iron

I just wanted to tell that I have bought a new Iron !



But the only thing which is strange about it is the price - 4.44£
so in Shekels it is almost 35 shah !

For this money, I dont understand how can it be sold ! Probably the transportation from china will cost even more !

For the record, while writing this lines, I didnot try it yet .. so there is probably a chance that it is not working ....

The iron desk was kindly donated to me by the landlord ...

And another thing .. this wood girl was found in my house ... near one of the safes ... all in the dust ... I have no idea how to check for its value ... so it is standing on my desk.



and for the tube issue, today I spent two hours there ... it was going too slow with huge delays ....

pacifism ?

Actually I am wondering about the pacifism symbols.

One of the house mates had a party in our house during December. There were something like 10 people from different countries while most were from Sweden.

I was really surprised to find a Arafat style scarf (black and white) on one of the swedish girls (aged 18), it was neck scarf and not the head cover. I have asked her if she knows the meaning of it and why does she puts it ... so the answer was that she find it nice and for the symbols, she has read somewhere that this is the symbol of pacifism ..... from my middle east experience, for the reasons I dont know, many Arab people wear it ....

During my city traveling, later on, I have paid attention to some people going with this things ...

This guy for example I have spotted in metro ... it was a big challenge to make a picture of him so he wouldnot pay attention ...




anyway, the question is, is this black and white scarf really symbolises anything ?
somebody to put a bit light on the topic ?

snow

First snow has arrived ! Its my first time to see snow in ... hmm ... 2 or 3 years ... the last to see it ... I have been to the Hermon mountain in Israel with my friend Elad ... actually I dont really remember when was it ....

This is the picture near the National History Museum, you can try comparing it with the one from the Christmas time ... the Ice Skating picture ... find the differences :)



Snow in London is a rear phenomena, usually the minimum temperature is around 1-2 degrees and it doesn’t go below the zero.

But once in a couple of years as the Londoners say, the snow is going here ...

So I have waked up today to see everything covered with 15mm fresh snow !
This is the picture of me walking ....


by the day time, everything melted ... but it was a nice way to start a day !

and this is what happens when you leave Lamborghini parked outside ...


I am running for the lunch ... it should be hot soup there ... see you later ...

East London

Hello People !

I haven’t been to the net for the last couple of days … too many things happen. Actually for the first ones I was ill …. caught a cold, for the next ones I was moving to a new house ….

So finally I am living the new place and I feel much better !!!

I didnot realise that I have so many things, now it becomes hard to travel ;-)

No, I am not very excited, it is really far this time (E15 East London, the origin of Cockney Accent), it takes me almost an hour to get to the college. But I don’t have any interchanges to make. I just take the tube on the one end and exit on the other. The area is not perfect ... but at least it is cheap.

The new place is an offices building so I am living in a conference room with private kitchen. The building is huge and before more people move in it is a bit spooky.
(I will put some pictures later on)

The building belongs to a very famous British colour company which supplied colours for a printing press for the last 150 years.

Probably you wouldn’t believe it, but in one of their safes I have found a note of 1 Rubl (Russian Money) dated 1864 …

And also Spanish wine bottles dated 1989. Do you think they worth something ?



Now, I can definitely show you the previous place I was living in. I wasnot putting the pictures before for some security consideration. You know, the web is a free space ;-). So this was my lovely house …





it was so sad to leave it, it is located in a great area near the Old Brompton Road. By the way, Princess Diana was living to this street just before she got married.

Over Sea Food

I have decided to help Israel economy and bought one orange peper from the Saintsbery shop !!! :-)

It discovered to be very sweet and tasty; warmly recommended.
but very expensive :(((((

.... 68p = 5,44 Shekelia which is price for each ...

Duymovochka !

Great news have just arrived from dear Hamochka !!!!

