Minsk - Day Four

Friday already the week was flying by, after a good night sleep I was feeling better but still not back to full health (In truth now back in the UK I still cant shake this nasty virus). The plan today was to try and visit the traditional village we were origonally meant to goto yesterday. However I was Running short of cash and needed to change some travellers cheuqes. Our first mistake was to jump onto the first passing auto taxi (kind of like a private bus) which dropped us off on futher out of the city.

There was only one back here a large Belarus Bank, which turned out to be well a little bit of a problem. First thing this largest bank was busy and operated a rather confusing ticket system thought this wasnt in any way clear even to Maia. WHen we finally got our number called the cashere seemed very confused she had never seen either travellers cheques or a european style passport, It took over an hour to explain, wait and finally recieve my cash (minus 1% unlike Minsk Transit Bank which took nothing). All told finding a bank and waiting for the cash took so long we decied to leave the village trip as Maias friend Anton a DJ on radio BA wanted me to record some English jingles for him.

Radio BA is located above a club Anton gave me a guided tour of the place he seemed like a really fun guy I could see why Maia likes him so much. noticed he was running Mac OSX on a beige box pc ;) After the tour I got ushered into a little sound booth and had to read off a list of phrases for the show punctuated by Anton asking for more emotion or extra emphasis on words. I still hd a cold so I am not sure whether they eventual sounds will be good enough to use but it was fun anyway. It was a pretty strange feeling to stand in a room reading into a microphone.

Maia had booked tickets to see a film (in English fortunatly). At first I thought it was a pretty ordinatry thing to do however Russian cinemas are a bit different, firstly it was the cleanest cinema I have ever been into but some considrerable margin. Secondly there were no popcorn not drinks vending just a screen and a chair.
The film itself Tideland was about Jeliza-Rose the daughter of a drug addicted father who moves to the country after an overdose leads death of her mother. It was incredibly dark but told through her childlike observations to take some of the egde off. Maia squirmed her way through several sections of the film.

After the film we grabbed some dinner and then did some late night shopping for our weekend at the Dacha. Shopping was a real eye opener the supermarker was very different to a English one. You had to pay for meat at the meat counter they wouldnt slice anything for us. We bought vodka, beer, tomatoes, meat, bread and some other bits and pieces.

Another early night in preperation for the Dacha tomorrow.

Minsk - Day Three

The origonal plan for Thursday had been to set off to see a traditional Belarusian village, kind of like an open air musium to traditional peasent life. Unfortunatly I was still feeling out of sorts and the weather didnt look too promising. So we decided to stay inside the city and explor some more.

First place we visited was a Russian market there was a lot of artwork icons and dolls. Next stop was the musium of the great patriotic war (WWW II to you and me). The musium like a lot of places in Belarus there is a different price for residents than for tourists.

The first thing to notice is that the Russians date the war from 41-45 not 39-45 as we westerners do because Hitler and Stalin signed a non agression pact which Hitler promptly broke in 1941.
Belarus had it pretty hard the Nazis did not like Communists and totally flattered Minsk and attempted to exterminate as many of its people as possible (probably about 1million people). Their hatred was directed mainly at the non airian population they wanted to save the nordic looking to help futher the master race. All in all it walking about I saw the Russians have a very different war then the one fought in the west.

After the musium went for a bite to eat then off for a look round the Botanical gardens, I was a bit heistant but actully enjoyed strolling around with Maia. We sat for a long time next to the lake there watching the Swans and chatting about things.

On the way out we went the wrong way and found ourselves in the amusement park next door. I found out that Pancakes with filings are a common (and tasty) Belarusian meal. Maia insited on feeding me more medication including rather disgusting cough syrup. Watching the Russian school children file through the park I could have been anywhere in the wetern world on the terrible russian techno pumping from one of the cafes reminded me I was in Belarus.

We made a quiet trip to the bus station to buy the tickets for the Dacha trip and I got a chance to see the Belarus staggering national library. Its simply increadible, ugly and imposing over the ladnscape it boggles the mind as to why! Dispite being a university professor and having had to make a donation towards it Maia had never been inside. Seems like a giant waste of money to me.

