Disheartening News!

[acrzybear]

I thought about that too & then said hell no, time I give the bear a poke wih the stick!!!LMAO

HEY!!! Watch where you poke that thing!!

[Rvrwind]

HEY!!! Watch where you poke that thing!!

Ooops!! Wrong bear, LMFAO

Yeah Bruce, I been trying to get her to expand in that direction & might if I get here outa here. With her working at the factory or whatever you want to call it all week she really doesn't enjoy doing it in her free time so much anymore. I figure if I get her out of here & it becomes a hobby more than a "job" she might expand somewhat & try it.
She's told me a few times she wants to paint me but I keep tellin' her only with water base cause than damn oil base paint needs turpintine to get it off & I got some pretty sensitive areas that will react real badly to turpintine!!

[BC]

subtie       (suhbtī)  Pronunciation Key

n. 

   1. A cord, string, or other means by which bodily parts lower (sub) than the belt line are tied.
   2. A tie or permanent fastener attached to male genitalia, commonly connected to a leash to maintain control.


RVR.. jb's spelling was absolutely correct.


   

[Rvrwind]

Well there ya'go, I guess I owes him an apology!

However:

2. A tie or permanent fastener attached to male genitalia, commonly connected to a leash to maintain control.

This one scares me just a little, actually a lot!!!

[BC]

Well there ya'go, I guess I owes him an apology!

However:This one scares me just a little, actually a lot!!!

Yep.. jb's gotcha where it counts!

[Rvrwind]

Sorry guys, I ran into a little glitch.
A fellow named Greg sent me some money via western union. I went today to pick it up with the control # in hand but they wouldn't release it because all I had was his first name & the control #. I need his family name & address & the amount before they will release it.
I been going through all my emails & either I am going blind or I accidently deleted his email & I connot find it to let him know.
So Greg as that is the only info I have, if you could PM or Email me the other details I'll take that money off their hands. Sorry about the confusion.
And thanks a bunch for your support & help.
There was a couple I couldn't get for that reason, seems they have changed their policies some & require more info before they will release the funds. Just to let you fellows know if you should be sending money to your honey.  Gee that rhymes, LOL.

[I/O]

Richard: Good to see your mood has lightened up a bit and I like to kid myself (And the others here) that this board played some small part in that.  It's the sorta thing I get a real kick out of and I suspect the others do also.  Up an at 'em.

You might enjoy this one as it is sort of rather topical.

I/O

[Rvrwind]

Too Funny I/O, but you are right. It could have been worse.
You bet its all you guys that have had a big hand in lifting me & Valya both out of a dumper. We were really getting down & all you all came to our rescue, TOO KOOL!
We are really at a loss as how to express our appreciation sufficiently.
However I did talk to my Mother today & told her I was changing the ticket to October 14th. She wasn't thrilled, oh well, hard to please everybody, she'll get over it & she'll still love me, she's got no choice. Well she does but I don't think she'll go that far!

[Rvrwind]

Well guys, I'm leaving in a couple of hours to SPB. There I will hook up with Phil & we will travel to Helsinki together & back to SPB. I will pick up my new passport & Visa & be good to go to till the end of May & then I'll have to do it again.
Thanks to you good folks this has become possible & I just cannot say 'Thank You' enough times or more sincerely!
I'll make a little 'Trip Report' when I get back, LOL.

[I/O]

Richard

Fair sailing and a following breeze. 

I/O

[Rvrwind]

Hi Gang...
Well I made it home & back safe & sound from the Helsinki Turnaround!!!
Ran into a couple of small snags that made for some very tense moments for Phil & me but it all worked out okay in the end. I had originally planned not to come back till later tonight but staying on & visiting with Phil & Nina for a day. With them both working today it wouldn' t leave much time for visiting anyway so that was revised & Phil & I caught the same train. He debarked in SPB & I continued on to Tver & arrived home into Valya's loving arms at 7am this very morning.
So I am now legal, well almost, (have to register yet), till the end of May.
I will post more about this trip a little later as I must go get my passport translated today & get registered tomorrow. Because we crossed the border before midnight it has shortened the allowable registration time & with he OVIR being closed on Thursday I need to register tomorrow.
Stay tuned!

