Reflection on the last 4 months

G'day....

As I'm not doing much outdoors at the moment because of the slippery conditions, it has given me a bit of time to read over my blog entries for the last  months. What a journey it has been.
I remember so well the really bad nervous feeling that I had in my stomach before I left home. It is a shocking feeling not knowing anything about a place you are going to spend the next 9 months of your life, thousands of miles away from your family & friends & not being able to speak the language. Hearing the stories about the gas being cut off in Ukraine in 2008 etc probably clouded the expectations a bit too. Even in familar Kuala Lumpur, the sick feeling wouldnt go away, except when I had the fish spa, which Frank insisted on, (thanks mate... you know how to get someone to take their mind off someting), and the day spent with Shonks watching Bathurst in the hotel. 

On to Kharkiv... and somehow the feeling changed.... so quickly. I think it was a case of "snap out of it", you have to go to work, you have to buy food to eat etc, so you just get on with dealing with the difficult things.  The first good thing was my lovely apartment. (Thanks Anya  :-))  ..Just the right size for me and everything supplied.. almost! I Cooking utensils are a bit light on & hence no hearty meals are being consumed (even if I could read the labels in the supermarket).  Mishka..... we must speak to Tanya (landlord), & organise so we can have our big feast. Sasha can bring the toaster & bread so we can have vegemite on toast....  :-)))

The lifestyle.... is totally different here from Australia, but you grow with it.. Food for me is unusual , & I it makes me appreciate a lot more the goodies I can buy at home & the freshness, although Maryna and Andrey are helping me with this. :-)) Winter has been long and hard to say the least! However, I am glad I have experienced it....(Did I really just say that?).... No more complaining about Melbourne weather from me. Everyone should come to far Eastern Europe just once in the winter to experience it. One recommendation  ... Bring SPIKES or something to help with walking on the ICE!!!!

Ukraine people ! Apart from a couple of bad VOLGA drivers, I dont think I have met a nicer bunch of people, even though I can't communicate very well with them. I am facinated when I look out of my apartment window & watch all the goings on. It is a little bit like the TV series Melrose Place. Everyone seems to know each other. The local superamarket girls know me know & smile when I come in for my session of finger pointing for the items I need.   I have not seen one incident of road rage, as we know it, since I have been here, everyone is calm on the potholed, icy roads. They let cars merge into the queue & generally seem to have respect for other road users... except pedestrians.... I'm not sure of the road rules, but it doesn't seem  that you have to stop to let the pedestrians cross at the pedestrian crossing, which are not flood lit at night so you cant see the people till they are actually halfway across the road anyway!

Most importantly to me, the people belonging to and assocaited with PM that have helped me so far in this journey. They have really been teriffic and I can honestly say, without them, I would probably be back in Australia by now. Your pics have all appeared in my blog over the  months &  I hope you all know how much I appreciate the friendship we have. We have had so much fun & we have all supported each other in different situations. It has been great so far and we still have another 4 months and good weather to come.... Yey!!! Bring on spring so we can kick the footy around....... and see the countryside of Kharkiv !

The courtyard as it is now, its  just ICE!
Enough reflection.. Went and had my hair done again last night (Luciana they put some stange orange stuff in my hair... we must discuss what it is) and came out looking beautiful! Mishka and Mashka had the job of getting me home though the ice & so I met them at the restaurant next door to the hair dresser and had a beer with them as they finished their meal. On the way home I think Mishka slipped on the ice more than I did... He put it down to tiredness, I put it down to the couple of warming vodkas he had after the meal...LOL  Tonight we are going to Stargorod  http://www.kharkovinfo.com/kharkov-pubbrewery-stargorod.html  for a few quite ales and some tucker. Half the team are off to Poland (Krakow) on Sunday for unit testing for two weeks & I'm coming back home for a short visit in a week and a half, so this is the last gathering we will be able to have as a group for a while. I'll finish this part of the blog now & go and do a few domestic things. I'll complete the blog with pics of tonights festivities tomorrow when I have more time. ...

Sunday morning now... We couldnt get in to Stargorod, so we ended up at Adriano's, a bit of a regular of ours. A few people couldnt make it, but it was fun as per usual. We finally finished Sasha's birthday present. It was a poster of us and the fun times we have had so far in Kharkiv, a boomerang to kill all those nastie snakes, spiders and things in Australia when he comes to visit, and a great Krakow guide, which will come in handy for him over the next two weeks. He was very happy with his gifts, even if they were a few months late !

The poster.A great momento of our time in Kharkiv

The night at Adrianos

Sasha and Maryna with Boomerang

Maryna

Dima

Mishka & Mashka

 Sasha not pulling a face for a change

Masha, get a couple of colour foils in that lovely hair....

