Not so much travels anymore..

Every time I read or hear of some blogger who has thousands of followers I get sort of inspired to start blogging, but then somehow it jsut dwindles down and gets forgotten.
Anyway, I decided that I'd try (yet again) to keep writing at least from time to time, so that later on I could read it and remember things because these days being very busy at work and with life in general, I catch sometimes myself not even breathing.
I was cranky during the past 2-3 days, which showed and caused certain reaction in the house. And since it's only me, Katy, Lennox and Kuzya, it's quite easy to figure out who's getting the most of "crankinness" (is there such a word?). Lennox and Kuzya, one's too young and the other's too animal to appreciate the bad moods, so, unfortunately, it becomes Katy... Sorry about that... You know deep inside, (okay not that deep, it's practically on the surface) I care about her more than one can possibly think knowing me.. Am I getting too personal and revealing?. Better stop here.. Ha~
I have a dilemma at work now, my assistance is immigrating to Canada, so, he's quitting, and now I have to find a new one. And it's such a hastle.. I'll have to train him again and tell what to do and not... urghhh... need some vacation time badly now.. maybe it's season change.. when everyone's getting mellow...
I have this hard-boiled egg left from the Russian Easter on my desk, and been thinking about whether to throw it out or just leave it until it rots from inside.. Why? Because Russian easter eggs are decorated very brightly..

Also, I figure, in my case I need to publish immediately after I wrote anything, if I'm to continue with my blog. Otherwise I just save it to look at or finish later, and when "later" comes I read it and delete it because then it seems nonsense.. So, that's what i''ll do from now on..

NOT SETTLED... STILL..

It's been a while since my last post, and even I forgot the web address of my blog for a moment.. ha~
Looking at my posts, turns out I've actually started two posts before and didn't finish them, probably because I was either too busy, or internet was too crappy, or I just couldn't be bothered with it. Lots of happened in this 3 months.
The biggest one is I guess that we had our last second wedding with all the close relatives coming all the way from NZ and a couple of friends from the States. It was tiring but special. Definitely no more weddings, as sometimes I get asked, "So, are you going to have a wedding in New Zealand as well?". The wedding itself went fine, with no major hiccups except that my best man was absent in the second half of the celebration, due to the long "talk" of life and death with the squat toilet in the restaurant. haha~~ I hope he reads it too, because I promised him that I would remind it to him for many years ahead. And yes, you read it right, surprisingly it was a squat-toilet, even though the restaurant wasn't a cheap one. But I guess it sort of fitted the traditional theme of it. I got quite drunk myself, but hung on through it all, and managed to not to embarrass myself in front of my lovely in-laws. I don't have the photos here now, so, I can't post them, but I will some time. After that, the next day early in the morning, still hungover from all the vodka, we took off to Samarkand on a train. The whole trip of just about 5 days went with no major accidents as well. It was interesting for me as well, since I haven't traveled around my country as well. Soon after that I had to go to St.Petersburg on work related matter (which is another big news I guess), so, Katy with her parents and I flew to St.Petersburg for 10 days.

Whenever you visit a new country, the first thing you see and experience is the airport, and, consequently, its staff. Pulkovo airport is horrible, I'd say on par or even worse than even Tashkent Halqaro airport. Why?. The stereotypical opinion about Russian rudeness and unfriendliness is a given factor, (although, I must admit, it's getting better), the inefficiency with which the passport control is working is appalling, the facilities are so inadequate that it's really embarrassing for the such a great city as St.Petersburg, to have it. You feel yourself when you go through the Pulkovo-1 airport's passport control as if you're in the Zoo, you know one of those pits you see in the zoo, made specially for dangerous animals when you look at them from above. Robin said it, too.. Of course, we were surrounded by tens of pushy and impatient Uzbeks who have no concept of a line and just trying to get to the customs lady from all directions. Wendy (my mother-in-law) adapted very quickly and wouldn't have any of the BS like pushing and cutting in from the surrounding Uzbeks, so, she started to push and elbow them back and tell them off with that stern look on her disapproving face. I loved that moment. Robin, as always, suffered in silence. :)
It took us a few thousands of dead nerve-cells, about 2 hours and lots of pushing and elbowing to go through the line and pick up our bags. We arrived at about 22:30 at night and only got out at 1am or something like that. By the time we got to our place of stay (an apartment that I rented), we were exhausted.
St.Petersburg was boring and all-business for me and lots of excursions and sightseeing for the rest of the group. There was an incident in the subway when someone lost his wallet, well, it got stolen, by the notorious Uzbeks apparently, who works the subways and target foreigners. Luckily the only thing they stole was credit cards, and we managed to quickly cancel them before any damage could have been done. On one of our last days, we went to Petergof, the summer palace built by Peter the Great and finished by Kathrine the Great, a beautiful place but very expensive to go to (if you count the transportation and entrance fees and light snack and stuff). Better to take enough money, because we apparently didn't and had to sit and wait outside in freezing cold waiting for a boat instead of enjoying a cup of hot tea and a cake.. :) It was a good sport though, and I have a picture of the three poor kiwies stuck in Petergof waiting for a boat on a cold metal bench looking to the sea. :) (will upload it as well).

