Russe, where tempation got the better of me Ok, so the purple coat happened. The one with purple sequins round the collar and cuffs, and arms ruched to look like a clipped poodle, and strange tassles in strange places. It has led to many interesting conversations with the Angliiskiye Rebyata (sorry, with the Angliiskimi Rebyatami - must remember to decline everything), with the teachers at the institute, and with Elena, who does not like the coat, and does not u...

Russland, where they are silly and give you ears for lunch The temperature is much the same as it was this time last week, but good old Elena insists that my nice English corduroy jacket is no longer warm enough. I said it's ok I have plenty of woolly jumpers and thermals (which I'm not using - not even overnight anymore as the heating has come on and it's boiling). But no, they're no good apparently. So I said it's ok I have my big пуховик (I purchased m...

Rossiya, where the temperature drops 15 degrees in one week All the vegetables here are giant. Lucy's hosts have given her a giant sack of giant potatoes, an absolutely enormous cabbage (bigger than a beach ball, no kidding, and seriously heavy) and an oversized relative of the marrow, which we have never encountered before. Mr. Marrow is due to be cooked soon, Вячеслав the cabbage (we named him Vyacheslav for no particular reason) has already contribute...

Mother Russia, where all the best things are shiny... If it's not shiny, it's probably not really worth having. The same goes for leopard print. We're all beginning to find shiny leopard print strangely appealing, and it's only a matter of time before one of us tries on the leopard print leotard with diamante bits we have seen in a shop window. My hostess is truly wonderful. She's probably in her late 40s, and joy of all joys, she has a leopard print fake fur c...

I am here! I have to be quite quick as I am in a rather expensive internet cafe, so this may be all in a jumble and rather difficult to read. As yet I don't have a Russian phone, it seems you need to fill in all sorts of forms to get one, and I don't fancy doing that just yet. My hostess is lovely. She's probably in her fifties, has a grown up son who is married, and she has had 3 husbands. She is utterly obsessed with healthy eating, I am encouraged to eat coo...