Also, in a flash of inspiration, I have decided what to call my book in progress (I have written a chapter and a half). Are you ready for it? My book will be called: 'This Is Russia' . Sounds innocuous enough, but I have come to hate these three words and all they symbolise! Well, it's a sort of love-hate thing. Let me explain. The phrase is a sort of mantra that Russians repeat (to me at least) whenever anything breaks down, blows up, fails to arrive, goes missing, causes mass death, and so on. It's sort of like when you were a kid and you would complain, 'that's not fair!' - and the adult would always respond with, 'life's not fair!' Well, 'this is Russia' is just a geographically specific synonym. In fact, I might change the name of my blog in its honour.