NOV 24, 18 .. HERE WE GO AGAIN ..

Yesterday (Friday the 23rd) I wrote about the issue with my cell phone #2. In fact that is practically all I wrote about yesterday.

Today I met with Mike and together we went to a local office of the cell phone company that cell phone #2 is registered with, Tele2.

Right away an issue came up. I did not have, with me, in my possession, my Passport. I do NOT ever carry it with me casually and it didn’t dawn on me that I’d need it. It turns out cell phone #2 is formally registered to my friend to whom I loaned it.

I thought, “It’s true! NO GOOD DEED ever goes unpunished.”

Well we got past that. Just another reason it was necessary that I have Mike riding shotgun with me.

Long story short : As I’d feared, the 500 Russian Ruble note I’d given to the employee at the generic cell phone service store to purchase additional minutes had simply been entered into the system as a payment to Tele2.

So the local Tele2 store said that they now must re-register my cell phone #2 and then put it into a different cost tariff. Why I haven’t a clue-in-a-carload. And they don’t have MY Passport data so .. go figure.

I was told that, “By next Tuesday the 27th it will be resolved.”

“Wanna bet?” I thought to myself and Mike and I left the Tele2 store.

IF I were to give up on Tele2 I lose the 500 Russian Rubles and it will cost me 1,000 Russian Rubles to put cell phone #2 into the MTC system. So for now I’m sticking with Tele2.

More to follow when, and IF, this gets resolved.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

HAPPINESS IS ..

Different Things At Different Times isn’t it?

Right here .. Right now .. This is the fun of foreign languages.

I have been trying for the past several weeks to get a (wet) mop to mop up the bare wooden floor in my apartment. I have got to assume all of you reading along here know what a mop is.

My name is Cap. So I’ve got my own name ‘nailed’ .. Κ Α Π ..

In Russian the letter C is the letter S in English. So I need to use the Russian letter K for my English C.

The letter K in Russian is the letter K in English. A in Russian is A in English. Our letter P in English is the cyrillic letter Π in Russian.

IF I used the Russian letter C to spell C A Π, I’d be calling myself SAP!

Now we turn to the word mop.

The English letter M is the same as the Russian letter M. The English letter O is the same as the Russian letter O. And we now know that the English letter P is the Russian letter Π.

So (proudly) I’ve been showing shop keepers the word .. M O Π. Which does indeed sound out in Russian as MOP.

Or .. м о п .. if you want to use the lower case letters

Here Sports Fans is the problem : In the Russian Language they have no word mop.

In the Russian Language, the implement that we call a mop they call a .. shvabra ..

And in Russian the word shvabra is spelled as .. швабра ..

Not even Mike my translator knew what a mop is. I showed him, using body language, I used my cane as a mop.

He said, “Oh. A floor brush.” .. sigh ..

HAPPINESS IS :

Taa – Daa ..

Call it whatever you want. Call it a mop. Call it a м о п. Call it a shvabra. Call it a  швабра.

I now have one ..

So now the mess on the wooden floors from all of the tracking in of snow and mud on my boots is a thing of the past.

It IS a thing of the past because I decided to begin to take my boots off outside the entry door to my apartment. However I still wanted a good wet mop to keep my floors nice and clean.

I did not, repeat : I did NOT even try to tell the local shopkeepers that I wanted a door mat.

Thanks to Mike, and only Thanks to Mike, today I also got a door mat. IT, the door mat, is saying to me, “Dad. I am a bathroom mat. I am NOT a door mat Dad.”

Call him .. Call her .. Call it what-you-will, I now have a nice place to step onto when I step inside my apartment.

HAPPINESS IS :

The major supermarket store chain here in Irkutsk (and I believe in all of Russia) is the Slata Supermarket stores.

I am out of breakfast cereal. I haven’t been able to get some for the past 3-days. As we were out walking today, I told Mike, “Mike I got corn flakes at a Slata Supermarket. Can we stop into the one I see up the street?”

In we went (to yet again another Slata Supermarket) to get corn flakes. Mike didn’t know what they are and (later admitted to me he didn’t think I knew what I was asking for) even a store clerk who was stocking cereals  didn’t know what corn flakes were.

I persisted .. I CAN be persistent.

HAPPINESS IS :

“Mike! There they are Mike. Corn Flakes.”

“Cap you sure were correct. Corn flakes DO exist. I wonder why they weren’t with the other cereals?”

HAPPINESS IS :

“Mike. Over there. Jam!”

HAPPINESS IS :

Thanks to Mike, finding a completely new-to-me area of Irkutsk. A very complex and worthwhile area for me to know about. Available by me merely riding on my friend, the Number 1 Tram Route.

We even got to the library and used the library computers to print out some of our translation project work.

Then?

We did a 7pm Saturday Night Meeting.

Then?

Bedtime.

HAPPINESS IS :

Getting into bed when you are exhausted from a long day.

Smiling .. Cap

And ?

HAPPINESS IS :

Having a very kind lady, at a meeting, give to me (a week ago up in Usolye-Sibirskoye ) an orange.

“Dad?” .. “Yes little orange?” .. “Thanks Dad for finally publishing my photo, the one you’ve had for a week now.” 

• ← NOV 23, 18 .. SUNRISE .. SUNSET .. THANKSGIVING 2018 IS IN THE REAR VIEW MIRROR ..
• NOV 25, 18 .. HAPPINESS IS .. →