As some of you know her, she is one of my dear friends from Israel.
Hamochka and Guy live together as a happy family for the last couple of years.
She has just finished her Ph.D studies and a daughter was born to them !!!!

so this is the actual telegram, I will quote it without editing :
-------------------------------------------------
Zdravstvuite dorogie!!
K sojaleniu net vremeni poka chtoby napisat' kajdomu po otdel'nosti,
poetomu hochu srazu vsem rasskazat' ob odnoi ujasno radostnoi novosti:
7 yanvaria u nas rodilas' Duimovochka!! Poka chto tak i zovem- do
imeni ne dohodiat ruki.. I esche za 3 dnia do ee rojdenia ya
nakonec-to zakonchila svoi Doktorat (na fotke)!!
Celuyu vseh i lublu!!
S Novym Godom!!!!!!
-------------------------------------------------

CONGRATULATIONS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Russian Winter

Russian winter on Trafalgar square was celebrated this year on 13 of January. It is the third year London is hosting this event on the Trafalgar square.




This is quite famous happening in London which brings plenty of Russian speaking people together to celebrate the New Year event. The happening is considered to be daily event which took place between 10:00 to 18:00

All the happening is around the main stage and two huge screens. The square is packed with people who drink beer (Pribaltika) and eat some Russian food. All of that is widely sold around by specially opened mini market. Probably for safety reasons, the square is surrounded by police force watching the celebrating crowd.



Actually the crowd was very mixed by people from many origins; Russians, Polish, Ukrainian, Lithuanian … some French and British were also spotted.

The crowd shouted “Dayesh Poloniyutm Narodu !!!!” )))))

Me and Jan have went there to check it out and found it to be a bit boring, maybe it was really boring and maybe because we choose to drink Scottish whiskey in contradiction to everybody else ;-)


There were also other reasons for the event not to be brilliant, the sound system was so awful that we could hear only the bases of the music without any singers voices. For the “famous” singers there were Sukachev and Nogu Svelo.

Maybe to make it feeling better, the producers put fragments from the famous movie on the huge screens by the scene.



This time, short movie was also added :

the latest news

It were a couple long days, especially the first week after the holidays. Everybody are coming back and starting working again. It is more crowded in Imperial while my friends are also back working.

We have made a social meeting with my Hebrew speaking ones, to practise the language and discuss the holiday details.


The first on from the right is Ram, he is from Israel and finishing his Ph.D studies in water cleaning systems here in Imperial. He is very interesting guy, I have no idea how is he capable of making everything together, but probably he is just very talented. He has time for everything; He is married and there are already 3 sons in his family, doing Ph.D, publishing, going for a beer with us, swimming … just unbelievable time scheduling… the Hanukkah holidays he was to Israel with all of his family.

The next guy is Nir, he is very shay but extremely smart. He just started his Ph.D in special electro-biological devices here in Imperial. His desk is located not far from me. This holidays he spent with his family skiing …

The following friend has just started working here in Imperial ... for security reasons, I cannot even mention his name ;)))))


There other news are .. that my friend … the “criminal” one is out of jail for another bail and waiting for the next court appearing in march …

I have bought a new cell phone !

And I have decided not to shave any more ….

The Brick Lane market

My cell phone is making problems, I have dropped it a couple of times and probably as a result, it is not working very well. Usually I am using the Nokia phones which are considered to be very strong in any accident, but in my case nothing least long. It is quite expensive for me at this period to buy a new cell phone, on the other hand it is annoying to use a broken one. All I need from the cell phone is the call option, all the other features are not important for me, so I have decided to check for a second hand phone, which will be definitely cheaper to buy.

In order to buy a used phone, I have decided to go to Brick Lane market. This is one of the biggest London markets on the Brick Lane street with a huge collection of goodies for sale. It has almost anything, from used shoes and broken bicycles to the fruit market. This market is opened only Sunday morning and closed by 2pm.

One of the shops for antique things surprised me with its huge collections. One of it was a collection of an old books, while the book of my favourite television character made me smile. Actually I don’t like him as a person, but his charismatic and unpredicted character always bring smile on my face, and for me seeing him on the television is the favourite show.

I did not find a used phone for a reasonable price, but what did I find is the vegetable market.

The deal of that market is very simple, all the vegetables are placed in bowls (as seen on the picture) and price of each bowl is 1£. So I have bought Kiwis & Avokados and other things .. bowl for 1£ is considered to be very cheap ….

On the way home, travelling by tube, I was carrying something like seven bags. In one of the interchanges, I got out of the train but forgot a bag inside. There were plenty of people inside the train, but nobody stopped me about it. At the last moment, the girl on the platform told me that I forgot something inside the train, so I jumped in just before the doors closed and found one of my bags left. Apparently I have travelled one more stop and changed the train there …. why the hell people are so selfish ?

