Some Local and Far-Away Observations

You know you've been in Russia too long:


When you find yourself, on autopilot preparing the next batch of baby food, having put both oatmeal and cabbage soup on the kid's menu
(As the Russians say: "shchi i kasha - pishcha nasha," or "cabbage soup and porridge are our bread and butter.")


When you cross a rustic urban courtyard and notice only on your exit, not on your arrival into the space, that that fishy smell was actually the raw sewage in the open holes in the ground enclosed (in a generous reading of the situation) behind ratty wooden doors dangling from their hinges -- what suffices for public toilets for at least some of the people who work and live in the surrounding buildings

(Yeccch - it never ceases to amaze me the extent to which Russians are willing to put up with the most primitive toilet situations.)


When you steer clear of huge potholes that still lie beyond the rise in the road and haven't yet entered your line of vision, because you sense that you need to avoid the part of the road that's given you a nasty jostle before



What we're saying these days:

Daddy ("Dadji")

potty (with alternate pronunciations of "pah-tee" and "pah-dee," which inevitably spiral into "ab-dee" - "ab-bee" - "abbi" - "appi")

"Bay-do," "Bay-joe," "Bed-jah" (most likely Anya-ese for Edgar, the more appealing of our two cats)

Mommy (both the more American "Mah-mee" and "Mamie" (as in Eisenhower), and even sometimes "Mammy" (?))

"buh-buh-buh" (repeated in a staccato in response to the question "What does a doggie say?")

"Gah-ghee" (cf. buh-buh-buh; probably "doggie," but also possibly an experimental take on "Dadji")

"bit-bit-bit" (said sometimes in response to the question "What does a froggie say?"; missing the "rib" part of "ribbit")

"tiku-da-tiku-da-tiku-da" (mumbled quietly and rhythmically while padding about any given room in the house; we think this is like the equivalent of her walking around muttering "whe-ya-go-whe-ya-go-whe-ya-go": Marina probably says to her "ty kuda, Anya, ty kuda?", Russian for "Where ya goin', Anya?" when the kid is wandering around in circles, all business-like and focused)

"ka-pah-ka" (cf. tiku-da; sounds most like "Bye-bye" in Russian, and was indeed accompanied by Anya's version of a wave (closing and opening a folded hand at face level))




Impressions and memories of our Bangkok trip:


Anya surviving in large part on these sweet, miniature-sized Thai bananas that we bought in huge hands and kept (on hand) to feed a picky girl


The sliver-to-chunk of skyline visible above the woven plastic upward-extending shades on the side of the water taxi; locals pulled down on the attached bungee cords to lever the shades up and avoid a spritz of the canal water (probably a wise idea), but we were kind of marked as tourists on a primarily commuter line, preferring to just look out at the view


The amazingly vibrant street life, full of commercial activity, especially full of food and drink for sale; people walking all over the place drinking fruit juices and Thai iced coffee from plastic bags with handles -- apparently the local version of a to-go cup


Whizzing along downtown boulevards, and past a zillion images of the King, in a puttering little "tuk-tuk" motorbike taxi; Anya losing her pacifier off the side of one of them


Everybody and his cousin setting their banana-leaf floats on their way, bobbing in the canal below us, while we ate dinner at a combination streetside cafe and sports bar (note, toward the end of the video, the outdoor bigscreen TV showing UK football matches to a sometime cheering Thai crowd)


The fluttering and chanting at the very top of the Golden Mount