found out 5 January 2009
First day of rehearsals for the play, OCTOBER, today – always lovely to meet a new group and have a nice chat, particularly first thing in the new year…then it’s down to the business of being found out – that’s what EVERY first read-through is like for EVERY actor I know – we ALL think ‘this is the day I am finally and TOTALLY found out and a stop will be put to it’ – doesn’t matter who you are or what your abilities are, this is how you feel. Somehow we got through and I didn’t get fired!!! Huzzah.
And the day started with a conversation about Roses versus Quality Street – most illuminating – most agreed that Roses are The One and QS a poorish 2nd – do I hear any dissenting voices out there? To be honest it’s not a debate that has ever cost me much thought before – I guess I am not enough of a chocaholic (crisps, though, are a very real and different problem for Yours Truly) but I was impressed by the vehemence of some opinions expressed.
The G did her best wailing ever and by far this morning c5am when she woke up downstairs alone and got a terrible fright altogether. Rich tried to coax her up but she wasn’t having any of it. When the yowling sounded like she was being physically hurt I went down and carried her up to be with us – happy as Larry then, she was, whoever Larry is when he’s at home (or elsewhere). Bizarre creature. Tonight she is missing again so I think we can look forward to a repeat performance.
trains 4 January 2009
I slept with 3 men today…only one of them my husband…I blame him for it all – when we bought our train tickets it didn’t occur to us (cos we is idiots) that the train would be a ‘sleeper’ – it was (left at 5.15am OF COURSE IT WAS!) – we joined the Moscow to Kalinningrad train for the Minsk to Vilnius section and had to share a couchette with 2 Russian men – grand, but I really like to choose the people I share such close quarters with…anyhow, the Snorer clearly knew he was such and headed off to another place to snore (must have dropped a few quid to the devooshka in charge cos she wouldn’t even let me sit in the unused compartment next to ours) and all was well till he had to rejoin us at the Lithuanian border and the noise was shared. In the meantime, the other lad was grand but purred a bit and was clearly a smoker so there was a bit of a whiff in the air…
Lithuanians are not half as friendly as the Belarussian we had become accustomed to (a lovely bunch, I must say) and they sure don’t believe in a queue.
On the plane from Vilnius to Dublin the pilot threatened to divert to Copenhagen to throw off a male passenger who was passing around leaflets in spite of the fact the cabin crew told him not to and he darkly hinted there were others not behaving either.
Showed my passport to at least 3 countries worth of immigration types today and for the first time in 9 days heard the phrase ‘go on go on go on’ from the final Irish lad…yup, I’m home…
lee harvey oswald 3 January 2009
Here’s an interesting Minsky quirk – Lee Harvey Oswald lived here for a while in the 1960s. He was in his early 20s then. He had an apartment near the river and got a job in a local factory, married a Minsker and they had a child. He basically went native! Of course, as we all know, he returned to the US and became infamous thereafter…
We went to a theatre show last night though only stayed for half the performance (at 2 euro each it didn’t owe us a cent by then). The acting was very good but the show LIBERTINE (which I think was a version of a Moliere play – couldn’t find a programme on sale) was done on a blank, black set with a lot of mime and that doesn’t much appeal to me – I could make out bits of dialogue but there was no point in staying for the 2nd half and only getting about the same amount and we already had a fair idea what was going on (the Husband wouldn’t be a huge mime fan either). Good to have seen it though and unlike the time we saw WAITING FOR GODOT in Talinn and could tell it was shite, this was decent stuff and good performances.
Off out into our last day now – there is still much to do and plenty of things to see. Not looking forward to getting a 5.15 am train to Vilmius though…just a tad early for a gal who loves her sleep…
snowflakes 2 January 2009
New Year’s Day was quiet in Minsk – I guess a lot of people were having a lie in after the festivities. As now near-native Minskers (or pesky vaminskers, as I like to say) we did just that, then took to the streets with a view to some gentle new year’s shopping BUT the main underground complex was shut and we were left to wander the streets in the snow. It was lovely! The snowflakes were tiny and individual and came to rest on our clothes as clearly visible stars and geometric shapes. (They looked like the stuff of cartoons they were so pretty) Richard had some, on his furry Russian-style hat, that looked like deliberately placed decorations. It’s awesome to think that each one differed from any other and was unique and there were millions of them yesterday in never to be repeated patterns – a mindblowing concept and the sort of number that can never be calculated, surely.
