My latest adventure... keeps me in Canada this time though.

We'll be back to write more later. For now, here is a video of the new house.

Well, time flies. It has been a while. Spare time for me comes around about as often as common sense in the house of commons.

Anyways..today prompted me to contribute to something fun. Sounds fun. A party.

An email out of the blue requesting an image as part of their theme. A poster of sorts. Time will tell and hopefully display for us the result.

So, in anticipation of my conditions for my donation... I encourage the details of said party as part of my comments for this post.

Cheers Herman and friends. Have one for me.

RJDK

Be done with winter....

Let’s see if it can manifest itself.

Happy New Year and all that.

I have been taking a wee break from writing here. Seemingly nothing seems as inspiring and interesting as the trip to Russia. So, that being said...I am motivated.

Funny thing this time of year. Recovering from spending money and waiting to see how the government is going to screw you once you get your T4. Income tax should be abolished. The guy with that as a campaign promise would get my vote.

It doesn't matter who you vote for really. For once I am actually optimistic about the American election. Not that I could vote in it. I am thinking Obama should get in. I could hardly ignore the fact that Oprah was backing him up. Colour will have an impact too. The 2000 election had a racist agenda in Florida. Y'all watch Michael Moore, right? Alex Jones? So, colour may play a factor. Oprah has a lot of money. I suspect if the campaign is genuine, there could be very little effect of lobbying or bribing one of the richest people in the world who I would expect is providing her own lobbying in the direction of Obama. This might be the change everyone needs.

The religious front I can't get past though. The religious right. When you watch that crap on the electric box thing with the lit up glass and pick up an American channel spouting off about all the nothing they think they know and feed it mercilessly to the ignorant. When the western religions push their presence on the east it obviously causes a lot of upset. YAWWWWWWWWNnn!!...Iraq anyone?.... The Middle East can't stop fighting amongst themselves for religious differences, so the missionaries in camouflage... you know the story... and for that they get to bleed and die there. Why I suppose I am stating this is that religion should have no place in politics. Especially in western politics. Multicultural as we are, there are represented religions existing in North America from all over the world actively trying to make a go of it here. Most of those people immigrated to the land of immigrants to start something new and leave their sometimes terrorizing pasts behind in the country they left. So, as a united country we should respect the families and countrymen of our home countries. There is always a group saddened by any military intervention. I would think that the sadness would have to be unquestionably justified. Sadly, it never is. Now, this ties me back into economy. Wars, banks, markets,pollution...pick a topic shall we.

Housing is a good one. This poorly run town that I live in hasn't a clue on community planning. Find it, love it, exploit it, destroy it...burn, plow and pave...all the things that I moved here for are going away. I wanted to be out of the city, closer to the sticks, out of the city... but, it is a city and traffic is a huge problem. We are about 6 overpasses away from having something functional. Throw in another 80 round-abouts and we're good to go. But the labyrinth they are building has no connecting roads and mile upon mile of criss-cross cul-de-sac subdivision causing the ugliest clear cut of land imaginable. The demand to be here is very high and the once beautiful treed valley is a concrete jungle with a churning white summer pond directly adjacent to it. And ugly. People buy here to have a vacation home and the realtors, appraisers, banks all get to inflate prices and interest the wealthy to build massive ugly blocks of building to use once or twice a year for a week at a time. You know the scenarios. Whistler was the same way once. Then the jobs didn't pay enough for people to afford to live there and work. So they left or they share accommodations. If the push is to turn all of BC into a big park and exploit the hell out of it so it gets used and used like (insert analogy here) eventually worn out and ruined. The problem is that what they are wrecking will take many years to right itself.

Once humans cleanse the earth of themselves and the bugs thrive and die off and the climate naturally cycles again, then good old Ma Nature will bring it all back to balance. But that takes time and humans are lazy and impatient, so naturally it will all be done half-assed and too little, too late.

