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