Hello from Russia!

[Sergo]

...Interesting, a culture that lacks respect for skilled non-manual labour doesn’t sound very healthy for future economic growth to me!

You know, my attitude to that is much the same as yours to consular people.
Of course I do not know what you know about our Socilalistic days, and it seems that most of our people older'n me have already forgot that themselves, and those much younger have too tender beliefs about our Socialistic past sometimes...
So: it was outright disgusting sometimes, when it was absolutely impossible to fire a worker who got drunk every day, or kept coming late to work, or anything... To fire a worker would have meant that you have not explained him everything well enough, that you've failed to make him work etc. That would make the local Party organization look bad, and the bosses would never have it. The workers in the band I managed were paid roughly twice my pay, and they were offered free month at foreign resorts once a year, and possibility to buy such luxurious things as videotape recorders, caviar and women's underwear of forein make... And you would understand how important that had been when there weren't just about anything like that in the shops then, and to get abroad was just about the same as get to Edem... By the way, during all of 7 years that I worked as "master" or "prorab" on the construction site, I managed to get abroad only once - that was to Bulgaria, and I had to pay every Rouble I had for it then...
So, there had not been any future for USSR really. The society had been very much stratified, with workers and peasants on one end (who were in their turn subdivided on those who worked in big cities and big "kolkhoses" and those who worked in small cities and little farmes, and the latter usually lived in dire straits really), and party and "profsoyuz" leaders, military officers, scientists in the fields favoured by the State, etc. on another end. And common engineers, doctors, teachers etc. thrown in between.

Britain has seen quite a swing from manufacturing industry to service industries in the last 20-25 years, and quite a painful change it has been in many ways. I know that in the North of England, were I originally come from, there used to be a traditional view that something was not ‘mans work’ unless you got dirt under your fingernails. Many of the jobs that used to conform to that image, like coal mining, are now all but gone.

I think maybe it was the best for our coal mining too (with all the deaths and miners telling stories that they were not paid for their work for years), but it seems that in some regions the coal stolen from the mines is the only way to keep some homes warm in Winters.

I was joking about that Sergo, I was joking!

Errr... See, how dumb I am. But really I was feeling queer when writing all these serious words.

I think that indicates you are interested in the coins themselves rather than the process of collecting.

I am interested in their look, in their feel, in the emotion I have touching a thing which had been made many years or even centuries before. And collecting reAlly means organizing the objects one collects in some special order. I do that too, as it is interesting to see, for example, the almost full set of coins of Edward VII - from a copper farthing, through silver penny to gold sovereign...

Not often a Brit is told that!

But that is really so - one has to visit UK to understand that. Yes, your climate is much better than what we have in Moscow.

Fenomena??? Is this like in Odessa were they only have hot water available during the six months around Winter?

Oh, not so, not in Moscow. They have to check and repair the pipes, so they do it during 20 days in Summer. Naturally, they shut down the hot water.
We used to plan to install a small boiler to heat the water during these shut-down periods, but as we need it only during 20 days, we usually forget about it after 20 days are over, to remember again in a year or so...

 

[Sergo]

Hi to everyone in Russia!

One of the main reasons I joined this site is because I fell in love with Russian literature at an early age...

I have just come back from Russia after saving up for five years and it was the most wonderful holiday I have ever had!

Beth
(East Yorkshire, England)

Hi Beth:

Thank you for kind words!
Whom of our authors do you like?

Where in Russia have you been? We have much to show... What you liked most?
To save up for five years - you must have liked Russia really very much. It is good you liked it here. But - I like it very much myself and do not think of leaving Russia - so it is not unusual...

 

[bethm]

Hello There Sergo,

Well... Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Gogol, Turgenev, Solzhenitsyn, Nabokov, Chekhov.. and I'm always eager to discover any more if you have any recommendations!?

I really can't explain my long-standing interest in Russia (and it's not JUST your literature), it just seems such a fascinating culture- and history-rich country, a unique mix of East and West, and so vast!

Going there has only really left me wanting more. I visited Moscow (an AMAZING city) and St Petersburg, it's hard to pick out highlights but Red Square was fantastic (especially St Basil's), I couldn't really believe I was there; the Church of Jesus Christ Our Saviour was unbelievable; I could've spent a week just staring at the Church on Spilled Blood; but really, The Kremlin with all those beautiful beautiful churches within it's walls - can there be a more wonderful man-made place on earth?

Anyway, Sergo, enough of the hyperbole, it's not often I am so enthusiastic about anything but your country just blew me away. Not surprised you don't want to leave!

