Lara Update

I guess I ought to give you an update on Lara! She's been sleeping OK since we got home, and is slowly recovering from the jetlag, in that she is waking later and later now, it was 4am on Monday, and is closer to 5am now. There has been the odd occasion where she's woken at 1am, but this has only been a one-off, thankfully, and she was back asleep by 1.45, after some time with Olga. We are trying what we usually do, which is bring her to bed with us when she wakes between 4 and 5am, she has a quick feed and usually drops off again, until 7am, which suits us; however, maybe it's the jetlag but this week she's consistently woken up "for good" at 6am, so we've taken it in turns to get up with her and take her back to her room to play, so the other person can have an hour of undisturbed sleep.

She's starting on mushier, non-milky food now too. We tried her on banana, apple and courgette on holiday (not all at once!), and banana was the one she hated the least. Since we got home she's been started on baby rice, which has gone down very well (literally), and tonight she's going to have carrott. Olga's tried it already today and reports that it's lovely. (Steamed, then liquidised with some water, apparently).

We also did some work on her sitting while we were in PK (my abbreviation for Petrokamensk), and she's OK at it now, until she gets tired, when she does more falling that sitting. So long as it's on a soft surface, she quite enjoys the falling though.

Lara's also been weighed today - we were interested to know how she'd be after 3 weeks away; although her feeding regime didn't change other than we introduced some fruit and veg, we thought that all the travelling and strange places might have reduced her appetite... but it seems not. The little fatty is 16lbs 10oz (7.54kg) which is still on the 75th percentile.

Here's a video of her this morning, demonstrating that she's turning into quite a bully...

We're back!

We made it back OK! I'll not get started on a long post, suffice it to say that Petrokamensk was pretty much what I expected it to be, if a little bigger than a village, but set in some spectacular scenery; it's hard to get across the size of the area unless you've actually been there, but it's big.
We had snowflakes falling in the first couple of days, although they didn't stick, but I did need to buy some warm socks and a better hat when we went to the nearest big town. By the end of the week the sun had come out and it was lovely.
The journey home via Ekaterinburg was one of the easiest flights I've taken from a non-European airport, with no queues and a plane that was barely a third full (we were assigned all six seats on our row).
Here are just a couple of photos from Petrokamensk and the surrounding areas, I'll be uploading a proper web album in the fullness of time, of course.

Baba Shura's (Olga's Grandma) house. Baba Shura is the one sitting down

The author blending naturally into his surroundings

Olga, Lara and Luda by the river where we went fishing on our last full day

Baba Shura with Lara

Sunset over the lake, around 11.15pm

Miracle of the internet - TMS!

Play has just finished on Day One of the Third Test against New Zealand at Trent Bridge, and I've been able to listen to TMS over the internet in my hotel room. I've enjoyed listening to Aggers talk about Vera, the air traffic controller at the local airfield, where Prince Phillip's helicopter probably landed so he could open the new stand at the ground; also the arguement about whether Jimmy Anderson has come in at number nine because he's the new nightwatchman or simply because he's been promoted. I didn't enjoy listening to the 3 wickets fall just after "lunch" (6.40pm here) quite as much!
This has meant I've had a nice quiet evening in my room. I didn't fancy going to the restaurant for dinner, so I popped into the supermarket on the way home and picked up some bread, meat, beer and crisps (shashlik flavour so I can continue my policy of having shashlik at least once a day). I should be packing my bag now but it shouldn't take too long and I'll do it in the morning. Andrei is coming to pick me up at 9am so I won't have to struggle with my bag for the half-mile to the office; I'm staying at his house tomorrow night, he's threatening to take me fishing tomorrow evening which I'm looking forward too. I went to his house for a cycle ride and dinner on Tuesday, which means that in a week of staying here I'll not have eaten in the restaurant at all. How's that for keeping the work expenses down?! More about that in a minute...
I met up with Uncle Victor and his son Mikhail last night, accompanied by Andrei, and we went to the hotel next door, which Andrei told me was the first "international standard" hotel in Tyumen. It's a bit of a 60's monstrosity though, and the lifts are small, the four of us only just squeezed in as we went up to the "Billiard Club" on the fourth floor. Andrei and I lost the first two frames to Victor and Mikhail, not surprisingly, and these frames took an hour and a half. Everyone will be relieved to know that the drink of choice was beer, not a sniff of vodka in sight. Andrei left after the second frame, and Victor suggested I play against Mikhail - I won 2-0, and it even seemed that Mikhail was playing properly; either that or he's very good at hiding it when he throws a frame. It's a hard game, played on a snooker table, but the 4 corner pockets are only 4-5mm bigger than the diameter of the ball and the middle pockets are 15mm wider.
Then it was back to my hotel to meet up with Mikhail's wife Natasha, who was having dinner there with some friends. Victor left us at that point and I thought there was a good chance to have a beer or two then politely retire before midnight.. we did have a couple of beers, and I picked up the ladies meal bill (or rather Tigress will) seeing as I'd not eaten in the restaurant all week, and we'd put four beers and 300g of vodka on it (the first and almost only vodka of the night!).
Far from retiring gracefully before midnight, Mishka (Mikhail, not our dog!), Natasha and I went to the nightclub in the "international standard" hotel across the road, where we stayed until 3am. I manfully stuck to beer, with only one random vodka slipping in by accident, but was slightly below par this morning, again. This is why I'm glad of a quiet night tonight!