Thanks to the fact I was still feeling ill and wanted to get well in time for the weekend trip to Maia Dacha after grabbing a coffee I headed back to the hotel for an early night.

Minsk Photos

Belarus Photo Gallery

Minsk - Day Two

I woke up feeling terrible, not just from the drinking last night that was just the tip of the iceberg. The cold and sore throat I had felt on yesterday was now much worse, I was running a temperature my throat felt sore. I was generally feeling sorry for myself. Maia was working in the moring and though I had intended to sleep in I couldn't stay in my room. I needed to get out and see something so I walked round the old town and the river to kill time whilst Maia was lecturing; She is a lecturer of Italian at the univeristy.

Fortunatly when she arrived Maia came to my resque again she pumped me full of Russian medication (available over the counter nothing dodgy!). We spent the afternoon mooching about Minsk various parks and looking at some of the buildings there. It was really a day of exploration Minsk is phonominally different to any city I have been to before. Totally demolished after WWII the Soviets rebuilt it making the roads three times as wide, huge pavements and massive parks so big that whilst in the city allow you to feel like your in the country, yet are still stood right in the centre. I forget the names but we saw quiet a few.

One of the parks was a park dedicated to Kids in which Maia couldn't smoke but one great thing we could do was go on some rides. Now I felt pretty ill and these were Belarussian rides they didnt look particuarly well maintained but what the hell nothing ventured so we went on a couple. Maia screemed on the teacups, but that was nothing compared to one Belarussian girl who was so afraid she clung to a nearby tree rather than get on a spinning ride! Her friend and the attendant laughed loudly at her but she didnt budge until the ride was over.

After an afternoon of wondering we went to the Circus which was really good fun. I have never been to a circus before this one wasnt the standard Minsk one but a travelling Russian show from Moscow. They had clowns, dancers, trapez artists bears, and even trained dogs. It was really good fun I am glad Maia took me, I even managed to get a photo of myself with a bear. Ill scan it in when it arrives Maia txted me this morning to say she had recieved and forwarded it on. To be honest the treatment of the bears was not very good certainly the dogs got treated a lot better I felt very sorry for them though I enjoyed seeing them.

Note to the anonymous poster

Many thanks for the comment I am really pleased you enjoyed reading my blog.

Minsk - Day one

Waking up has never come easy for me, so having to wake up at 4am to catch a 6am flight was hard, very hard.

To be honest I was totally afraid. I wasn't sure what to expect, I guy from the travel company was ment to meet me at Minsk 2 airport other than that I was on my own. The journey to Warsaw passed in a sleepy trance and after an hours wait I was on my way to Belarus. It was only a hours flight which passed pretty quick though I did get a little worried that the pilot annonced we were about to land and all I could see were trees no airport or civilisaion at all. Minsk 2 aiport was the pits, it was really hard to understand where to go as there were no signs and you arrive into the departure lounge and have to march down a different set of stairs, if you got the wrong way scary looking Russian people shout at you. I know becoause I was one of the first (there were not many of us) off the plain and not knowing where to go went wrong.

Passport control was harsh it seemed to take forever I dont know what the women was doing but it seemed important she took many long hard looks at me asked somenthing in Russian seemed very upset I didn't understand and answered in English. After about 10 minutes I was let thought only to have to go through a security point to leave the airport! Then one of the best moments of the trip after all the worry over whether she would turn up my friend Maia was waiting for me in the arrivals lounge. along with Alex from the travel company.

Alex drove the 40km to Minsk dropped us off at the hotel. Maia and I then went walking about the city. She showed me the old town and Afgahanistan memorial. Its a memorial to the mothers of soldiers lost in the Afgahnistan war, its a favorite stop for newly weds to put down some flowers and to touch one of the statues, we even saw one newly married couple heading there. I was like a kid wowed by all the different sights around me. Riding along an almost empty motorway passing forest and villages totally unlike anything I have seen before.

In the evening we went out to a bar I got rather drunk on Russian beer and listened to a rather strnage cover band, there were good musicians but had a tendancy to play a really uptempo song followed by a real downer! Strange Strange Strange!

