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

Photo of the Month

One of the things I miss about Russia is the guarantee of snow and the beauty it can bring.

Crisis? What Crisis?

President Putin's major end of year press conference glossed over the current situation in Russia, almost echoing Jim Сallaghan's dismissiveness, paraphrased and immortalised in the Sun headline, "Crisis? What Crisis?"

source

So, what's the feeling among 'ordinary Russians'?

Ouch!

When the Rouble started falling last Tuesday (16/12/14), I saw that the Apple shop was down.

16/12/14 offline

So...

It almost brings a tear to my eye...

... well, not quite. The Guardian reports that the tumbling Rouble saw the owners of two English football clubs take big hits.

Alisher Usmanov, Arsenal owner, lost £517million over 48 hours. I don't know who to feel sorrier for; him, down to his last £8.5bn, or the Arsenal fans who may have to continue complaining about the club's reluctance to spend freely in the transfer market.

Usmanov

Meanwhile...

Masyanya

Masyanya (Масяня) is a popular Russian cartoon character created by Oleg Kuvaev and his mult.ru studio and first appeared in 2001 on the Internet.

I can't stand New Year.

the evil eye...

It's been in the news that, in honour of the final Hobbit film having its Russian premier, an art group, Svechenie, had wanted to place a holographic Eye of Sauron on a Moscow skyscraper to mark the occasion.

The proposed design.

However...