Bad Hair Day!

La Qua Sweetie, La Qua.

Sorry folks. I have had a big day! Hair coloured..cut and pampered....

Luciania, what do you think????? It was better than I expected!

This hair dresser guy flies in from Kiev to Kharkiv on the weekend to service his clients! Not one other person picked up a pair of scissors whilst he was there. The colour experience was weird, not what I am used to but it seemed to work out OK, and In Kharkiv, cheap... AUD$107.00 for colour, cut and blowave! It was an interesting experience however, all the clients were talking in Russian and of course, I didnt understand. There was a few magazines around to read, but again all in Russian, so I am at a loss to do anything but observe!! Just at the tail end of the blowave, this lady who had been making a bit of a scene throuout the day (about which I cant tell you cause I dont understand irate Russian), comes up to me and the Hairdresser cutting my hair and asked “Why on earth, would an Australian come to Ukraine! .............In reasonably good english I might add!!.........I was a bit gobsmacked, as I was oblivious to the fact that I was being talked about for the past two hours! I told her I was working for a multi national that had a factory in Kharkiv. “what sort of Multi National” she asked, “Manufacturing”, I replied. :You manufacture what” she asked, “Tobacco”, I explained in my best Australian/Russian. Dead Silence went throughout the salon. I had no idea that little old me that had said nothing for the last two hours would generate so much interest in the last 15 minutes of my visit! Inna stepped in an expliained in Russian that I worked for PM and I was here for 9 months etc.... Oh you are here for nine months! You must come back and have this treatemnt and that etc... I still cant work out what went on in that salon today, but I know there are some staff there that deserve a bit of a compliment for making me feel comfortable even though I knew no idea what was happening!Thanks again to Inna for showing me her hairdresser and having me looking normal again after a few weeks in Ukraine.... No more grey hair, an experience I will never forget and I feel a lot better with new colour and cut!!

So why La Qua sweetie, La Qua?? Well after the hair dresser, there was more....alot more... expecially about the Military stoping us and searching our car and us! but Im not going to tell you about it now as I am watching AB FAB with Eddie and Patsy. It is the first decent thing I have watched in two weeks so you can all get stuffed for a while and I will get back to you when I have my fix of TV/Video that I can understand and enjoy.

Cheers

Mum, Sorry about the call at 2am your time. Got the times a bit mixed up.......


xM

Local Kharkiv

Hi all.

Well It’s been almost two weeks so since my arrival in Ukraine. Suprisingly, I feel at ease with my environment. I’m not sure if it because I had a week in KL prior to Ukraine and that has got me into a frame of mind of being away from home and having to accept it, or, that I just feel reasonably comfortable.

I think work is helping me settle. I am really looking forward to the challenge and working on a real “international” project as apposed to an Asia Pacific project. After a couple of breifs, I am now aware of the money and effort that is being thrown into this project

Me & Michal in the office

,

Dmytro, Iurii, Maryna, Oleksandr, Me, Michal,Pierre-Andre' Alexander (Sasha), absent is Yevgeniy

OK, lets stop talking about work and start talking about Kharkov. I will try and paint a picture for you of how I will see this small ...big ......part of Ukraine that will be my home for the next 9 months or so.

The picture below is Freedom Square and it is sort of the hub of Kharkiv. The square has a statue of Lenin

and is surrounded by the university, the zoo, and a lot of parkland 

There are lots of places for coffee and  eating and it is a really social place on a Sunday.

Looking back fro the Lenin statue to the start of the square

Flying in to Kharkiv, you realise that this is a big, big place. In fact it used to be the capital of Ukraine a long time ago. It just seems to go on for miles, even bigger than Melbourne metro maybe.... seriously has to be on par with Melbourne.