To be continued.

SOME PHOTOS

The mayor's office ordered to the kindergarten that is located in front of our apartment to beautify its surroundings by creating some sculptures or other things in front of it. I guess so that it actually looked like a kindergarten. So, one day we had uninvited visitor who wanted to simply take (READ - STEAL) our sand. They got caught by our workers and told off for it. The workers got in contact with me and the lady asked if she could borrow two sacks of sand (about 100 kg), after the fact that they were trying to steal it. She was Good. "We need it for the kids to play, bla-bla-bla... and the mayor's office gave this order, but didn't offer any funding or help." Okay, I gave them one sack, and told them to look else where if they need more. What do you think? Later on, they come again and try to bribe my workers with $1.2 to steal more sand. Little SOBs, it's good we have honest workers who told them No. That is a Seal that is made with our sand. Behind it lying is crocodile. As you may guess they are unfinished here. Now they are all painted and have faces, so, actually they look like the real ones.








Our apartment block from the road. This Kamaz (Russian truck) always parks in front of our gates, blocking the entry way. I tried to be not too loud about it, though I several times explicitly told the owner not to park it there. Now he got the message.








Swimming pool at my aunties. Katy's jumping in with my cousin's son.








We went to the old apartment, and it was so weird to see old structures in the play ground still standing. Of course these days kids don't play with them at all. Now they've got the computers. I even remembered a rock sticking a bit from the ground, that used to trip us up. Some windows on the first floor still had the protective window grids from the 80s. Katy liked one with the old Russian GAZ Volga on it. She wanted to take picture but there were people standing in front of it, and I felt embarrassed to take a photo. We'll take it next time.












This is our gym, about which I wrote in my last post. There are even some self-centered guys who flex their muscles each time they pass the mirror.








I believe this Russian motorcycle Ural belongs to my neighbors in our old apartment where we used to live in late 80s. That makes it at least 20 years old. It's an odd feeling to see old things from the past. Those garages in the background, we used to play Tag (a game where you have to catch someone by touching them on their back and then that person have to catch others) on their roofs, when we were little, and when owners saw us they would yell at us for ruining the garages and even some throw stones at us... ha~








Our puppy, Kuzya. We didn't buy him and didn't name him. We rescued him from under the pipe he was hiding behind at my cousin's office. His original name when they bought him was Sam. But comon, he's so much not Sam.. Kuzya he is... A bit naughty and dumb, but becoming smarter day by day, and hence cuter.








Our apartment, which so many people wanted to see. This is actually from behind. The main communal entrance is on the other side, but we made the door from behind, fenced and claimed a backyard and voila, it's like owning a house. Renovation in full swing. We're close to an end, by the way. Supposedly they will finish in one week time. It's hard to believe it's actually coming to an end.












Katy's having fun in the swimming pool at my aunties. It's quite deep, absolutely not suitable by NZ's safety standards. An adult can dive in without any possibility of hitting a bottom with his/her head. The water was very cold and thus very refreshing in 40 degrees heat.








