Haven't dropped off the face of the earth.

Two weeks and no blog entry. Yes, I have been a busy boy. Been here, there and everywhere. The longer I stay in Russia the more I hectic it seems to get.

Let's start with the 16th of April, my Birthday. Nastya was away on yet another business trip and so I was left alone to celebrate. Now here in Russia if it's your Birthday you are almost obliged to have some sort of shindig. No flying under the radder here, as someones Birthday is yet another excuse to crack open a bottle and party! Interestingly here is where the cultural difference comes in. If it's your Birthday you must do everything. Meaning, you must cater, pay and organise the whole celebration. No splitting up the bill at the restaurant, if it's your Birthday you pay for all the guests.

The same follows at work, where the tradition has been set that if it's your Birthday you must hold a party and therefore do all the catering. At EF, just about every week, a staff member has a party and out come all the goodies and grog. Each persons do tends to run the same course. The catering is rather predictable. The same old food platters with kolbasa, cheese, ogurets, fruit, cake and champagne are has regular as the buses around here. Something needed to be done to break this monotony.

Enter the Aussie twist to the compulsory Russian work Birthday party. On the 16th out came the snags, white bread, tomato sauce and beers. You ripper, it was a little bit of Australiana right here in Vladiviostok. Not too sure how it all went down, although everything that I provided was gobbled down in the blink of an eye.

Once the food was set then the toasting began.

Gorky Park

Haven't had a creative minute to spare in order to fill everyone in on the whirlwind of a week! To start with, last weekend was splendid. I got to meet rock legends "Gorky Park"! Well actually I ran the press conference for them. Now, many of you are probably scratching your heads and thinking, "who the"? Well let me tell you, the band were the first Russian rock group to hit the worldwide music scene. At the time of Glasnost and Perestroika they were the first to escape the shackles of communism and sign a record deal in the US. They hit the big time when Russian, American relations were thawing and the world wanted to find out what was behind the iron curtain. They had a couple of hits in the late 80s early 90s and then fell into obscurity. However, in Russia they live forever, pioneers of the international music scene.

"Bang Bang" and "Moscow Calling" were two of their hits and if I must say so, are bloody unreal!

If you're a fan of cheesy, late 80s Rock and love the likes of "Motley Crue", "Bon Jovi" and "Skid Row" then check out these spandex wearing, long haired louts on youtube: "Gorky Park!

Press Conference with "Gorky Park"

Following my brush with fame it was off the the footy. Little "Luch" (Vlad's soccer team) was once again up against one of the powerful Moscow teams in Saturn.

Luch Energia is the classical underdog. Just one player from Saturn's, Zenit's or another high profile, cash rich, club form the west, is worth the same as Luch's whole team. Not only are we up against far better paid players, but every fortnight the team must fly to Moscow, St Petes or somewhere near (10-12 hours) and fight jet lag, fanatical support and the arrogance of western Russia.

I love it! Sure our team has the odds stacked up against us, but we punch well above or weight. I've always supported the underdog, the little guy, the one who is not expected to win and Luch is just that little man. With so much against them you'd think winning is rare, and you're right. But when they win, especially against the pompous Moscow clubs, the win is like a grand final, very, very sweet.

Oh by the way, we drew nil all against Saturn and sit at 12th position on the Russian Premier League table. One place below last years champion Zenit (St Petersburg)! Raaahhhh! Fear the hicks from the east coast! Passion and pride conquers fame and fortune!

The three foreign stooges! Oz, US and England.

Davai Luch!!!

Shashliking.

Spring is finally here and this weekend the locals and myself took full advantage of the warm weather. OK, sure, 10 degrees is still bloody cold for all you Queenslanders, however, now that I am slowly acclimatising, 10 degrees felt absolutely perfect. Yesterday Nastya and I headed to Naberezhnaya. Forget Cavil Ave, Hastings St and James St, Naberezhnaya is where it's at! An endless parade of Vlad's finest, all checking each other out, as they walk the boardwalk. It really is quite the spectacle and beats Perver's Paradise (Surfers) hands down. Winter has only just finished and the girls here are chomping at the bit, to strut their stuff, in the most revealing outfit. Yesterday would have been 5 degrees, if that, and I saw more mini skirts on the boardwalk than you would at Cavil over a week. The Naberezhnaya experience involves donning your Sunday best, picking up a couple of roadies (stubbies) and then start to strut. Oh I nearly forgot, you can't go without purchasing the obligatory shaurma, or Russian kebab. We waited over half an hour for ours, but boy was it worth it.

The weather stayed pleasant through into today and so a group of us from EF headed to Sanatornaya for Shashliking. Now the great Aussie BBQ is dam hard to beat, however the Russian Sharshlik experience is on a par if not, dare I even think it, one higher. Unfortunately, back home with the fire restrictions you can't just rock up to the BBQ area and get a serious bon fire cranking. The sterile electronic BBQ hotplates found all over the place in Brisbane are safe and environmentally friendly but also detract from the whole open fire, great outdoor cooking process. Nothing beats the smell, the hypnotic flames, the whole primitive cooking on the open fire process, that Shashliking is.

Now what exactly is a Shashlik? Well it's basically a shish kebab. Chunks of meat skewered on to a long skewer and then cooked over hot coals. Vegetarians beware, this is a pure carnivore ritual. As a mater of fact, if you are a vegetarian you my as well come from Mars here in Russia. It's another one of those strange foreign customs like "political correctness" that is so far removed from Russian culture.

Today was great. Meat, beer, kavas, the beach and a roaring fire to ward off the chilly spring weather, what more could you want.

Nastya, shaurma in hand at Naberezhnaya.

Me, Nastya, Nastya form EF, Lena and Anton shashliking.

Rugby in Russia?

I am sitting at home nursing a pretty nasty cold. Funnily enough, it's only now that I am having second thoughts about the Rugby game played in sub zero temperatures on the weekend. At the time it seemed like a great idea. Teaching Russians how to play Rugby, how hard could it be? I mean they've got the size, the aggression and the act now think later attitude, sometimes needed in Rugby, so it seemed a match made in heaven. Only problem was it snowed just 2 days ago, so the weather could be a little off putting, and these guys had never touched a footy, so their skills might need a little fine tuning.

Lifeclub is an extra curriculum activity that EF put on to enhance the students cultural awareness of the English speaking world. We've had seminars on the states of the US, talks on how to obtain that desired foreign company job and last weekend I brought the fundamentals of Rugby to the scholarly table.

They loved it! The game completely suits the Russian psyche; go flat out then prepare to smash or be smashed. Even the kids groups saw the girls mauling the ball off many of the strongest boys.

There were some difficulties of course, the offside rule was hard to enforce and for some reason forward passes kept reoccurring. Maybe it's their close affinity to soccer that was confusing them. Confusion aside the day was extremely enjoyable and I believe I have converted many to the gentleman's game, girls included. The 2 degree weather was a complete afterthought of which I am suffering for now. Russian Rugby I believe has a future!

The next lifeclub I'm planning to introduce Aussie Rules to the locals. It will rule out the whole offside, forward pass thing and suit most Russians as height here seems to be in abundance. Although I will wait until it is a little warmer.

About 2 degrees: check the guys wearing just t-shirts! By the way, that grass is fake but very realistic looking.

2 days before kick-off: view from my balcony window! Lovely Spring weather.