I see it is hotting up again in Melbourne ! 36 on Wednesday! Well I can tell you that In Kharkiv, Ukraine, it snowed all last night & here is what I woke up to!
Quite mild though its only -7 degrees....and on Friday is going to be -13 with a low of -17 #$&%#*# COLD!!!!!!!!!! I put a beer bottle with water out on the balcony last night. I use it as an ashtray. This morning the water was frozen solid!!! Please make sure it is warm and sunny on my return to Melbourne!!!! Mum, get Beryl to say a few words to her mate for me
Snow makes a world of difference to this place. It has been grey and depressing the last month. The snow tends to make things so much brighter, lighter and brings people out of their houses. However, I got a few lessons from my European friends today about snow. I cant build a snow person (politically correct term) yet as the snow is not wet. When you pick it up it doesn’t meld in your hand, it is just like dust! I thought you could build a snowperson out of any snow! I suppose it is a bit like building a sand castle, the sand cant be dry!. I am learning! My friends also told me to watch out for yellow snow, but I knew what that meant :-)
The big Elka going up
in Freedom Square
Today I rug up for the first time, long johns are mandatory & I am glad I brought them, it was worth the $. We are shopping for Xmas trees and decorations, so, we meet at my apartment & go looking for ЁЛКА..(Xmas trees or Elka).... but of course you all knew what ЁЛКА means . Now I don’t know if we are living in the “Toorak” of Kharkiv, but there are no Scouts or Lions clubs selling ЁЛКА in Kharkiv, so we have only seen plastic ЁЛКА and the decorations are minimal. I don’t think the boys are taking me to the right shops!!! So we did not come home with ЁЛКА . However, we did find a couple of touristy type shops, (we had to go underground through a dentist surgery, and hairdressers to find them!) so I bought a Ukraine flag (small) for work, to add to my Malaysian flag, a key ring and we saw some traditional Ukrainian shirts etc. I also found the equivalent of my Aussie whacking stick (Paul, Bob, Fi, you know the one), so I think I will purchase one and display it at work! The range of souvenirs is not good. Maybe if I was in Kiev, it would be different. I have no doubt that I will be bringing back presents from airports......... I think I am going through about six of them to get home!!!!.... Oh I forgot! I went back to Promod and bought two more tops..... N, you cant stop me now!
The main street
Sums'ka
Trolley bus
runs on Electric
wires
Its amazing the
people you meet
in Kharkiv
Michal at the
souvenir kiosk
Michal dumpring snow
on my head
We didn’t have our normal night out on Friday night as last week, we had two work functions this week, one at Chateau.... to celebrate the Blueprint signoff
Philipp Steiger
& Christina
Sasha & Yevgeniy
Michal & Jozef
Sigi & Behzat
And another more important one at Pushka where I handed over the Aussie flag to be displayed! It was Christina’s last day in Ukraine before she left to go home for a break for Xmas. Last time we went to Pushka, we found..... two different rooms that we didn’t know existed. They are sort of more laid back areas where you can order Chinese, Japanese etc. It’s pretty cool. So we rock up to Pushka on Thursday night. I had been struggling with a sore throat so wasn’t at my best, but after a couple of red wines, I felt better..... as you do... As the beer and wine kicked in, we started to have a bit of fun
Given it was a weeknight, and we had been out the night before... we had a reasonably early night, but not before handing over the flag, which had been ironed to take out all the creases. How do you pronounce iron Sasha? (Sorry folks, in house joke)
Pushka staff couldn’t put it up that night, so I will go back shortly & take pics of the Aussie flag in Pushka...... my Aussie mark on Ukraine!
& that hopefully is where it will live,
next to the blue and white one
Maryna!!!! As I am showing Maryna some pictures I have taken since blasting off on this adventure, I flick to my babies, Bella and Middy. “I have two fat babies” she exclaims! So Hopefully next weekend, I will get to cuddle Maryna’s cats! I am soooooo looking forward to having a cat on my lap, purring its head off!!!
Work is going well, we have our blueprint signed off now, so we now get into the detail and hard work. Apart from the team I work with, I am slowly getting to know other people in the office. Most of the staff speak English but the people on the floor don’t. I prepared some presentations to communicate to the Secondary and Logistics workers and they had to be translated into Russian (thanks Dima & Sasha). Obviously I cannot deliver the presentations, but the reactions seem to be the same as they would be in Australia....:that means more work for us” !!! PMU is typical PM though, same politics but the people are nice.
I am planning when I get home, to purchase a few flags....Polish, Ukraine, Russian, German and Swiss. I want to put them up in our office to show what a multi cultural team we are & instil some of that mateship into PMU. I will also be picking up a DVD of Aussie Rules to bring back and show to the team and a sample of the Aussie legend.. ...Vegemite. No I didn’t bring any over as the customs rules said no food! But I think I will throw some Tim Tams and “black gold” into the hand luggage for them to try. If I get caught, I will loose it but I don’t think I will end up in a Ukraine jail.
Watching a video (Oceans eleven) yesterday & almost falling asleep, I was jolted back to reality by an absolutely shocking noise that I hadn’t heard before, coming from the front door. The door bell!!! I peeped through the hole but didn’t recognise the lady, but I figured I wasn’t going to get robbed or mugged so I opened the door. The Russian spiel was lost on me but I saw she had a clipboard and a bit of paper that I had seen before...... an electricity bill! My visitor was here to read the meter which is inside the front door. I let her in and she did her meter reading, gave me the bill and left. That was easy compared to the man I met in the lift going up to my apartment the other day. As I entered the lift and said “Prevyet”, he decided he wanted to have a full on discussion with me about something. I politely interrupted and said “ I am sorry, I don’t speak Russian”. This didn’t deter him... he kept talking and I got the feeling he was asking where I was from so I pointed to my chest and said “Australian”. He kept talking and I felt quite rude not responding, but he just didn’t get that I didn’t understand him. I slunk out of the lift, smiling at him, but I don’t think I made a friend. These are the moments I really don’t like as I don’t want to offend anyone and seem to be rude..... but what do you do? PM hasn’t come good with the Russian lessons that they promised, so my knowledge of the Russian language is not progressing to well. Thank goodness for my team mates who help me out in public and try hard to teach me a few words to get me through the basics.
The phone bills have been a bit expensive so Mum & Dad & I have been writing e-mails more frequently. I think they are getting the hang of it now as I usually get one a day & I must say I look forward to it. Any e-mails or comments on the blog are welcome from home.
I have been doing a jigsaw puzzle to occupy the dark hours on the weekend when I am not out socialising. It is ¾ complete & is good therapy for me when the weather is crap! More snow predicted for Wednesday, but I am told the weather is getting milder over the years... nothing like it used to be 10 years ago.........something about climate change!
xm
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