We have found yet another theatre and will try their comedy play this evening – I won’t have a clue what’s going on I’m sure and I hope the cast won’t mind the woman in row whatever who is not laughing much or at all…
here we go again 1 January 2009
I cannot believe we are facing into another full year – I’m exhausted just thinking about it. And I’m also exhausted from the mini partying myself and Rich did last night in Minsk. We had a traditional Belarussian New Year’s Eve I think in that we cooked at home and went out at Midnight to cheer in 2009. I may also have appeared on local TV as I got myself in front of a camera and said ‘I’m a toruist, I’m Irish, Happy New Year’ in Russian. It was really sweet in the main square at midnight as a few hundred people had gathered to drink champagne and see the president’s speech (though we couldn’t hear a word cos the sound was very low on the big screen). Then we all counted down and everyone shouted and cheered. Elsewhere in the places we’ve visited over the last few years the populace has gone nuts with fireworks but not here – it was the popping of champanska bottles and general happy yelping. We went home to text all and drink some more and both of us are feeling it today (is each new year going to bring less abilitiy to Partay, we ask ourselves, even if that Partay is only the two of us!!!)
I hope you and yours had a calm or fun handover to 2009 (whichever was your wish) and will have a happy and fulfilling year.
We off onto the mean streets of Minsk now and by the look of that sky out there we’ll have snow.
Snovom Godom!
mixed day 31 December 2008
Yesterday was an extraordinary mix. We visited the Great War Museum which is supposed to be the largest display in the world devoted to WW2. Even though it was all in Russian there was no need for translations for some of the startling images shown. One section showed black and white photos of the hanging of partisans by the German occupying forces and they were most disturbing – each frame showed the end of a the life of a very beautiful woman and two male counterparts – clearly the photographer simply wound on his film and took another shot so it was a remarkable record of their deaths, recording even their last breaths, surely. Shocking and incredibly moving. The museum was totally worth the entire visit to Minsk. The museum guards on each room were very helpful, with one older man at the end of the tour explaining all about new and improved planes and the various heroes under his particular guard who flew them. He told us everything in Russian and Richard got more than I did but I could understand a lot of what he was telling us by referring to the photos etc all around and recognising some words. Powerful stuff. The people here are very friendly in an understated way and seem delighted to help us when we need it.
We almost got to return the favour when Richard was asked direction last night and had to say ‘sorry, I’m not from round here, I’m Irish’. The lady repeated the word Irish and laughed hard at the thought that she could meet such a person on a Minsk street.
This was after a show called ‘Russian Phantom’ at the musical theatre – for 6 euro it was more bang for my buck than any other show I have seen in my life. I don’t go to much musical theatre but I guess this was along the lines of Les Mis or Cats or whatever. They threw everythign at it – splendid costumes, lights and set and of course singing. Afterwards during the bow the leading man made a speech about how it had been a tough year for the company but they were all still here and looking forward to the challenge of 2009. Great stuff altogether!
quirk 30 December 2008
One of the quirks of being a visitor to Belarus is that you have to report to a police station within 3 days of arrival to have your passport stamped and further and visa verified again and so on. We’re off to do that this morning. It’s not part of the workings we see in most of the placs we go so it’ll be interesting and a tiny bit intimidating perhaps…
Our little adventure is getting in the way of the epic sleeping we’ve been doing since we got here. We have a lovely apartment on the main street and it’s v v cosy and warm so we allow ourselves as much of a lie in as we feel up to of a day – that can mean a midday start to investigations of new areas of town to us. It’s hilarious to see the two tired heads on us today because we only got 9 hours sleep last night…we’ll be easy pickings for the police and prone to admit to anything for a lie down.
