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10 Years ago this month...
I went to Russia for the last time. This was Novosibirsk: the third largest city in Russia. This was a town that was established by the USSR as a place for scientific research far away from prying eyes, and it's hard to imagine a more difficult place for those prying eyes to get to. There's this point on the world where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan meet at almost a point. You find this point, travel about 500 Miles approximately North into Siberia, and there you are! (I told people my boss sent me to Siberia, they didn't realize I was being literal!)
I was there on business. At the time, the federal Lab I work for was contracting out a major section of an electron accelerator to a Russian physics institute, and I went to inspect their work. This was among the worst business travel I ever have done: it is 11 time zones out, so I couldn't phone my family. The best we could manage was email to my wife at work very, very late at night for me. It was also a 9 hour flight, a layover in Moscow until the next morning and a 5 hour flight within Russia. I have never had worse jet lag my entire life. The hotel shut down hot water for maintenance: the week of cold showers was...invigorating! The food was...welll!...by the time I got home, I could have robbed a pizzeria at gunpoint!
What was cool about it is being that I was at a scientific institute in a city meant for secrecy, I was seeing things that were never meant for American eyes!
-but as the picture shows, the world has changed since Stalin himself established Novosibirsk!Last edited by Steve Klare; August 24, 2021, 12:10 PM.
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Originally posted by Steve Klare View Post
10 Years ago this month...
I went to Russia for the last time. This was Novosibirsk: the third largest city in Russia. This was a town that was established by the USSR as a place for scientific research far away from prying eyes, and it's hard to imagine a more difficult place for those prying eyes to get to. There's this point on the world where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan meet at almost a point. You find this point, travel about 500 Miles approximately North into Siberia, and there you are! (I told people my boss sent me to Siberia, they didn't realize I was being literal!)
I was there on business. At the time, the federal Lab I work for was contracting out a major section of an electron accelerator to a Russian physics institute, and I went to inspect their work. This was among the worst business travel I ever have done: it is 11 time zones out, so I couldn't phone my family. The best we could manage was email to my wife at work very, very late at night for me. It was also a 9 hour flight, a layover in Moscow until the next morning and a 5 hour flight within Russia. I have never had worse jet lag my entire life. The hotel shut down hot water for maintenance: the week of cold showers was...invigorating! The food was...welll!...by the time I got home, I could have robbed a pizzeria at gunpoint!
What was cool about it is being that I was at a scientific institute in a city meant for secrecy, I was seeing things that were never meant for American eyes!
-but as the picture shows, the world has changed since Stalin himself established Novosibirsk!
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Thanks!
-but it's a lot cooler now that I've had ten years of recovery!
I arrived home on a weekday evening. My Boss knew the score, so he suggested I take the next day off. I woke up the next day...sometime: time itself had lost all meaning! I was sitting on the couch, kind of slowly emerging from the Fog, when in comes my wife and my (then) nine year old. I asked "What are YOU doing home?", and she said "It's five in the afternoon: same time we always get home!".
Travel Tip: never stay in a hotel run by the Siberian Ministry of Sciences...Waldorf Astoria it aint!
.New York Pizza in Novosibirsk!
It was CLOSED!-CLOSED I SAY!
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This morning, I visited my mum's grave for the first time since the gravestone had been replaced, having been moved for her burial and father's ashes laid to rest, and also the additional inscription to be added. Needless to say..... in my eyes the 'stone is beautiful.
They are both buried in the same cemetery as our cinema hero / heroine Old Mother Riley, actor Arthur Lucan, who died on stage at the Tivoli Theatre in Hull in 1954. His memorial is in a courtyard garden next to where the services take place. It was nice to pay my respects to him, too.
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Melvin, you brought back memories of my first ever super 8mm film that was a 200’ B&W digest of “My Son The Vampire” (aka “Mother Riley Meets the Vampire”) with Old Mother Riley… I watched that film so many times as a child I think I could replay it in my head. Some 15 years or so ago I purchased the DVD of the full length film and despite having a terrible rating of 3.9 out of 10 on IMDB, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Here is the IMDB link https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044925/
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