The infrastructure of this place is certainly lacking and it is explained by the countries economic state. The airport runway is held together by bits of tar filling the cracks. How they are going to make it a true International airport of it is beyond me. The current terminal is little more than a run down “town hall” type building, no toilets, duty free, money exchange or shops offering Ukraine souvaneirs that you would see in Australia, Europe aor Asia. Simply a runway where a bus comes to meet you as you disembark..... No “Thank you for flying Austrain Airlines”, just a case of get off the plane and on the bus & we will throw your luggage on the truck and get it to the terminal so you can get out of this place ASAP. And that is exactly what I wanted to do!!

Entering customs, I really started to get worried as the locals were being scruitinsed heavily. How would they cope with an Australian!! Australia and NZ are the only countries that need visas to get into this place (What have we done wrong by them?). As my turn came, I wiped the sweat from my brow and walked up to the makeshift wooden box that housed the “guard” in full military uniform and handed over my passport and immigration card. After what felt like 10 minutes, the immigration card was shoved back under the window & I was asked (in broken Russian) to fill in the departure card part C and D. On the departure card it specifically stated, “ do not fill in part C or D prior to leaving Ukraine”. So I dutifully filled in C and D hoping that on departure, I would not get jailed for filling this in!?!?!? Some one come and collect me if I do not turn up for my desired home leave......please......

Having made it through immigration and the excitable customs men, whom I’m sure just wanted to xray my bag to see my knickers and bra’s, I found a couple of friendly faces in a “Philip Morris “ card held by a big man and a bottle blond standing next to him. The rest is in Blog 1. Apartment etc.


“Bottle Blondes”

Yes...... They are everywhere, even the hairdressers, which worries me, and they think blond hair makes them absolutely georgous. They also dress accordingly and I dont understand how some of them get away with it especially at work. The dress sence is certainly not conservative and not what I would call business like.......... Hmmm, just let me check my distribution list of this blog again.... OK, its not going to anyone important in the PM world, right, So I cant be seen to be politically incorrect?

I am really going to be interested how these girls keep warm in winter because so far, at temperatures of 12-14 degrees, they are walking around in mini skirts and muffin tops for all to see. Mind you, there are some very well dressed women around without the bottle blond hair, you just have to look very hard for them.

“Taxi’s, Roads, Busses, Trolly buses and trams”

We all know Aussie taxis, busses and trams. Folks, be grateful for what we have. For what I have seen makes you cringe at how these people are transported to and from work. I have had a taxi driver who I’m sure was racing every single car and bus and every other mode of transport just to make it in front of them to the lights only to take off at break net speed to get to the next set of lights before anyone else got in their way. Mind you the small buses cannot compete with the taxis because they are so fully ladden, it is a struggle for them to get out of first gear. Same with the trams (not as we know trams & I hope to get a pic for you soon). These trams look like they have been beaten into shape after a major collision and sent back out to work with very little regard to safety or comfort of the passengers. The trolley buses, are buses that run on overhead tram wires. I still do not underatand the benefit of these things (apart from the fact that they dont throw out fumes), as they seem to cause more problems in the traffic than anything else. Because of the connection to the wires, if they are being blocked or are blocking the road....... everything else gets caught up in the blockage!!!!

Local small bus picking up passengers in the square. It was fully laden - low at the back and high at the front......see. They cram them in

I am told the metro (underground train system) is a little more refresshing than the above ground transport. Still haven’t tried it yet......another adventure.

SAT 24th.
Myself, Michal (Poland), Alexander (Sasha, Russia), and Pierre-Andre’, (Switzerland) are all desperate to get to a supermarket and buy something to put in our pantries and fridges. Inna took me to a supermarket last week and I promised the guys, I would show them the delights of two floors of food on Saturday morning. Friday night we went to dinner and shopping the next day was the hot discussion topic that evening. “Do they have meat”? Can I ge cereal? What about butter?” and on it went.

This morning, Sasha, who told me not to ring him befor 10am because he would be asleep, rang me and told me he had been up since 8am and was ready to go!! I picked up Michal who lives 200 metres from me and we swang by and picked up Sasha and Pierre-Andre and away we went on foot to the supermarket. Sasha decided, he was going to show us how to get there and he did..... in a round about sort of way... via the local market, where, if you wanted to you could buy a door, just one door, (as you do on a Saturday morning), boots and all kind of shoes, vegys, meats (unrefridgerated), nuts, gloves and just about anything else you could use, even a mop and bucket. I did buy an umbrella so I feel I contributed to the local economy somewhat and I didnt argue about the price!! After an hour of wandering through the local markets with stray dogs, I decided, it was time to get back on track to the real supermarket, where we intended to spend our money.