[Rvrwind]

Am meeting Valya later today at the OVIR to register so figured I take the time to write a post about the Helsinki Turnaround!
I left for SPB at 2:10pm on Sunday & the train pulled into SPB at 7:20pm right on schedule. I stepped off the train on to the platform & no sign of Phil. I wasn't too worried as he has never let me down before & I knew he wouldn't this time. When I looked at how far my car was from the Terminal, car #16, I couldn't blame him. It looked to be miles away!!! So I started walking towards the terminal & sure enough as I got close I saw him coming out of the crowd flowing towards the terminal. Sorta reminded me of a trout trying to swim downstream with all the salmon going upstream, LOL.
We said our greetings headed out the front of the terminal & over to the bus station. The bus wasn't leaving till 9:45pm but we paid for our tickets & secured our seats buy leaving our bags on board. We then went to a local cafe/bar & had some coffee & caught up on our news. Phil & me have been friends since my first trip to Russia a little under 5 years ago & whenever we get together you can be assured there is lots to talk about & lots of fun. We tend to laugh & joke a lot & enjoy each others company.
After coffee we head back to the bus & find our bags have been moved, well I didn't hesitate to replace ours & remove those that had taken our chosen seats. Well the 'conductress', if I may call her that, comes on & says we can't sit there, we were assigned different seats but she fails to say which ones & leaves. So we snafu two other seats & in a short time she is back to remove us again. I am getting a little tense by then thinking, its a friggin bus man, we paid the same as everybody else so whats the beef. Well apparently you have to be in the seats assigned for when you cross the border. Not too anal retentive!
Finally we get to our correct seats & get settled in. Its a nice bus but the weather sucks & the driver has an overdependancy on the brake pedal making for a very jerky ride, & making it impossible to sleep.
As we approach the border it becomes quite clear to me why this bus trip is 300klm but takes 9 hours. We stop at our first Russian checkstop & the dude comes on & checks everybodies passport. We leave, drive about two kilometers & repeat the process at another checkstop. We leave this one go another 2 kilometers & once again repeat the same process. Three friggin' passport checks & we haven't seen the border yet. Paranoid or what?
Finally we get to the border & disembark into Passport control. Everybody else is breezing through but of course Richard has a snag. I sometimes think if I didn't have bad luck I wouldn't have any luck at all. Phil & several others ave already gone through & I was first in line but the women is having some difficulty with my Visa. She calls over the boss dewd & now they are both talking back & forth & she wants to fine me for having an expired Visa & he is trying to read all the stuff in my passport & sort this mess out. You must understand I have been here 4 years & never left the country but had my Visa extended here & now they are having a problem finding the right stamps.
Finally he figures it out with my help & explains it to her & all is well, they stamp my passport & away I go. We get back on the bus, of course we have to show our passports again to the Russian guy before he'll let us board, Sheeeeesh & they wonder why tourism is collapsing, grab a brain. The bus pulls out & heads for the Finnish border & my first taste of civilization in 4 years!!!
We disembark again, go in, get asked one question, 'what is the purpose of our visit', 'to get a new Visa'. Stamp Bang, done! Off we go. Oh I forgot to mention we made one stop between the Russian & Finnish side so folks could visit the Duty Free store. Once we left the Finnish Passport Control we also stopped at another small mall affair for coffee & grits.
Then we finally get everybody on the bus for the last leg to Helsinki!!
I manage to doze off for 10 minutes but am starting to get burned out. Its 3:30am & I been up since 7am the day before so its catching up but the weather is still bad & the driver needs retraining!!! Phil & I are both professional drivers back in the world & are very critical of the way Russians drive. We are both trained in defensive driving & just cannot fathom the offensive nature of Russian drivers. I have several accident free awards as well as a couple of trophies from truck & bus rodeos so I know what good driving is & how it is accomplished!
Anyway we finally get to Helsinki at 6:30am local time, we head to the Tram station to go to the Russian Consolate & as I have to go to the Canadian Embassy first we part company here. He will get in line & hold first position till I arrive. We ask a lady at the Tram Station for directions to the street where the Canadian Embassy is. Well needless to say she sends me off in the wrong direction!!! Reflecting back I should have clarified as the woman was Russian, not Finnish & we probably should have asked somebody else but didn't. Phil has already gone so I am on my own to figure this out. I come across a hotel that is open & I duck in & ask them for directions, unfortunately I left the map with Phil & I have no idea how to pronounce the name of the street I need, all I know is the building is 25B, not much help.