Kids look away...(Who the FUCK cares about Brittany Spears?) Stop feeding the machine. When you buy and soak up that shit, then it does nothing for humanity but poison it. The tabloids, "reality TV", all that crap could be put to better use. Telling the truth once in a while would be nice. From any publication for that matter. Speculation is dangerous thing on the ignorant mind. Especially spun and slanted it becomes what they remember and repeat and get repeated to them..until it becomes truth to them. Accepted really. But treated the same.

So, eat better, move your ass a little, and stop waiting for the magic pill that will make you better. Convince yourself of something different for once. Make the difference in yourself first. Comfort is not in the name of the pain that ails you. Chronic this and Hyper that are all terms used to specify more and more detailed and unique "illnesses" that they treat with a pill, or scare you into placebo vaccines, or turn you into a guinea pig. There are a lot of "new" trial drugs all the time. I stopped going to the doctor when every visit was an offer to try something new. Find balance. You don't have to be a hardbody.

To the government of that country just south of us:

If you happen to be surfing porn or browsing the web for lawyers to defend your corrupted customs officials and happen upon this blog, then please read my suggestions for boosting your economy. Firstly, feel free to declassify cannabis from schedule 1 and free up a few million wasted dollars every year. Then with the money you save you can go and arrest yourselves I guess. You are all crooked bastards tainted by the positions you were elected to. The greatest of intentions flipped into the same pile of shit with a new batch of flies picking at it. Can't help yourselves. So, if there is anything holy it will call for hanging of the war crime ridden leaders that cast upon us the rules of engagement and Geneva conventions and succumb to the punishment of their own creations. Wars for commodities are an atrocity. Look it up if you like. Compare the notes. You will be surprised what you read.

That's it for me. I think I made up for my a few months of not typing. It is good practice anyways. Cheers

RJDK

This was the view from the 28th floor of Hotel 71 in Chicago.

Apparently there is swearing in this blog. If a word is fitting, then I will use it. Sorry to the yungins that are possibly learning more useful slang on the internet. I am just giving back what was given to me. I am such a giver. Selfless giving is all it is. Grandpas taught me well. Grandmas taught me lessons for saying what Grandpas taught me. I remember when I was a little shit though. Things were different back then. Never swear near your parents is always a safe bet. But, I did. Oh well. On the playground, on the ice, on my bike, in my truck, in the bar, at the police.. and now just at myself usually.

So, if I can say one thing to an impressionable young mind is that...

you didn't hear anything from me.

Okay. Last post was Idabel Lake. I thought that it might be fun to post my summer so far pics. So, here goes in no particular order....



Shuswap Lake houseboating



Osoyoos Lake boating and just Osoyoos pics...





Silver Star biking didn't get camera worthiness. Mostly because I would crash and destroy my camera.

Wishing you all well... and talk to you soon.

RJDK

 
 

 

My Blogger is back in English... that must mean... I AM HOME!!!!! Another ridiculously long day on Tuesday. We were up at 4:00am Moscow time and I got home at 7:30pm Kelowna time and throw in the 11 hours difference and that makes for a long day.

So, it went like this...

We got the plant running and all was well, we were ready to fire up the second half (maybe) and shortly after our tour of the operating portion...KA-FKIN-BOOM goes the most important pump in the process. Contrary to recommendation, they decided not to repair the broken spare pump months ago and that pretty much left them crippled. So, the next days we just gathered up our things and tied up some loose ends and left them with an operational plant, once they fix their pumps. We had many challenges getting us to that point. Simple things like keeping our power turned on, or convincing the peasants that a tea kettle plugged in to our power bar will shut us down, or leaving fuses in place, you know, the little things. There was no sense of urgency from anyone except our group and in the end, they invariably end up with the fruits of their labour. Spoiled and tainted, half-assed and marginal. I commend our crew for getting us as far as we did. The rest is up to them.

