spring break sharm
Went to Sharm-el-Sheik (the red sea) Egypt and Cairo with my sister. Went to relax, get away from the snow, and the hustle and bustle, and the snow, the daily grind, the snow, my stress in trading stocks, the snow, the stress of being me, and of course..the snow! I am relaxing....sleeping...enjoying life. You don't get too many serine moments like this...moments you look at later to remind yourself to take it easy sometimes. Simple things make me happy. That was and will always be the truth. This was a birthday treat which would not have been possible without my sister Faiza. In fact a lot of things would not be possible without her love and support. Thanks sis.
Its my birthday too...yeah (28)
My sister is in town and after a stressful afternoon, we went to Mulino and had a nice Birthday dinner with some of my faovrite people in Moscow. Dima and his whole family and Pete were there. Dima's little daughter made me a special hat. It was really sweet. They ordered the really expensive 'love cup' desert. its tons of fruits and ice creams. My sister loved it but of course we didn't finish it.
Gosh...28....I'm getting up there. My dad got married at 28, so did my friend steve. I'm 10 years out from High School. Depeche released Music for the masses when they were 28. I'm a 1/3 of the way to 90! I know I'm not young, but I'm not unhappy either. Its nice to be stable, confident, and know more about yourself and what you want or need. Thanks for everyone and their calls and well wishes. People, esp our friends/loved ones are always the best gifts in life. They are magical in the sense that with their actions they have the ability to change your life....forever. One phone call or comment such as "join my band" or "I need a roomate"..or even "i love you"... can set a path and change your life's course. Thank to everyone who makes it all special....see you soon.
They say its your birthday
just came back from Dima's birthday party. Faiza just arrived today and she's already freaked out about Moscow. Yes, its really strange and differnt from the states, but......she's learning quickly that it can be comfortable and even fun.
Dima's birthday was Brazillian/beach theame. Dima wanted to make it a joint Bday party for the both of it...well it sorta was in spirit but I didn't want all that attention. So I got dressed up in my lame tan suit and Faiza got her gear on and we went out. MY driver thought we were a bit nuts, considering that I was wearing sandles in the middle of a snow storm. Anything for a party.
It was a really fun night and Faiza was really happy that it seemd like the people she read about in this blog were generally really nice to me, and really were obvious that they enjoy my company. All the guys were there with their wifes and it was nice to have someone from the hometeam here with me. If I wanted to be introverted I could always jut chat with her and sit in the corner and also people I know here can get to see me in a different light.
Dima was happy I showed up. Right at the get go we swapped gifts. Faiza bought hima bunch of DVDS from the states and I know he will really love them. He has this tiny movie studio in his huge house so he said we should come over tomorrow to hang out. His wife courtney is super sweet and was genearlly really happy to see me. I had a good time.
For a birthday party it was over the top, salsa dancing, cha cha lines, limbo, sheesha, and tons of fruit/salad and apple juice for everyone.
Another good thing about not going to these functions alone is that you can blame each other one why you have to leave early....faiza was jet lagged, or Farhan is gearing up for his bday.....it was easier to make a quick getaway.
Then we went on a late night drive around Moscow. I was really excited to show my sister my new home. Its a really beautiful place, esp esp at night with the Kremlin all lit up and the nice homes along the river...the KGB building, the Bulshoi. We are going to the Bulshoi next thursday to see the ballet. I'm keeping an open mind. Chad you remember all these places...I may even take her to the Ararat Conservatory coffee house. Amazing view from. Its great to share your home, life with people. It makes the experience more real and esp more fun. I'm glad my sister came to visit. Now lets hope we don't kill each other :)
here comes the sun
we all got excited at work....pete jumped out of his chair. this is the view through the office window the day the sun came out. I had, no more like we all had the biggest smiles on our faces. I havn't felt warmth since September. I'm going to shortly when I'm off to Sharm El Sheik and Egypt next week.
The was take throught the window with my telephone. This photo still makes me smile. Right now as I speak on one of the random satilite tv channels, I've stumbled upon Conan O'Brian show. I love Conan, his humour is sadly like my own. Enough about Tv, let me bask in the sun...if only in a photo.
oh my god its lunch
all of a sudden me and pete got really really excited that it was lunch time. We ran downtairs for the first time to the cafeteria. You see we are traders and we don't leave the desk during the day....at all cause we can't. Esp pete since he's the head trader at our company.
