“Thoughts from abroad”

First apologies for the delay not had access for a few days.

Even though we were paying for the apartment from the 15th June and arrived on the 20th the internet only got turned on 23rd.
(Judi says the Russians are not good at planning but excellent at catching up) The phone took another day and the furniture which the place is supposed to have is arriving in dribs and drabs. There is a great 10 seater dining table however no chairs but we are getting there.

One of the highlights was the airfreight arriving on time and in good order. A slight hitch when the security guard would not let the van in even though we had given them the company, vehicle type, license plate, arrival time and drivers name. (that is standard practice)
A couple of loud words in his direction helped although I also opened the barrier with my dibber so he had no option in the end as one they started to drive in I just kept waving them forward. I think playing the authority card may be something usefull. Ignore the process and just pretend you are in charge. The carrier had an interesting dress code, shorts sandles and socks. Not quite stylish but quite practical.



Now whilst everything arrived I of course am the one unpacking it and everything is triple wrapped so the place is swimming with paper and cardboard. One thing about removal people in general is they never question they just pack. In my time I have had the cardboard center from a kitchen roll, half a bottle of bleach and the cats bowl (half full of dried food) arrive at our new location so it was no real surprise to see a mostly used roll of tape and a carrier bag wrapped up in our belongings. They were probably just close to the rest of the stuff. I had to very specifically tell them “No Electrical, No Food, No cleaning materials” several times.

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Anyway I decide to set to and unpack which is of course harder then packing it in the first place.
Half way through our agent(s) turn up as does the landlady’s agent and the landlady and her husband. Five of them sending Eric the cat scurrying for her new hiding place which is wedged behind a couple of suit cases in the walk in closet. This does give me the opportunity to mention the Internet, Wifi, Phone, Missing keys, Cable channels, dining room chairs and all the other odd items which still have to materialize. We do a quick inventory quick because we can stand in the same spot and see it all or the lack of it. I get the extra Tv channels and the Wifi logged. They try and explain that as we are so close to the Kremlin it gets blocked. Not falling for that one given I sat in Starbucks opposite the place with no problem. In the end I get a password but it does not work so it stays in the list.
The rest of the stuff is promised for the proverbial “tomorrow” but right now it is not the end of the world. I am given lots of manuals for cooker, washer/dryer, dishwasher, etc none of which is in English so plan to download them from the web sometime.
international calls and electricity need to be paid by us, in cash. The Landlady says she will drop the bills in the post box. I said fine given this is one of the missing keys there is now some incentive for her to find it. So after around 45 minutes they are gone but not befoer all of them want to see the cat which is a big topic of conversation. I manage to get her to poke her head out but seeing 6 of us in the closet was a little too much and it took her a couple of hours after they had left befoer she forgave me and wandered out.

I will catch up so expect a few reports this week.
There are some great items from the actual flight out of Atlanta on Saturday which I need to comment on especially the tattoos