So, after we left site, we had a few minutes to clean up and we decided to try out the Beer House for dinner. We found this place beside the outdoor market and decided to drag the welcome ones out for a farewell dinner. We followed up dinner with vodka and beer and decided what better than spend out last night in Zheleznogorsk bowling with our friend Slava. It was not at all what we expected as the place was new and had pool tables. It was like this place should have been brought to our attention weeks, if not months ago. We had a good time. It also helps to pay your tab as you are leaving too. That usually prevents getting chased down and bothered for money. We realized some things in Russia were inexpensive, but free was not an option apparently.

Sunday, we had a lazy day and got ourselves prepared for the train ride. One final tour of Zheleznogorsk by foot and some last minute souvenirs to escort us home were in order. We ventured out to a few patio pubs and had a few pops for good measure. Not much else to report really. We were seen off by a few friends and ventured out by train at 10:30. A trip through the night, yet again, would land us in Moscow.

We got to the hotel very early and ended up having to pay for two nights to secure the room that early. We would not be staying 24 hours, but still that cost us for two nights. A deal at twice the price. $325 Canadian per night. Plus a $20 breakfast. I got my moneys worth in food for sure.

We went out to Arbat Street for the third time in my Russian experience and picked up a few more souvenirs. This was probably going to be my last day in Russia for some time, so I decided to pick me up a few trinkets. A mentioned, I got myself a Khabibulin Russian jersey with Russian letters and spelling on the back. It is clearly a knock off jersey, but where else would you get one. My son ended up with a similar Russian jersey biz letters and numbers as the small ones aren't normally printed on. Another meal at the Hard Rock Cafe and we had to get our shit together for a hockey game.

Canada vs USA was at 8:15. Fortunately for us we had center ice seats, Row 14. Unfortunately we were in an arena that only had 20 rows of seats. We sat in front of the media boxes and directly behind a group of Americans. Hard not to rib them a little as they were down 4-0 after the first period. We mde a few comments that were pefect in the moment. They would lose their lustre being described here.



So we made it home and I am going to enjoy a few days off to hit it hard again Monday. My interior travels are about to begin as my international travels will fall by the wayside.

Another day in the life of RJDK... will finally be back to normal. As nomal as I will let it be.

We made it to Moscow again. Somehow we lined up tickets to Canada vs USA at the world hockey championship. I will be there in my new Russia jersey with Khabibulin spelled in Russian on the back.

Pictures to follow.

RJDK live on location...

the only thing working harder than us is our toilet brushes.

It has been a long week. The plant is up and running. One half anyways. We have taken the hands off approach to site specific training. Let em go at it because they have to figure it out sometime. So, I am taking this time to write this. My job was done correctly the first, second and third time, so I get to hang out on standby. Keep myself awake with some blog entries.

Last weekend we ventured out to the outdoor marketplace biz camera, so being that it was a nice day and all, what better than to leave your camera at the hotel and miss out on the Russian public life. Too many funny and different things to list. We wandered around for a while and checked out all the booths. There were many rows all semingly repeating themselves as far as stocked merchandise. Shoes, panties, watches, jeans and all the best China can provide. We are always looking for Zheleznogorsk memorabilia, but as this town has no travel infocenter, there is very little for touristy knick-knacks. We settled for a couple of wrenches for the site operator who was continuously borrowing mine. I have lost more than hair on this job. Amazingly the tools can be replaced. I have to watch as we get closer to the day so that I don't forfeit on bringing home the prize possessions.

Anyhow, we went to a new eating and watering hole by the market. The entrance was shaped like a big oak barrel and we thought what better than to try this place out. It looks like we can get a beer at least. Us three Canadians can at least order that. Food on the other hand was a little more challenging. JM randomly slected what we thought would be a kabob of some sort and ended up with a fine piece of BBQ beast. A couple more beer for good measure and we walked back to the hotel. On the way we spotted a coffee shop/pub that we decided to stop and sit to have a beer. We were exhausted from the walking and needed to be hydrated. Plus, I walk a little faster than my beltline challenged companions. They both told me to slow down and if anyone knows me, I walk slow. Well, unless there is a reward waiting for me and I will race to it. More or less an agenda free day, so we made the best of it.