From (Bela)Russia With Love

For all of you that care I made it back from my trip, and had an excellent time to boot I will be posting the details and some photos soon keep posted.

Not long now

I hate shopping for clothes mainly because I seem to be the wrong shape / size for most items. However things have gotton so bad recently I have had no choice but to force myself to spend the weekend on a shopping excursion. I managed to get some new jeans, shoes and a couple of new tops which is quiet a decent record for me really.
I only have one more day before I fly out to Minsk, I am both excited and worried. A guy from the travel company is going to meet me at the airport which is nice but only because I owe him money. I have been unbable to buy currency in this country so am having to take cash and travellers cheques to change to Roubles out there.
I went out with Ian last night he seems happier now less dark looking at all th nice ladies in the rectory.

Wires

You know some days when you start a five minute job and that five minutes ends up being more like 5 hours? This morning my dad asked me to help him change some broken mains socket faceplates, given last night my mac died for no apparent reason the augurs were not so good for doing electrical work. However prompted thanks to the shoddy work by one of the electrictions. Whom had put a socket protruding about two inches from the wall, nice just what you need to trip over. Our idea was to recess this so out came the tools. We soon found we didn't have a decent small screw driver and we needed an extra socket so we went to B&Q braving the mass crowds we got some supplies and a new screwdriver.
We got home to find one of the back plates was wrong, played merrygo round moving facplates to try if different combinations would would getting more and more frustrated. One of the sockets had shorted and been melting on the indside so we were lucky to change it.
I dont know what was worse the frustration of the task, my dads annoying comments or my mum repeating "theres no such thing as a short task" over and over again.
All was well in the end though got all of them replaced just took way too long.

Dead Mac

I got home from the pub tonight and my powerbook was making horrible sounds. At first I thought I was just drunk and disorderly but then I relised instead of OSX I just had a picture of an OS9 smily face oh dear. Rebooting didnt help when it came back on sounded like an angle grinder. This can mean only one thing a totally dead hard drive yikes. Fortunatly I bought a removable disk the other day and back it up, unfortunatly the 5 songs I got off Itunes for free using my free coke music tokens were not backed up so wil have to be rebought :(

Visa

Now I have an offical tourist visa I am actually getting quiet excited about my impending trip, this time next week I will be in Minsk hopfully enjoying myself relaxing eating and drinking too much wondering around the parks and city.
To be honest I am totally afraid what will it be like in a country surrounded by non English speakers on my own will I rise to the occasion or sink without a trace?

Easy Peasy Japanesy

Had my first Japanese class tongith, I now know the numbers 1-10 in Japanese hurrah, however I feel that I might have bitten off more than I can chew especially as I will miss the next too lessons :S
E mi the Japanese girl taking the class seems exreamly polite and good tempered she did move on at a fair pace thought I am not sure I quiet took in all that was going on.
I will be in Belorus for the next two classes though I am going to have to rely on Philip to help me get upto speed, and on my own determination to succeed, I am doomed!
Japanese seems especially hard not only is their alphabet nothing like the latin one they also have three alphabets. We are starting with Katakana the alphabet used to describe all things forign (to Japan). I learned how to write my name though I doubt I will remember for long without practise.
Caught up with Ian and Danny at the rectory for a quiet drink Danny has replaced Lynne with a girl from Liverpool, which is good.
Ian is doing a brisk business by the sounds of it weird thing was I was the only person of Phil Ian dan and myself who isnt self employed, am I not doing as well, should I look to work with Phil or move on try and get somethign else. Its just so difficult I dont really know what is best, its easy to leave a job only to find myslef in a worse position or back on the dole queue. That wasnt fun at all.
Plus its not like my dad got anywhere trying to do his own thing he spent a fortune on stuff to get going and just flushed it down the toilet.

