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I hate late autumn. The sun rises at 9ish and it is dark again by 5 pm.
But that was pretty much the case when I got here in February. What really kills me is the lack of sunshine, because it gives me seasonal depression of sorts. In Singapore I conditioned myself to think that sun is evil and should be avoided. Over here I can see why people ( Read more... ) -
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They say, give a man a $1000 and send him shopping - he will come back with a tiny but really expensive item. Give a woman a $1000 and send her shopping - she will bring back a truckload of stuff ( Read more... ) -
Rome: San Giovanni in Laterano / Рим: базилика Сан-Джованни ин Латерано
Of all Rome I remember San Clement Basilica the most. It was built on top of an ancient street, which in turn was built on top of an ancient temple for the cult of Mithras. And all these are accessible through the basilica! It feels a bit like Diablo computer game, as you descend three levels down, into a simple excavated pagan sanctuary, where ( Read more... ) -
Croatia Part 2 / Хорватия - часть 2
It was in Croatia where I experienced yachting for the first time in my life and I thought that after I bungy jumped nothing in this world could take my breath away.
We went with The Yacht Week, a yachting event that is really more about partying than yachting, but that said, I did take some sweet sea views photos ( Read more... ) -
Croatia Part 1 / Хорватия - часть 1
I did not expect my Croatian to be a very enlightening in a cultural sense. There are a lot of old buildings there, many with stories behind them, but no one has bothered to weave them into a single punchy narrative. It did not help that I walked so much in Italy that I sprained my ankle and was largely immobilised in Dubrovnik, which left me ( Read more... ) -
B-52
My Italian-Croatian holiday felt like a B-52 cocktail, a perfect combination of three separate layers: thick coffee liquor of historical grandeur of Rome and Pompeii, smooth Bailey's Irish Cream of laid-back Dubrovnik days and tangy and spicy Grand Marnier of the Yacht Week. All set alight by the flame of a light summer fling ( Read more... ) -
Much Too Much
I can complain about Russian inefficiency, corruption, despotism (just about everything, we are masters of whining) to no end or listen to another Russian complain about these same things. We can talk for hours to reach a conclusion that it is a really screwed up country. In actual fact, overtly patriotic Russians even set off some alarm bells. I ( Read more... ) -
Big city life / Жизнь в большом городе
Spend some time living in one large city and you've seen them all ( Read more... ) -
The New Sexy / Новая мода
When I was in my early 20s, "busyness" was the new sexy. We all took pride in putting in 120-hour work weeks, believing that this was the road to success. It was also a hedge
against emptiness, an attempt to distract yourself and the rest that you were not doing anything truly meaningful. It fills your calendar and gives you a tangible measure of ( Read more... )
