The one about the Novyi Russkii and the gymnast.

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I received a totally unnecessary threat this morning from Marina Ivanovna, that if I break the tap in the bathroom I will pay for a new one. I don't appreciate being shouted at hypothetically. She warned me in such poor English that I only just made sense of what she said. To make a point I repeated petulantly "I don't understand" until she had to speak in Russian to me.

As usual things became much better as soon as I left the building. When we turned the corner of ulitsa Pobedy the temperature was minus 9; my guess of minus 6 was closer than Chiara's minus 5.

Lena's classes were good. We are re-reading the simpler parts of grammar, some of which I wasn't sure about. She knows that we are tired, so to lighten the mood she often stops to tell us jokes that use a word we have just read. They are never very funny but at least she tells them with a sense of humour. We finished watching "Twelve Chairs" in Olga's lesson.

Katya had to work in the evening so we met by the theatre at 2.45 instead. We walked to Metro bar and spent four hours there, almost having the place to ourselves. It's a shame we haven't been there more often, it may try to be too fashionable but it's relaxing and they make good coffee.

At the last minute Chris J organised a meal in Dukhan at 8. Everyone came who wasn't at home sleeping, and two friends of Laura's who are visiting from Moscow joined us. Everything on the menu is good, so my decision on what to order was based on which Georgian words I can pronounce!

There was another pool tournament later but everyone seemed to be too involved in their conversations to concentrate on the games. I was in such bad form that even talking about the history of eastern european languages with Tom the lawyer was an easier option than hitting balls into a pocket. Meeting English people who are studying in Moscow made me think about my career, as I will graduate in 18 months. Working for a British or American company in Moscow is not what I want in the slightest, but it the only way I will be able to earn decent money. It is early days but I will start planning for the future.

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