Fade out

Had an argument probably final with one of my MSN buddies; She took issue with my negative view of the world, I cant seem to help it I have felt sad for so long I am not sure even what happiness it. Even in moment of fun and games surrounded by friends I can feel alone. Its not that I dont know how to smile it just I think the world is horrible most people dont seem to be worth knowing and it all brings me down I cant put a brave face on I can only ever be me alone unwanted trying to lead a moral life in a sea of apathetic people.
Tonight I found out that the postal service dont have a record to say my passport and visa application was delivered there is less than a week to go I am going to have to make some frantic phone calls tomorrow t make things work out and there might not be a way :S It makes me feel sick to think about it all the pain to get things organized to do undone by the loss of my passport.
I went out for a drink with Phil tonight typically Claire was in the unicorn I cant ever seem to get free I should go somewhere else I shouldnt still feel anything I should have moved on a long time ago and in most ways I have yet she hurt me in a way no-one else ever has and that marked the point from which my love life has yet to recover. Since her I have has a few trysts, Nikkie, Liz, Lynne, and Janice. Yet none of them burned such an indelible and negative image on me. Perhaps I am just destined to be alone to always desire and yet never to fulfill those desires.
Yes I know who wants to go out with an overweight depressive like me, but yet I can be more am more I just need to cut away this cancer this malaise which pulls me back.
Its my first Japanese lesson tomorrow Lulu was most upset when I told her I think she would prefer me to learn anything but, however it dosnt change my desire to visit China before returning to Japan, who knows where life will lead perhaps Ill change perhaps i wont even so the world will keep turning the sun will still burn and life will go on.
Goodnight

Ouch

I cleaned out the fish last night removed some of the algea which has been building up since the algea eating catfish died I hadnt realised how much of a difference he made but now the tank is furring up fast. I hae bought a scraper to clear off some of the excess algea and amanged to remove some. The plants have been breeding and there were quiet a few floating child plants I started planting these the oscars decided my arm looked like a tasty treat and one of them bit a chunk out it hurt and I quickly pulled my arm out bashing my elbow on the corner of the tank as I did so. Being bitten was more shocking than painful but smakshing my elbow into the cornerof a glass tank well that fucking mega hurts!
Spoke to Liz last night she thinks the quailty of my blog has declined marked recently and I cant say I arguewith that particularly I feel a lot like I write the same thing over and over. Perhaps its bause I keep repeating the same mistakes or I am too afriad to move on with m life. It seems every choice I make is wrong and I doomed forever to waste away my days trapped in a cycle of decline. I hope one day to find a purpose some relife from all this, this life, this pain, this nothing.

Laugh at the Legion again

Ah as autumn approaches the monthly comedy nights have returned to the legion after there Summer hiatus. Its always a fun evening cheap beer an easy stroll home and usually some decent comedians. Last night was no exception after gorging ourselves on a takeaway curry myself Bruce and Phil popped down. Nick, Becs Martin Charlotte and Endo were also out. The comedians were not bad especially the compare Danny McGinlay, and the final act Rhodri Rhys. Martin preferred northern comedian Ruth White I guess its all a matter of taste. Martin has certainly mellowed out a lot since taking up with Charlotte he has gone from complaining about peoples public affection to being part of one of those sickly couple hand-holidng couples whom particularly offend singletons like myself. I was pretty tired and overful so made an earlyish exit after the last act.

Late nights and early mornings

I had to go in to work early this morning to implement a software upgrade, so I had quiet a conservative evening last night. It was still pretty fun though, started by collecting a very drunk Phil. He has gone out to Manchester to celbrate his last day of work, from now on he is self employed.
Next stop was Macclesfield to meet up with Ian Paul and Wooler, we met them in Weatherspoon, they were drunk already so Phil fitted in well. Everyone was in high spirits dispite the rather agressive people sat behind us whom seemed to be spoiling for a fight. Especially with there cheap and dangerous women flirting with some other guys who were there.
Next stop was Barracuda bar, this was a much nicer place though did they really need the airport style security and is they was the scanner work in line with the data protection act?
Barracuda is a South African style theme bar it was pretty modern and nice there were certaintly a lot of nice looking women. Ian exained the dancefloor and on his return accidently knocked over the pint of someone twice his size oops. Fortunatly he was nice enough not to make a fuss. Ian pulled the same trick demolishing someones pint when he went to the toliet as well oops.
We chatted and they drank some more I was sober so the jokes started wearing a little thin, I wish I had stayed this way last time I went out with him.
Unfortunatly I already felt tired so I left about 11.30 took Phil with me he was still very drunk dispite being on cola since I picked him up. I grabbed a relativly early night in order to get up at 6am and get into work in order to get a software release out before 9am. It actually went very well and I was finished a little after 10 (had a couple of hours of testing after the release).
This afternoon I am off to the other server to grab a full backup.

