wearing sunglasses with mobile phones glued to their ears. Private jets waited on the runways to carry their wealthy passengers back to where ever they had come from. I felt as if I were in Moscow. The flight was bad as mini me who is under two, screamed for the length of the flight as did two children behind me. By the time I arrived in Moscow I was as high as a kite after taking four Valium pills. The taxi trip back to Moscow center took as a long as the flight! Which screams madness in Moscow city road and transport planning.

In Moscow, you see such people, you see Bentley's, Ferrari's and Porches on almost every street, you see such vulgar displays of wealth, you can smell the money and hear the screams of people dragged off into the woods by bad men because they had not paid a debt or because they had stepped on another persons toes. Nice felt uncomfortable and this remained with me until we touched down in Moscow at Domodedovo airport, the best of the bad airports. The funny thing about that airport, is that when you arrive there is only one lift to serve all arriving passengers. One up and one down. People waited loaded up and sweating (for there is no air-con) with cling film rapped baggage on trolleys, queuing (Russian style) angrily to go down to the car park pick up point. Welcome to Russia.Welcome to madness, smoke and bizarre extremes.