 

[Sergo]

Hello There Sergo,

Well... Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Gogol, Turgenev, Solzhenitsyn, Nabokov, Chekhov.. and I'm always eager to discover any more if you have any recommendations!?

I really can't explain my long-standing interest in Russia (and it's not JUST your literature), it just seems such a fascinating culture- and history-rich country, a unique mix of East and West, and so vast!

Going there has only really left me wanting more. I visited Moscow (an AMAZING city) and St Petersburg, it's hard to pick out highlights but Red Square was fantastic (especially St Basil's), I couldn't really believe I was there; the Church of Jesus Christ Our Saviour was unbelievable; I could've spent a week just staring at the Church on Spilled Blood; but really, The Kremlin with all those beautiful beautiful churches within it's walls - can there be a more wonderful man-made place on earth?

Anyway, Sergo, enough of the hyperbole, it's not often I am so enthusiastic about anything but your country just blew me away. Not surprised you don't want to leave!

Thank you, it is a pleasure to hear such words about my country.
You know, I just returned from a small trip through several old cities of Russia, so I can mail you some digital photos that I had time to make there before the memory card was filled... Of course churches there are not cared after as well as it is custom in Moscow with all the money we have boiling, but they are most beautiful.
You know, I think that I like our nature the most - our forests where you can walk for hours and to meet no one, small villages with almost nobody but two or three old women left, small rivers with cold and hopefully clear water, old churches sometimes with young men as svyashenniki... You can feel Russia better there, not in Moscow or SPb, where it is easy to believe it more resembles the modern West, when it hardly does, as Russia is not Moscow, SPb and other big cities...

It seems you like our classics. Have you any experience in our modern literature? Have you read Master and Margarita by Bulgakov - which is also our classics, but made accessible for us not too long ago - about 20 years ago or so? There are many other things by Bulgakov that could tell much about us that is hard to find with other Russian authors.
What do you think about our lirics - Lermontov, Pushkin, Nekrasov could give much... But of course I am not sure about translations...

OK, I have to go home - my wife has already called me.

 

[Kenny Shovel]

it was outright disgusting sometimes, when it was absolutely impossible to fire a worker who got drunk every day, or kept coming late to work, or anything... To fire a worker would have meant that you have not explained him everything well enough, that you've failed to make him work etc. That would make the local Party organization look bad, and the bosses would never have it.

When I first moved down to the south of England I lived in a house share with several other people, one of them was an engineer just a year or two out of university. At that time he was working on a road building project and was a safty inspector with responsibility over the building of, I think, three bridges. I seem to remember him telling me that he could order any piece of work to be re-done if it was not to his satisfaction, for example tell them to re-mix concrete if it was not up to specification; as well as have workers removed if he felt they were not working to the correct standard. As he had ultimate responsibility for safety, he was master of his domain; at least he was to hear him speak!

The workers in the band I managed were paid roughly twice my pay

That’s defiantly different to the system used everywhere else!

I managed to get abroad only once - that was to Bulgaria, and I had to pay every Rouble I had for it then...

I remember my friends from Odessa once telling me that Bulgaria was a popular holiday destination for Ukrainians as it was the only country they could afford to visit.

So, there had not been any future for USSR really. The society had been very much stratified, with workers and peasants on one end (who were in their turn subdivided on those who worked in big cities and big "kolkhoses" and those who worked in small cities and little farms, and the latter usually lived in dire straits really), and party and "profsoyuz" leaders, military officers, scientists in the fields favoured by the State, etc. on another end. And common engineers, doctors, teachers etc. thrown in between.

That’s interesting, a different dividing up of social hierarchy than you would find in a capitalist society. In Britain we used to refer to ‘blue collar‘(manual/factory) workers and ‘white collar’(office) workers, who tended to be better paid.

I think maybe it was the best for our coal mining too (with all the deaths and miners telling stories that they were not paid for their work for years), but it seems that in some regions the coal stolen from the mines is the only way to keep some homes warm in Winters.

Yes, I know about some miners being unpaid for large periods of time, but still working for fear of losing their jobs. I think the situation was similar in the Ukraine until the previous president (Yankochovich?) improved things for them.

I am interested in their look, in their feel, in the emotion I have touching

You’re making coins sound like beautiful women.

a thing which had been made many years or even centuries before.

Oh, perhaps not then.

But that is really so - one has to visit UK to understand that. Yes, your climate is much better than what we have in Moscow.

