Category: Journal

part 11 TUESDAY For once we ‘отдыхали спокойно а не активно’ (rested peacefully and not actively). I partly packed another suitcase with carefully stowed ill-gotten gains. I shall have to go through the red zone at Harwich and declare my vodka but I’ve managed so far to restrain Rabfail from giving me too many things the export of which is

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A bit more and  will try not to let any mistaked ellude me. MONDAY A word about buses. Bus and trolley fares are either 5 or 6 kopeks however far you travel. Trolleybus tickets are bought from kiosks and general shops and also from the drivers. One boards the trolleybus and slides th ticket into a punch attached to the

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Part 9. I tried to add to part 8 a recipe as requested but it has appeared in an unrecognisable state and I can’t get rid of it. Had better not try that again. Sorry. SUNDAY Today, Sunday, was a working day. This seems to be because the 8th of March went on for three days. On the 8th men

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Thisis part 8. I have duly amended part 7 which is now there as such and not a repeat. After a really good sleep we got up and all dressed up in warm layers of clothes. I was told to wear valenki instead of my wellies. Rosa and Rabfail both had rucksacks full of provisions, his camera and mine and

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When the major powers of the world will become buddies, when all the neighboring countries will become best of friends, when the divided worlds will celebrate their togetherness by unconditionally helping to heal each other’s wounds, when soldiers of the world will fight only against the natural calamities, when my world would have finally acquired the know-how to survive without

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next part  a visit for March 8th Women’s Day THURSDAY Rabfail and I went to the woods to look for the bears. The woods, still in the town, are lovely, utterly quiet but the bears are sad, sitting together in a small cage. They, being rather lazy creatures did not seem too badly treated but two badgers, also confined, were

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Next chapter WENESDAY 7TH MARCH We got up and set off at once to get to the Institute Neft (petrol) by ten when all the men at the institute would be presenting the women with flowers and presents. We made it dead on time and did some celebrating with Rabfail’s colleagues. The gentlemen had already presented the ladies with their

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Next instalment, hopefully without mistakes. MONDAY In the morning we went to the Pedogogical Institute and I gave the students a lecture on the history of the English language, a little about Wales and the Celts and my house and animals. They decided Daisy May’s kid should be called Bashkiria. Flyuga and the English teacher want me to visit them.

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Part 4 duly edited for typos and translation done if any Russian cyrillic there. SATURDAY DAY 3 It’s snowing! Should be pretty. The thaw which they say is very early has made a mess of the writer’s show. It is shoved into vast dirty heaps  beside the road. Where the road has been dug out it makes walls which look

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This is part 3 Doing it day by day now and hope I’m correcting any typos as can’t see well. THURSDAY  Day 1 I awoke from a lovely sleep to find Rosa and Gulya gone and Rabfail pottering. We had breakfast and I had a Russian lesson till the others came home. While Rosa made lunch Rabfail and Gulya vanished

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