I have my eyes on
A distant horizon
Somewhere between
The crude and the mean

Still I know
Heel and Toe I'll go
Do what I must
For those that I trust
Because for today
My dawn is your dusk

This leaves me hollow
But, my heart I'll follow
Back and around
To familiar ground
That I have my eyes on
As my dusk is your dawn

When this is all told
And you I can hold
Just for the pure sake
And the look on your face
For tears and smiles
Of days gone by

I've had my eyes on
The dew on my lawn
And to hear you say my name
Again with our days the same

So as my dawn is your dusk
and your dusk is my dawn
My heart will find you
While I am gone.

Another day in the life....

Last few days were something to be remembered and forgotten all the same. Thursday was just a regular work day. We are experiencing our challenges for sure. It has not been the easiest job in my career. Language barrier becomes a distant second to the lack of organization and inherent dysfunction of all concerned parties. It is very hard to stay motivated when every day is met with another roadblock. We have had to adapt to the daily changes and still have an expiring visa looming in the near future. My bitterness is probably evident.

Friday was a national holiday here in Russia. So, we did a little shopping in the morning and then celebrated man's day with our go between guy, Sergei. We call him Sergei Front Right, as he sits in the front right seat on the bus every morning. Very kind and generous fellow. So, we indulged in food and vodka in my hotel room. An idea sprung on me that we would make a video tribute to my dad, as it was his birthday on Thursday. I am still compiling the footage. So anyways... One led to many more and mixed with beer and food, my activity was interrupted by a late afternoon nap. After a few hours of recovery, we migrated to a local pub for a change of scenery. The patrons of the pub soon discovered it was my birthday and made the best of treating me to a ton of attention. I was cornered every chance by mobs of people. Mostly curious of me just being foreign and in doing so, I was constantly questioned and greeted. Very flattering. I felt like a celebrity of sorts. Just short of signing autographs. We stayed out until it actually was my birthday and after a brisk walk home, we crashed for the night in preparation for our work Saturday...

Saturday morning, I was saluted by a happy birthday song from the crew in both english and broken english simultaneously. We put in a shorter day and came to the hotel for a late lunch. Three customary toasts to me and I switched from vodka to sprite. Hair of the dog...and made my head come back around again. A few casualties from Friday night bailed on dinner plans of pizza and beer, so we were left to just 5 of us to continue the celebration for me. Not an ideal birthday as I could not be home with the ones I love, but they made the best out of having to be half way round the world from them. The delay between posting here should now be evident.

Today is now Sunday here. We again worked a short day as the bus brought us back for 2:30. I am feeling remarkably okay, but wanted to spend some time by myself to reflect a little. My patience is wearing thin on the amount of meetings to discuss why work isn't getting done. Requests have been made to compile massive list of defect items, when the majority of equipment isn't ready. I figure it is easier to say what is done rather than spend a bunch of time defining the deficiencies. I just think if there was less time talking and more time planning, we would be further along. The point of my trip was to come and setup everything as it was ready for me. Bait and switch. I am having to bore y'all with details now.... sorry for that. Thanks for the ear (or eyes I suppose). Rant over.

It looks like I will have to come back here also. Maybe a month later. I am not convinced that it will be as interesting the second time. I have been here almost two weeks and the novelty is wearing off. As is my hair. I will save all my true thoughts for when I am home.

Nonetheless, I am still alive and probably to be sober from here on out. March 8th is another national holiday, so with my visa expiring, I will probably start my voyage home on the night of the 7th. The exact opposite trip as my arrival. Train to Moscow in the night. May or may not need a night in Moscow to meet up with my plane ticket. Off to Frankfurt, then to Vancouver and then to Kelowna. Who knows what the recovery time will be. I am expecting the jet lag to hit me harder on the way home.

Well, that is enough for now. We'll see what the next few days bring. I am hoping for some real progress, but optimism is a poison pill the same as hope. Gotta keep my spirits up.

