sneg at last?

As it got dark and people made their way home, we had the beginnings of the first proper snow of the winter. But remains unexpectedly mild, so still a wetness to it.

up and onward

Back in my London flat, with the gorgeous smell of dacha-grown apples and the lingering sour taste left by our recent sporadic, meaningless riots.

And the end of another year in Moscow - with the beginning of the next only a few weeks away. A friend asked me how I coped with the winter snows and then laughed at the involuntary grin on my face. So, must mean I am looking forward to it.

(il)legal?

This post was going to be about the new Mayor's (rumoured) campaign to stop illegal street advertising in the city. But first I have to mention that - after a false spring - it has rained and snowed almost all weekend. The English language may have many different words for snow, sleet, hail etc; but this was mainly like what I can only call 'fast snow', a kind of thick, white, cold rain. Today we have grey skies and a more desultory snowfall, but it is still horrible. Thank you for listening.

As to outdoor advertising signs, I merely pass on a story doing the rounds - that people are just pretending to do up their apartment blocks, so they can get the money from the banners on scaffolding that result. And I say 'rumoured', because since Sergei Sobyanin hit town he seems to be aiming at putting a lot of space between his intentions and those of the previous incumbent Yury Luzhkov; also saying he is going to do something about the (impossible) traffic, stop knocking down old buildings and control new development better. We wait to see the outcomes.

flumping heck

A repeating concern of this blog has been the relationship between the brighter weather and the imminent danger of being hit by something. This is a photograph of the entrance to my block. That snow on the ground is not the kind that has absentmindedly been shoveled off the roof (which happens a lot) - that type of snow has a much softer, aerated texture. No, this is snow that fell off all at once because of the warmth drifting up the stairwell; it still echoes with the crump it must have made as it hit the tarmac.

Just glad I was not underneath it. 

strike!

Witnessed more people falling over today - with varying degrees of bump - than in all the time I have been in Moscow. Total of 10 (separately, not together).

A combination, I think, of truly treacherous conditions created by the ongoing cycle of mild days, cold nights and continual layers of new snow which I have mentioned before: and of being in one of those places (which seem quite randomly arranged), where no pavements get cleared - this time, Novoslobodskaya, on my way to a lecture at Garage.

coat-beating

The snow may be melting, but there is still lots of it piled up, where it has been scraped off roads and paths all winter. And - at last - an example of the snow-cleaning my landlord insisted was the best way to get the dirt out of my carpets. This bloke is doing his winter coat, alternatively hitting it with a stick and a broom, and then turning it over again and again. Brilliant. Wonder if this is still a normal past-time, or just left over from the 'old times'?

soggy

Half the States covered in snow, cyclone in Queensland, Moscow unseasonally mild, with temperatures fluctuating just across zero degrees. Everything is dripping. Which makes me fed-up - if I had wanted damp-aired and grey-skied English weather, I could have stayed in London.

yes, yes, yes!

So it has happened; the roof of our building has become an ice-rink for the winter. So excited - although I haven't been on it yet, its very basic and they do play bad music extremely loud. But, still,  what a great thing...

To find out more go to http://artplay-katok.ru/

I love Sundays

Had a proper English Expat Sunday (EES). Got up late, listened to BBC Radio 3 and had fried eggs and bacon with toast and a cup of tea for breakfast.  Played Words with Friends  - aka Scrabble - via my iPod. I only do this with people I know - my daughter and a few others. (Although it turns out that 'Ken Taylor' is not the one I expected, but someone who lives on the US West Coast.)

Then skyped a few mates and listened to both the News Quiz and I am Sorry I Haven't a Clue (this says far too much about me, is probably a very embarrassing fact, and will only make sense to a small cross-section of readers.) Did some desultory work, and stared out the window a lot; snowing on and off all day, with everything clean white for a moment and the sky that completely washed out grey-blue pale. Lovely.

What is strange is that the longer I am here the more I enjoy deeply stereotypical English middle-class behaviours, at least in the privacy of my own flat. Does this happen to every expat, or is it just me?

Anyway, it shows up the ridiculousness  of some British politicians' tendencies to insist that foreigners 'immerse' themselves completely into  'our' culture. I don't think eating English breakfast makes me a threat to Russia, so I can't understand why some British people are so frightened of the reverse.

handy hints for travellers 15: stay away from building edges!

The mild conditions have a regular result: snow melts during the day, freezes at night and is then covered with a fine layer of snow by morning - making completely lethal surfaces. And - equally dangerously - snow melting from roofs forms icicles which freeze, then melt again and crash to the ground.

One of my colleagues got hit by a falling icicle over the holidays, which broke her nose (this, she said mournfully happened immediately after her dog swallowed a toy and nearly died.) Still, she continued, at least it didn't fall on her head. Which is why random barriers appear on the street, and people tend to walk on the outside edges of pavements.

snow-midget

Whilst there have been extremes in climate across the globe this winter, Moscow continues to be unseasonably mild. So little snow that even the snowmen are tiny...

the horrors, the horrors

I know that I was extraordinarily lucky to sneak into London, and then out again (to Sydney, Australia) a few days later, without being buried in snow for days at Heathrow.  All my sympathies go to the many people I met who had horribly delayed holidays, and I won't even be smug about how much better Moscow airports deals with bad weather. But - I was reminded of that specifically English characteristic of complaining; of always being ready to be offended at the the slightest alteration to the assumed smoothness of things; of an excess of sensitivity that someone else might be jumping the queue, getting a better deal. What is this English habit of for ever being ready to be cross about something?

Unlike the Russians I know who always expect the worst to happen.

Ha!

This is one aimed at everyone in Britain who has been reduced to a standstill by the weather. Just to mention that Moscow has only about an inch of snow and yet this afternoon I saw 5 snow ploughs, 2 dumper trucks and my favourite device (above) - the snow-gobbler.

at last...

So finally, with only minor flurries of snow, the temperature has plummeted to -18, and everyone is complaining of the cold. But I am loving  the bright blue, clear sunny skies. And interesting hats are back in large numbers...

(As last  year - England is trying to compete. Snow causes chaos and fun across the UK said the Guardian today, with the pictures to prove it.)

doing up the public!

On the estate where I live in North London we have a gardening club where, on occasions, small groups of people come together to do their public duty and plant bulbs, do weeding, and clear various piles of rubbish. Its great, but of course the same old faces turn up each time. So I am pretty impressed with the assumption here as expressed by Mayor Luzhkov that, come April, massive numbers of the local populace (93,000 expected) will do a city-wide spring clean.

He says there are to be two subbotniki, or working Saturdays - what used to be called public labour days in the Soviet period - clearing debris, cleaning monuments and planting flower beds. April 17 and 24.

Mind you, as Moscow alternates between snow and thaw, with an increasing shift to the second, the sheer amount of water, filthy melting snow and accumulated dirt and detritus indicates that such a show of public commitment is not just nice but necessary.

snowing again- just when I thought it was spring...

and now the sad (snow) reality

Park

And - to get in as many snow pictures as possible before it all goes - witness the brilliant opportunity to go ice-skating around the park paths in Gorky Park (although the queues for tickets were inordinately long and the paths themselves as crowded as Oxford Circus tube station). And its hard to see just how much fine it looks from this picture.

Next

Which gives me a chance to show one of the great ice sculptures they have every year next to the Space Museum and VdnKH (....in December, sorry didn't get around to it at the time..)

Last

They do have some snow sculptures there (well, they did, I haven't mentioned the major thaw we are having.....)