A tale of two Cities... Part One

The next two blogs takes me to two differennt countries, Australia and Poland.... well it is actually three but I'm only in Kharkiv for a few days so i'll see if there is anything worth warranting a blog while I'm here

Melbourne, Australia!

The first thing I did after 4 plane rides and two taxi's, well I dont consider Inna a taxi, so lets make it one taxi, is to go and see Mum and Dad. Followed very closely with a visit to my babies at their holiday hotel. I was so worried that they wouldnt recognise me or wouldnt want to talk to me... but.... I was totally wrong...

The moment I was left alone with them, they just came to me as nothing had ever changed... so differernt from the last time I came home & Middy just didnt want know me.

Bella & I just enjoying each others company in the first bedroom

I cant thank Jarom and staff at Catnap enough for taking my babies on board... I know it was a bit hard for the first three months, but I trusted you completely and look how they have come out of their shell !

As usual, I caught up with family & friends. Lunch with Bob, Gayle and Kim from PM. A trip to Essa Hairdressing to see Luciana and newborn Annaliese

A few Chardys & dinner with Naomi and Tristan to catch up on all the gossip & of course mum, dad Ian and Lynda.  I went into the city one Saturday afternoon to meet my best mate, Lisa (nickname, George). We have known each other for years and when we do catch up, which is not often enough, we carry on the conversation as if we had seen each ther an hour ago. Lisa lives in Leopold near Geelong, which is a city around the bay, about an hours drive from the CBD.

We met at Flinders St railway station, which is an icon in Melbourne and the bigest station servicing the Melbourne CBD.

Flinders St station

Southbank for lunch, a really good area for food, arts and leisure along the Yarra River, that runs through Melbourne , strolled along Southbank, ate ice cream and people watched. Had a look at the Polly Woodside,a British built, three-masted, iron-hulled barque, preserved in Melbourne,  and forming the central feature of the Melbourne Maritime Museum.The weather was just perfect, around 25 degrees and we just relaxed and talked. Must do this more often George

Southbank at night

The Polly Woodside
















Of course, no visit home goes without a lunch at Georges, (the restaurant) in Croydon, with mum and dad. I think we had two meals there and the food is great. With a glass of wine and beaut weather, what more could you ask for?

Eating at Georges.... again

Dad & Mum

I must admit, I love going to mum & dads place when the weather is so good as the sun sits on the back verandah & we just sit there and chew the fat and look at the wonderful view they have of the Dandenong ranges. Mount Dandenong, originally known as Corhanwarrabul  is also a mountain which is 633 metres tall,  and which lends its name to the entire mountain range of which it is a part, the Dandenong Ranges. The peak of the mountain, at 633 m above sea level, is also the site of the television signal towers for the City of Melbourne, which range in height from 72 m to 180 m. These towers are visible from quite a distance and distinguish Mount Dandenong from others in the Dandenong Ranges. On a clear day, and because Melbourne is very flat, it is possible to see across the metropolitan area to the You Yangs and Mount Macedon, the Melbourne Central Business District and Port Phillip Bay

Dandenong Ranges

me on the Verandah eating again!

A week before I went home, Melbourne experienced its worst storm in centuries with flooding and huge hail in pockets of the suburbs. Nunawading, where I live, copped some hail and here is the result.

http://www.theage.com.au/photogallery/victoria/wild-weather-hits-melbourne/20100306-pph5.html?selectedImage=5   Click on the link to see more pics of the storm

Now I have ventilation in my Verandah roof !

I am now back in Kharkiv after four plane rides and am definately feeling the jet lag. Woke up at three am this morning and couldnt get back to sleep, so it made for a very hard day at the office. I'm finding it takes a good three days to get over the 28 hours of flying, 9 hours time difference and settling into routine again. I hope this episode goes quickly as I am off to Poland in three days. It is only two plane rides and not long, but I am dreading hoping into a plane again...... Frequent flyer miles are adding up and I have already upgraded to first class on my final journey home. Never flown first class before , so it will be a bit of a treat after nine months away from home.