ORS

I have just submitted the ORS application, which is the Overseas Research Student Award. I was working on that through the last couple of weeks. It is discovered to be very hard.

This award if given, is reducing the studying fees for the oversea students to the fees of local students. Which is from 13,300£ to 3,000£. It is very competitive award and many people are applying for that. But as I have been told from trusted sources, sometimes it is all about politics inside the faculty which actually influences on the final decision on the award.

I have updated my CV, my project description was written, the recommendation letters were prepared by my supervisors ... my CV is shining from the polishing ... really ...

now it is time to pray ;-)

p.s I was to another market this weekend, hopefully I will have enough time to write about it tomorrow.

p.s.s Jan has introduced me to StrongBow, which is cider ... apple kind of drink with alcohol .. very nice ... very cheap ... very recommended.

the Soho

Yesterday evening we (me and Jan) have decided to go to Soho area to find some nice club/pub.

Actually I didn't realise that Soho area which is located 5 minutes walk from the Piccadilly circus and considered to be very famous for being fashioned and pinkie is actually Gay area.

After arriving there, all the people we were asking for a nice place with dancing music were looking on us in a strange way and telling that we have chosen a wrong area and there are no places around for straight people :-))

In a short while and walking around, we have found a place for straight people, some night club. From outside the place wasn't very interesting, it was a bit dark. At the entrance the selector girl has asked us to pay an entrance fee of 10£ each. It was a hard decision to make because Jan wanted to go, but for me it was expensive. During the discussion between us near the entrance, at some point , the selector girl had decided to let us in for a drink and give us the option to pay entrance fee later on, only if we decide to stay there for a whole evening.

From the inside, the place was much better, very colorful, warm with a nice atmosphere but not crowded, very few people. For me, it was surprising to find a few people in a nice place on Friday night. Usually Friday is considered to be the busiest evening of the week for most bars and clubs.

The reason for that was discovered later on. It was a nice smiling waiter from Lithuania to tell us in a perfect Russian language that London is actually resting after the new year celebrations. The first few weeks after the new years evening is the most quiet ones in a year with few people going out. It is so quiet in this period that many clubs prefer not to open their doors and wait for people to start clubbing again.

curriculum vitae

I am applying for different scholarships to pay for my education. One of the required and most important papers is resume. Today, after showing my current resume to my supervisor, he criticized it for not to be professional, which I agree with him. So I have spent almost all the day correcting and polishing it. By the way, CV which is Curriculum Vitae comes from Latin and means "way of life" (from wiki)

Yesterday I let one of the rooms to Jan, he should move in tomorrow ....

"is it me or is it the ship ?"

I was thinking of it for the last couple of days. The winter holidays hare are not the same as I expected it to be.

The News Year evening for me was the most important event of the year. I used to have it with the family members at the special dinner which is a great party. The party followed by the best and funniest television shows on one of the Russian channels and I liked to be stacked to the box for that. As it seems to be, the most celebrated evening of the year, The New Years Evening, is mostly celebrated only in Russian tradition.

Now it is clear that in most of the world, the Christmas Day is more important then the New Years evening. Here in London, the Christmas Day is the family day while the New Year evening is a partying with friends. Actually the New Years evening is not extremely celebrated as the Christmas day. I was really surprised to find everybody going exactly after the fireworks of the noon.

There are couple additional differences which I was amazed to find, the main one is that the Santa with his presents are coming on Christmas day. (Probably because then he has enough time to travel to Russia to be ready giving the New Years presents) And another fact is that the Christmas trees are thrown away on the next day after the holidays, which is 2 of jan ! (From my childhood memories, the tree was standing there till it was almost falling by it self … around 16-20 January)



I have decided, that on one of the days I will have to go to Russia for the New Year holidays, maybe all I see around is normal and it is my faked imagination is looking for the differences !

p.s The name for this post is quoted from the conversation of me with one of guys on the night ship which travelled Oslo->Chopenhagen a couple of years ago. We were drinking whiskey. At some point we couldn’t move straight and failed to realise if it was because of us who were drunking or because of the ship which made strange movements.