We carried on after the walk to the local beer/food/liquor store and picked up a few road pops and a few extra for poker. My room turned into the Zheleznogorsk Casino and somehow I swindled a few rubels from my workmates. Another butter and mayonnaise free dinner followed and we spoke our minds freely at the dinner table.

Through the week we having been hellbent for startup and seeing the light at the end of the train tunnel. A few hiccups with power and we were on our way. We have now implemented the "no kettle in the office" rule as the added poer on the circuit shuts down all of our computers and renders us useless with a running process. I have been playing operating instrument guy doing a bunch of loop tuning and getting the plant running and to balance. My typing now should be an indication of how that went.

Yeah..yeah...it is about the job, but we are just about done.

We had a big blip the other day and we dumped a small lake's worth of water on the floor. When you can't measure anything and the system sees zeroes everywhere, amazingly everything pumping stops. The water overflowed in bunches and we scrambled to get the system down without flooding the place. After some investigative inspections we determined the cause and fired it all back up again.

During one of our startup mornings, a mob of company brass decided they would conduct a very vocal and loud discussion directly adjacent to our temporary control center. With me at the healm, I was listening to commands over the radio and responding with commands via our interface. I was unable to hear my radio and quickly turned to the mob becide me and silenced the works with "HEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" And I do mean silenced. As loud as my vocal chords would allow, the group immediately stopped talking. Of course they all turned to look at the cause and my shit eating smirk gave me away. I could care less. I couldn't hear my radio or myself think.

So, we are nearing the end of my Russian adventure and in doing so we are planning our trip home. Just so happens Canada plays USA in the world hockey championships in Moscow on the day we are cruising through. We are lining up tickets for us. What a beautiful way to end a trip as far as I'm concerned. If I am lucky I will get some autographs for the little man back home. Definitely will have pictures.

The boss just walked in, so I should look busy. Well I must look busy because I am typing away and he is across from me ignorant to my preoccupation. I have a ton of respect for the guy as he has been placed in a nasty position, and I don't mean prison love kind of position. It has been a challenge for everyone. I am glad I am not at the top. Some days I get riddled with questions, but today as I say, I am directing more than doing. I won't be here in two days, so the people need to take it over. I call it transitioning my usefulness. Rightfully so. When you work through lunches and suffer through late dinners, I will call this time some form of reward for efforts.

I am going to go take some pictures. Talk to you all soon.

Lazy day....

and the Canucks better not shit the bed again. I fell asleep only to find out that they lost. We watched parts of it and most of it with one eye open. Then I slept until 1:00



Plus, I didn't get radiated this week. Always a good thing. Here is my watch with the nuke unit in behind.

Anyways, we went for pizza last night. Acccompanied with beer of course. A little Siberian Corona for good measure. It is our weeekly adventure from the hotel. It would help getting your reserved table when you can understand Russian. We were given a table for three not realizing someone had reserved a table for nine. We were moved over right after we ordered our beer. Sending three Canadians in the first cab was probably not a wise move. We can get to the pizza place and order beer, but after that we are lost. Gawking like retards again and again. Them talking louder and slower doesn't make us understand any better.

So, we are on to another 60 some odd hour week starting tomorrow and repeat repeat the butter, cheese and mayonnaise meals. Spaghetti is so much better "biz mayonazum". I can ask for my meals "biz" many things now. Turns out the Russian menu hass more on it. The "Roats Beef" is always popular. I was eating onion on my last trip too. Turns out our newest member to the Russian trip family has the same birthday as I do. He doesn't like onions either. Stewed clear is fine, raw and heaping on a plate is just short of eating it like an apple. I had to push that aside a few times before I figured out "biz loook". Onion free meals from here on out. Except at the mine site. The cafeteria lady likes to make us cold salads with onion. I just eat that fast. Shorter time on the tongue right. She apparently loves cooking fish with bones all through it. If the taste doesn't make you gag, the bone lodged in your throat will help that along. Thankfully, we have yet to get the jellied fish smudge thing again. Irony will kick me in the ass. It will be served tomorrow now. Just because I mentioned it.