There was this russian food buffet and Pete was just ready to explode with excitement. I thought it looked....well not my stuff, but I was SOO exicited for him. We ran around the cafeteria like children who just discovered that they were in toyland. I never was more excited about getting lunch as I was that day.
We went up stairs and I ate my salad and Banana and pete has his russian stuff.
Pete then turned to me and said "why were we just sooo excited about lunch" and I said "I HAVE NO IDEEA!" we laughed and ate in silence...hah . Its nice to be excitable. Thats a good word to describe me at times. My friends in college (freshman year) for my birthday got me a swiss army knife with the encription engraved "are you excited?" I've since lost the knife and some of the excitement of my younger years but in a moment of complete insanity.....I'm ready with the best of the them....to grab...lunch
Learning life's lessons w/ Poison
Sommetimes people can suprise you....and those are usually some of the best suprises. Tim had made plans with his friend allen and his model fiance monkia to go to this new place called "poison" on its opening night. As we got closer to the end of the work day, tim jestured to me to invite maria (masha) to come out with us. Everyone at work knows that I have probably the best relationship with the new girl in the office. The main reason is probably because I have no alterier motives and well, i used be an assistant and I've been trying to help ease her into the role. So anyways I invited her to come out with us.
Now this poison place was insane. It was all over the place. I was told that the idea was fusion of this was something else. It was two stories, the first floor was this sushi bar where we sat at. But it really WASN'T a sushi bar. The waitstaff were all dressed up in native russian clothes and they had a sign featuring their famous "mohijtos"(brazilian drink). Then they brought in these roasted pigs and placed them on this huge table and told us that we could have all we can eat pig and russian pancakes. I passed.
They then had these Gypsy singers and dancers come into the place and play with their loud accustic guitars as the did their tap dance. There was a photographer from the moscow times taking pictures of us since they were trying to get publicity for this new resturant. We must have left too soon cause later on I read that they brought a dancing bear (YES! A REAL BEAR) for the opening. Gosh, I'm kicking myself for missing that one!
Tim and I started talking about our pasts, how he dropped out of college to live with a community of actors and sell christmas trees in california. His point was that by selling trees, he learned real world experience and learned about sales. Masha then told us a story about during soviet times when she was 8 she used to pick flowers from near her house and sell them on the subway. She used to use the money to buy her and her friends ice creams. She then started to talk about her job with her boss and started to slag off this other girl who does the same job but sabotoges her. The thing with masha is that when she talks english she comes across as very passonate and sometimes a bit...harsh.
You could tell in tim's eyes that we was startled. Allen and his finance showed up and we rejigged the seating cause I guess tim felt uncomfortable talking to his employee so directly about work and cause allen is a friend. I sat with the flower seller at the other end of the table.
Its funny when you are someone who doesn't like to talk about yourself, you end up asking people tons of questions...I know about that all to well actually. So anyways she started right away asking me all sorts of questions about london and all that's been going on with me. I don't know why but since she is a stranger to everyone it felt really easy to talk to her. She didn't know anyone I was talking about so I told her about my insecurities about our office, and even
went a bit deeper and talked about the last few weeks...etc.
It was nice to have someone..an outsider to tell you when you are being a horse's ass. She basically told me to stop pretending to be this vast victim and that the recent events were partially my fault and I should be more responsible. She had a point. Someone I know is upset with me and she was right.. I was being too selfish to complain about how ackward I have to feel now. I guess by being removed from the situation and now knowing me it was easy for her to tell me how it is. I wanted to talk to her and see how she was doing and what she was feeling, but she wasn't too interested to talk about herself. She said she liked being someone people can talk to, a mini shrink, but had nothing to say about herself. I knew how she felt cause i've played that role before.
But yeah, it was great to talk to someone and have someone that doesn't know me well telling me the truth, that sometimes we are all a bit selfish and hurt people, but its up to us to be responsible for what we do.