The Cola miracle

The next day after the New Years Evening I waked up after 4 hours of sleep at 8 am. I felt terrible, just screwed. I was definitely food poisoned. It was really terrible, I couldn’t sleep, just dozing. Every cup of water I was taking into was coming out after five minutes.

When I think it over, the reason wasn’t actually the alcohol because it never happened to me. (It did but not that hard.) And I wasn’t really mixing drinks … only whiskey …. So if I take 4 hours back from the moment I waked up, I remember to eat this free sandwich in the club. It was with some fish … fu** why did I take it ….. still I suspect it …

I couldn’t really move, and it wasn’t funny because I was trying to drink water but it was puked, then I tried a glass of tea … the same reaction. Sleep I couldn’t … read I couldn’t … the only thing I had left was yelling :-))) .. and I did it all day long till the evening ....

At some point I remembered my mom telling me that if there is some stomach problem caused by the food, the best thing to take is a glass of Cola but without the gases(Mom, thank you on that) . The problem was that even to try it, I had no Cola at home. Glancing on the watch, it was 17:45 which is fifteen minutes before the corner shop, 10 meters from my house is closed. I took my self out of the bed, put the sport wear and went out to the shop.

At the shop it was really funny because of my appearance. I did not wash my face, the hair messed, my clothes were sport trainers with slippers. I couldn’t move fast because everything was hurting, so all the people were thinking that I am homeless, which is almost true :-))) Anyway, the magic medicine was bought at 1.5 quid for a 1.5 litter bottle of Cola, everything is extremely expensive in my area.

For my surprise, the first glass of cola was accepted by my body without any reaction. Another one …. was accepted either …. By 9pm I was already after two glasses of tea with lemon …. By midnight I could walk and felt much better … but it is already midnight … its time to bed, I wanted to go working the day after ….

It did not work out that’s because I couldn’t fall a sleep, so I found my self at 3 am still reading and starting to feel hungry. Hungry ??? what can I eat ??… its better to eat nothing … but I felt really hungry that it was hard to fall a sleep … so I went cooking “grechka” (anybody an English word for that). By 4am I was sleeping …..

At half past eight, I was waked up by my alarm and felt like nothing really happened the day before …. Should I call it “The Cola Miracle” ??? :-))))

New Years evening

The last two days were unbelievable, I will never forget it .... especially the next day ....

The New Years evening has started for me around 8:00 pm, at the Jasons house. Jason is Greek guy who is working here in the institute, he with his girlfriend Anna who is also working here have made a home party and invited everybody around the institute, apparently it were only 6-7 persons who actually stayed in London. Jason cooked a couple of really nice dishes and the dinner was great with red wine, some Greek traditional drink and a lot of fun.

Around ten o'clock I decided to go because I wanted to reach the Thames river and the Trafalgar square to see the famous London's fireworks (which started only few years ago). I text my friend Jan, who was already in London. We met around eleven near the Green Park which is close to Buckingham palace and a thirty minutes away from the Trafalgar Square.

It was amazing, so crowdy, thousands ! It was impossible to get any close to Thames because police shut the path walks and didn't let the people in. Ten minutes to midnight, we decided that we had enough walking and stayed 300 meters from the BigBen.

The atmosphere was great, the people happy, plenty of champagne bottles were opened.
At midnight BigBen made his dong sound and the fireworks started ! the crowd started shouting and many people kissing ! Huge fireworks, very beautiful ... while, lucky us, the building in front of us was closing half of the view .... :-(

As it all finished, everybody has started going to parties and home. Me wanted to go some club in Piccadilly but I forgot the map and the address of the place ! uffff ! I printed it and forgot it in the bag at home !

On the way back home around 1am, just near my house, we saw a Russian club. The entrance was 25 quid, I didn't want to go because it is expensive, but my friend payed for me so I didn't mind :-)))

We had a trouble getting in, there were only booked persons allowed, so I just pointed to some name at the guest list and told them that them is actually us :-)))

When we got in, we have discovered the club to be really bad ... the place is tiny, the music was awful, the guys were strange and he girls were so so. We stayed there till 4am a bit dancing a bit drinking and a bit discussing the people :-)) (I think ater this experience we need to open a private & exclusive club here ... )

The were also small sandwiches served with some fish ....

around 4 I came home and fall a sleep ..... then waked up a couple of hours later and discovered that I am in a real trouble .... any ideas why ?