I think Britain is on the same line of latitude (or is it longitude) as Moscow, but we have the benefit of the Gulf stream (warm water from the Gulf of Mexico flowing up towards Britain.

Oh, not so, not in Moscow. They have to check and repair the pipes, so they do it during 20 days in Summer. Naturally, they shut down the hot water.

I see, not something that happens here. 20 days without hot water would cause riots!

 

[Sergo]

... I seem to remember him telling me that he could order any piece of work to be re-done if it was not to his satisfaction, for example tell them to re-mix concrete if it was not up to specification; as well as have workers removed if he felt they were not working to the correct standard. As he had ultimate responsibility for safety, he was master of his domain; at least he was to hear him speak!

Yep, sure, that was the same with us - if I decided that anything was wrong, I surely had the workers redo it. As their safety was on me too - I could stop the work anytime I thought that needed, or not allow a drunk worker to get to work. But as I was also responsible for the work being done, and if a night shift consisted of three - four people plus a winch operator, so not to let to work one drunk out of three people have meant that the two left could not have managed the work, as there are montage operations that cannot be possibly done by two people... And as the responsible for the failure to have the work done had been me also, and for the bosses it is very important that the work is done, and a drunk can work sometimes... So...
And to make people come to work, not to drink, to work good - engineers like me had to use mostly psychology rather then the usual instruments. As, you know, they were supposed to be the people who mattered, and we - the ones to help them work.

That’s defiantly different to the system used everywhere else!

Yep, sure.

I remember my friends from Odessa once telling me that Bulgaria was a popular holiday destination for Ukrainians as it was the only country they could afford to visit.

I remember that two-week Bulgaria trip to cost me more then 500 Roubles, and my monthly salary had been 155 Roubles back then. I could have afforded that only because I had been enlisted to officers' reserve corps to have 3 month refreshing courses. They paid me full salary at work, and thirty or forty Roubles a month in the Army. Needless to say that it was mere luck that after I returned to work they had this one "putyovka" to Bulgaria nobody of the workers wanted, as they had preferential rights to use that.

That’s interesting, a different dividing up of social hierarchy than you would find in a capitalist society. In Britain we used to refer to ‘blue collar‘(manual/factory) workers and ‘white collar’(office) workers, who tended to be better paid.

Yes, so you see that quite a lot of Russians still believe that back then the life had been much better than it is now: I imagine that before the workers who experienced their previlegies then are dead as well as their children who remember that, the longing for the Socialist way of life will be alive here. And I do not expect to see that far into future when this longing will cease.

Yes, I know about some miners being unpaid for large periods of time, but still working for fear of losing their jobs. I think the situation was similar in the Ukraine until the previous president (Yankochovich?) improved things for them.

The previous President there was Kuchma, and Yanukovich was his Prime Minister. I do not really remember if either of them made any big improvements lately, as my wife's parents live in the Yagotin - the city with traditionally nationalist traditions, so they never approved anything done by Kuchma or Yanukovich, as Kuchma had been at power for too long to make people oppose him for anything at all, and Yanukovich had been considered Moscow's boy.

You’re making coins sound like beautiful women.

Yep, that's kind of natural: I tend to believe in emotions rather then in reason. So I am too emotional about everything I like - being it beautiful girls, beautiful gardens, beautiful structures, beautiful nature sights or beautiful coins... Of course I hope they do not know it in my office... The strongest emotion I could not help but show here is anger at anything fu*ked up. But that's very rare.

I think Britain is on the same line of latitude (or is it longitude) as Moscow, but we have the benefit of the Gulf stream (warm water from the Gulf of Mexico flowing up towards Britain.

Yep. Such a pity we do not have the Gulfstream here to ease our Winters some...

I see, not something that happens here. 20 days without hot water would cause riots!

I would have rioted myself. That's lost on me how our people could live with it. But sometimes we are too passive for our own good.

 

[Kenny Shovel]

…And to make people come to work, not to drink, to work good - engineers like me had to use mostly psychology rather then the usual instruments. As, you know, they were supposed to be the people who mattered, and we - the ones to help them work.

All of which begs the question, why did people study to be an engineer when they could leave school and become ‘one of the workers’ for twice the money?

this one "putyovka" to Bulgaria

??? I think ‘put’ is the stem for travel. is ‘putyovka’ holiday or some such word?

Yes, so you see that quite a lot of Russians still believe that back then the life had been much better than it is now: I imagine that before the workers who experienced their previlegies then are dead as well as their children who remember that, the longing for the Socialist way of life will be alive here. And I do not expect to see that far into future when this longing will cease.