-VE energy

A philosopher called Carl Hempel showed that by manipulating the logical statement "all ravens are black", you could derive the equivalent “all non-black objects are non-ravens”. Thus is the basis for a new form of database. I am not 100% sure I really follow the concept entirley, but it is an interesting one the idea that you could have a dataset with no data which you would use to test the validity of the query itself. Intreresting the human body uses a sort of negative database the immune system knows everything that is part of the body and therefore self and therefore everything that is not self should be destroyed.

From one weird concept to another last night I watched 911 loose change which is a documentary presenting an alternative version of the events of 911. When looked at in a different light there are a number of things that are very strange, especially surrounding the collision with the Pentagon and the missing gold from under the trade centre. I would definatly recommend a viewing.

The Eraser

My parents were away so it was kind of strang arriving home fromthe gym last night to an empty house, my catr kept my busy though he was in and out and pining for my mum who usually looks after him. He also woke me up at 4am this morning which didnt put me into the best of moods.

Bruce popped over last night we were going to watch a film but he brought the wrong hard drive round so instead we ended up a the pub with Nick and Becky. This wasnt all too bad really Becky was tormenting Nick as usual and looking forward to their upcoming Moldive holiday.

Arctic Monkeys won the mercury music prize a fact which galls me slightly I thought it was time Thom got some recognition form the judges, FFS Roni size was given the award the year OK Computer was up what a traversty.

Life Long learning

Had a crap day today things seem to be going round in circles at work, this evening though Phil and I went to sign up for some adult education. The last couple of years have been the first time in my life I havent been activly learning anything and I have always wanted to learn a langauge. Phil has become obsessed with Japan thanks to his addiction to Akido and as I thought it would be more fun to go to a class with someone I know rather than on my own I found myself signing up to Beginning Japanese. Starts next tuesday, the little Japanese girl that will be the teacher seemed to be nice enough so hopefully it wont be like the terrible langauge lessons I had at school which totally turned me off French and German.

Live tonight at the Retro Bar

Manged to make it to the gym yesterday hough it my have been a mistak im aching again today, I also drank too much again last night when will I learn!
Phil and I went out to Retro Bar in Manchester to listen to some band of whom the bass player was a student of Bergers, in fact a lot of people there seem to be students of bergers. I dont know what the band was called they were pretty good thought in fact there were at least 3 good bands hoever the last one were so awful phil and I walked out our ears needed peace.
It was only 10pm so but we didnt feel like going anywhere else in Manchester and headed for home stoppping at the unicorn for a few more beers (for myself Phils was driving). Julie has bought herself a new car and she was really excited telling us about it.

Jet 2

Wow coke have a promotion get a free itunes song on 2 litre bottles of coke (which my dad and I drink like its going out of fashion) hurrah! They were on offer as well double hurrah.
After feeling sorry for myself most of yesterday playing counter strike and reading the latest economist I was feeling well enough to go out for a couple of drinks with Becky Nick and Ian. Ian had recovered better than me and was in fine spirits, we sat in the rectory beer garden slowly freezing in order to check out the women much to Becky's chagrin. I do of course remember her from her pre Nick days in her more provocative dressing. The upstairs bit of the Rectory was closed off because they were having a corporate event for Jet 2, one of the barmaids (the cute polish one) made a tie out of the immense receipt.
Bruce and Phil joined us as well for drinks chat and fun I had a few drinks but managed not to disgrace myself which is a bonus. I think Ill go to the gym in a couple of hours but first I am going to read a few more chapters of War and peace, its really hard going at the moment lots of description of battles and military goings on, personally I feel Tolstoy is better at working with characters rather than discussing historical events however its good stuff just dense.