Anyhow, I am off to eat another bowel lubricating meal.

My Blogger is still in Russian. What a way to make things work easier for people. Default language apparently is triggered by the IP address of the country you are from... or in rather... in my case. If anyone knows how to set my language back to just English, then please let me know.

We have had an interesting week. Lots getting done. Today we finally had a short day and tomorrow we are resting. Well, resting after the hockey game at 4:00 in the morning. Tonight we go for pizza.

We enjoyed some mixed emotions this week. One of our translators has become good friends with a bottle. I have seen people abuse alcohol before, but this is sad in every sense. We chuckled when we first saw him and thought to ourselves, "what else is new. He is feeling no pain." Shortly thereafter he was being helped to his room to avoid embarassment. I was told once that you can never know the story that is untold of how a person deals with their life outside of the realm in which you are familiar with them. Whether it be work or play, everyone has a secret and private side that is discussed very little. We can only hope that he realizes what he has brought upon himself and turns it around before he hurts himself. He has been unfit for work the last few days and probably unfit for walking around as well. After dinner last night, this guy was standing in the hallway as his toilet supply line disconnected and flooded his room. He seemed to have come around and was coherent again, but we figure by his demeanor this morning, he continued drinking through the night after he could regain entrance to his room. Unless of course, he started his day with booze.

On a happy note, we discovered one of our companions working a different job on the same site is a Polish man that has lived in Poland, South Africa and now Australia. We were discussing how many languages were in different parts of the world, and in doing so, I called him by his African name (click)Tomas spelled !Tomas (Russell Peters anyone) He could not contain himself as he obviously had never heard the joke and could relate as there are many people that speak with the clicking and knocking jaw sounds of tribal tongues. Laughter is contagious and him being in tears brought joy to the table after our intoxicated translator scraped up his pride and went to his room.

I need a nap before dinner. I'll write more tomorrow maybe.

Well, I didn't get radiated. Maybe tomorrow.

In the meantime...

here are some pics





Нажав "Готово", вы сможете изменить сообщение и опубликовать его в своем блоге.

I think that means my picture went somewhere...



Tell you more later.

Time flies when you quit your job overseas...

...just kidding... we told that to one of my bosses back home in a text message. That got his attention. He said he could actually picture me throttling someone and just packing up and leaving. Ha ha. Don't let the foul mouth and tattoos fool you. I am a very peaceful person... unless you piss me off of course.

Anyways, we have been continuing on with the same old. Varying amounts of success for sure. I know I always say I won't bore you with job details, but today I am reading up on nuclear density gauges and need to keep my wits about me for zaftra utrum (tomorrow morning). BUT, I got a watch to use for the duration of my stay. If you thought you had a fancy watch, then ask yourself... does it have a built in digital Gamma radiation indicator? In simple terms it is a Geiger-Muller tube technology with a DER registration and indication range of 0.01 - 4000 mSv/h (0.001 - 400 mR/h) and it even tells where the sun is in the sky by means of two little pointer stick things spinning in a circle. Unfortuantely, I have to give it back. Fortunately, I have yet to hear if it has any form of warning signal to tell me to back away from the Cs-137 source...

Tomorrow, should be fun. Another day in the life of RJDK. If anyone is worried for my sake, don't be. The radiation is lower than what a lightbulb emits under normal operation. When and if it fails... I will be running away like a man trying not to radiate himself. They have these things in breweries too. Here I am only to setup the electronics portion. The Source and detector needs to be handled by somebody licensed by a nuclear authority and be willing to put their yetsa (balls) on a chopping block if something were to ever to go wrong with one. Same rules for Canada.