No problem I say, can you sell me a map, I can show you on it where I need to go. Sell you one she says, no, but I can give you one. Wow, I been in Russia too long & forget that in the rest of he world you actually don't have to pay for every little thing, they give it, gratis!!! So she hauls out this streetmap & hands it to me. I show her the street I need & her partner comes over & explains exactly how to get there. I got plenty of time as it is only 10 to 7 & they don't open till 8 so no problem. Sure enough though the woman we originally asked sent me in the totally opposite direction to what I needed!! So I thank the hotel clerks for their hospitality & help & head back to the tram station where I left Phil. I grab exactly the same tram he did & go only three stations & get off. I know the street I need is over one block but not sure of the direction so I ask a passerby. He says follow me & so I do. We walk a block & he says this is it & the Canadian Embassy is that way, he points, about 3 blocks. I thank him & he goes on his way & I go mine.
I am expecting to see a big a$$ed Canadian flag hanging out for me to easily find but no such luck. So I turn my attention to the building numbers. Finally I find it & look around. This ain't an Embassy, its a friggin' shopping mall!! So now I'm worried, I'm thinking I got the address wrong & the paper with it writtin on is in my bag & where's my bag, you guessed it, Phil has it at the Russian Consolate!!! Now I am starting to kick my own a$$ & swear at my stupidity & thinking I'm going to have to go all the way to the Russian Consolate to retrieve the address from Phil & hump it all the way back here.
So I step into the doorway marked 25B to get out of the wind to light a cigarette. As I am standing there I notice a buzzer panel with a bunch of tags on it for the businesses inside & I just kinda glance down the list, UREEKA!!! About 7 down I see the name on a sign that is about 5cmX3cm high 'Canada Embassy 3rd floor'. What luck!!! If I wasn't a smoker I never would have seen that. I guess they are trying to be inconspicuous.
Okay now we're cooking but I still got an hour to kill before they open, so I walk a block back the way I came to a coffee shop I noticed in a hotel I passed. I go in & have a couple of coffees while I wait for the Embassy to open.
I'm finding it easy to get around & do things as everybody I have talked to, speaks English, quite refreshing actually. I wait till 5 before 8 & head back to the Embassy. I station myself at the buzzer & at 8am precisely I push it, no answer, I try again, no answer, WTF!! As I am standing there some fellow comes & unlocks the door & goes through, I'm on his heels, its cold out & I'm in a hurry. I go up to the 3rd floor & find the door unlocked & I go through, nobody in sight. No bell to ring so I shout, 'Anybody Home', no answer but I can here movement in the back so I wait, they know I'm here or their deaf. Finally someone comes to inform me that they don't open till 8:30!!! I say thats not what the website says, it says 8am, She says that is our summer hours, I say summer winter I don't give a rats a$$, I'm a Canadian citizen & I'm runnin' short of time & patience & your damn website said 8am!!! She goes away & comes back & apologizes profusely, somebody forgot to change it on the website, it is changed now though she says. Great but that ain't helpin' me now, just give me my new Passport & I'm outa here. Can't do that she says, the passport person isn't here she won't be here till 8:30. Oh great I say so all that & I still gotta friggin' wait, sheesh. So I wait!! 15 minutes late this woman shows up for work, must be nice working for the Canadian Government!!! I tell her my story quickly & the necessity for speed & she remembers my name & has my new passport. She takes my old passport & goes away & am left waiting, 10 to, 5 to, finally she returns & hands me my old & new Passports. The old one is cancelled but I can keep it as a souvenir, fine I ain't listening I'm on the move, I gotta be at the Russian consolate before 9 & I got like 5 minutes!!!
I get out to the street, spot a cab, jump in & tell buddy to get me there as fast as he can go. He takes off & I finally get to the Russian Consolate at 1 minute to 9 & Phil is waiting & we are first but I could tell by the look on his face he was quite relieved to see me, he was worried, LOL. So was I until I got out of that cab!!!
I took my bag from Phil & just slung it over my shoulder when the gate opened & we started to file in. Everything else went quite smoothly as far as applying for the Visa & waiting for it to be issued. We met a couple of ladies in the lineup that asked for our assistance & we helped them out & talked with them, one was from Germany & the other from the Check Republic I think, Phil can verify that as I'm not sure right now.
At 11:30am just as Phil promissed I had my Visa in my hand & we set off to the train station to get our tickets home. Much easier travelling by train. Only two stops at the border & they board & the train continues on while they walk through the cars stamping pasports. I was anxious to get past the Russian boarder so I could finally get some sleep though. We both had been up for 36 hours or more by then & it was starting to feel like it!!
Thats about it other than hanging out at the train station both Phil & I observed that our friend Andrew in Estonia who coined a phrase some time ago that 'Finnish women were men with breasts'! At the time I thought he was just being over critical but after sitting in that train station & visiting a couple of local malls & one restaurant I gotta admit he was pretty damn close. Of all the women I actually found attractive in my point of view & we approached to ask of them, they were Russian!!! I can't say as I found any Finnish women of marrying age that I would rate higher than a 5. Gawd I'm surely hoping Canada hasn't come to that!! Or my return there will be very disappointing!
Well thats my experience with the 'Helsinki Shuffle' as Phil calls it, LOL. Its faster than a trip to Estonia for sure but also a little more expensive than I expected. Its done now & next trip will be the end of May, up & back by train. Travel time is decreased but waiting time is increased. Oh well can't have everything & it will give me time for a cup of coffee or two, LOL.

