My official resume in English >>
My official resume in Russian >>
Available to do odd jobs. Guide, driver, translator, information snooper, gopher, night watchman, gardener, handyman etc. etc. In Moscow till at least the beginning of June, at most till August.
It screws up Comment form, imposes a non-removable link to Facebook and similar pointless systems, and drastically increases load time. My www.staritsa.info went from 4-5 seconds loading time to way under two in most tests after I took Jetpack out.
I’m starting to see WordPress as just another hoax designed to grab your time, energy, and attention. Your soul.
Yes, your soul. The word has ended, and we are in hell being devoured. The end lacked the expected audio-visual effects, and it turned out there are no cauldrons down there, and demons look very different from what authorities like Bosch or Botticelli made us expect. Instead they come in the form of incessant advertising or redundant gadgets that feed on what’s left of us. Does anybody understand what I’m talking about? A thoughtful comment would be appreciated.
A cheap room has just come up on my www.cheap-moscow.com. The host, the famous Alla G., was forced to make a choice between two seekers. What made the different was that one of the two said a few words about himself. The other one merely asked about the room. Naturally, the one who chose not to remain a mystery won.
PEOPLE! WRITE SOMETHING ABOUT YOURSELF WHEN MAKING AN ENQUIRY. NO NEED TO BE LONG AND INVOLVED BUT DO SAY WHAT YOU DO FOR A LIVING AND WHAT BRINGS YOU HERE. NO ONE WANTS TO SHARE LIVING SPACE WITH AN UNKNOWN.
I don’t want to be once again accused of prejudice but why do Americans nearly always introduce themselves, North Europeans sometimes, and southerners and third-worlders very seldom?
Don’t ask me about my compatriots because these days one can realistically go to prison under Article 282 of the RF Criminal Code for saying something un-PC about these [epithet removed] Russkies. Commenting on their pseudo-religion is the most dangerous but as we are nearing another 1937 so one will be safer to stay shut. I’m a coward and a wimp, so I won’t tell.
In an attempt to get going after a week of Ryazan I’m flipping through the gallery of this Solnechnogorsk artist whose forte is depicting fat cats, stern babushkas, scary Russian men, and desolate cityscapes. He is on my list of recommended resources for anyone planning a trip to this land defined by cats, babushkas, and characters to be avoided framed into bleak surroundings interspersed with sparks of glamour. Most of what you see in Vasya Lozhkin’s gallery belongs to the 90s though
Taking a client of honour to see Ryazan beauties from Vovchik’s collection. Mode of travel: car and camper for savings and flexibility. Off tomorrow (Saturday) morning. A lesson to others: do this exercise in the beginning of your trip so that you can spend the rest of your stay in Russia to cultivate contacts, not at the end, when it is almost too late. But no, they would not listen! They prefer chasing their Anastasia.com or Elenasmodels geese till it is too late, see things for what they are only at the end of the trip etc. I’m off for at least a couple of days – depends on how it goes – tomorrow. Hoping not only to get something for this naive but otherwise very pleasant and easy client, but to get a feel for what’s out there in Ryazan, which I haven’t visited for years, and to add faces to my list.
See www.staritsa.info/ryazan.htm and www.oldmanfriday.com > services > personal > Russian brides.
The day ended – hope it did – with a kid identifying me as an enemy of the state. But it started with with a client calling me “rude” and “threatening” when I merely asked him to check the math and leave whatever amount owed on the desk.
A bit too much even for a gloomy November day in Moscow.
Today one of them – I guess about four – looked at me and uttered “это дядя шпион” – “this uncle/man is [a] spy”.
Laminaria fried in olive oil added to my repertoire. The best/cheapest source of sheet laminaria is the Vietnamese market (see my Guide to Moscow at www.cheap-moscow.com) where Gimbab sells for 40 roubles per package while elsewhere it is 80+. I get unrefined and unfiltered olive oil at the Spanish House (Metro Alexeyevskaya) at 500 roubles ($17) per liter. Expensive but it is not used in any significant quantity.
Neat video. To the point yet not heavy the way subject of this sort are usually deal with. Shared by the famous Rusmeister from expat.ru forum. I was asked about the difference a couple of weeks ago but went off on a tangent and delivered instead a diatribe on the role of church in the Russian system of government, which was not quite an answer to the question, and added to my reputation of a killjoy grouch. Hope this answers your question, JH. But remember, the video addresses the difference in doctrine, not values or practices. The Russian Orthodox church has been behaving like a huge asshole as of recent, so we who live here tend to forget about the subtle and beautiful theory this institution possesses and think of worldly – and usually ugly – affairs. The Pussy Riot story is well known but that’s just the tip of the information iceberg. Damn, here I am again doing my nudnik thing. Enjoy the film.
Yesterday Ran into a new “health food” store called Vkusville. Located on Lusinovkskaya (Metro Dobryninskaya, near the St. Daniel’s Monastery where I buy my beloved fake sausage – see Pasha’s Guide > Shopping > Food). I went in, did a cursory inspection, bought a couple of things, and was pleased enough to add it to my Guide. No, it is not a vegetarian store. In fact it emphasizes meat, fish, and milk products. The store does not claim its products are “organic” but promises that sausages have no sodium nitrite or glutamate, that fish comes from northern seas and wasn’t re-frozen, and that their milk products have gone through minimal manipulations. From the look and smell and taste of samples their claims seem to be true. Their site is http://vkusvill.ru. Let me see.. No English version. Several locations. A forum that has complaints, which adds credibility. One huge problem on the market is the current fashion for “adjusting” client feedback. I know how it is done although I haven’t **yet** sinned, and on quick inspection I detected no made up feedback or evidence of manipulation. And do note the area that has the Danilovsky Farmers Market where I recently found rare small dry purple onions from Tambov and fresh country eggs, and the St. Daniel’s monastery with its fake sausage and fake caviar. For these too see the Food and Shopping section at www.cheap-moscow.com