mainly cathedral

quite warm today, and sunny as usual, so thought id see if i could get better pics of the cathedral..

the ice sculptures are still here..

the old fire station

various views of cathedral

kids playing near cathedral

every now and then we go to a state school to promote our english school. here they had a couple of songs prepared. great kids.

more stuff

well its st valentines. here they celebrate it differently -in that, everyone who someone loves gets a gift. so its more of a family thing.
its still fairly cold, hovering around -25. although today was a belter as there was some wind. face scraping stuff.
tried to sample some more night life, although it can depend on closing times, drink prices, paying for tables and teenagers being dickheads.
i asked my friend if we could go see some countryside and we ended up going to an abandoned warehouse which is about 20 floors high. going up crumbling staircases and walking across holey floors was slightly unnerving but the view from the top was impressive.
lots of kids around the other day, zooming down hillsides on all manner of devices. they seem to start at a very early age and are pretty fearless. sometimes use each other as sleds! not got my snow legs yet..
job still good but tiring. students are great and often inspiring.
played badminton against the best player in the whole komi republic and won. so i am now champion of an area the size of france..
ok so heres some random pix..

the wiring outside my flat

looking down to the river

a twee

the top of the abandoned building

and views from it - the railway line to moscow

the roof floor, with visible holes and hidden ones..

slighly queezy

a long way back to sowerby bridge

a wee church

the view from my friends flat

Igor and myself reflect on the differences in local faces (he being nordic)

swift vodka drinking

my colleague and her relation

ezgenya (who can only swear in english)

irina (speaks fluent german)

olga and the sportcentre mutt

bobsleigh of a kind..

well its still hovering around -30 and today we decided to go to 'the alps' - a place about 20 miles away that is hilly and actually looks very austrian..the drive there was interesting, as we often hit 80 miles an hour on a severely ice covered road. went thru a heavily industrialised zone where mondi paper mill resides. the smoke and emissions are an unbelievable sight. a sunny day suddenly turns grey as a mile wide blanket of fumes block out the sky and drift northwards for god knows how long. thankfully the alps were basking in sunshine. hardly anyone there because it was deemed too cold apparently.
the bobsleigh turned out to be being thrown down a hillside on a tyre innertube. it was quite fast - but a good laugh.

on a tangent - found some sausages at the top of my stairs. still trying to figure out the significance. should i be scared, pleased, angry, concerned, amused, thankful..? only time will tell

oh, played badminton the other day..the sports centre is better than anything we have..one of our group managed to break a collarbone - so i spent a good few hours in a hospital. not a pleasant experience if you like your hospitals clean and running under normal conditions..ie ' we can give u anasthetic if u wait 5 hours - otherwise u will be sick. or you can pay 50 dollars and not be sick and have it done now...
there was also a procession of incoming patients who had slipped on the ice and broken something or other.. plus drunks who do it on purpose in order to spend some time in a warm hospital.

a pleasant street scene

a half hour walk home will result in a jack frost snog

outdoor ice rink at the alps

i will kill the person with the p.a.