We finally found “POCT” pretty much on the main road as I had suggested. We all grabbed a trolley & went in pursuit of our favorite foods. You have to remember that everything in the supermarket is written in Russian.... I was on a mission to find some butter to have on my bread. I even went to the lengths to go to the Russian/ English dictionary and translate it into Russian before I left so I could locate butter easily. Do you think I could find the bloody stuff??

Thank goodness, half way though our shop, Dima (Dymtro) from work, decided to join us and found me and my butter, which had a picture of a cow on the packaging........ Of course, butter – cow, black and white... come on Merrin, get the connection... its easy !!!

Butter....sort of looks like a cow...



Having satisfied my need for butter, milk, cereal, rice, noodles, tomatoes, cheese, ham and a couple of other things that I hope will go well with pasta, I made it through the checkout and waited for the others. Four very satisfied foreigners now required a lift home with all the fruits of the morning shop. Once again, Dima helped us out getting taxis, especially me as I won the prize for most money spent at the supermarket!!!!

Dima and Michal checking out

Lunch took us to Puska where we relaxed with a couple of beers and decided to go back to the supermarket tomorrow and peruse the variety store for some bits and peices like bottle openers, pack of cards, games, jigsaw puzzles etc. This is what we are hoping to find.... we may find yet more shoes, mops and buckets etc.

Pushka for lunch.

Today was so nice just to go and explore a city and not worry about cleaning the house, vaccuming etc. It was a chance to be a local and get caught up in the way of life in Kharkiv. It is a lovely city and I am looking forward to the next 9 months, but please, let me have a friend who speaks Russian close by at all times!!!

My street. Apartment on the right

Look what I found !! Only AUD$13.00

Love to you all.

xm

(If any of my Ukraine friends are reading this blog, please dont be offended, we have bottle blonds in Aus, just not so many, this blog is how I see Ukraine through my eyes)

Lets Party !! My shipment of stuff from Aust has arrived

Can't wait to get home tonight as my goods are being delivered around 7pm. The plan of attack will be to have a quick dinner then open a bottle of wine and wait with anticipation for the men to arrive. It sounds fairly trivial, I know, but, it will be nice to get some homeliness into the apartment and have some different clothes to wear. Look out for new pics & the Aussie flag that I will donate to Pushka!

Cheers

xm

What is this you ask? Try and work it out. All will be revealed next post

20/22 Artema St, Kharkov, Ukraine

The apartment is cosy and plentiful for my needs. It overlooks a courtyard with a kids playground. It has been fully renovated and has that nice new smell about it. On the corner is a small supermarket, pharmacy and bank. It is about 500 metres from Michal (Poland) and 1K from Sasha and Peirre-Andre', so we are all fairly close together. The apartment is close to the metro, but I have not gathered the courage to ride it yet. Perhaps on the weekend, we, as a group will take a train ride. In fact, we will have to in order to get some decent food and accessories as the small supermarket below does not stock toilet rolls, detergent etc.

Bedroom with lots of wardrobe space for my shipment (still on its way. Went to the notary today and signed various documents to get customs clearance proceedings underway. $200 UAH).

Yes, hot and cold running water and heated towel rails

The study. Internet still not connected

Kitchen

Toilet and front door

Lounge room with satellite TV, 500 stations but only two in English

All up, quite nice although the stairway leading up to the apartment is a bit dark and dingy. Cant complain, I have seen a lot worse in my travels.

xm

Melb - KL, KL - Ukraine

Here we go !!!!

Melb – KL.

Kim, Frank & I boarded the flight & who should we sitting with...... James from Sales.... you just cant get away from them! Good luck in Switzerland James & let me know when you want to come to Ukraine.