And in regards to not wanting to talk about myself. Well, I think I'm obviously getting better at that. I wouldn't have started a blog if I didn't feel like writing about my thoughts and my life. I think I'm more curious now than ever about how I really feel and think about things. I feel more open and honest with people about what i've gone through and I'm usually suprised about some of the stories I havn't told people yet when I thought all the things that have happened to me were already common knowledge. Did I ever tell everyone the story about being following in a car by a bunch of skinheads in Illinois with John Kwag? he may remember..but that story again is for another day.
Stop! or else I'll shoot
In Naperville over winter break. I like this picture. Although its blurry, I still like it. Chad for some reason is shooting my friend jenny...I don't know why.
I have written up stories for the last few weeks but I'm tired and I just wanted to post this photo.
cheers
Happy Maslitsney - Don't punch me
Starting from Monday, it will be time yet again for the annual 7 week russian fast. During the next 7 weeks Russian Orthodox will refrain from eating meat, chicken, fish, eggs, diary, sex, drinking...basically its time for lent. Now working with functional alcholics makes it really hard for them to go thorugh these 7 weeks. Now alas everyone doesn't have to be religious. There is something sorta like this in the muslim faith but sadly I either do the minimum or forget all about it. I'm not the world's most religous man. These guys are relgious (funny that) and will TRY to stick to this plan. Starting from Monday there will be special menus at lunch, bars will have less hours and russian will sober up for a while.
So this week, before the whole lent happens, russian party like there is no tomorrow. Its Bellini week (russian pancakes). People feat with russian pancakes and caviar and resturants have free buffets as they unload all their meet and dairy before the next 7 weeks start up. The guys decided to celebrate by having pancake night at this really neat Russian resurant near my house. Its been a while since i've had a russian meal. Now a typical russian meal consists of two things, bread and tons of vodka. Not just regular voda drinking, but toasts. Russian love to make toasts at huge gatherings. They start out being really simple like "a toast to us for gathering again" but as teh night goes on, the toasts become more personal, more poigniant and really unbelivable dramatic. I took Dan and Sarah and her family to a russian dinner. I told them about the whole toast tradition and I remember Dan really getting into it. haha. I knew he TOTALLY would. You can't be at a russian dinner without being ready to pour out. Its kinda nice.
So the night progressed and all us guys got together before the 7 week hibernation. There was music playing (russian music) and nick and alex (whose in the photo) started to sing along to all the songs. All the songs were really depressing. This one cheerful number I thought would be the exeception. i asked peter about what they lyrics were about. Supposedly its about a woman who is telling her man that she can't wait for him to tell her "lets run away from this town". So the guy comes and says "lets run away from this town" and she really happy. But then he tells her "oh yeah, BTW I have a wife, but...um...wanna just be a lover instead of my life" she says no and sings about how she thought it was love but the guy was with someone else instead....sad sad sad.
Dicky was in town (Richard) and he was all excited about the sucess of chelsea's football (soccer) team in london. Dicky knows the owner (a russian guy, the richest guy in the UK) and helped to run the team. Dicky said I should take part in this fast to help our friends out. Maybe I will. I mean its an experience and I'm all about new experiences. I like to try out differnt things and open my mind to new and differnt points of view. I guess I'm still a very curious person and not willing to write what I know and what I like in stone.
One strange things about Maslitsney (lent) is that in the outskits of moscow and in russia, on the saturday before the fast. Russian young men get together and get rip roaringly drunk. Then afterwards they go out to a field, take their shirts off and beat the living crap out of each other. Its their own form of drunken boxing or more appropiately...their version of fight club....but drunk. They beat each other for a few ours and then go home, patch up the blood and go to church to get ready. Now I've heard of other ways of atonement, but this is truely bizarre. nick was really into this tradition (althogh never saw or participated since he grew up in the bronx) and was hoping that we'd all go out and do something like this. The idea was quickly and thankfully shut down...and the night continued.
I ducked out early and was happy that my home was a block away. I went home, feeling warm and started to prepare myself for the meatless weeks ahead.