We did quite native things yesterday – shopped at the huge GUM stores (these used to the the state department stores) and bought a cake at the best bakery in town. We travelled on the Metro. Confusingly, some signs are in Belarussian and some in straight Russian and the subtle differences between those languages and their alphabets is causing us some mild difficulties and I’‘m worried about pikcing up words and spellings that are not pertinent to my Russian lessons…we’ll see…still, I managed to understand instructions to the ladies loo last night in a restaurant and even checked I had by asking ‘to the right?’ in Russian. I was most pleased with myself, as simple a thing as it was.
wandering 29 December 2008
We wandered about the town yesterday with only vague intentions and it’s a great way to get a feel for a place. We bought 2 train tickets at the station as we’ll be leaving by train to Vilnius and flying back to Dublin from there – no idea why that became the plan in the long ago but it’s the plan now so it is, so it is. We ended up at the station because we’d got the wrong end of town in our heads for where the Old Town is. Most of Misk was bombed to nothing in WW2 and after and is largely rebuilt so that’s why there is so much large, Stalinist style architecture – in all the photos it looks very grey but it’s quite alright up close and not half as foreboding as you might think. A more recent structure is a bit of a hoot – it’s the library which is a mad-looking hexagonal building on a pedestal and is known in local mutterings as The Death Star because of its resemblance to the DS in the Star Wars movies. It’s lit up at night, like all of Minsk – the town really comes into its own then. Anyhow, we were the wrong end of town completely for any so called ancient stuff and saw a lot of apartment buildings which were as nodescript as in any other place on earth. Today we are venturing into the huge public building in the main square which is massively abustle with types each day and we’re bursting to know what’s going on in there. The sqaure will be central to New Year celebrations and has a very impressive Fir tree all lit up – apparently it was the one thing the people couldn’t give up during the darkest days of communism so it was held onto as a tradition and modified by the powers that be.
We watched some hilariously dodgy Belarussian stand-up comedy on tv last night and both of us could tell it was really quite quite bad – I even guessed a punchline before it happened and am sure I was right – it was a sektch about 2 underwater divers and I am certain, after they went through their paces straddling two chairs, one said to the other ‘and tomorrow we’ll even go in the water’
Minsk 28 December 2008
We made it to Minsk – 2 very tired Teds who needed a big lie down and mmuch sleep, which we duly got last night = huzzah! t
The city is not what we had expected at all, if first sight and a little wandering is anything to go by – it’s a lot hipper and less grey than we had expected. I think we assumed it would be a lot more ‘Soviet’ and perhaps some of it will be – we have really only seen 3 streets at this stage. Mind you, our apartment is on the main thoroughfare which is 11 kms long so when I say street I should point out that they do them big here in the centre. We thought of another good reason to be here yesterday – it seems to be the only town in the western hemisphere (and probably beyond) that doesn’t have an Irish bar – another small hurrah from us. HOWEVER the total shocker was in Warsaw when we were changing airlines and checking into the Minsk flight and there were 2 other Paddies behind us in the queue. it was a very quiet flight of 20 odd passengers which meant that 20% were Irish – eek! who could have guessed it, eh?
Will do a further report later as must get out there again now – it’s a mild minus 3 and a little snowy (minus 8 last night)
mayhem 27 December 2008
Yup, twas PANDEEEEMONIUM on The Day but 12 of us sat down, eventually, to our Christmas turkey (way too much of everything) but I didn’t have a nanosecond to blog. A great time was had by all and there was only one injury when a sis in law ran into a wall out back (it was ‘just going that way’ apparently). Felt like a train had hit me yesterday but had a lovely gentle time with my Galway folk who came to visit. Normal blog service has probably resumed although myself and Himself are now off to Minsk (temp zero to minus 4) and are hopeful of an internet cafe somewhere or other to fulfil said remit. It’ll be interesting to see if any sites are blocked to us as Belarus is still a dictatorship and has KGB and all. I’ll report all shortly when I get the hang of it. I’, looking forward to trying out my few words of Russian and we are going to try to speak to one another in that language too (I suspect I’ll be doing a lot of dodgy mimes and pointing).The G has decided to stay at home with my Mum in situ and cat-minding (or perhaps the minding is the other way around, it’s hard to know with those older ladies). The builders will return soon and will be here another month or so (PLEASE let it all be done then!!!!)
I am totally and officially in love with my new cooker.
I hope you have all ‘survived’ and can rest now till we see another year off (hate that march of time but I have whinged enough on that subject to you before so take it as read and said).
New book out in a weeks time – oooh, so exciting!