KL. 10th October 2009

Bathurst.

I have never missed a Bathurst weekend since I was about 10 years old and Kim and I made a pact not to miss it this year. We went in search of bars with big screens to watch the big event but to no avail. After scanning the TV in the hotel with no luck, we decided to turn the laptop on and watch it on line. We caught the last hour or so & we had to remember to move the mouse so the screen wouldn’t lock, but we watched Bathurst!

Kim & I watching Bathurst

I always feel like I'm back home when I hit KL. So many good memories & it was good to catch up with Wewe and Segar from the Ritz Carlton KL. We sat in the Lobby lounge and reminisced of old times with Sue & I texting Wewe for a Chardonnay and Black Russian on our way home from work about 10 minutes out, so it would be there sitting for us when we lobbed in the LL.

Wewe, Segar and me in the RCKL lobby lounge

Frank suggested we go for a fish spa at the Pavilion across the road from the hotel. What the hell is a fish spa you ask? Well you put your feet in a fish pond and the little suckers literally eat all the dead and yucky skin from your feet & legs. It feels like little electrical pulses all over your legs. The hard part is putting your feet in and keeping them in as they tickle as they cleans. I hate anyone or anything touching my feet so for me it was a challenge to put the twinkle toes in and keep them there. One of the problems was that Frank and I were the only ones at the spa at the time so thousands of the little blighters came from everywhere to attach themselves onto us. It was amazing to watch. Once we had about 20 minutes of the little fish’s company, Frank suggested we try the tank that had the bigger fish. There weren’t as many of these as the littlies but they still came to eat & eat they did. The sensation was one of scratching rather than little pulses. I think Frank and I had the cleanest feet in KL that day & I would certainly recommend it to anyone to

Trip to Ukraine. Arrival 15th October 2009

KL to Amsterdam was uneventful but I’m sure I walked about five km in Amsterdam airport to get to my next flight to Vienna. The flight into Vienna was delayed due to bad weather & as I looked out the window as we descended, I’m sure I spotted snow, sleet or something similar. Great! I’ve gone from 30degrees in KL to freezing in Europe! As we were late, passengers going to Kharkov and a couple of other places, were told to meet with ground staff so we could be driven round to passport control, processed and then driven back to our waiting onward flight. Sure enough as we stepped out of the plane, it started to snow!!!!! Having come from KL, I didn’t have much in the way of heavy jackets ( being air freighted to Kharkov ), so there I was on the tarmac freezing my bits off!

As it was, I was the only one from the Vienna flight that was going to Kharkov and so when I got to the waiting jet, 40 angry passengers and air crew were staring at me madly for holding them up!

Kharkov airport was interesting to say the least. Glen B, you wouldn’t land your plane on this “runway”. They are in the process of building a new airport but the existing “terminal” I would call a building with a couple of boxes for passport control, luggage gets dumped on the floor (no carousel) and certainly no duty free sales. I didn’t even see a money exchange! Thankfully, Anya had organised a pick up for me from the airport and took me to my apartment (3rd floor of 5),where I went through the ins and outs of the apartment with the landlord. Nice apartment, fully renovated and everything is new. Yes folks.... the heating works but you cant drink the tap water. My view overlooks the courtyard, so I don’t get a lot of traffic noise. Over 500 channels of satellite TV, but most of them in German, Russian, Iranian, Polish, Ukrainian, Tibetan, Arabic, even the Asian channels are translated into local language... everything but English! Guess I will be reading and studying a lot. Pictures to follow.

First day of work.16th October

Met all the group except one Polish guy who starts on Monday. During the project meeting, I was given a good overview of the project, asked lots of questions and hopefully now up to speed as to where the project lies. During lunch it was decided to have a team dinner and welcome me into the group. After a wild, wild taxi ride from work, (no seatbelts), we arrived at a German pub and feasted on food and beer and finished off with vodka (......Sweetie Darling Sweetie!!).

17th October 2009.