Oh, and for those that are interested, Jimmy Anderson came in at nine today because Ryan Sidebottom had a "slight twinge" but Aggers didn't know where or to what...

Made it to Tyumen

We arrived right on time on Friday morning at Tyumen, and were met by quite a welcoming party, given it was 6.40 in the morning. We were expecting Olga's friend Tania, as we would be staying at her flat, but Olga's Aunt Natasha was there with her sister, and Olga's cousins Mikhail and Sasha and Sasha's boyfriend Sergei. That certainly made my life easier when it came to carrying the luggage!
We went back to bed at Tania's for a couple of hours, then went into the centre of Tyumen for a wander about, and to find the new Tigress office, as they've moved since I was last here. We did a bit of shopping in a department store then went back to Tania's, as Olga's friends were coming over to visit. That turned in to a long old evening, Olga and I eventually retired at 4.15am! Lara had gone to bed at 10.30pm, which is actually 5.30 in the UK, it's all a bit confusing as to how her body clock is working. She is understandably confused and woke again at midnight, so she came back to the party for an hour, then woke again at 2am, and we resorted to Calpol and she got off to a good sleep until 7.40ish.
Needless to say we were rather jaded on Saturday and just vegged out in the flat until 5.30, when we took Tania and her daughter, Ira, out for a meal. Tania had suggested sushi, there are three sushi restaurants in the same area in the centre, it must be the "in-thing" at the moment. 9 year old Ira was rather more keen on going to the McDonalds that was nearby!
After the meal we went to the railway station to meet Olga's mum, her train was dead on time (I'm learning that despite the size of the country, the trains seem to always be on time!) and she was of course delighted to meet Lara (and Olga and I!). After buying tickets for our trains to Ekaterinburg (Olga, Luda and Lara on Monday, me on Saturday - oh, here's a lesson for First Great Western, a first-class single ticket for a 5 hour journey is 470 roubles, or £10), we went back to the flat, and this time only stayed up till 1.20am - an early night!
Sunday's itinery called for us to meet up with Olga's family in town. There was Uncle Victor, Sasha & Sergei, and Mikhail and his wife Natasha. We had a lovely meal in a bar, and the vodka toasts started. I will admit to being a little worse for wear by the time we got back to Tania's, and Olga arranged the taxi that would take me to my hotel in Tyumen where I am now. There was a little difficulty checking-in, not helped by me letting the battery on my mobile run out so Olga couldn't contact me to see that I'd arrived safely, but she did phone the hotel at just the right moment, as I was trying to check-in but the staff needed some proof of where I'd been staying since we arrived in Russia, which I didn't have. Olga sorted it out over the phone with them and promised to bring our train tickets from Moscow in this morning.
So I got up at 6am - no mean feat considering the mess I was last night! - and Olga arrived about half-past. We sorted things out with the hotel, and I went with the ladies to the station in Tania's car to help them with their luggage. As usual the train was on time, and Tania dropped me back at the hotel. After a quick breakfast I went back to bed for an hour, then walked the half mile to the Tigress office. I will admit to feeling a little ropey during the day and have learnt not to try and keep pace with Uncle Victor when the vodka arrives.
Olga phoned at 5pm to say they had safely arrived in Lesnoy after the 5 hour train journey and 4 hour coach trip. They had paid a porter at the railway station around £12 to carry their bags to the coach station, about a 5 minute walk when you've not got any bags but an unthinkable task with two heavy holdalls, a changing bag, a pram and a baby. Luda's neighbour met them at the coach stop in Lesnoy, and the plan is for a friend of Luda to drive them back to Ekaterinburg on Saturday, so hopefully they won't have to struggle with the bags too much. I suspect it's an early night for everyone tonight, except me, as I only realised at 10.30pm that I get free internet access (I hope it's free) in my hotel room, so I thought you were overdue an update.
I've put a selection of photos in a new web album, or click on the slideshow below:



The rest of the week should be pretty straightforward I think. The Tigress boss here, Andrei, is planning to take me fishing tomorrow evening, and at some point Uncle Victor wants to take me out to play Russian Billiards. I've asked Andrei if he'll join us as translator, and more importantly, as a wingman who'll remind me not to match Victor when the vodka arrives!

I've been able to keep up with other blogs, like Anton's and Eve's - please sponsor Anton for his 3 Peaks Yacht Race if you haven't done already (have I? I can't remember! If not, I will!)

Wagons roll!!

We're an hour into the 36 hour train journey from Moscow to Tyumen. We have our own little 2 berth cabin, and it's a lovely evening to watch the scenery slip by. It's mostly trees and Olga reckons that will be the story fo much of the journey.
We've ordered our meal for tonight, included in the price, a 2 course meal with 100ml of vodka included (Olga's having juice, don't worry!). We've brought supplies on board with us too, food,booze and water aplenty.
I'm still using my PDA to post this blog, so for now you'll just have to do with a blurred photo of my can of G&T and Lara playing. More later, as and when a GPRS signal allows.