Love from Budapest
"Szeretueui Kimosmi a ruhdwat. (newi szdwaz tirititast rieb)"
Anything is possible....Thanks dan :)
ramdom photos
I miss my niece, sofia is now almost 6! She has a little sister named Aliza but we call her lizzy. Lizzy and sofi. Whenever there was anyone's party, she's be there to blow out the candles. I think this was to celebrate my first job..ever! Sofi likes cupcakes, so we got cupcakes.
BTW,I home now and I'm not working today. Instead of uploaded my blogs for the last week, I just wanted to post some ramdom photos. I'll post my uk trip eventually, when I have the time. I just called the office (its 3:45pm here) to check in. Nick yells at me "well look who decided to check in!" and laughed. Well, at least I called right? I'm not in the mood to work today. I just want to read and relax and look at old photos
Here is another picture of the old gang going to philadelphia. As you can all already tell, I can't spell and I'm lazy with fixing typos. I'm sorry to all of you who can't stand read it like that, but tough. We had a good time in Philadelphia. We went to see the band the Church and we walked all around town. Its a nice city and I do remember it being a bit chilly outside. I don't know when this actually happened, but I do remember mick (sarah's bearded brother) of course tagging along and having a good time with us. Micks as great guy and used to play with me and dan in edge to life. He was part of our last show. Its been almost 5 years since edge to life played last....
And finally, a photo of me and chad. We were out painting the town red. We had dinner with Susan and Kelly in chicago. We all got dressed up and had a good time. Everyone got along really well with each other and there were so many funny stories that night. I think me and chad thought it would be funny to bring them together. Susan and Kelly at not very similar people and me and Susan in particular have had our moments. Susan had the ability to say really offensive opinionated things at a drop of hat. We thought if we brought everyone together, the chemistry would be hilarious. There was nothing toxic at all about the night and we all had a good time. Chad was enjoying Susan company and was counsciously enjoying being with her, I was with my friends kelly and Chad not consciously thinking about couplehood or anything of that nature at that moment. Later on Chad told me that Susan thought kelly was sweet and in particular picked up the vibe that either me and her were "together" or that really wanted to be so and it was a matter of time. Kelly later on that night told me that she picked up the vibe that chad and susan were just friends and that was it......poor chad.
who needs pricey love like that
"Whats' the price of love got to do with love, whats the price of love got to do with much....all I know..is what I'm told."
Went to see Client and Erasure live at the Hammersmith Apollo in London. Out of all the bands I have known and loved for many many years, Erasure is the one band I've never seen live. There were two times where I almost saw them but events out of my control prevented me from seeing them. Whether it was John Kwags late train or me being away for some other reason. There was always a reason not to see them live. I wasn't going to miss this chance, seeing that I was in london and all and esp since Client was opening up for them.
I really like Client. Their new album is really good and I was curious about their live show. They dressed up at flight attendants with a sexy intentional edge. Me and Dan met up with Client and Andy Fletcher in NY a few years ago. We were quite taken a back about how nice Sarah Blackwood was...considering how she represented something to us fellow synthpopers back in college. The ever famous "dubstar" chick refernce of Illini Hall. I don't remember the whole story and its not important anymore.
"So I really got into Client's set. They played nothing up uptempo songs and had a really strong set. The other girl in the band was playing this novation synth controller but I couldn't figure out if she was playing live or not. I mean she is managed by Andy Fletcher, so maybe he told her there was no need to play live. I don't know...
Before Erasure got on stage I was convinced I was going to have a heart attack or my legs were going to give out before the show began. I thought maybe I was cursed and I was never going to see them live. A completly irrational thought. The second the curtain came up I was releaved...but I think I need to see them again cause I was still worried thorughout the whole show..
Erasure's set was very eloborate and I took a lot of nice photos. I was REALLY close to the state and stood the whole night through the show. It was nice that the security guards were passing out glasses of water throughout the show. I won't go into the set list or describe the settings but it was truely erasure. What was interesting were the songs they choose. There were whole albums (even new ones!) that they completly did not play a single song off of. I always find that interesting....the songs bands choose to play live. They played a mix of the hits and the non typical non poppy songs. Erasure have their own share of over the top love songs that are...cheezy but fun. They also have some serious songs that have more deeper lyrics. I'm glad they focused more on those. They also played my current favorite erasure song. Its funny, I used to have another favorite song by them...one of those hookey mushy unrequited love songs of theirs. Now I like on of their edgier less obvious songs more. I wouldn't even mind remaking it one day. Its funny that way about synthpop. I was all about the gooey lovey unrequited love songs when I was 14. now that I'm 14 years older I more interested in more enigmatic themes, or songs where the sounds have more feeling than the actual words.
