Moscow observations

Some observations:

• nobody wears seat-belts, even though speeds in the city are about 60mph and zero, but nowhere in between.


• Speaking of cars, everyone has either a bashed-up old Lada or a very expensive Merc, etc. Nobody seems to bother with something in the middle


• very, very few people in the street are smiling, even when it's sunny. They seem happy enough when you actually talk to them though


• There seems to be a trend with women of dying their hair (or some of it) red. Also, tight jeans that stop halfway down the calf seem very popular. On the other hand there are lots of very stylish people in expensive clothes


• Everyone eats more soup than you'd think, especially rather thin, watery soup with vague bits of fish in it


• The cotton-wool-like seeds from the trees that make it look like it's snowing are rather pretty, and you really have to see them. It's funny that everyone here are so used to it that they wondered what I was talking about at first. There are huge piles of seeds everywhere, and the rain has only thinned them from the air a little bit. Bizarre.

The good weather finally departed today and it rained in the afternoon. Still, this is the first rain I've seen for weeks so I can't complain! At least I've now seen the city in bad weather too. It doesn't quite stop people driving like lunatics of course, but that adds to the 'fun'.

I'm flying back tomorrow. When I was booking the car to the airport the lady laughed at my 3.5 hours of allowed time and said I'd never make it in that on a Friday. Bear in mind that I'm in Moscow and this is Moscow airport we're talking about! See what I mean about the mad traffic? Having said that, I dread to think how long it would take to get from, say, Leicester Square to Heathrow in the rush hour, and that's roughly what I'll be doing...