But, good news... we got the Profibus network back down to 1.5Mbps. Woohoo! It was so obvious why it was different than the others.

So, other than work, we spent last night having a little hallway party here at the hotel. We thought it was a great idea so nobody had to have the intrusion into their room and be left with a late night straggler or a big mess. The hotel security said "nyet" to that after we devoured our 10 pizzas and were starting in on beer and wine. Apparently some big shot was coming to the hotel and they didn't want us there or something. That was the excuse anyways. We were on the third floor and all the fancy rooms are on the other floors. (I know because my room ain't as fancy as the 5th floor President's Suite with slippers and housecoats.) So, we migrated to another room and actaully abandoned the party due to a MSN message from the boss. We talked work for a few minutes and then felt very safe with the distance to begin bashing him a little. He wasn't entirely pleased with the "Rob quit" joke. We found it amusing. After all the lightwieghts went to bed, we ventured out for beer and settled down with a little Life of Brian. We almost watched it all. Most of it with one eye open and then called it a night.

Sorry for text only too. I haven't turned my camera on in a few days. Plus, my blogger is all in Russian now. Опубликовать means publish I think. Выйти is logout maybe. Going by feel and memory here. this was saved as draft the first time. Ha ha.
I can read and pronounce the words, I just haven't a clue what they mean. But, so far my Russian is improving. I can insult fluently. Even the other day I showed my proficiency in "hello, how are you?" only to confuse the guy into thinking I understood what the hell he was going to say after that.

"Zdrast vuyt ye" I said
"Zdrast vuyt ye" he replied with a much more authentic Russian accent."Kagdyila?" He then asked expressionless.
"Kharosho" I answered questioning my pronunciation. "A u vas?"
"Normana" He replied. After a short pause... "blah blah blah nyet blah pashol nahooie blah eta blah blah sivodnya?"
"I don't fucking know what you just said man" I replied as I resorted back to native tongue and not my typical native tongue as that would have sounded more like
"Hay, anywaycse... dat sound crazy talk. Fkem-eye sposed ta-no?"

My laughter provoked assistance from the technical translator known to us as Stas.

hmmm.. Hockey I am missing.I am working on a playoff beard though. If I feel so inclined I may get up at 5:30 to stream Team 1040 and listen in on the bums. I also hear my buddy Brad is bagging some goals out east too in his playoffs. Amazing what happens when you are allowed to actually "play" hockey.

Weird news.Thankfully we didn't tour the Kremlin today...

http://www.mytelus.com/ncp_news/article.en.do?pn=world&articleID=2614747

We were there a week and a half ago throwing money around. Literally. I hope the beggars didn't get trampled. I can't say the same for the pushy junk peddlers.
"Why Nyet spasiba? Come buy Russian souvenirs?" Some of them you feel like doing a little nyet spasiba their noses flat to their faces.

So, on to reading again. I am motivated by some Lamb of God blasting into both ears. Thank god for Ipod. Some would think that this would negatively impact my thinking ability, but for some reason I am reading really fast and my head is bobbing a little. It is all good.

Talk to you all soon.

RJDK

I have a shower curtain!!!!

We made it to Zheleznogorsk. Funny how it doesn't feel like I left. Here is how it went after the train ride...

We arrived at 6:48 and 38 seconds at the train station and made our way to the minibus van thing waiting for us. Short trip and we were at the hotel so we could check into our rooms and get cleaned up a little. We then piled in to the all familiar bus and ventured out to the mine site. Our morning was very hectic and we were scrambling to piece together where to start and where others had left us off. The office quickly filled with varying people all varying in their opinions as to what we should be doing. One particular fellow wasted a bunch of the chief's time with "plan" questions and essentially made for lost time. He was asked to leave us alone and to actually never return.

A site orientation followed for the newbie and I took him on a tour of the plant to show him what we'd be working on. We cut our day short at 3:00 and went back to the hotel to get settled in.