Speaking of love song, edge to life is trying to write one as we speak...for a change. We are in the early stages but I hope we can pen one out. We are both older and should be able to squeeze out something out of our lives. There are some love songs that are better than others. Right now the song Breathless by Nick Cave is my current favorite. Its a bit cheezy but not. its real and I find his emotions and what his singing about to be genuine. I'm scared we won't come across that way but I think we'll figure something out. If not we'll just end up playing "Amaesthesia" by the church.
Manx
Gosh, I can't believe how early I had to wake up today. But instead of being bitter about it..I'm out of my head with excitement. I have a flight leaving Gatwick airport at 9:50 am to go to the Isle of Man. Now Gatwick if one of 4 airport in London (heathrow the closest to the west, Luton to the north, Stanstead to the eat and Gatwick to the south). There is a speed train that goes to Gatwick from Victoria, its a 30 min ride. So I woke up, just packed my messenger bag with a Q magazine that I bought last night and left to go to the Isle of Man for.....Lunch. Yes, I fly out of Gatwich at 9:40am and fly back to Gatwick at 2:30pm. Just enought time for a quick stroll and Lunch with my client.
So I'm at the airport, enjoying my starbucks and bought a nice new tie for my lunch date...then all of a sudden I realize that its 9:35 am and I really should be boarding my plane. I panic and run around the airport to find my gate. The signs were SOOO confusing...I walked around in a huge circle on 2 differnt floors looking for my gate. when I realized that I did a huge loop I yelled out a 4 letter word and paniced..it was 9:42 am and they were paging me. I finally found my
gate, everyone on the plane was happy and we shut the door and were on our way. Oh, its was really cold and snowing! in London. Its very rare that it snows in London so that was odd in the first place.
The flight was really quick and in the plane were Isle of Man magainzes filled with articles about off shore accounts or finances. It turns out that the Isle of Man is a tax haven. The maximum amount of income tax anyone will pay is in total 18%. Thats amazing if you are a millionare. Even in teh states most millionare pay like 35 - 45% in taxes. If you are just an average person living on the Isle of Man, you pay a maximum of 10% tax. Russian Income taxes are 13% but since i'm an american I have to still pay US imcome taxes...we are one of the few countries that stipulate that no matter where you live, if you are our citizen, we want our money!
I arrive at this tiny tiny airport where again all the adverts in the place are for offshore accounts and dodging you taxes. I find a taxi stand and mr Ray Kelly, a native from the isle of man was my driver. He asked me where I wanted to go and I had NO idea where to go. It was around 10:40am and I have an hour to kill before I met up with
Richard at his offices. He took me on a driving tour of the Isle of Man and told me all about the Island.
We were on our way to Douglas, one of the main towns on the island. The Isle of Man is twice bigger than any of the Jersey Island where are the more famous islands that are not part of the mainland. The Isle of Man has its own government, its own stamps and its own money! Its still the british pound but it has all these other deocration on them.
How can an Island of 75K people deserve its own money and stamps. Napervile has 2.5 times more people than the Isle of Man.
There is virtually no unemployment or (.4%) The people that are not employed are so by choice (arond 195 people!). I guess some people just don't want to work. Lucky them. Its costs more to fly to and from the Isle of Man than it is to fly from anyone in the UK to anyone in Europe. That is the part that really sucks. Also there is only 1 movie theatre on the whole island that plays only 2 movies. The poeple or the Isle of man are called MANXMAN, as the local call the Isle of man MANX. I don't think any bands really play on the Isle of man so that would really blow
for me. Even though I'm in Moscow there are acts that are coming her to play. (st. etiene, client, camouflage, front 242..etc). I'm really digressing here.