It's noon already & I must get off my butt & get some food & water. Hopefully later this afternoon, I will visit Michal & we can play a little bit with my bolg header & get some new pics into it. So by the time you read the next blog, take a bit of time to view the updated pics before you read the blog.

Home on the 12th March to lap up some sun & colour. Back to Kharkiv on the 24th for a couple of days the off to Poland for two weeks of testing.

xm

Maslenitsa Week....

Maslenitsa (Ма́сленицa) week began as a pagan ritual and has since been absorbed into the Eastern Orthodox religion.   Maslenitsa signals the exit of winter and heralds the coming of spring. As a part of pre-Lenten celebrations, it is also a pre-emptive strike to the upcoming fast. Because meat and dairy are traditionally forbidden, Maslenitsa is the time for feasting (especially on pancakes). The name of the festival has its roots in the Russian word for butter, “maslo.”
Blini are Russian pancakes, and they are essential to the celebration of Maslenitsa. Bilini symbolize the sun being warm, round, and golden they are an appropriate warning to the lingering cold weather. Blini are given to friends and family all through the week and are topped with caviar, mushrooms, jam, sour cream, and of course, lots of butter.

So Last Sunday, we went to Sasha's place and had pancakes. Saha's mum Olga, has been visiting & served us up a treat of freshly cooked pancakes, with honey, condensed milk (Сгущенное молоко) , jam and a big bowl of Salad and chicken patties.... Yum! The second home cooked meal I have had in Kharkiv and it was a treat as much as the first. I took the vegemite and some bread so the guys could try it. Mishka had some & Sasha sort of had some on toast, but with the bread not being the right texture, its just not the same. Still, it wont go to waste... I'll eat it.
Nice to have your mum here feeding you, ironing your clothers and generally looking after you Sasha??

Paola, Felipe,Dima,Sasha, Sasha's mum Olga and Mishka. Thanks Olga for a fantastic meal and a fun afternoon.

The boys played video games & Paola & I watched. It  was a lovely afternoon, but both Michal & I are very tired at the moment, so we left around 4.30, I had a bath and watched a movie & was in bed by 8.30!!

Did I say in my last blog that I thought Winter was coming to an end? I think not!!! Last Sunday, it bucketed down with snow!! So much so that cars were unable to get in and out of my courtyard. The VOLGA couldnt come in to the courtyard, I had to wade through the snow, with Dima's help of course, to get out to it.
Everything looked really pretty covered in snow, but Ugh.... so much of the stuff came down!

Pictures of my courtyard

I expect a few people had sickies that day as the roads were a mess, (the VOLGA slid to work most of the way & the driver lost the back end of the thing big time around the enterance to work), and as a result, no trams were operating & few cars were on the road. I have heard a few people say that this is the worst winter they have had in Kharkiv for many years...... just my luck! But I beleive if I can survive this, I  can get survive any place that PM sends me to...... I still prefer extreme heat to freezing cold though....

Now that we are actually getting some + temperatures again, (today is +1... heatwave!), the problem  is that everything starts to melt and with the volume of snow we have had this winter there is a lot of ice underneath the snow...... I know first hand how dangerous that can be, but even the locals seem to be struggling with the contitions. I have just shuffled back from my local corner store, (very slowly), where I saw two people slip over. The other danger is falling ice. Yep.... There are a lot of icicles overhanging roofs, attached to trees etc.  When they fall... watch your head!! Coming back from Sasha's place last weekend, Mishka & I saw a huge chunk of ice that had fallen from a pipe. I hope nobody was underneath that sucker when it came down!

Thats ICE hanging from a tree !
















Thats it for this week folks. Hope all is well at home. I see you have great temperatures in Melbourne again +27 and sunny...... I'm very jealous....

xm

End of Winter ??

Mishka & I were taking the long walk from the Office to the gate house at work on Friday night, wraped up in our jackets, hats, scarves & freezing our butts off & he said to me, "I wonder if we will ever be able to do this walk in short sleves with no jacket?" "Hmm", I replied, "I will be able to do it in about 4 weeks in Melbourne, but I'm not sure if we will be able to do it here in Kharkiv!" I have been assured lately by a number of people that Spring In Kharkiv is lovely & I cant wait for it. It seems to be getting a little warmer. Only -6 rather than -15. Keep your fingers crossed for me that the worst is over and I will see a warmer Ukraine in a little while. I'm looking forward to seeing the country side rather than just the city. Maryna & Andrey have assured me I will see  beautiful sights when it gets warmer & the bees are buzzing & birds are singing.