Saturday and Sunday was a holiday weekend for most back home, but as we were in a totally separate fundamental bible belt, Easter was a holiday much the same as Valentine's Day or Halloween. Recognized, but not celebrated as a holiday. We worked all weekend and endured meetings of the minds to evaluate, formulate, investigate and many other -ate words. If not for the 15 hours of sleep Saturday night, Sunday would have been painful.

So far we have been only eating, sleeping and working. Monday was no different. Somehow I ended up getting corned by the aforementioned "plan" questions guy and offered my two cents. My answers did not seem to be sufficient for him which begat question after question after stupid remark after stupid question after braindead reasoning before I passed all responsibility on to commander in chief. Unfortunately the commander was in the hotel with seared salmon flu and was personally greeted by the same "plan" question guy. He ended up with the nickname Jackoff. Jackoff was then told to nu yevo nahooie (F-off in Russian - I have mastered that one) but continues to ignore the requests and is apparently too stupid to know how irritating he is. Stupid can't recognize self-stupidity I guess. I know he is stupid and I could always be smarter.

We plugged away at our nagging issues and tried to make progress. So, other than the job, we are not doing much else. It snowed here today and was hovering around freezing. I packed for the temperature I remembered being in before I left the first time. No dice. I am wearing an extra shirt, but really it isn't too bad. Just wet and snowing.

I promise I won't bore you with job details.

But, that is all we have been doing is working and is in the forefront of my head. Second to wishing I was home and this prison sentence would end. It isn't that bad honestly. Just have lots to do....

Welcome to Moscow...

this was my view from the 16th floor of the Belgrad hotel. A deal at twice the price. Room and breakfast came to 7181 Rubels. 22 Rubels to our Canadian peso makes for... $326.41 for one night.

Tired as all hell, we just got to the hotel that night and slept. It was after midnight is all I remember. We had our driver arrange to have us picked up for 11:00 the next morning.

We got up and ventured to the third floor for a buffet breakfast only to be surrounded by white collars and suits. I cared very little of the big huge pig I made of myself eating two full plates of food. 13 minutes later we were done breakfast and got out of there. I took a few more pictures from the room and got my things together. Thought I would show off my Russian style Chicago roll...



A pile of money I would keep close to my balls at all times. Right next to my passport.

So, we were met fashionably late by our driver and he toured in circles to the office of our contact people. Being that nobody had a plan of any sort we were greeted with "Hello, what are you doing here?" Confused we explained we needed train tickets and would gladly come back later after business hours to have dinner with one of the bosses. Turns out he was going to be traveling with us. Last minute plans aren't beyond him either I suppose.

So, we killed the afternoon touring Moscow (now that I am a seasoned veteran) and went to Red Square. The sky was as blue as a blue sky (how poetic?) and we wandered around side stepping the old beggars and young souvenir salesman.

We made a short video on how fast your wish coins become "SCRAMBLES". Less than 2 seconds I figured and sure enough. If they were younger and more nimble it would have been less than two. So, the thing goes like this... people stand by this star by Red Square (apparently the marker for all destinations to be measured from - citation needed) and make a wish and drop their coins. Much like any wishing well in the world, but.. as soon as the ching of a coin hit the ground, there is a group of people scurrying in to grab it up... so enjoy the video..



After a complete loop of Red Square, down Arbat St. and a venture through GUM shopping mall, we were met by our driver to take us back to the office. We met up with the boss and he took us out for dinner. We chatted, drank a beer and had a customary shot of vodka naturally. A short walk back to the office, we then were treated to the difference between nice cold vodka and mediocre warm vodka. No comparison. Cold it is and always will be.

So, to make a longer story longer.. we made our way to the train and seemed completely effortless the second time. Even easier with someone that has done it many times. One more beer for the road and that was to help us to sleep. Octagonal wheels said otherwise. I slep a whole hour or two, but not much.

If I missed anything, then read the train post back a couple months and that will describe it. More or less the identical trip from there.