My 40 plus year old cousin has hamsters at home. Of course they bought them for their son, but as it usually the case, the parents end up taking care of them. Being truly rodents, as hamsters are, just a bit cuter, it didn't take a while for them to multiply. Now they have like 10 of them. And here Katy's playing with the newly born one. Blind, red, not cute at all!!! She had even suggested once to barbecue them, since we already had rat meat and a whole squirrel in Laos and Thailand.

25 DAYS: COPS, HEAT, BUREAUCRACY, ETC.

For those of you who was and still is coming by this page, I'm sorry for not writing more frequently. We've been quite busy these day, eating, drinking tea, going to Parkentskiy market (where we can buy renovation materials), finding out about lots of stuff, educating my younger brother how to live healthily and save money, and many other things. If your head is spinning just from reading this, imagine mine from doing all that in 40+ degrees heat. Vertigo....

Many times I think "Oh, I should write that in our blog", but then because I don't write it down, I kind of forget it. Okay the first subtitle would be...............

COPS!
Almost since our arrival we've been driving our car. It's nice and big... and pretty for these surroundings. I've seen and heard a lot from my cousins and friends about the cops problem and their milking. Milking meaning we, the drivers are cows and they, the cops, are the "milkers". I was somewhat unprepared to deal with all of that, but steadily and slowly I'm getting used to it. I must admit that we get stopped for minor violations of traffic rules, but what I don't get is that it is almost impossible in my mind to avoid these violations, because the environment forces you to. Imagine driving on the road with many potholes. This will make any sound driver who cares about his car's suspension and other important parts to weave around them, which can be quite tricky on a busy road. Then I'm talking about broken traffic lights, which are just that: broken. And everyone goes everywhere on the intersection. Then there are obscure road signs or one, which I haven't seen in Korea or New Zealand, and I just don't know what that means. Then there are of course crazy drivers who never ever uses their blinkers, so, you never know if they're going straight or turning or what not. We've been stopped because of these factors or so I want to believe. :( Each time, I was let go with a relatively small amount of fine paid to the personal pocket of a policeman, who was lucky to catch me. Once I was stopped just because I was driving our car, which looks flashy here, and they wanted to check if there was anything wrong with me or my car to get some dough out of me. Unfortunately there was some problem with my documents, so, I had to part with my $10 that I had in my pocket in exchange for my freedom to go. Don't get too shocked. It's a reality here. We're learning how to deal with it. Every cop assume that we have lots of money because we're driving a car like that. So, recently I started to pretend that I'm just a driver who's driving a rich foreign lady. So, that brings down the plank of amount considerably downward. I played that trick ones, and it worked. I only parted with half of what I was "normally" giving out before. (Now "normally" here, of course doesn't mean it's normal to give a bribe to a policeman, although here it kind of means that. ^^). Anyways, other than corrupted policemen, potholes, and crazy drivers in their beat up Ladas who don't care if their car will get scratched or whatever, it's very nice to drive out here. Several times we noticed a difference in attitude when people saw us getting out of it because they'd assume we're rich. How funny and sad at the same time.

Thinking about the subject of this post, I think I've written enough about the heat and bureaucracy here, so, I'll write about my gym.

GYM!
We started going to the gym about 10 days now. It's good to be back with the iron. Our gym is not near as nice as the one I used to go in Korea in our HYundai building, but it's adequate for the price. I only pay about $12 a month and Katy only about $9. They give a discount to ladies. Katy also was offered to lead a group of ladies in the gym. I suppose she looked quite professional teaching my very unfit cousins. The gym is in the regular school in the old hall where I remember as a kid having our PE (physical education) class. It's stuffed with the old-ish machines and bellbars and dumbbells. Most of it still quite usable. What I thought was interesting compared with my nice gym in Korea, in Korea gym facility was awesome, members on the other hand were in a quite sad shape, for most part of it. Here, the facility is quite sad and run down, but the members are just in great shape. I'd even say too great shape. They are huge. I'm a skinny chicken compared with them. Not that I feel any inferiority about that. HA~ But one thing that kind of makes us laugh in the gym here is that most of the big guys here are very self-centered. They would walk around torso naked and every time they pass anything slightly reflective they would look and I'm almost sure sing with joy inside, liking what they see. It's a very funny behavior for adults in my opinion. We saw one guy the other day walk into the hair salon where Katy was getting her hair cut. He looked very funny with his 80's a-la Shwarzenegger (spelling?) hairstyle and his way too small shirt showing his belly and also his 80s style break-dance narrow sunglasses. And he was all important and very aware of his "fine" physic. Forgive me my bitterness... it's just funny...