I thought the island was beautiful. I went for a long walk around the pier. Saw all the boats that were docked in the marina (you don't pay taxes on your boat if its docked there) and walked alone along the beach. It looked like Brighton and it reminded me of the fun times I had with my old roomates in London. The building were all white and the weather was warm and sunny! THe thing I couldn't stop feeling was total and utter excitement of being in a new place. It was a feeling that I haven't had in so many years. I felt like it was 2001 all over again. I was a curious kid who wanted to explorer and find out as much as I could about this new and amazing place I was. I wanted to see everything and just experience the excitement of it all. Also, just like I felt in 2001, but maybe this time a lot strong....I really wished I could have shared this experience with my loved ones. Thats the things, when someting amazing or joyous happens, to me, its always nice if I could have shared it. It makes the memory more real almost.
I met up with Richard finally and he was a young kid, around my age who just happened to be a really important client. We sat around, laughed, and had a really nice talk. At first we talked about business but then
we started to talk like...comrads almost. He's getting married in May and he's scared about his future wife. They live on this island and she's miserable. He needs to be there for his work but he also wants to be with her. He doesn't know what to do or how much longer she will
like to be there. I mean, they are married and thats important. My mother was really depressed when we moved to Korea. It got so bad that after a few months she thought about moving back alone to the states..but she finally found her world, her salvation which was this teaching job at this children's school in Seoul. I told Richard that maybe if she can find something that's hers, she may feel better. Its one things to be there for someone and to support them, but we all have our own lives and you can't make your life be about someone...well at least not 100% of the time. Richard is really worried but he'll work it out. He wants to come to Russia and check it out. I hope he comes to visit. It would be nice to chat with him again....besides the daily $1m of stock trading he does with us.
After Lunch I went for another walk around the town with richard and said our goodbyes. Went straight to the airport and boarded my flight back to London. Waiting for me was Natalia and her clients as I had another client event to go to that night. I went back to cold, wintery
london feeling happy about my short visit but also tired. After a 1 hour nap in the hotel I went to mayfair to meet everyone for dinner. Dinner was uneventful and our UBS after dinner recap of events was short. I kinda drove Natalia crazy cause after the clients left I kept talking about the Isle of Man. The phrase Isle of Man was stuck in my head and I kept saying it over and over. She thought I was a wierdo. Its strange to see each other in person but alas we had business to
do...no matter how strange of a mood I was in. I'm glad I went to someplace new and relived the excitement that I thought was long gone. Good day today.
castle in the water
The Isle of Man, walking along the water in Douglas the Isle of Man. I'll write up the story later...
.....going underground.....
I couldn't sleep last night....reason being...i think I lost my ATM card. Now I'm going to my own personal shopper paradice and my citibank atm card where a majority of my money is goes missing. I'm thinking to myself...did I leave it at that cafe on Sunday? I started thinking about all these bad things happening to my account. I quickly wired some funds to my other bank account (its so easy to wire funds w/citibank) and then I called citi and they are now going to fedex me an ATM card asap. I'm still out of luck for London though....will not obsess over it. I had no acess to money today since the wire take a day. I asked pete if I could borrow some money....he said "come on farhan, don't be shy...how much you need" I gave him a number that a few years ago I would have thought would be enough money to last me for a long time. Now I needed some money for transport and entertaining clients and all these other things and in the uk your money is now 2.1 dollars = 1 pound!!! I've NEVER see it that bad. Anyways pete gave me some dollars and said not to worry about giving it back until my bank things are sorted out. These guys are like this about money. They view it as its meant for them and the people they care about and I'm really glad that I'm linked to that. When nick was unemployed for 2.5 years, pete gave him money all the time, and this is more money than I've ever made type of money. You got to help out the people you care about, life is short and maybe one day they would do the same for you if ever need be. The point of this story is not for you guys to ask me for money, its that you all need to make better friends....and don't look at me, I have no citibank card :)
