Sasha's Birthday

Our beautiful friend from St Petersburg, Sasha turned 23 on Saturday the 19th December. He invited us all to his apartment for a celebration & I must say he went to a lot of trouble, although I think the cleaning lady had to take some credit for the clean apartment....hehehe! The appertisers, pizza, drinks and entertainment were all provided by the birthday boy and in return, he got our wonderful company!! He did receive a few chocholates and bits and peices, but the real present is yet to come & yet again, I think my IS man and I will work on this over a bottle of "Bear Crossing" red!... There may even be something being organised from Down Under as well :-)

Food, food and more food














What you got there Sasha
Is that Vodka and Brandy !!!










Sasha's Mum, you should be
proud of your boy. A
wonderful caring person
.... However...






I'm not sure about his choice of
bed time attire !!!!
The Simpsons :-)

And, I do like his Tiger
Slippers, which he let me
wear all night.

Misza did a wonderful
karaoke using the Vodka bottle
as a microphone












Then we just did our normal stuff to keep ourselves amused.....

We discusssed Tania's
taste in decoration,
in particular the lights








Laughed











Discussed Tania's
green lights

Posed for the camera











Laughed Again!










Took pics of streets
covered in snow



















Now I must mention here that Friday night and Saturday, we had blizzard like conditions in Kharkiv. It was horrendous! The streets were empty as it was to wild to go out! I'm not sure what the temperature was, but it was cold enough for me to have about 5 layers and thermals on! ..... and it was slippery!! Michal & I brought a few bottles of beer to go with the pizza for the party & I made Michal carry the bottles, as me and ice / snow dont go too well. I took the chocholate!! It was hard work getting to Sasha's pace & by the time we got there we were covered in blizzard stuff (snow,ice) and exhausted.!

The good thing about the weather conditions is that the VOLGA drivers have to slow down. It is near impossible to get over 60km because of the ice. Even going slowly, the back end of the VOLGA slides around the corner. It's a good thing they are so heavy........ it keeps them from plowing into other things!!...sometimes....

However....... Friday night we are sitting in the VOLGA in Pushinskya waiting for the traffic to move. We are literally crawling. Everytime we take off, the wheels spin & then the driver chucks it into second gear & gets a bit of grip. We were sitting pretty much outside Pushka (where my Aussie flag is hopefully being displayed) when WHACK..... we are hit in the back of the VOLGA by a Chevvy!!!!! I wont repeat what the driver said, cause it was in Russian & I dont understand Russian, but I can imagine what he said!!!! He got onto the radio to speak to the supervisor & we asked Dima what was happening. Dima explained that they had called the POLICE! Now, given we have a Kriminalist amongst us and we had again been pulled over by police the previous week when Michal was in the front seat, we decided to leave the VOLGA to fend (sorry the pun) for itself. We walk the rest of the way home and I can still feel the cold in my feet.....
PS, The chevy hardly had a mark on it! The VOLGA's bumper was broken!!!!

Christmas is on Friday, it is a normal work day in Kharkiv!. Christina has gone home, Pierre-Andre and Michal leave for home today, and I think Lada arrives soon to be with Sasha. I made the decision to stay in Kharkiv for New Year so I could experience something new and I am looking forward to it..... I just need to get over this little thing called December 25th in which I would normally be with my family! I do however have a special little envelope to open on the morning of the 25th! Thanks M&D&S.

 I also need to mention Lisa (George).... she gave me Skip the kangaroo all those years ago when I was going to England. I bought Skip with me to Kharkiv!....he has been around the world a bit over the years George. Thank you Christina, for giving me Charlie!.. As close as you can get to my real babies. Charlie is a soft toy cat that sits with Skip on the bookcase. With these two ... I will spend Xmas eve.

However, to my family & friends back home.......... Have a great Chrissy & New Year from me and my family in Kharkiv, Ukraine......We wish you a merry christmas, we wish you a merry christmas, we wish you a merry christmas and a Happy New year.......

I hope you have a wonderful festive season & I look forward to seeing my Aussie family and friends  in the NY...... (Weather permitting.... lots of delays along the way in Vienna and London...at the moment).

xm

Coming home..........
to warmth and sunshine!