Miss you all and love you more.

RJDK

Okay time for a new chapter...

I have internet access in my hotel finally. Thanks to some very crafty people. I wouldn't be surprised if they were reading this as I type it. Haha.

Anyways, Friday was the last day, so we'll fill you in since then. Saturday was a work day. Nothing special. Came to the hotel after and played some cards with the guys. Drank beer of course.

Sunday was a complete write off. We were invited out to Maslaneetsa. That is the annual festival here welcoming springtime. The whole town came out in -10 C weather.



So, the afternoon we gathered with food and drink (vodka) and celebrated with the locals. The people from work took us out and they showed us how to celebrate Russian style. We played "don't try to keep up with the Russians". So, after 4 bottles of vodka and 6 hours, we went ice skating. I found out that there is absolutely no edge on Russian rental skates. Could not scratch a nail with them. Might as well be spoons taped to the bottom of my shoes kind of bad. Now, I have hip bruise, but the pain was only felt on Monday morning for some reason. ey-ey-ey...head was not that sore.

The crew we have here are very good natured. Awesome sense of humour. When we translate our Russian back to English we mimic Tarzan talking and it is absolutely hilarious. We sound just like that. Simple words to get a message across. The same comes back to us by some that learned English in school and never used it (like Canadians and French). So, as you can tell from my typing, I am communicating in baby English and distorted by Russian.

I am now able to order a complete breakfast and get what I hoped for. Orange juice (fresh, fresh squeezed), oatmeal without butter?, 2 yogurt, black tea, and sometimes a ham and cheese bun thing. The bun thing I still have to point at in the menu, but other than that, I am speaking the order.

What else....counting. I can count to 10 and I am working on 11-20 this week. Some odds and ends just get written down on paper. Paper is a wonderful thing. Even better when you remember your pen. Big numbers I just say each number from left to right.

The language is easier to say than to read. That's why we have our translators. They are very good. Technical translators. Worth their weight in gold. So, we treat them to cognac and such. Well, just give them a bottle and let em go at it.

Well, now that I ahve internet in my hotel, I will update more frequently. Hope everybody is doing well, and we'll talk to you all soon.

RJDK

Friday Feb.16th in Zheleznogorsk

Today was the first real day of work start to finish. Our normal day consists of getting up in the morning and showering (no shower curtain by the way), head down to the plush hotel restaurant for breakfast with the crew at 7:15 and then into the bus to work by 8:00.

We arrive at the second biggest iron ore facility in Russia. Very eerie to see. Looks like a scene from a movie. Every aspect of our day revolves around translators asking questions for us. Even this morning, our site safety orientation was translated sentence by sentence and we just had to smile and nod. Due to the fact that we only now speak 6 words of Russian, we are accompanied constantly by translators. Sergei is our young translator and doubles as a mining technologist of some sort. Stas is the other translator from Magadan (Ewan and Charlie anyone?) and we are inundated with Alexanders or Sergeis. Except for Yuri and Dmitri, everyone it seems is named Alexander or Sergei. 50/50 chance usually of getting names right.

So, that is where we are now. Without boring you with details of the job, we are getting our way through to get the power on to many things so that we can start setting it all up.

We are served lunch on site. Today’s meal consisted of beet sauerkraut dish, a fish in gelatin dish, sweet water, roast beef, rice, pickles, bread, cheese, grapes and then tea. I was a little confused as to which bowl was what, so I mistakenly put salt in my tea. At first I thought the tea was different, then realized I was actually an idiot. We asked the translator to get me a new cup, but when he asked for me, he dropped the idiot part from the translation. We obviously don’t leave the lunch room hungry.

At 4:00 today, we left the site by the same bus we arrived in. It is about a 20 minute drive from the hotel to the site. We have been doing everything as a group, so the time I get to myself before dinner is when I document my day here. Because we only have internet connection on site, I type in advance and then just cut and paste the post for the blog.