[Mir]

A few years ago I travelled from Helsinki to Olu in the north by coach.
The thing we noticed was how reluctant the Fins are to smile.One day we were sitting in a cafe and there was a loud bang in the distance.Someone remarked: 'Looks like they caught a Fin smiling and shot him'

[Rvrwind]

Well got my registration at the OVIR & I'm legal!!!
However I did put on a show, LMAO. What A friggin' joke that place is. Talk about humiliating & degrading. Make people feel like cattle, no wonder nobody in this country has any stones.
Got kinda tired of ignorant SOB's cutting into the line in front of us & damn near put one toad on his a$$. What a bunch of ignorant animals & thats an insult to the animals. People cutting in & nobody says nothin' just lets 'em, after the third one well that was it for me, I was puttin' a stop to it & I did. One guy pushed my wife away from the window when she was next up & stuffed his papers & crap in & I made it pretty plain to him that he'd best back off or call his doctor pronto! My brother-in-law reinforced my sentiment, only in Russian.
I have never seen the like of what I saw happenin' there, people fightin' & argueing about who is next & who ain't. What a bunch of morons!!! Can't put out a number system & everybody take a number as you go through the door, noooooo, that would be too logical & make too much sense. Much better to have 6 lines all fighting each other trying to get through one friggin' door & all of them claiming title of next in line!!! Yep, keep the people fightin' each other, best way to keep them busy & not fightin' the stupidity of the government that forced this bu!!shit on them, Sheeeesh!
No wonder most people want to get out of this damn place, except the diehard communists who ain't got brains enough to know better. This ain't livin' this is dying piece by piece. I said it before & I'll say it again, They got a hell of a long ways to go before this country will ever be civilized!!

[Shadow]

I really really want to experience this 
As I am used to lines it would be real fun t see how people behave. The metro counters have always been real easy for me, so I wonder how the OVIR would react.

[Rvrwind]

Shadow...the metro is a breeze compared to this zoo!
If I threw a piece of meat in there I swear they'd be fightin' over it like a pack of wild dogs! Thats the first time I have ever had to register at the OVIR & believe me it will be the last. To voluntarily humiliate yourself at the whim of the government, well lets just say I'll lead the friggin' revolution if Canada ever got the brainy idea to pull this crap!
Gawd, there was men & women fightin' & yellin' at each other, cursing & swearing & calling names, I have seen better manners from cattle. It was disgusting & not one of them could figure out that it ain't the other ones fault, BLAME THE FRIGGIN' GOVERNMENT! Duhhh! They are the ones that force this degrading crap on you, so fight back, next election, vote their a$$es out!!! Or at least try, the election is probably so crooked it don't matter who you vote for anyway.
And all anybdy would give me for an answer to their behavior & the situation is "Its Russia", huuuuh As long as you allow yourself to be treated that way, you will be treated that way!! The civilized world wouldn't put up with it!!

[ScottinCrimea]

This sounds similar to what I went through the last time I entered Ukraine from Poland.  There was only one small door for customs and over 200 people waiting for them to open up so they could get through.  When the door opened, all Heck broke loose.  Everyone was pushing to the front trying to get a place.  I was somewhere in the middle and for the better part of two hours I literally could not raise my arms from my sides because the pressure from the crowd was so high.  As I neared the door, one group of young men was trying to push themselves through the crowd and were nearly crushing an old lady near me.  I dug my feet in and held them off so this lady could breath.  At the entrance, the pressure from behind was really intense so I braced both feet against the door frame and leaned back against the crowd so a few older people could pass through.  One poor lady got her arm broken when it was caught in the rail of the entry stairs.  I haven't seen such a mess since my last Jimmy Buffet concert.  At least the Ukrainians weren't all drunk and throwing up on each other.

[Bruce]

Wow Rver, that sounds a lot worse than buying a train ticket!  Sorry to hear it was such a mess.  Why do you think so many people are registering ??? at the local Tver OVIR office anyway?

