I arrived into Heathrow, got a coach over to Gatwick and left my suitcase with left luggage and spent a few hours in London, including lunch with a friend. Having got back to Gatwick, checked in, cleared customs and done a little shopping my flight was delayed. I was travelling with Easyjet, and had purchased their speedy boarding (mainly to jump the huge check-in queue for all easyjet flights at Gatwick), this meant I was meant to be amongst the first to board.  This would have been good if I could get through to the boarding desk at the gate, but the passengers had formed some kind of protective barrier around the boarding gate so that none of us could get through.  The staff did nothing about this but turn people around who got through to them without speedy boarding, thus making the ‘barrier’ of people deeper.  And still no semblance of organisation existed. Have finally fought my way through and making sure an older couple that were stuck with me behind this barrier also got through.  Anyway when on board I sat with this couple and had a nice long chat which was actually great, especially as I usually prefer to sleep, or sit listening to music and reading.

I was collected at the airport by friends of my parents, but upon arrival at my parents’ house it was unusually quiet and deserted (parents in hospital, the dogs in the Dog’s kennels). I went to see my dad the next day, he seemed to have picked up from when I had been speaking to him on the phone which was great. So the pattern began, I would usually go to the hospital with one of their friends, they would go and have some drinks and food with my Mum whilst I chatted with my Dad.

So, he did finally come out of hospital for a while at least a few days after I left, but whilst there and in London I did get to take a few photos, and the excitement of extended driving on the right hand side of the road for the first time surrounded by the Spanish drivers.

So now I am back in Moscow, and I have gone from getting used to 35-40C temperatures down to around 2-6C at best, and that along with the constant rain means that I haven’t yet been able to get out to take any more photos of the city, but soon I will.

Related posts:

1. Where have I been? – Part 2 – UK and Spain
2. Portraits of my Niece
3. Visiting the Folks

When we got back the temperature change was very noticeable, we left and it was 20C, when we returned it was at most 11C but has since dropped to 5C in parts of the daytime. Anyway this last weekend we decided to go for a walk around Moscow to one of the many parks, we decided to go to Victory Park.  On the way we paced out how far our new gym was going to be then onto a little bit of the Boulevard ring to the Patriarch’s Pond area and Malaya Bronnaya which is a beautiful and quiet part of the city.

When we got to the Garden Ring the weather looked to be getting rough with a strong cold wind so we decided not to go on to the park and wandered around to the old Arbat Street and got out of the way of the cold wind by going into a bar.

In the evening we went for a nice meal out with a few people (Cass, Alya, Jo) then for a few drinks in a bar near to our flat called Dreams Bar. We managed to get drinks for Lou, Jo, and I, but after that the barman was a complete prick and started to serve other people after giving the other two abuse. Suffice to say we drank up and left in disgust, there is no need for this kind of behaviour from the bar staff but occasionally you get this kind of muppets serving again.

Here a few of the photos I took that day, all black and white, fairly high contrast shots as the sky was a boring, mainly a flat white sky, you can see more of my photos on Flickr.

Related posts:

1. Moscow – Autumn in Sokolniki Park
2. Moscow – Sculpture Park
3. Moscow – Autumn Weekend