It seems that someone has not been updating their Blog often enough... To Michal's mum, I hope my Blog keeps you up to date with the goings on a little bit more than your sons Blog. He is a bit slack.....but he has a busy social life.... Even his IS committments to his friends, are not being fulfilled at the moment. Mishka. get your act together. I need new pics for my blog header & photo for the Tobacco Times & MP4 stuff to do so I can close my eyes in the VOLGA & tune out to the world!

Mishka

















This week was Felipe's birthday & we decided to have a little suprise for him afeter work. Mishka and Felipe had Russian lessions from 4.30 to 6pm at work, so Sasha, Dima and I left a little bit early to organise a cake for delivery back at Felipe's place where we would suprise him and have a quick glass of Champers, before Felipe and Paola went out for dinner. Logistically it was a bit of a problem as we had to somehow sepearate Michal and Felipe long enough to get Michal into Felipe's apartment before Felipe arrived so it would be a real suprise. We decided that Paola should ring Felipe while he was in the VOLGA with Michal on the way home and ask him to pop into the supermarket near by to buy some milk before coming home. Trouble was that Felipe's mobile phone battery was dead, so we ended up calling Michal & he handed the phone over to Felipe so Paola could talk to him (all a bit sus & were sure that Felipe would click as to what was going on). We saw the VOLGA arrive and Felipe get out and head up to the supermarket & Michal dashed into Felipe's apartment & we waited. SUPRISE!!!

Paola and Felipe coninued the celebrations at Albatross, a restaurant at the one and only local Kharkiv golf course.... More about golf in the spring editions of "Having fun in Ukraine"!

Saturday, Maryna and I ventured to Caravan & Daffy for some retail therapy. I had a bit on my shopping list and the top priority was to buy a new suitcase to replace the butchered one that came from Melbourne. Of course we couldnt buy a suitcase first as we would have to drag it around all the clothes shops we wanted to go into! I must say, Maryna has a really good eye for bargans. I never see the discounted racks but Maryna found me a pair of Levi's reduced from UAH$1000 to 550.00 or about $70 Aust. Bargain eh Naomi? Also picked up a nice pair of pants for work for about the same price. A bit more than I'm used to paying for work gear but they are a good quality. Suitable suitcase was purchased as well as a new jigsaw puzzle (first one almost finished) and finally we knicked into the supermarket for a few essentials. Sucesssful shopping trip.

Saturday night, the gang wanted to go to continue Felipes birthday celebrations at Caravan & Daffy for some bowling and billiards. We started with food, as we always do, & we went into a pasta place where you order everything online! It was cool. You bring up the menu on the screen & order all food & drinks, press the place order button & the food menu is routed to the kitchen & the drinks order goes to the bar! Not unlike the LES project we are working on at PMU where the operator orders the materials they need & the order goes to the warehouse.

Masha,
Michal.
Felipe
 and
Paola

Dima & Maryna working out the logistics of ordering food via the online sytem. Look at the intensity on Dima's face !

Big menu to choose from too

Is it interfaced to anything Mishka?

Mashka & Mishka.. ....Heheheh....Good one Anya!

Anyway, a nice meal & a few drinks were had then it was off to the pool hall, which was quite busy, but Dima, being well organised as usual, had booked a couple of tables, one for pool (not full size dad), and one for Russian Billiards! It was once again Mishka  & I (Poland & Australia) against the rest of the world! I think the first two games were won by default (black ball potted early in the games), but we played so many games with different partners, Im not sure of the final score. Dad, I need more practice, I missed a couple of sitters!!! Very poor performance Rack them up for when I come home in March!

Dima is a bit of a shark!

Mishka showing Masha where to hit the ball

Paola

Sasha completely missed this shot !

Maryna was a bit of a shark as well

Felipe

Andrey

Not much room to get the ball in the pocket !

We never got to go bowling as we were so tied up with trying to get balls in pockets! Plenty of time for bowling.... still five months to go!

When we finally finished up, we went out & it was .... I cant call it snowing as it wasnt soft snowflakes, but almost light hail! I think they call it "Freezing Drizzle". Andrey had to scrape the ice off the windows so he could see! Road conditions were shocking, but we all made it home safely. Off to Sasha's this afternoon to celebrate something and eat Pancakes!

Happy Valentines day to you all I hope you have a special day with your loved ones

xm

Just another week in Kharkiv

Yep, things are back to normal. Im used to dressing in layers, wearing thick jackets, scarves, gloves and hats to ward off the cold. I think my tan from Melbourne has all but gone. :-(   Michal is back from Poland with VISA in passport....., Sasha is somewhere......  having to exit and re-enter the country and Christina has left for her holiday in CUBA....  Last week we had 3 days for the first time when the whole team was together.. Vlad has just joined us from another project and makes the team complete of full time members.