[wiz]

Well got my registration at the OVIR & I'm legal!!!
However I did put on a show, LMAO. What A friggin' joke that place is. Talk about humiliating & degrading. Make people feel like cattle, no wonder nobody in this country has any stones.
Got kinda tired of ignorant SOB's cutting into the line in front of us & damn near put one toad on his a$$. What a bunch of ignorant animals & thats an insult to the animals. People cutting in & nobody says nothin' just lets 'em, after the third one well that was it for me, I was puttin' a stop to it & I did. One guy pushed my wife away from the window when she was next up & stuffed his papers & crap in & I made it pretty plain to him that he'd best back off or call his doctor pronto! My brother-in-law reinforced my sentiment, only in Russian.
I have never seen the like of what I saw happenin' there, people fightin' & argueing about who is next & who ain't. What a bunch of morons!!! Can't put out a number system & everybody take a number as you go through the door, noooooo, that would be too logical & make too much sense. Much better to have 6 lines all fighting each other trying to get through one friggin' door & all of them claiming title of next in line!!! Yep, keep the people fightin' each other, best way to keep them busy & not fightin' the stupidity of the government that forced this bu!!*snip* on them, Sheeeesh!
No wonder most people want to get out of this damn place, except the diehard communists who ain't got brains enough to know better. This ain't livin' this is dying piece by piece. I said it before & I'll say it again, They got a hell of a long ways to go before this country will ever be civilized!!

Richard

Was this OVIR in Tver or in Sterlitamak????? LOL

My God your description is perfect to what I had to do in Sterlitamak 3 times but of course I was not a polite Canadian...... and used my old Greek habits and jumped the line many times. Been inside the office of that moron who is the Boss and was send out several times because of mistakes in my form........ and finally he had enough of my loud voice and he signed the form.


The last time I was there he asked me for a coin souvenir from UK and gave him a 50 pence coin that I had in my pocket and he was very helpfull after that. He filled my form and corrected all the mistakes. Sofia was astounded that I finished in 30 minutes......where every other time it has taken her over 1/2 day! I am learning fast and I speak no word of Russian.....LOL

I am glad everything is sorted out for you and I am sorry I was away in Russia when everything exploded with you.

Of course now I can understand why they are so desperate to get out of there.........

 

[Rvrwind]

Wow Rver, that sounds a lot worse than buying a train ticket!  Sorry to hear it was such a mess.  Why do you think so many people are registering  at the local Tver OVIR office anyway?

Because they changed the rules again Bruce. What else is friggin' new??
All the illegals have to get registered or they are shipping them out. Literally thousands of people have lost their jobs & their homes because they are living & working here illegally & the government is no longer tolerating it. The local Rynook is more than half empty of the usual number of booths because most of those folks were illegal & now they are gone, back to wherever they came from.
On top of that they also tightened the rules for registering. They have made it so you can register at the post office but it takes two days as the post office still has to forward it to the OVIR to get stamped, Duuuh I call that Russian streamlining
Also the rules for registering at hotels have changed, so now the OVIR is overloaded & can't begin to keep up. Totally rediculous.
But people here really need to learn some friggin' manners & have a little consideration for others.

[Vaughn]

All the illegals have to get registered or they are shipping them out. Literally thousands of people have lost their jobs & their homes because they are living & working here illegally & the government is no longer tolerating it.

 I wish the US government would take notice...

 Richard, I've had only one experience last June at OVIR, in the "hamlet"
of Yoshkar-Ola, to get a registration done. We were the only ones in the
entire building, and it still took two hours. The director insulted my wife a
few times, was condescending, etc... must be part of the job description.
Then he found out that my wife's sister, Venera, was a close friend of
his own family. His attitude changed, polite and professional, but easy to
see through his facade. After I had the stamp, I let him have it in my
broken Russian, and reminded him he's a public servant, not a trial judge.
Bottom line: he was waiting for the graft - and like you, I don't pay one
kopeck to jackas$es for admin favor.

 Crowds in steerage. When I lived in Berlin, and we all had seat numbers
clearly printed on boarding passes, I could never figure out why the
Germans pushed and shoved their way onto the aircraft, as if it was the
last flight out of the walled city.

 

[I/O]

Crowds in steerage. When I lived in Berlin, and we all had seat numbers
clearly printed on boarding passes, I could never figure out why the
Germans pushed and shoved their way onto the aircraft, as if it was the
last flight out of the walled city.

That's Europe period.  AND...........the have the hide to reckon that we are uncivilized.

I/O

[SANDRO43]

That's Europe period.

Strange all-encompassing remark, considering that the concept was developed here :

Queue
Pronunciation: 'kyü
Function: noun
Etymology: French, literally tail, from Old French cue, coe, Latin cauda, coda. (http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/queue)