Sure, your countries situation in 1991 was different to others from the former Soviet Block like Czech Republic was they still had an older generation who could remember life before communism.

The previous President there was Kuchma, and Yanukovich was his Prime Minister. I do not really remember if either of them made any big improvements lately, as my wife's parents live in the Yagotin - the city with traditionally nationalist traditions, so they never approved anything done by Kuchma or Yanukovich, as Kuchma had been at power for too long to make people oppose him for anything at all, and Yanukovich had been considered Moscow's boy.

If I remember correctly from conversation I had with friends in Odessa at the time of their elections, part of Yankovich’s popularity in the Eastern part of Ukraine was not just that he was backed by Russia, but also that he had improved conditions and pay for the workers, especially miners, in that region.

Of course I hope they do not know it in my office... The strongest emotion I could not help but show here is anger at anything fu*ked up. But that's very rare.

I would say I am quite an emotional person, and at work sometimes to honest. I certainly say if I think something is wrong, one of my bosses once told me that I needed to develop my diplomacy skills, which of course translates as ‘stop telling everyone I’m an idiot’.

Yep. Such a pity we do not have the Gulfstream here to ease our Winters some...

Which is why God compensated you with warm Russian women.

I would have rioted myself. That's lost on me how our people could live with it. But sometimes we are too passive for our own good.

It’s just a case of people accepting what they are used to; Americans would look at the price of fuel for cars in Britain (about $1.50 a litre) and say it could never happen there.

 

[Sergo]

All of which begs the question, why did people study to be an engineer when they could leave school and become ‘one of the workers’ for twice the money? ???

I do not know for others, but please imagine a teenagers fresh from school: we had two alternatives then - to continue learning at an institute, or go to the Army. I feared the latter and liked to construct etc. - so I tried the Engineering Institute.
And the picture of course had not been only in black and white: there were lots of Projecting Institutes were engineers and architects worked for less money than engineers on sites, but in much easier way, sometimes having parties every other day (I tried to work in such a place during my 4th year in the Institute, but decided it too much resembled the Institute, and I wanted changes then). And not every construction site had been as our - our was one of the best, and salaries bigger than most, etc. But the construction labour is a very difficult one, and quite dangerous. And, really, not too prestigious. Most of my workers were ex-convicts or guys from far regions of Russia even then. (Of course there were wonderful people among them - powerful, wise in the simple way and proud).
And all who learned then that I worked at a construction site were shocked, as that had not been the place for a moscovite with some speck of intelligence in the eyes, as it was commonly believed.

I think ‘put’ is the stem for travel. is ‘putyovka’ holiday or some such word?

That is the document they gave you for a travel. Kind of a certificate.
And put' is a way, or a road.

Sure, your countries situation in 1991 was different to others from the former Soviet Block like Czech Republic was they still had an older generation who could remember life before communism.

Exactly. People who could have remembered were mostly killed, died in the Siberia or in other countries.

If I remember correctly from conversation I had with friends in Odessa at the time of their elections, part of Yankovich’s popularity in the Eastern part of Ukraine was not just that he was backed by Russia, but also that he had improved conditions and pay for the workers, especially miners, in that region.

You are right, but I cannot remember what those improvements had been.

I would say I am quite an emotional person, and at work sometimes to honest. I certainly say if I think something is wrong, one of my bosses once told me that I needed to develop my diplomacy skills, which of course translates as ‘stop telling everyone I’m an idiot’.

Oh, I am quite an emotional person myself. It helps much that I am interested in my customers and they - in me, so naturally we mostly behave ourselves. And it is foolish to be angry with one's colleagues - if a person is hopeless - he must be fired, but untill then everything possible should be tried on him to help him do his work right.

Which is why God compensated you with warm Russian women.

Yep, maybe. Or maybe He had other reasons...

It’s just a case of people accepting what they are used to; Americans would look at the price of fuel for cars in Britain (about $1.50 a litre) and say it could never happen there.

The fuel our Suzuki drinks costs about 15 roubles a litre. That's about $0,54.
So we spend on fuel per month something like $400 Mr. Putin had before his presidency...

 

[Kenny Shovel]

I do not know for others, but please imagine a teenager fresh from school: we had two alternatives then - to continue learning at an institute, or go to the Army. I feared the latter and liked to construct etc. - so I tried the Engineering Institute.

Ah, you need say no more!

That is the document they gave you for a travel. Kind of a certificate. And put' is a way, or a road.

Ok, I get what you meant now.