Anyways, Katy's waiting for us to leave, so, we're better go.. I'll finish some time later...

FIRST WEEK FLEW BY.

It's been a week and a day since we landed here. A week long impressions?. Desert-like hot (for instance today is about 41 degrees celcius, yesterday when I look at the thermometer in the car for the temperature outside at about 6 something Pm, it was 39 degrees. Note, all these numbers are for the temperature in the shade; out in the sun add 5~8 degrees more. At least it's dry here, so, it's livable. If it was as humid as in Thailand or other similar places, it would've been hell on earth. No kidding.), desert-like sunny, not a glimpse of clouds, my relatives met my expectations in being hospitable, helpful, and food-giving & "feeding" (here they would be feed us, of course).
We've moved into our apartment with our bags and nothing else on past Sunday. My mom gave us some mattresses and pillows, a bunch of unmatching curtains, and some kitchen utensils, my aunty gave us my grandmother's chairs from 60s and a low dining table, which my dad made years ago. The chairs look cool, we like them, so, we will keep them for our new apartment. We bought a small old Soviet fridge off the previous owners of the apartment, and they also left a couple of old furniture junk, which is still usable, as long as you don't move it, for the risk of it falling apart during movement. ^^ We hired 2 girls to clean the apartment before we moved in, when I saw them, I didn't think they'd do a good job, they did okay with windows but with the rest of it it was as I expected - SO-SO. Oh, well...
After getting done with all the paperwork we started looking for a crew to start renovation in our apartment. Through someone and someone of that someone we found a crew and they started renovation on June 10th. According to the plan, they should be done in 2 months. My super-cautious cousins and other relatives kindly told me to forget about the time-frame I was given and amount of money I was quoted for. "Think double of whatever time and money they told you, for your renovation"- said my cousin. Well, I don't want to. I will try to stick to whatever budget we have in mind. Of course plus-minus 10% maybe. Anyways, today we went into the apartment to look at the progress, and we saw a couple of walls gone, almost all windows frames laid outside, old doors taken out, the wallpaper and flooring ripped off. From tomorrow they will be needed a lot of cement, sand and other stuff, which will make our saving less and less day-by-day. Oh well, what wouldn't one do to live in a nice house. We're still deliberating whether we want good wooden floors or just linoleum, nice doors or re-use the old doors, and stuff like that. A lot of decision-making needs to be done... On top of that my hands (and my butt) are itching to do something to turn the renovation money drain into money-making machine. Here's the million dollar question, "What kind of business should we start?" Ideas are there, but the process of picking the one that will make us millionaires is painfully slow. There's a good chance of you benefiting from us becoming millionaires, so, pray for us, think with us... hahaha~~~
Today we've decided that we need suspended ceilings, because the ones that are there are very uneven. We also had a few classes of Russian and Uzbek language. Katy had Russian and Uzbek and I had Uzbek. I guess I did study it in school, because it sort comes back in a very slow and rudimentary way from the back of my brain.
We also have a little dog called Kuzya. My cousin's husband bought him in the market because he felt sorry for him and took him to the office, where he became a little nuisance. So, when we showed up, everyone wanted us to have this dog and rescue from whatever would've happened to him otherwise. He's a little bit bity at the moment. So we have to scold him and distract him with his toy all the time. Otherwise he's very cute and somewhat looks like Ivanka.
One of the frustrating things here is the internet. You can't find it readily available everywhere even in Tashkent. And also the speed is just what we call in Russian "a turtle speed". In order to get decent internet speed you need to pay helluva lot of money. I don't know... Maybe latter, when we have some income we'll do that. For the moment we use either free wireless internet in cafes or my cousin's office, or go to Hyundai distributor, who knows me and kindly lets us use internet there. Now, they have very good and fast internet. I wanted to upload some pictures here, but my guess is that it will take 2 days to upload one photo, sadly.

I'm also happy that a few of our friends have confirmed their coming to our wedding in September.