The weirdest habit I've picked up in Russia - according to my mum, and she ought to know - is judging how much food to have by weight. I know that I should have about 200g of meat and 400g of other stuff - usually 200g potatoes and 200g vegetables, if I can be arsed - for dinner. So when my mum bought me this pizza and was like "here's your ( Read more... )

Here was me being pretty stupid and thinking I had insomnia because I haven't been sleeping well for a while. I'd wake up at what seemed like 5 or 6am and feel pretty awake, tossing and turning, and really concentrating on getting to sleep, which had been difficult in the first place. So today I look at my clock for the first time and discover ( Read more... )

I've lived a long, long time - coming up for quarter of a century this year - and recently I've been a bit morose. Having lived so long, I've been thinking, how is it that I've got no experience to pass on to those younger than I, who idealise me so? Surely my spag bol a la beer isn't all that I can contribute to mankind? But today I've realised ( Read more... )

I think I am MENTALLY ILL. I don't understand why I can't stop my brain thinking about Natasha. I think we last slept together 4 weeks ago or something crazy like that, and we're really growing apart fast, she's really pissed me off, etc. but I still can't get her out of my mind. I'm in England for 2 weeks (huzzah!) and hope to forget about her ( Read more... )

Craaaaazy Russian business practice - guy owns a restaurant, hotel, and large shop in a prime location, on the main street in the city. Woken up at 5am by an invasion of black-clad para-militaries who tell him it's not his property anymore. Somebody with a lot of money and (therefore)political clout has bribed officials to replace his name on the ( Read more... )

Something really weird about life is you never know how other people think. I reckon the way my life pans out is pretty unique, but I really don't know. I remember not knowing what to do one day at work and suddenly it came to me - go to teach English in Russia. The same day I'd booked it, and a few months later I stepped off the plane. Now it' ( Read more... )

Man, I'm reading this cool book by Samuel Johnson called "Prince of Abyssinia". It's about a guy - the prince of Abyssinia, in fact - who leaves his cloistered life and heads into the world on a search for happiness, in whatever form it takes. The idea so far (and I haven't finished) is that there's no such thing, and that all happiness is ( Read more... )

Sundays are awesome. Maybe I'm alone in seeing weeks as completely seperate and isolated entities, but then it's a blissful loneliness :P Sunday exists in a little sphere of its own, where I kick back and think about what happened in the last 6 days as if they were 10 years ago, and ponder the week to come ( Read more... )

Mwahahaha, sometimes I surprise myself with how devious and cunning I am... not today though. Today I was obvious and lecherous ( Read more... )

Man, it's entirely typical of me that while I get confused buying bread from shops, I can say weird stuff like "For the last 6 years I've been living this strange double life". The other day I had a strange experience - I went to my little patisserie and said in my best Russian "give me, please, 2 strawberry strudels"... so this girl, who knows me ( Read more... )