I found an angel by the name of Ina. Some how connected as a supplier to work, Ina took me round to look for clothes more suitable to the current Ukrainian climate (10-12 degrees). My shipment of clothes has arrived apparently, but not yet processed through customs, so I am a little light on for warmth. Around the Kharkov markets we wander and end up buying a lovely warm coat, suitable for snow, jeans, waterproof boots also suitable for snow and ice (Ina kept showing me lovely fashionable boots with high heels; the language barrier was a little difficult), and warm tops. Feeling a little warmer, we arrange to meet up with Sasha (Russia), and Larisa (Ukraine) for a lovely lunch at Pushka. During lunch discussion, mainly in Russian, with a little English translation, it was discovered that I still had no food in the fridge apart from a bit of bread and some fruit, so Ina took me to a big supermarket where I stocked up on essentials (thank god she was with me because I would have been putting custard on my cereal instead of milk!). With a car load of groceries and clothes, Ina delivered me to my doorstep with a promise to return tomorrow to take myself and Sasha through the sights of downtown Ukraine.

Initial thoughts on Ukraine..... to early yet, needless to say, I am comfortable in the apartment, I like the people I am working with and they understand the problems I will have with the language. Everyone is making me feel comfortable and I don’t have that terrible nervy/sick feeling in my stomach anymore. Good start I would say ☺

PS. Having intermittent troubles calling home from the mobile. Texts seem to be getting through OK, and I got Ian to call me, no problems, bit hit and miss whether I get through to you, but I have been trying. My home phone number is +38 050 700 6670.
Check the area code for Kharkov. It is still cheaper for you to call me on the mobile as it only costs you a local call, just be wary of the time difference of -9 hours or so.

xm

The Countdown begins

Its Official. I have my visa. I fly out 10th October. I'm offf on a bit of adventure for 9 months for work. It is not somewhere I would not choose to go for a holiday, but I think this opportunity is too good to refuse on a personal and professional note.

Ukraine.............. is a former state of Russia. We have factories thouought the world and Khrarkiv (Khrakov) is the place in the Ukraine I will be living in over the next 9 months. Google it... but there is not much.... so I will try & forward some good sites. My goal is to implement LES (logistics execution system) and tie it in with MES manufacturing execution systems) in our factory in Khrarkiv and bring that knowledege back to Austraila and implement at home.

I will be working with a Russian (hopefully he speaks English), a Ukrainian, a Pol and two people from Switzerland. The work will not be a problem at all for me, the "interesting" things will be the language and the food! I'll keep you informed......... Yes, Ukraine people in general do not speak English and yes it is going to be a challenge. I am however up for the task. You may get a few e-mails in Ukrainian............yes I will try and master the language (Maybe I will teach them some Aussie..Mateship! ..... Tim Tams.& vegimite..right!!) I any case, I intend to be myself and gain some new friends and extend my working family.

Hopefully Xmas in England with Gordon & family, then back to Aust in Jan for home leave... see how we go I entend to explore Eastern Europe (visas could restrict me), as much as I can over the next 9 months. You will be privy to all my joys and "challenges". Pictures will be posted (if I can work out how to do it)and chat of good and bad times will be posted. I hope YOU help me through this experience as much as I can educate you over this time.

I will need news from home regularly. As much as I will miss Australia and my babies ( Middy and Bella) who are going into long term boarding.(this is killing me!).....

 

..but I know everything back here will be fine...... Big thanks to Mum and Dad for taking care of things xxxxx Eee thanks for looking after my car .... you will look after my car wont you? xm I'm hoping work will arrange a RETURN ticket on my departure so I can actually leave Ukraine. Getting in is a paperwork nightmare, visa's, innoculations inclluding HIV free confirmations, consular "confusions". i hope getting out is easier.

George.... as we didnt manage to get to Broome this year, feel free to come to the Ukraine .....free accomodation, but quite a bit colder -20 is the norm in winter!!!! (think I will arrange home leave during winter)

N. Let me know when he puts the ring on your finger....

I have a two day workshop in Malaysia then onto the Ukraine from there.

xm