Tonight we had planned on going for pizza. The hotel restaurant is very nice, but we are overwhelmed by the very rich food and were feeling like a familiar meal. So, we crossed town by cab and went to the Pronto pizza place. One of our translators was leaving for Moscow for a few days, so this doubled as a kind of dinner to see him off. We had many beer and many pizzas and just talked for a few hours. Eventually my slang English became a curiosity of our young translator, so I had to teach him some good old Canadian slang. I like to think of myself as a goodwill ambassador of sorts. Unfortunately, I will not disclose here what I taught him  Those that know me can well imagine the new words our friend has is in English arsenal.

We made our way back to the hotel for night cap. The hotel restaurant is a multi-use facility and we went there for some Armenian cognac and beer. There is a dance floor and DJ adjacent to the restaurant, but we did not venture to go dancing. Laughter is universal so with help of translators, we made a point of sharing our jokes and stories.

Another day is done and is one day closer to being home... Mar 10th I have to leave Moscow. We will have some long days ahead. Lots to do.

Talk to you all soon.

Thursday Feb.15th Arrive in Zheleznogorsk

We rode the train through the night and arrived in Zeleznogorsk at 6:40am. We were met by our co-worker JM and our translator Sergei. We piled our bags into a small car and drove to the hotel. We had to temporarily check into a room (Presidential Suite) and wait for our rooms to be prepared. I was going to take a picture of the room, but I actually thought that we were going to get to keep the room and get another one like it. They moved both of us out later.

We went to site and did the meet and greet, but the respect for us was shown by allowing us to go and get cleaned up and caught up on sleep. I had the same clothes on since Monday morning. Socks were changed in Frankfurt because my feet were killing me.

We arrived back at the hotel by lunchtime and they had a cot and a bed for us. PA hung out and watched a movie as I showered and went and had lunch with Sergei. After lunch, I went and had a nap….4 hours later I was awoken by the dinner phone call reminder. That was the best sleep I had in years. Just that tired is all. Drool everywhere kind of tired. Haha.

We went down to the lobby and we were to hand over the keys to the presidential suite and we were given keys to the next two rooms on the same floor. Big difference. Half the size, no shower curtain and no little shaving kit, housecoats or slippers. Oh well, decadence for a few hours is okay. The hotel clerk as she gave me my key was able to spit out a few words in English to me. MINI BAR. I had a water and had to pay up. So, 15 rubles later, I was into my new room. Nice all the same, just not as big or with all the fancy attached to it.

We had dinner as a group and then got acquainted with the other crew with conversation after. By 10:30 we were all asleep.

Tuesday Feb.13th and Wednesday Feb.14th

Well, as the last post stated, we flew to Frankfurt and hung out for about two hours. The flight from Vancouver had some electrical issues about 2/3 of the way through the movie Scoop and the screens retracted back into the ceiling. Being that I was curious to see who done it, I listened to the remaining portion of the movie. The electrical issues continued as the cabin lights would just come on and off at random. Fortunately for us, we remained in the dark. The flight attendants were going around and placing dark stickers on the lenses so that the passengers could sleep. It was a long flight of about 11 hours. We flew over Greenland and the outside ambient temperature showed as low as -95 Deg C on the screen. There were two full meals and 1 and 2/3 full movies. I indulged in some free gin and tonic and drank countless glasses of water in anticipation of not having a lot of good water in Moscow.

Because of the time change and flight duration, we couldn’t help but lose a whole day off the calendar. We left Frankfurt at about 3pm Frankfurt time and the flight to Moscow was only 2-1/2 hours. We did though lose a couple more hours in time change. The customs in Moscow was what we were geared up to be cavity searched, but only PA set off the “coloured guy” flags and was made to x-ray his bags. My tool bag was on his cart as we didn’t discriminate luggage at the carousel and loaded it all on two carts.