Felipe and Paola were caught up in in incident last week involving some local police. They were taken into an undergound Metro office where they had no mobile coverage and were asked for there passports. Unfortunately, they didnt have their passports on them and so began a hour of interrigation for my friends... without going into details, they survived, and lived to tell the tale, but it is  something I would not  wish for any of my friends to go through.... beware of cops in ukraine.... Corruption is rife.

I am trying to brighten up the office a bit to showcase the worderful combination of cultures we have in the team. I  have put up the Aussie flag in the office, Christina has put up the German flag and I am encouraging the rest of the team to bring their countries flags back to Ukraine to add to the collection. At the end of this adventure, I would like to take home the Ukraine flag with the names and messages of all the people I have met in this country written on it. It would be a great momento of my time here. It looks like I have to educate a few people in the office though. It seems that some people over here dont recognise the Aussie flag!!! I might have to bring back the Boxing Kangaroo flag back next time. That will provide a talking point!!  Thanks mum, I know what you are doing at the $2 shop now if you havent already!

Team dinner at Puska this week where a few VODKA's went down.
 
This is the Aussie flag flying in Pushka and I am proud of my ironing effort.










A few of my friends enjoy my delight... Maryna and Christina












 Mishka, you always have to get your face in the picture ....you Legend!!!










Pushka night was good, no need for a reason to celebrate and eat out, we just did. Thanks to Uncle Phil for picking up the tab.

 Me and my best mates Mishka and Dima...Love you two to bits...xx

Always up for a hug with Dima and Christina












Filipe & I have bunny ears.....

Pasha, Maryna and Sasha

Sasha, Vlad (new team member) and Mishka

Pasha, Sasha and Sasha. There are a lot of Sasha's in Ukraine !!

The Original Sasha wearing the Aussie cap ... my special freind you are like a little brother to Mezz    

OK, so that was Pushka.... I look in the fridge and pantry during the week & I  really dont have much in the way of food....  I have been surviving on PM canteen food for a while, so I suggest to Michal that we stop off at TARGET (grocery store, not Target as we know in Aust), on the way home to get a few essentials. Write a list I say to Mishka the day before, so we dont forget what we need to get as it will be a quick stop. Michal is in desperate need of toilet rolls .... , so that will be the first priority!

The VOLGA stops at TARGET, and as quickly as we can, Mishka and I dart into the store. Dima stays in the VOLGA to guard our belongings. I tell Mishka to go hard left and to the back to the toiletries section and in no time, we have our toilet rolls. What else do you need Mishka? I didnt make a list....... he says!!!!... Hmm typical! So I dart off to get meat, cheese, ham,eggs etc. I occasionally see Mishka looking at things but not puting much in the trolley.  We finally catch up and run to the checkout. I have spent $300 UAH and Mishka has about three things in his basket including wine. We run back out to the VOLGA and throw the groceries in the back of the VOLGA. I take out my bottle of wine from the boot and take it with me into the back seat of the VOLGA. Mishka does not follow my example and leaves his wine in the boot. As we head off home, Mishka says.... Hmm maybe that was not a good idea leaving the wine and eggs in the boot.... this ride home could end up with scrambled eggs and red wine in the boot of the VOLGA.. We laugh like crazy and every bump or ditch we hit in the road (which is a lot), we look at each other and laugh. We drop Mishka off at his place and as we get out at my place, I notice there are two lots of toilet rolls in the boot of the VOLGA! The one and only thing that Mishka desperately needed, he left behind!!  I guess it will be another day of using newspaper to wipe your arse Mishka!!!!  These are the funny things that help us survive in Kharkiv.

A quiet Saturday night at my place last night with the gang. I put the Essendon V's Collingwood game on the TV and tried to explain the game to the Europeans. They kept saying, but you throw the ball as they do in Rugby! No its a handpass I say.... It is difficult to explain Aussie Rules to these guys. It is like no other game in the world. We are indeed a unique country when it comes to football!!!! Dima has had the AFL footy blown up so in spring when the ICE has gone, I will take the team out to a park for a bit of kick to kick and see if the boys can take a few speckies... Really looking forward to that :-)

After the AFL game, I threw on a Pink DVD and we played Mastermind and Yatzee for a while. A bit of fun.  I did forget however to get the vegemite out and let everyone have a taste!!! Where is my brain at the moment?

Masha and Mishka

Paola and Filipe playing Mastermind... which had them stumped

Well that's it for me for this week.

I see that it is up in the 30's again in Melbourne! It's 2.30 Melbourne time and I have just read the Herald Sun online and seen the tributes to Feb 7th Black Saturday last year. Shocking memories for those who were impacted by some of the worst fires in Victoria's history.

Congratulations to Luciana and family on the birth of Annaliese :-)

My love to everyone back at home.... Miss you

xm