Picked up the fruit & veg & decided to take the back road to Eastland shopping centre where we picked up a few "things" for mates back in Ukraine. On the back road, we came across a very common sign in Australia.
This pic was taken in relative surburbia in a place called Wonga Park.. and yes you do get Roos grazing here. Sasha, this is real life in Aus. Im not shitting you...
Next stop was Easland where Mum & I went to Australian Geographic and ABC shop where a few purchases were made. Mishka, purchase was sucessfull and the entire gift will be great :-)
Home to Mum and Dads for a lunch of prawns and salad....... yum! then off to Naomi and Jasons's place.
Naomi is a sales woman, (and a very good one at that), who sold Mum and Dad their retirement village house. & we have become good mates. I think the first social engagement we went to was at her house to watch the AFL grand final,(wait for it Kharkiv, its coming) ,& we had a great time with heaps of food and drink & I ended up staying the night on the couch with her two dogs Maisy and Freckles. In the morning I realised Maisy had wedged herself between the couch and me to get the best comfort and warmth for her. So typical of loving dogs. Here are pics of Maisy & Freckles .
Waiting for food.....
Sadly, Maisy died over the Christmas period. When Naomi told me the news, I was devistated. Such a wonderful little dog. Maisy, rest in peace sweetheart, you had eight fantastic years with a wonderful family. Naomi, you can't replace her, but given time your heart will grow again and you will adopt another needy pet. .
My mate Naomi xx
Beautiful Jason... N's fiance
Working hard to get some strength back in the knee. I'm in a brace for a while to help with stability, especially when I hit the ICE again in Kharkiv. They havent taken the leg off yet, which is good news!
Got the results of the MRI & both the doctor & Physio, (Kelly... thanks for getting me back to relative normal), said thay cant beleive how lucky I have been. Could have been major ligament damage and even broken bones. I have come out of it relatively unscathed. Torn cartlige under the knee cap, slight damage to the ligament at the back of the knee, bone bruising and lots of other medical tems they used that I cant remember. Doc says it will take a good 4 weeks for full recovery. Its been 18 days now & I still have some swelling which is frustrating, as I still dont have full movement. So to my mates in Ukraine, I will need a little help when i get back getting around, especially when I'm outside. Pierre-Andre, need to get acquainted with your gym in Kharkiv. Dima, Michal, Christina, Sasha and Felipe, Maryna, Anya, Inna, maybe you can organise a sled for me and you call pull me through the streets....LOL
Some more visitors in the backyard.
Big fat girl
on Eee (Ian). I couldnt say
Ian when I was young
so I just called him Eee
We went to Club Ringwood to celebrate dads birthday. Good meal & then we threw a few dollars in the Pokies. None of us ever seem to win anthing apart from Dad....... and of course, he won AUD$90 or UAH $670! Not bad for 15 minutes !
Been catching up with friends from PML
Jim
Danny
Bob, John, & Gayle
all good mates who encouraged
me to take on the Ukraine
project.
Its been fun catching up with work collegues. They all ask the same questions. What is PMU like? It is like every other PM factory I have visited. Big and very clean. The processes are the same, the problems are the same, although their uptime is better than ours, and the people are the same. Tobacco workers whinge about change and the politics is as bad as PML. The other questions they ask are about life in Ukraine. I tell them that for me personally, it is a little hard outside of work as you have the language barrier, and the extreme cold, which I dont think I could ever get used to coming from a sunburnt country (have you heard of that phrase Sasha?). However, as I keep saying, I am enjoying the experience, I am still alive, although battered and bruised, and I want to go back to experience a green, warmer Kharkiv, with all my very good friends.
As for travel plans when the weather gets better, we are planning to go to Crimea, near the Black Sea, during May when Ukraine has some linked public holidays. There will also be a visit to Poland for system testing during March/April, so Michal will be able to show us his country. I would like to get up to Lithuania to visit the Coutts family, but again that will have to be a long weekend. Prague is the other place I would love to visit, baut maybe near the end of my stay or on they way home.
It has been wonderful being home, having the sun beating down on me. I have missed it, and when I have finished my stay in Kharkiv, I will be coming back to Melbourne winter :-( so that will be three winters in a row without a full summer. Not good for this Aussie chick who loves the warm weather.
Speaking of winter. It's mid summer here and we are having a bit of a cold snap..... seems to be following me! In Melbourne we have had snow ... Yes snow in the middle of summer....in the high country, not in the city, thats about 300km away. Still, cold in Melbourne, +15.....chilly!!! (Not compared to Kharkiv), but here cold and in need of heating.
Thanks to Mum, Dad, Eee, Lynda, Jenny E, Kim, Naomi and others for all the DVD's I am taking back to watch, beats watching local TV.
This is probably going to be the last blog from home. If there is anything else that happens, I will write about it in the next blog from Ukraine. To my Ukraine friends, please try and find a way of melting the snow and ice for my return. For my Aussie mates, its been good catching up. Lisa, next time we plan it a little better.
Cheers
xm
As for travel plans when the weather gets better, we are planning to go to Crimea, near the Black Sea, during May when Ukraine has some linked public holidays. There will also be a visit to Poland for system testing during March/April, so Michal will be able to show us his country. I would like to get up to Lithuania to visit the Coutts family, but again that will have to be a long weekend. Prague is the other place I would love to visit, baut maybe near the end of my stay or on they way home.
It has been wonderful being home, having the sun beating down on me. I have missed it, and when I have finished my stay in Kharkiv, I will be coming back to Melbourne winter :-( so that will be three winters in a row without a full summer. Not good for this Aussie chick who loves the warm weather.
Speaking of winter. It's mid summer here and we are having a bit of a cold snap..... seems to be following me! In Melbourne we have had snow ... Yes snow in the middle of summer....in the high country, not in the city, thats about 300km away. Still, cold in Melbourne, +15.....chilly!!! (Not compared to Kharkiv), but here cold and in need of heating.
Thanks to Mum, Dad, Eee, Lynda, Jenny E, Kim, Naomi and others for all the DVD's I am taking back to watch, beats watching local TV.
This is probably going to be the last blog from home. If there is anything else that happens, I will write about it in the next blog from Ukraine. To my Ukraine friends, please try and find a way of melting the snow and ice for my return. For my Aussie mates, its been good catching up. Lisa, next time we plan it a little better.
Cheers
xm
Yes, Sasha understands what does that phrase mean :)
ReplyDeleteBut why you have special crosswalk for Roos? Can't they use common pedestrian crosswalk? Very strange. Have you seen any animal crosswalks in Ukraine? No! Because our animals are not so fastidious and use common ones :)
Sasha
Your parents look very young, cool.
ReplyDeleteI was really surprised your father playing arcade machine:-))))He is up to the mark!
Sasha, Roos have right of way, they cross wherever they want to mate..... they do a lot of damage to cars
ReplyDeleteMezz