Catching up

The dew has frozen on the trees again today and the forest is absolutely beautiful. But let’s catch up with recent events
Saturday was the staff new year’s party. There were about two hundred of us there and it was the predicta mix of dancing, speeches praising everyone in high positions and some staff members getting up to entertain. The problem is always that the background noise is so loud that you can’t really converse with anyone at your table without yelling. But I did get to talk with Artyom a little bit. He teaches robotics at school and his team is the reigning world champion of robotics. He’s a very Impressive guy who has along beard that makes him look like Rasputin. But he’s the nicest guy in the world. For one skit they made all the foreigners get up and learn a Tatar dance. The Tatar spectators had a great time with that. At the more boring parts, some of the guys hit the bar downstairs and of course there was drama when one lady objected to her husband ‘s drinking and then left the party. But when she got home she called everyone at the party a million times to find out what her husband was doing. Give it a rest, lady, and grow up. Paul, Jen and I took a taxi home at about 10:30. Enough was enough.
Sunday the gang met for ice skating in the afternoon. We didn’t go to the promenade on the river this time, but to the hockey rink at Gorky Park. There were a gazillion people there and a couple of Bobby Badasses skating faster than everyone else and then skating against the flow. Not good for the beginners. But Sonia and Fouad already looked a lot more confident than last year. Claudia had skated before so it was just a matter of here getting used to it again. And Ravel was the same pro, as usual. I, on the other hand, made a colossal belly flop the second time around. Those stupid spikey things on the toe of the skate got caught in the ice and down I went. Ravel was able to scrap me off the ice and no damage was done. Then I managed pretty well until close to the end when I fell on my side. It wasn’t my skating day! Afterwards we went upstairs to the food court in the mall for some coffee. We sat for a pretty long time talking politics before we split up.
Monday was the last day to practice our Gingerbread Man skit that we were going to perform for the parents on Tuesday. And who showed up to talk to me? The mother of the spaghetti spitter. I told her exactly what I expected of her child. We also said we were going to split the twins up after their 5 week vacation in Thailand. (5 weeks, yeeeessss!) But could they come and do the performance tomorrow. I asked her if she was going to be there, so I of course said yes, because I knew exactly that the kid would not behave and I wanted her to see it.
Tuesday comes. So do the twins. They start the crying again and the nanny has to get their costumes on them. We go upstairs to the performance and naturally the kid acted like a creep. He ran around, hid behind the curtain and threw things around. And both mom and dad were there to see it. They were mightily embarrassed, especially since all the other kids behaved so well. They even apologized for their kid’s behavior. They were supposed to come today, but didn’t. I don’t think we will see them again until February, and then he’s out of my group. Hooray. I got a copy of a British comedy and on the evening I took it and a pizza over to Paul’s and we had an enjoyable evening laughing it up.
Today the school kids (not kindergarten) will be performing at a really expensive venue downtown for the end of year celebration. I wish they’d take the money they spend on all this cosmetic PR crap and hire some decent teachers and aides.
I’m going to leave early and head down to watch it because afterwards we’re all going to meet at the City Club meeting place to have our good-bye dinner before everyone heads out for vacation. I’ll fill you in later.