You will be pleased to know that the ICE has almost dissapeared. I did threaten not to come back if the ICE was still around, so I think my friends must have all pulled out their hair dryers and gone into bat for me, so I would come back...... such nice people they are.

Get blogging Mishka..... weekend away must have some blog worthy news ?

PS, The Gravox, snakes and Pepermint crisps made it through all security checks and customs..... now I have treats from home that will be savoured

xm

Food, Food, Food !!!!... all home cooked

This blog will be written partly in Ukraine and lastly in Aust as it is my last night in Kharkiv before I fly back home for a quick visit. Now just to clarify something for a few people back home... Michal’s nickname is Mishka and we use both Michal and Mishka when we talk to him, so that is why I use both names in the blog. Michal is like a  brother to me, we have a wonderful relationship and he has a lovely girlfriend, Masha whom I sometimes call Mashka, who is the sister of Anya, who we work with! Hope that clears thing up.

Last weekend in Ukraine included a public holiday, and with most of our colleagues in Poland, Mishka & I decided to have a big cooking weekend!
First up was Roast Chicken and Vegy at my apartment on Saturday night, but first we had to shop for food!! Saturday morning we caught the metro to Target.... which Mishka thought was two stations away.. but since he has been taking Russian lessons and Masha has been helping him, he actually changed his mind and thought it was three stations away. Unsure... we went to the third station....We saw a lot of people get out at the second station, & we looked at each other & said, OK if we have the exit station wrong, all we have to do is ask someone at the next station if Target was upstairs, before we actually get out of the station and we can go back.. We got off the train at the third station & I said to Michal, "Ask someone who looks young if we have the right station". Mishka goes up to the first guy he sees and asks something that I don’t understand as it is in Russian, apart from the word "Target". This guy opens his eyes that are very glazy & points upstairs then left and right. Now this guy was either drunk or on something else, and Mishka & I looked at each other & laughed.... as we do a lot! We proceeded upstairs & out of the Metro station...... & there was Target one of our favorite food and accessory type shopping centers. First mission complete.... we found Target.

Now as I have mentioned in previous blogs, when I shop, I go prepared with a list of things I need. "Mishka, do you have a list", I ask? " No I don’t need a list", he replies!!!! We grab a trolley between the two of us & Mishka's phone rings. Its Sasha who is in Poland with Christina and Maryna! So Mishka is having a conversation with our colleagues, casually glancing at the shelves & occasionally picking up the odd item, while I commence traipsing the isles for my items on the list. I have most of my things when Mishka finally catches up with me and says "Mez, you shop to fast"!

We finally get to the fruit & veg section. I look for carrots, pumpkin and potatoes. I find potatoes, but nothing else. OK, Potatoes and roast chook go hand in hand, so Mez, just go get some frozen veg. I tell Mishka to pick out a nice chook... many and varied size on display... while I continue my journey. We meet back somewhere in between frozen veg and meat & Mishka has picked out an enormous chook! But you never know who is going to turn up for a meal here so big is good.

Finally all shopping is finally in the basket.... including Bear Crossing Chardy! "Mishka you didn’t pick up toilet rolls" one of the reasons we shop at Target.... " I still have two rolls left before I have to buy more" he says! Buy in bulk now I say...... "too hard to carry" Says he!.... Shit shopping with men is too hard!

Next, to the checkout! We find a checkout that has few people in it and jump into the queue. As we start putting our purchases on the table, the lady says something, that neither of us understand. We continue to unload our trolley & I say to Mishka that she probably asked if we needed bags, which they charge for & we didn’t need! When I get all my stuff on the table, I flash my Ukraine credit card at her & she says something I don’t understand.... never do! At the end of the scanning of goods, the lady says something again & unsure of what is happening, I offer her cash in the hope this will ease the anguish of the people in the now long queue behind us. "SUPERVISOR to checkout! is what I understand the nice lady yelling out! Mishka & I look at each other and laugh!!!! Absolutely no idea what is going on, we wait until a lady takes me to another register & scans my card to pay for the purchases..... Mishka goes through exactly the same scenario & ends up at a different checkout swiping his card for his purchases..... we still have no idea what we did wrong in the etiquette of supermarket shopping in Ukraine..... Maryna, Andrey, Dima...... help....What did we do wrong???? Folks back home, this is the challenge we face..... but hey we laugh about our little adventures.....