Exactly. People who could have remembered were mostly killed, died in the Siberia or in other countries.

Yes, you had only the memory of what it was like under your system.

You are right, but I cannot remember what those improvements had been.

I remember seeing a film on BBC news showing that the miners in that region could now afford some kinds of electrical equipment (DVD plays etc) that they could not before. So clearly life had already improved before Yushenko had arrived.

The fuel our Suzuki drinks costs about 15 roubles a litre. That's about $0,54.So we spend on fuel per month something like $400 Mr. Putin had before his presidency...

That’s a lot of driving you must do each month! I’ve had my little sports car for seven years and not done more than about 50,000 km.

 

[ebolamonkey]

Privet Tovarischi.

 

[Sergo]

Originally Posted by Sergo
a thing which had been made many years or even centuries before.

Oh, perhaps not then.

Yeah, you are right - I have several phonies, one of them bought in our Arbat street. It was a beautiful German silver coin, I've known its cost, and when they asked for a tenth of that - I'd been so shocked that immediately grabbed it. My wife has gone ahead while I made the buy, so I spent some time to get to her. When I showed the coin to her, I've immediately seen that the coin has been made from two parts, welded together, carefully sanded, and maybe silvered. The workmanship was almost perfect, so it is difficult to imagine how somebody spent maybe days at it, all to gain two or three dollars for it...
I immediately returned wanting to return the coin, but the seller was already gone... And I am glad he had been, as that forgery surely costed the money I paid for it.

And in London I've seen many street sellers with coins, but maybe 90% were plain forgeries costing absolutely nothing really (mass production, you know), but of course sellers wanted to get for them several pounds each, which is rediculous. But in London coin shops the coins were cool. I would have bought a kilo of them, if I could afford that.

By the way, I checked yesterday, and the "Gothic Crown" I bought in London a year ago costs 45-50% more now...

 

[Sergo]

Privet Tovarischi.

Privet Ebolamonkey.
Kak dela?
Poka, bud' zdorov.

 

[Sergo]

...That’s a lot of driving you must do each month! I’ve had my little sports car for seven years and not done more than about 50,000 km.

Errr... I think yes - just getting to our dacha and back again is about 80 km a day... And my wife really likes to drive - she spends much time every day behind the wheel. So... I think that the Suzuki is up to 200.000 and we have it for three years or so, if I remember correctly. And there are month which the wife spends away from the Vitara - when she visits her relatives in the Ukraine or behind the Urals, except when she does that on the car.

But 50.000 in 7 years is kind of a record for me. I am not a car man myself (I like the beautiful cars, of course, but do not long to have any. Hummer, maybe, I like its size), but my brother made 50.000 in his new Folkswagen in a couple of month last Winter. But he drives to his lavatory even, of course.

Though, I think I exaggerated some. An average month must be less than $400 on fuel for us - more like $250-300.

 

[Kenny Shovel]

Yeah, you are right - I have several phonies, one of them bought in our Arbat street.

I think you’ve miss-read one of my posts, I never suggested you had counterfeit coins in your collection! I’m sorry if you have bought some in error!

And in London I've seen many street sellers with coins, but maybe 90% were plain forgeries costing absolutely nothing really (mass production, you know), but of course sellers wanted to get for them several pounds each, which is ridiculous. But in London coin shops the coins were cool. I would have bought a kilo of them, if I could afford that.

I’m not sure I’d advise anyone to buy anything from a London street seller! In general London used to have streets with many shops that sold the same thing and ended up being named appropriately; Baker Street, Pudding Lane, Petticoat Lane etc. You can still find areas that specialise; you may have found the coin collecting area in London perhaps.

Errr... I think yes - just getting to our dacha and back again is about 80 km a day... And my wife really likes to drive - she spends much time every day behind the wheel. So... I think that the Suzuki is up to 200.000 and we have it for three years or so, if I remember correctly.

I think the average in Britain is about 16-20,000 km a year.

I am not a car man myself (I like the beautiful cars, of course, but do not long to have any. Hummer, maybe, I like its size)

Grrr, I hate cars like this, mine is low to the ground and these big ‘people movers’ are a pain to see around when I’m driving.

but my brother made 50.000 in his new Folkswagen in a couple of month last Winter. But he drives to his lavatory even, of course.

Really? The fumes in his toilet must be overpowering. Exhaust fumes I mean…

 

[ebolamonkey]

Haha... too much driving... Maybe you should get a BMW. Where are you Sergo? Petersburg? How do you think about vodka Putinka?

