Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to All!
Seasons Greetings to All!!! Thank you all very much for your wonderful messages of well wishing on the Vodka Awards Page. :) :) I wish you all and everyone else too, a Wonderful and Merry Christmas and a wicked New Year!!! May your presents be plentiful and may then New Year see many remarkable opportunities for each and every one of you.
In typical Christmas Fashion, Christmas Day was absolutely hectic for me too. It started early when Sveta, her mum, her friend and I left for the biggest supermarket in Europe, ASHAN. It is ENORMOUS!!! In fact it is too big. And far too busy. Navigating with a trolley requires expert skills in traffic management and patience. Needless to say, when it was time to leave, I was most grateful.
Next we jumped back in the car and navigated to the road that would lead us nearly all the way to Muranovo, a small town near to where the Sorokin family dacha resides. Passing the tree's covered with snow was a fantastic sight, the dreams of yesteryear coming true every passing seconds.
We drove, and we drove, a few minutes later, we were still driving. 20 minutes into the journey from Ashan to Dacha, we stopped to buy some snow shovels. Turns out we would need them later on. We bought 2 and already had one handy. "Was there really going to be that much snow?" I was wondering.
We continued driving. After we got near town of Muranovo, it was my turn to drive. The trusty stead was a brand new Citroen C3. I got into the drivers seat which on the left hand side. Wierd. I reach for the automatic shifter and realize that there are only 3 positions. "Reverse, Neutral and Drive" THere is also the Sportsmatic style manual shifting mode, but decided to leave that alone. Got in, belted up, adjusted a few details, and indicated to pull away from the shoulder of the road. The window wipers came on instinctly. Hmm, wrong stalk. Damn European cars. I turned the windscreen wipers off and attempted to use the correct stalk to operate the indicators. This time, they responded pleasingly. Great, i was in control again.
So I drove, and I drove, and it was good, and I was rusty, but it was good, and we got almost all of the way there, and we were going down a snow covered road with only one lane. And then it happened...
We had stumbled across a traffic jam in the middle of nowhere. Turns out, the local well is quite popular. So everyone parks their cars anywhere they can and go to get water. The problem is, that in snowed under conditions (read, this particular day) there isn't enough room to do this without inconveniencing anyone. 15 minutes later, and there was progress.
We got to the dacha, left the car on the road and shifted 100 sqm of snow to park it of the road.
Their property is surrounded by a cedar fence with a gate. Unfortunately, the gate wouldn't open. The snow had build up behind the fence. Some hero would have to jump the fence. I bravely volounteered. Getting up one side of the fence wasn't very difficult. But alas, the other side of the fence was a situation of slightly different difficulty. The yard was under about 60-70cm of snow. It suddenly became clear to me exactly why we now had such a plentiful supply of shovels. We started clearing. We cleared, and we cleared, then I cleared, and cleared. It was magnificent. It was -13 degrees and I was nice and warm. :)
ANyway, to cut a long and potentially boring story short, we cleared the snow, organized firewood, activated Cold Weather Mode on the Dacha itself (ie put insulation between double windows) Had some lunch with the most divine tasting cucumber I have ever had and then left.
I drove the first part of the way have, then Sveta's mum drove the rest. I got the car bogged in snow until some lock to lock steering manipulation and expert throttle control managed to get us free. (DAMN I'm GOOD)
Then Ira went home, Sveta, her mum and I went to Sveta's sisters apartment to have Christmas Dinner (First time i've had sushi for CHristmas Dinner but a quality idea :) ) GOt home late late late, tired tired tired, collapsed, died. Not really, just slept.
It was a sensational day, lots of fun. But I do miss the traditional Australian Christmas very much. Here, it doesn't really feel like Christmas. It's simply not celebrated here.
I'm thinking of each and every one of you. As aforementioned, I wish you all the very best, a wonderful CHristmas and New Year. May all your dreams come true and all your resolutions come to fruition. Everybody be good and take care of yourselves and each other.
Merry Christmas!!!!
Happy New Year!!!!
С Новым Годом!!!!
Love from Matt