I like the drive to domodedovo airport. Its in south moscow and you drive through all these forests. I mainly slept cause I was up till 4am last night panicing and packing. BTW I took just the right amount of clothes, just 1 suitcase that isn't too heavy. I'm proud of me cause I usually overpack. So I get to the airport, check in and just wait and wait. Not many airlines fly out of domodedovo and that bugs me cause its such a modern airport and its really nice compared to the soviet scary shermetevo-2. Its too bad all the direct flight from the states go to shermetevo and only pan-european flights and flihts to dubai go to domodedevo. I get scared about my friends/family arriving at shermetevo cause your first thought when you arrive is "oh god, where am I, what have I done". I actually have tried to convince my sister to take a non direct slightly longer way to moscow just so she can arrive at the better airport. Its insane. She'll be fine, its just a friggin airport and I will be there when she arrives so.. I just worried that people's first impression will never be changed and I'll spend the rest of the time they are here apoligizing for the place I live. I know it makes no sense but thats how I think. I feel a bit of pressure when people visit, sorta like I'm responsible for their freetime/vacation and the fact they spent money to come. Now when chad came, my company paid so I couldn't care less about his comfort and what he did and I had a really liberating and good time w/ him(I think he did too). I think with Faiza as I told her last night, I can just tell her to shut her pie hole cause she's my sister and I think she'll be fine too. I bought tickets to some ice skating championship for us while she is here, and there is also me and dima gigantic beach/brazilian carnival themed birthday party. Oh, and I'm also going to Cairo and Sharm-el-Sheik (on the red sea) for a week too. I hope we can also make it to Luxor but if not I'll go there again some other day... I know my dad really wants to go to Egypt and we were convinving him to try to come too but he has work. I think Egypt and Spain are the few places on the planet he wants to go too still. One day maybe..
So the flight was ok, but man its LONG! is a 4 hour flight from Moscow to London. What was neat is that before all flight take off from moscow they need to be "de-iced" which is a good! I sat right in my window seat ( I perfer window, a recent discovery, used to me an ailse man..) And I watched the man in his neat contraption de-ice the plane. It was this huge hose with a flashlight attached at the end of the hose and he just sprayed away. I think they sprayed the wing 3 times with 3 differnent mixures. I was excited but nervous about taking pictures. Sadly as a darker skinned man, I just assume that people think when I'm taking pictures its always for dodgy reasons. The unfairness of this world.
So I got off the plane, completly shattered and I hope I didn't look like how I felt. I was glad I was traveling alone and no one was on my flight....I spoke way too soon. Natasha, our head of marketing grabbed my shoulder and introduced me to her mother. I quickly tuck my shirt in and politely say hello. Then all of a sudden we run into hew jenkins who out of the 66K people at UBS, he's number 5. Huge top guy who came to moscow to basically decide if we should stay in business or not (he said yes) I said hello since I was introduced to him earlier that day and you could tell that he was polite but wanted to get out of that airport and conversation as soon as possible. Got my bag, went to the heathrow express and checked into my hotel. That Heathrow express is amazing. I arrived in London at 7:10pm and was at my hotel at 8pm.
I was bombareded with phone calls from natalia about wednesday, she wanted to make plans talk about the isle of man and all our client meetings and such. Wasn't really in the mood to chat since I had to wake up early to go to the airport and go to my isle. After I got off the phone, I was really tired but shocked to realize that it was 9:30pm in London! so early. (it was 12:30am in Moscow so it made sense why I was tired). My hotel was right in picidilly circus (the shitty circus...waynes world joke). and also right on top of tower records. I caught my second wind and went cd shopping! I bough a bunch of UK music mags, some books and a ton of cds. They were4 for 20 pounds. I thought theat was a bargain, but after I bought all that crap I went home and realized that I paid too much for my mania! It was fun to buy things but alas I had some buyers remorse.
I got the deluxe room at the merdian cause they offered it to me. I had a hotel room with 2 bathrooms?!?!?! Why 2 bathrooms? I have no idea. In fact I don't think I ever entered that bathroom. The bed was a king size bed. I like big beds cause I'm a big guy and well, you can sleep on differnt sides as your mood permits and feel like you have moved into another room. Oh London...
Well tomorrow, I'm off the the isle and I have to get to Gatwick airport really early in the morning. I hope the place is as magical as I make it in my head. Like London is...