OK food purchases are complete & Mishka & I manage to get a taxi home, bit hard on the metro with all those bags.... & we are stuffed!! It is hard work navigating the metro and supermarket! "Dinner at my place 7pm " I text to Mishka.

The chook goes in the oven, potato’s peeled, and I open a bottle of wine! Hmmm home cooked food smells so good. Gravy is the last thing I need for official Australian Roast Chicken meal with Polish and Ukraine friends Mishka and Mashka. I could not find anything like gravox in the supermarket, so I purchased flour at the supermarket & decided to make it from scratch. I take the beautifully cooked chook out of the baking dish, add some flour to the juices in the pan and stir. Nothing happens! the flour just seems to dissolve instead of thicken, so I put more flour in and stir. Same thing, the flour just dissolves! What sort of flour did I buy I think? I read the label, but I cant make anything out that says it is anything but flour, so I give up. I was so looking forward to having meat with gravy, but it was not to be. My friends arrive, a feast is had and too much Bear Crossing was consumed....... pics courtesy of Mishka.

See mum, I can cook

We played mastermind..... The girls beat Mishka !

Masha

Laughter

We went over board on the pics 

Oh how cute

We were singing and dancing to ...

The Pink Funhouse Aussie tour DVD

Mishka getting intimate with an Aussie rules footy. I think he likes the Bombers

The Russian hat come out to play..

Such good mates

Yep... I know exactly how

you feel Mishka!

Sunday was spent recovering...... all of Sunday!

Monday.... Mishka texts me and says “ My place at 6.30 for dinner, I have to go shopping for food”! Why didn’t you get all the stuff on Saturday at Target, I think to myself and shake my head!!! It is International Women’s day and the Europeans celebrate it in a big way, even more so than Mothers day. Everyone seems to be out buying tulips and what looks like to me to be Australian wattle, but surely not.. so I Google it...

"The mimosa (technically, the Silver Wattle) is the symbol of the celebrations of Women's day in Italy and Russia"... From Wikipedia.   Blow me down, there is a little bit of Aussie used to celebrate in Ukraine!

I arrive at Mishka's apartment and he has started cooking.... and had a bottle of wine open! We were having cannelloni with meat and canelloni with spinich...Yum. So I sit there and watch Michal cook for a while, with glass of wine. He is not all that well organised & there is a lot of mess and ingredients everywhere, but he seemed to know what he was doing.  Im impressed !!!

Meat is prepared and canelloini softened in simmering water for four minutes. Meat and spinich mix is stuffed into canelloni.

Place stuffed canelloni into baking dish

Prepare béchamel sauce

Pour sauce over canelloni

Place mozzarella chees over canelloni.

Cook in oven at 180 degrees fan forced for a while to get the cooking started, then non fan forced for a while. Complete first bottle of wine and laugh a a lot while waiting for canelloni to cook and Masha to arrive.

Wash dishes, give Mez flowers for international womens day.

.

Serve canelloni

Open another bottle of wine, eat, and laugh ...... nice weekend !

Go home, fall into bed and think about yet another great weekend spent with friends in Kharkiv, Ukraine

PM Australia wanted a picture of me in a tourist destination in Kharkiv so they could write an article for the Tobacco Times (in house newspaper) for publication in Winter. The only Place in Kharkive that we know of so far and have been able to visit is Freedom Square in the heart of Kharkiv. So I asked my personal photographer, Michal, to help me with a photo shoot of me and Lenin to send back to PML.... here are the pics.

Me and Lenin with the University on the left

He is a big boy!!!

Me & Michal

& our big friend.....

I'm home now and last week we had terrinble weather, hail stones the size of golf balls! My verandah coped the hail & now it is fully airconditioned!... Pics next blog

Since my arrival, the weather has been perfect.. +25 to +29 degrees, so I am thawing out nicely and looking forward to catching up with family & friends before the last three months in Kharkiv

xm