IDENTITY CRISIS

Hello. I'm still alive.

So, I went back to England for Christmas and New Year. I realised then that I am slowly turning into a Russian, doing things like: shaking the hands of everyone I meet, even friends old and new; taking my passport with me to change money.

Either that or I am turning into an American. People are 'guys', holidays are 'vacations', everything is 'sweet'. I think I know how is at least partly to blame for this (and no, it's not South Park). And did you know that Americans don't use the word 'fortnight'?


A SMALL BUT ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTE

This, er, vacation, I took the brand new high speed train link between Moscow city centre and the airport for the first time. I was impressed to see that the airport had two platforms, inbound and outbound, which they had cunningly numbered 1 and, er, 4. Some things never change.