New Year's Eve - Russian-style in the UK

New Year in Russia is a bit like Christmas in the UK. It's the day when you tidy ready for a clean New Year, exchange for presents and consume a belt-breaking quantity of food.


This year, Lily had to do a mad rush on her business on the 31st so while she busied herself with that, I busied myself with the food and the tidy up.

Before we could get to...

Champagne and the Kremlin

We had...

Getting ready for New Year... Russian-style

So here I am on a bitterly cold, icy Sunday morning in Sheffield. I could've been doing so many relaxing things... sipping tea while reading a Sunday newspaper, taking the dog for a walk (I don't have a dog, but it sounds relaxing, but I'll make do by watching idiots freezing their ass off taking their whippets for a walk) or watching TV (then again, it's Sunday morning and a choice of religion, cartoons or cooking - that's separately of course, together would be kind of weird... a Bible-bashing Bugs Bunny baking biscuits?). But no, with just four days till New Year, talk has turned to the preparations. There's a Russian in the house... peanuts, crisps and booze will not suffice...

Happy New Year!

Concerned parents

My in-laws, in Siberia, sent several messages because they were worried about us after seeing Sheffield on the Russian news and how it had been affected by the snow.

Sheffield, Dec. 2014

Squirrels, metaphorically speaking

Lily and I are trying to declutter. We'd been acquiring stuff in the way typical of many new-weds, for whom money isn't free-flowing and life plans change with the seasons. 'We'll take it' and 'we'll keep it, just in case' saw us become overwhelmed by possessions... two washing machines, three Christmas trees (yes, seriously), a printer for which we have no cables or adapter. Insane! Now... ebay if it's worth something, recycling if it's beyond repair in the damp cellar and charity for things that we can't be arsed to deal with any other way. All this got me thinking about stuff and the British and Russian attitudes.

A Siberian squirrel.

Russian food in the UK

When you live abroad for a while, especially when you're talking years, you pick up a taste for the local food, eating habits which stay with you. You miss elements of British food and certain products when you're over there - I remember wanting malt loaf for about a month and having to make do with a dark, fruit bread. Equally, this leads to similar quests for particular delicacies back in Britain...

beer snacks