We were met by Roman, our driver, and he quickly guided us through the maze of cabbies and out into the parking lot where his van waited. We piled in and watched him pilot us through the hellish Moscow traffic. We were traveling 5 km/h and needed to go 15km. Do the math on that. We were very short on any Russian and he was only in possession of 16 English words, so we had to sign/gesture/communicate for him to phone our contact people and get us to the train. PA and I both picked up a Russian Lonely Planet book to help us translate. Roman laughed as I said “hold me” in Russian. Those books have absolutely every phrase you could imagine. After a short discussion about hockey (just naming Russian players and nodding) we finally got onto the main street and were able to change to a gear higher than first in the van. As we passed the landmarks in Moscow, Roman would say “Gorbachev..office” or “military...musee: and we would just gawk at the bright lights and immense cultural differences. Finally we pulled up to a gate in a commercial area and we pulled through and parked. This was the office building of the contact people responsible for our travel. Partly responsible anyways. We had coffee and cookies and waited for our English speaking contact person to set us up with our train tickets and feed us.

Natalia arrived at 9:00pm and was a very cheeky but polite escort for us as she took us to a local eating establishment and purchased for us miscellaneous food items for us to “try”. She smiled at everything that was before us and had us wondering how much of the food were cow testicles or something. Nonetheless, the food was good and we had to hurry to catch our train. We arrived back at the office where we had 10 minutes to check e-mail and then off again with Roman to the train station. Thankfully Roman led us to the train and took us right to our car. Only my name was in English on the ticket and good god if I would have been able to navigate to the train by myself in the dark. We said farewell to our new friend and hauled all of our stuff into our cabin. Two men with 7 bags made for tight quarters. We were met by the train mom and she was speaking in Russian to us. We were having trouble understanding what she was talking about, so we assumed passport and found out after that she was offering bedding for us. Exhausted from traveling, we pretty much layed down and tried to sleep. The octagonal? wheels prevented me from sleeping much. Ultimately I slept less than 2 hours in 2 days.

Passport photos are never flattering...

Well, today is the last day I will spend in Canada for some time. Sleep is something I will cherish when I am free of any emotion. So, for now... I will lead y'all in to the adventure I am about to begin.

If you have Google Earth on your computer... then 52°20'4.49"N Latitude and 35°22'25.22"E Longitude are the coordinates of where I will be close to.

So, here is what I know for now. I am flying to Vancouver 11:00ish Feb.13th. I will be fashionably late for the cavity search and then proceed to the plane departing from Kelowna. The plan is that I arrive in Vancouver around noon. From there, I know this... I will be flying to Frankfurt, Germany... hopefully with a passport. Gotta pick that up in Vancouver with my visa. I would expect it to be at the airport with my traveling co-worker. If not, then I fly home and veg out and watch hockey.(That would never happen. Not without the massive scene in the airport and the deranged man being hauled away on the 6:00 news. That would be me)

Then, we wait in Frankfurt for our connecting flight to Moscow. Some point after we arrive in Moscow there will be a train ride south. I can't wait to use the train washroom. I have heard how marvelous it is (Picture to follow)

Eventually we will plane, train and automobile our way to the coordinates as above and realize we are half way round the world. Shortly thereafter, I will shower all the stranger hair and drool from the commute off of my shoulders and arms and possibly even unload all my shite.

I am planning on having just enough stuff with me. Tools, clothes and a backpack full of entertainment electronics, toilet paper, sacrificial toilet socks (for when I run out of TP), 3 pairs of 8-day underwear (in case luggage goes to Tanzania), a bag of white powder to amuse the border people, the anarchist cookbook for light reading and my "How to fly 767's for Dummies" book. Unfortunately for me, my sense of humour will be packed away until I am in comfortable space. I will probably gawk like a retard with Sesame Street overload at all the sites and invariably miss something.

Only time will tell, I guess.

To all that are going to keep up with me, I will do my best at updating this regularly.