back to work

it has been a quiet two days off (i havent had that many days off in a row since early november!) and i have used my time to do nothing. i mainly stayed in bed and read. i read one biography on allende, and then one on putin. reading about the sobchak years in piter brought back all kinds of memories, i remember those times well. the biographers accuses sochak of all kinds of corruption, the lady my father and i lived with back in those days would have had none of that: she was a massive sobchak supporter and cried buckets when he lost to yakovlev. it seems at that time putin and i were neighbours, both living on vasilievskii ostrov, and judging from the locations only about 3-4 streets apart. but then nobody knew who putin was at that time, and i was certainly unaware of living near a future president!
on the 25th i ventured out for a small walk, only to find myself in what looked like a colder version of the subcontinent. all the indian and pakistani run shops were open and all the wives were out taking walks with their kids, wearing saris covered by coats to make up for the differences in climate.
then yesterday, with the tube back in service, i decided to venture out a bit more, i walked around, but on the biggest shopping day of the year, it was a zoo everywhere. on regent street people were fighting just to get into zara, controlled by security guards, and one woman even had a heart attack or something and an ambulance had to come to take her off. at the zara by oxford circus, they had cops to brreak up the fights that erupted between angry customers, and the queue to pay was estimated to be an hour long. although there were certainly things i would have liked to have bought, and although i had money to spend, the whole thing was just so appauling that i bolted from the place empty handed, taking side streets back to a metro station that was not so overcrowded. from there i retreated to the calm of my flat and continued reading about the life and times of vladimir vladimirovich.
today it is back to work. on that note i should head for the shower and get ready for a day of reshelving.