Welcome to my Russia weblog! Hopefully I'll use this weblog to record something of my second trip to Russia, as last time I forgot to write with any regularity to a number of people and they got a little narked with me! Understandably, of course. It will also stop me from cutting-and-pasting the same anecdote to fifteen different people, all of whom are under the mistaken impression that their e-mail is personal and unique to them. Sorry.

Well, as you may know, I'm not in Russia yet. I don't even have a visa yet. What I do have, as of this morning and courtesy of FedEx, is a very offical-looking visa invitation letter. Early on Monday morning I'll take this, and all my other documentation (in triplicate), to the Russian Consulate in London who will decide whether or not to give me a visa - based, of course, on whether it's a full moon, they like my name, had breakfast that morning, and so on. Last time I applied for a visa I got talking to a rather disaffected man who had been refused a visa because his passport photo was 'too shiny'. In fact, last time it took me five separate trips to London before I got lucky.

Of course, this time round it will all be different. To start with, I have a better idea of what I'm doing (I hope). Secondly, I have the real documents instead of the very foged-looking faxes I made do with last time. Thirdly, I'm applying for a shorter-term visa. Here's a hint if you ever go to Russia for a long period, say a year: apply for a 3 month visa then get it extended when you're out there. That's what I'm doing, on the advice of Language Link (my employers). I have no idea if it'll work, but it sounds clever.