Burlaki [back] on the Hudson

He woke up, got out of bed and moved his bowels. If I could find a daily narrative as gripping as that, I swear I would post daily as opposed to once in a few days.
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Books & Movies, Chronicles, London & Environs

According to Natasha, Becky has not had this much fun at a figure skating practice in years.
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Chronicles, Idle Amusements

We woke up this morning to a beautiful sight: Our garden covered in snow.

Just a little of snow, a couple of inches at most, but still the view was splendid. As I keep reminding myself, A person needs very little to feel happy in a foreign land. Girls were excited, even though it did not look as if the snow would survive the day. Natasha took out her camera and started taking pictures. I went to work in higher spirits. (well, ok, that last statement is crock; the thought of not having to shovel my driveway, while being able to enjoy snow was heart-warming, but, otherwise, I hardly felt any different).

Then, a bunch of unruly kids at a bus stop decided to use me for a snow-throwing practice target. I can proudly report that they missed a lot more shots than they made, but still…

With the snowfall so small, and despite complete absence of any snow-removal operations, the driving was not affected too much. I’ve had worse instances in a completely dry weather. It did, nonetheless, occur to me that should the snowfall be just a bit more intensive, the life may completely stop here…

When I was coming home from work, the snow was all gone. As far as I have heard, that is to be expected most of the time the snow falls on London.

In other news, Natasha did make us a fantastic borsch, which we are happily consuming. Our new Russian friends were at our place us on Monday, and having indicated that they were on a tight schedule, they politely declined to partake in dinner. Love them even more for that

Our social life has been picking up a bit. We went to our next-door neighbors’ for a visit over the weekend, drank wine and talked about nothing and everything. They have three small boys, so while Kimmy was playing with the oldest (still two years her junior), Becky got bored in less than 90 seconds and begged off to go home. Return visit is planned.

Valera and Janna, whom I mention above, are great guys. Their daughter Gabriella is getting to be really good friends with Kimmy. Natasha arranged for a play date the other day, and that helped parents to get together also. Hopefully, we can increase the level of interaction, which is not entirely easy to do giving the work schedules.

By the way, apparently, Gabriella and Kimmy speak Russian to each other in school, and make no secret that they are doing it with the strategic goal of preventing others from understanding what they are saying. Very sly girls!

Natasha now spends two nights a week at the badminton club. She even paid for the membership, to save on session fees. You have to come to at least 40 sessions to start realizing the savings, but who knows, maybe, it will continue to be an outlet for her.

Having never been much of a computer gamer in the past, I somehow got hooked on a brick-breaking game called Ricochet. To be completely honest, hooked is probably too strong a word. I play a few levels every day, never spending more than 15 minutes on it. Still, this is a weird feeling for me. Can’t help thinking that it is a waste of time, can’t help overruling that thought with What’s the harm in 15 minutes? every time. Come to think of it, I should be content that I can easily keep myself from becoming a game-aholic. It’s all in the willpower, people! Or, in choosing a game that produces the same challenge over and over again, albeit with different flavors, – in other words, hardly anything that can sustain excitement…

Becky and I are having an official competition with this game. She is beating me handily.

Bavarian beer is very hard to find in the UK. Belgian is quite ubiquitous, though. I just finished a bottle of Leffe Brune – highly recommend it.

Chronicles

The coldest day of the year so far did not fail to produce commuting problems.
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Children & Schooling, Chronicles, London & Environs

A whole new religion is being born, and Natasha is its prophet. The cult’s mantra is Happiness is when you have beets!
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Chronicles, Customerography, That's England

Natasha found a gray hair in her head. Gevalt! Somebody’s getting old!!! I have exhausted my vocabulary looking for synonyms of “young” to use during a seemingly never-ending pep talk…
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Chronicles, London & Environs

I drove my parents to the airport in the morning, and we are all by ourselves again. Time to get back to work, school and otherwise routine existence.

Time to resume our grand plan of Old World exploration, too. Upon returning from Switzerland, we did a few things with the parents (such as a narrated city bus tour, which Natasha had never taken before, and visiting the Royal Observatory in Greenwich), but otherwise, my mom and dad have done us better, with visits to places we had not gotten to yet, such as the British Museum, the National Gallery and the Tower. Ok, Natasha and I have been to the latter, but not as part of the official programme.
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Art & Culture, Chronicles, London & Environs

Anglification of me – I have watched three full soccer games on TV over the last four days.
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Children & Schooling, Chronicles, Sports

Famous England weather. It is not too cold, just cold enough to be unpleasant, and with wind, dark skies and intermittent rain, it is hard to will oneself to go outside…
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Chronicles, London & Environs, Technology & Gadgets, That's England

If you have not read the first part of our report, you can do it here. Otherwise, read on.
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Family & Friends, Travel

Well, we’re back! We had a great time, despite having driven more than a thousand miles overall, and entered new year on a high note. Hope you all did the same! (I don’t mean driving)
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Travel