abs塑料壳行程开关:]莫斯科平民的周末 【图】

Greetings everyone!

My name is Val. I come from Moscow where I live with my husband, son and dog in a two-roomed apartment. Actually, when we rented it, it used to be a single roomed one! All in all, we enjoy our lodge. Acute shortage of living space is always felt when our parents pay visits, especially my dad. He has a unique habit of getting his niche whenever he comes around. Unfortunately, the day I will talk about wont involve any of our parents’ occasional visits.  Our weekends are the only time we have to catch up with most of the events we miss during the week. December 10th was such a day…

We all wake up according to “the Kid’s alarm clock”, regardless of our individual wishes.

Our baby’s name is Fedor Mikhailovich. I chose the name and my husband confirmed it. Simply like that without any surname.

The first thing F.M. (Fedor Mikhailovich) does is to climb on to our bed. My husband and I sleep “under the cieling”, which we call “the second floor.” The way up for F.M. looks hard, but for him the more interesting it is. To the right you can see part of Misha’s face.

On the “first floor” slept our godmother Marina Eduardovna. I will talk about her later. Lets meet the other member of the family. Our loving dog is called Viva Marsellaise. Named after his breed – Marceau.

The breed Marceau – the Irish Setter, is a dog breed with special characteristics. Its the kind of hugging and kissing dog. Actually we have a dog and “puppy” (F.M.). They are always here and there, crowding everywhere in the house. Here they are taking gifts from our godmother.

The first person to have breakfast is F.M. As he tries to select a spoon from our “Napoleon” collection, Misha has already got the porridge in his mouth.

Later on the older generation sits to table for breakfast. Since the weekend is here, that means its my day for proper feeding. During the other days I eat chicory with milk. That is I drink it, but for me that is a meal. Coffee is a mandatory ritual in our family. Thanks to our parents who gave us the coffee machine.

M.E. (Marina Eduardovna) came with goodies.  This sweet sour milk cake known as “snack” was brought all the way from Vladimir. Once you try this cake you always get addicted to it.

From the same basket are these jellied fruits.

We hastily get done with breakfast so as to be on time for the first event of the day. And here is the object for the event!

We are going to test-drive a car! I have been desperately trying to choose a car for myself. But I do not  find the new brands to be better than my old locally made one which I have to sell. I did not like tis grey one either. I am upset. M.E. gets the chance to sit in the place that has been attracting her for several months now.

Meanwhile, F.M. after sitting in all the cars and turning on and off the emergency lights of each vehicle, went to the kids’ section, where he has stuff to do.

Then time comes for us to go for another test-drive at Yaroslavka. There we will test a Volkswagen Jetta.

At the VW Salon, F.M. is also busy trying to select his own car. He also seems not decided on which one to take along with him.

M.E. finds a gigantic pyramid.

And here is my toy.

The car is pleasant in all aspects except for the fact that it consumes 15 litres of 95 type gasoline instead of my preferred 98 type. This made me to chill a bit.

Meanwhile, here is the locally made Lada № 5! It is often referred to as “any other mode of transport.” I tried driving it once but the trials ended almost immediately. My attitude to this car is always negative. Its always noisy, at times something might be leaking here or there, sometimes the doors open and at other times they do not. Misha really loves the Lada, its easy for him to handle. Its saddening that he has been driving us all this time here and there when I cannot choose a real car for myself.

F.M. tries out his new “Beetle” 1976 model car.

Off we go for lunch. First of all F.M. takes the wipes and napkins to wipe his first present. Cleanliness for him should be everywhere.

The kid loves the dumplings and potatoes served at this place.

The place is a Japanese restaurant. A typical concept of Misha. I do not eat this kind of food.

Its half past one. Misha and F.M. go home. Leaving me and M.E. behind.

We go to Kropotkin and M.E. is surprised to discover her “unknown uncle” in the background. Let me tell you a bit more about M.E. We met with her while I was still at the Polytechnic where I studied Journalism. She used to be a lecturer there. M.E. ended up not only being our teacher with my husband but also a great family friend and godmother when F.M. was born.

Let me remind you that today is December 10th. Misha and M.E.’s daughter striclty instructed us not to take part in the political rallies that were taking place. We would have took part but since we are obedient, we decided not to. This photo is not the rally but a queue at Puskin.

We also love paintings but not that much.  I love the private collections since its easy to access. I had waited for a long time for Leibovitz collection and my dream finally came true.

And now lets get acquainted, this is me.

This indispensable friend always adds quality to my image.

As we walk around the Leibovitz exhibition, we find Kandinskiy. M.E. is very excited.

We take a photo together using the mirror at the roof only to notice the conseptual green arrow that reads “toilet”.