 

[Sergo]

I think you’ve miss-read one of my posts, I never suggested you had counterfeit coins in your collection! I’m sorry if you have bought some in error!

OK, I guess I have. I thought you were pulling my leg. But I liked the story that I told you. By the way, there are people who collect counterfeits only.

I’m not sure I’d advise anyone to buy anything from a London street seller! In general London used to have streets with many shops that sold the same thing and ended up being named appropriately; Baker Street, Pudding Lane, Petticoat Lane etc. You can still find areas that specialise; you may have found the coin collecting area in London perhaps.

I found a good shop at Hillgate street - not too far from the Grisham Hyde Park, where we lived then. And there was a street with several shops on it - not too far from the Picadilly Circus, I believe.

I think the average in Britain is about 16-20,000 km a year.

Hm... And we used to call that Great Britain in school...

Grrr, I hate cars like this, mine is low to the ground and these big ‘people movers’ are a pain to see around when I’m driving.

You know, the roads we have would have killed your car in a matter of weeks. Sometimes I wonder maybe some secret war is under way here with all the pits in the roads. The first car we bought was Shkoda Felicia, and I think we could have used it until now if not for our dacha: Shkoda too often damaged its belly. So Hummer is the best car for our countryside. T-34 could be better, though, but it would have meant too much damage to what we call our roads.
And, really, roughly one third of the Moscow cars are large cars. We like them big. (Maybe for our big women not to feel too squeezed inside of our cars).

Really? The fumes in his toilet must be overpowering. Exhaust fumes I mean…

Oh, that's a minor problem with him... He had been in the i-net Porno business and other things when living abroad... So I imagine the exhaust fumes are next to nothing for him really...

 

[Sergo]

Haha... too much driving... Maybe you should get a BMW. Where are you Sergo? Petersburg? How do you think about vodka Putinka?

Nope... I have my personal mountaine bycicle for driving really, it's my wife who does all the hard work... And she wanted an all-road Audi until recently.

I am in Moscow, but with the rain ouside my window it could well be Ho Shi Minh or Male...

Really, I do not like nor drink Vodka too much. And never had. There are some brands that I prefer, but Putinka is not between them: I hadn't tasted it. And I do not think it has good quality: too showy name for that.

Good spirits are made under the brand of Nemiroff for some years, then we have Russian Standard Platinum - that's a very expensive one, but the quality must be.

Where are you from?

 

[Kenny Shovel]

OK, I guess I have. I thought you were pulling my leg.

I was, but not about what you thought, it’s not important, the moment has gone I think!

I found a good shop at Hillgate street - not too far from the Grisham Hyde Park, where we lived then. And there was a street with several shops on it - not too far from the Picadilly Circus, I believe.

there are lots of specialist shops in the area you mention, Picadily Circus is close to Charing Cross road for example where there are a lot of book shops.

Hm... And we used to call that Great Britain in school...

Well yes, Great Britain, Britain or GB for short, refers to the island containing England, Scotland and Wales. ‘The United Kingdom’ is England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Island and ‘The British Isles’ are all of those plus the Republic of Ireland.
BTW, ‘Great’ Britain is not so called in a boastful way, like calling a country ‘Fantastic Russia’, or ‘Marvellous Italy’ or ‘Sexually Athletic Iceland’. It means ‘Great’ as in larger; there is a lesser Britain, which is the region of Northern France called Brittany, which used to be under British control.

You know, the roads we have would have killed your car in a matter of weeks.

Absolutely, my car has rock hard sports suspension, it wouldn’t last long at all, or me in it for that matter.

Sometimes I wonder maybe some secret war is under way here with all the pits in the roads.

Many countries are like this, I sometimes think it is a way to save the police having to control speed limits!

So Hummer is the best car for our countryside. T-34 could be better, though…

I saw some of them in the memorial park in Kiev…T-34s not Hummers.

 

[bethm]

Wow!
Sergo and Kenny - quite a conversation you have going!.. I feel quite guilty now about butting in,.. have just read the whole post which is something i perhaps should have done first off! Thanks for a great entertaining couple of hours
SO interesting Sergo what you were saying about Russia being a lot of small places, I suppose judging your country from the (albeit beautiful ) cities I have seen would be like judging Britain from merely experiencing London.
Will definitely check out Bulgakov's M+M, thank you
Will leave you two to it feel quite bad about sticking my neb in!

beth

 

[ebolamonkey]

Moscow... You graduated from Moscow State?

I am in America. I am from China. Vodka is for downing not really for taste.