'Poor' SC
She missed being with me for the catholic ( small c deliberate ) Christmas - as we thought we had sold another place and it required a signature before the new year... The folks pulled out as they weren't able to get a loan as the wife lost her job ((
So, we were re-united on the 28th - celebrated New Year together and we had 11 at the table on the Orthodox Christmas Day
3 of the 4 Directors of a company I'm involved with came out - our hot water tank - replaced in April leaked - still waiting for a replacement and we had series of meetings and the weather was v.rainy - so no sunbathing and she was a patient housewife !
JUST as the guests were departing the weather came good and I've caught another stinking head cold .. ...I had had the 'flu over the 'first' Christmas - so couldn't go to Russia with her ...
To cap it all .. a friend called from Russia said, "your car has gone".. and we had a row, because I had said I wouldn't pay for the fine and recovery - if the car was ( again ) uplifted by an 'EVAKUATOR' - I had said pay to park it properly !
So, the moment we should have been 'alone' .. she had to drop everything and fly back to Sochi, yesterday..
I was not pleased that she was leaving and why - I was drugged up on meds to allow my eyes to stop streaming and nose to stop running - and our parting should have been sad ... but SC kept being positive and reminding me not to dwell on the 5500 Rouble fine / Evakuator fee and 29 day - 3000/Rouble a day storage fee ( way over 1000 USD )
She just called me to tell me she was home and there was 'no home internet' ( 2am my time ) and this involved me rebooting into Windows from Linux, starting a Russian VPN - as the firm will only accept payment from within the former CIS nations and on a former CIS nation bank card.. 15 mins later ...bill paid and mobile internet gave way to decent fibre optic connectivity and a huge grin on Skype ..
" The car is where I left it" ..Our friend and neighbour is not car literate and she was looking for our 'old ' blue Toyota... not the Black Ford .... SC did give her the reg # ( licence plate ) .. !!
So, SC flew all the way home - for no reason as all ...
I had blamed her for 'parking incorrectly' and had sulked about the fine ..She was convinced the car hadn't been 'stolen' - but was 'worried' when the Police said they had no record of car having been uplifted - she had to go home to check the info ..
We really do love our neighbour ..