Meanwhile outside beauty was waiting for us. This we could not resist.

M.E. asks me to take a shot of her. When she saw the end result she whispers to me saying not to tell anyone that the photo was taken in Moscow. She asks me to say that this was taken in Paris.

As we take a walk on the HHS Bridge, we meet a crowd coming from the rally.

I thought that I was taking photos of the Kremlin only to find that I had taken shots of a convoy of specially dispatched vehicles for the rally.

And we somehow got to this bridge. We still had the urge to join the rally but since we had promised not to, we decided to go around it. Then just as we were there special anti-riot police came out of their vehicles and started swishing their batons recklessly, which I did not like.

Moscow is already decorated with Christmas trees but instead of the garlands on the streets were shiny police helmets.

As we approached the citadels, the number of policemen kept on increasing.

As the urge to join the crowd eats upon us, we meet Fedor Mikhailovich –  not ours of course, but Dostoyevsky. Ours at the moment is having his half-day meal and having fun. But this one here is sad as always.

We wanted to go to the GUM-the Main department store but Manezhnaya Square was closed for everyone because of the rally. So we decided to go and take a look at the newly reopened Bolshoi Theatre.

We could not see anything in the darkness that covered the city, so M.E. decided to do some creative experiments.

“I want him to soar!”, said M.E. I do not have an idea of what she meant by that phrase. But the result came was this.

So we decided to feel the romance of the now snowy Moscow’s public on-ground transport.

And here is our personal trolley-bus. Funny enough we were the only passengers so we personalized it.

Then we reach the street named after the Academician Korolev.  Suddenly M.E. gets happy and suddenly remembers her long gone romantic holidays. She points to a wall and tells me. “Valyusha! Valyusha!, this the same wall where the violinist Danilov used to drink beer from automatic dispensers!” I wondered whether the violinist Danilov was a ghost or a real human being.

Since we were “visitors” we could not go home empty handed.

We wanted to buy some toffees but a pastie shop got on our way.

Pasties with meat cost 37 roubles, while those ones with cheese go for 40 roubles. And our thirst for pasties was quenched.

Our lift today has some partiotic grafitti. (For Russia Motherland?) What I wonder is why the question mark?

We are met cordially. This is Nika. You have probably guessed that Nika and I studied together at the same Polytechnic where we studied with Misha.

And this is Vova. Nika’s husband. Guess where they met. Vova is F.M.’s godfather.

Behind Vova is this jigsaw puzzle that consisting of several thousand pieces. The owners have not collected it for four months now. They even say that they pieced it up while they were asleep.

Meet Asya. The landlord. She is Nika’s sister. She works at night. She has a funny working schedule. She works a whole week at night and rests for a whole week.

And here is the other landlord, Ilya. Just recently they had a very sweet wedding with Asya. Ilya is a connoisseurs of wines.

Here he shows us the Chilean wine he had bought for us.

Aska is hungry and the pre-ordered food has not yet been delivered. She is proposing we go to a Japanese restaurant together.

Vova is getting ready to leave with Aska.

When they left we found ourselves a hookah.

The food has been delivered.

The guys show us videos from their grandeous wedding.

Asya shows off her bag from Turkey.

And Ilya is wearing Asya’s sleepers. Aska and Ilya are gamers. They have very many different types of games for any occassion. But this evening he is not taking part in the gameplay.

I lose interest in the game and Nika gives me company for our own activities.

Glory be to Annie Leibovitz who does not give us peace. Just like Di Caprio with a swan, I take my try. The swan’s role is taken by a knitted flamingo offered to us as a wedding gift by Nika’s and Asya’s mother.

And here is the original photo for comparison.

Back again to the lift!

Aska is very generous. She drops each and everyone of us home.

I decide to alight with M.E. and we take a walk. This is our favorite cinema because at least the entrance here is just 90 roubles.

We did not alight for the sake of the Cinema. On the way home there a joint where we cannot enter in any way. In an intriguing way its a burlesque! We had talked too much about this spot that we had already made burlesque our common household word. A few days ago M.E. tried out a jacket and her daughter ambigously assessed it saying, “what’s that for burlesque?”

Unfortunately, the burlesque was conditionally open 24 hours. On the door was a notice written “Open. Call”. I asked M.E., “should we call?” And she replied, “No!, what if a woman in a nightdress and sandles opens? Is that really a burlesque?” And we never called.

Back home we arrive.

And the man of the house is still waiting. Not yet asleep.

And the dog performs his direct duties.
After which I hopped on to the “second floor” and fell fast asleep.
Thanks a lot for spending this day with us. Goodluck everyone!

Location: Moscow