Of Painless Russian Language Learning

Something rather wonderful happened a while back. I went on Ebay to see if I could find a Russian language CD for the car. Most of them we're quite pricey and full courses were approaching £100. Right down the bottom of the search results was a CD for £2.99. Perfect I thought! It didn't have much of a description to it but for that price who could go wrong?
The CD duly arrived a few days later and it turns out it contained a highly illegal copy of the famous Michele Thomas technique to learning Russian. Curious, I popped on the first lesson and it was great. I did the second, the third and now I'm hooked. Best of all its quite painless too.
The aim now is to do 18 5 minute lessons each day. The course is clearly working because I had my first conversation in Russian with Mrs P yesterday. She asked me if I wanted eggs for breakfast. I said I didn't I wanted porridge because I was hungry. I asked for a cup of red tea. And replied "Yuk" (thinking this would surely work in Russian too) when she asked if I wanted milk in my red tea.
Michele Thomas was an interesting guy. He fought in the French resistance before going to make his fortune in the US teaching foreign languages to "A" list celebrities and popularising his language techniques.
Spacebo Michele. Thank you Ebay.

Of Twee and Tweed in Devon for the Weekend

Mrs P and I have just spent a delightfully "English weekend"enjoying the sights of Devon and some glorious weather to boot.
We flew into Bristol early Saturday and in a hired convertible Mini. It's a fabulous car. It drives like a Kart on steroids.
We wound our way through beautiful Devon country lanes and villages to Colyton Church to meet the Reverend Hilary.
The Reverend Hilary is a lovely lady and I can't think of anyone I'd prefer to do our Blessing in August. She's full of smiles, joie de vivre and clearly loves what she does.She invited us to the vicarage for afternoon tea and a chat. The vicarage is a wonderful building bathed in history.

She told us it was built in 1517 and has been occupied by vicars ever since. I guessed she was the first female occupant but hopefully not the last.
Almost an hour and a half later we were on our way to Bovey Castle on the edge of Dartmoor. It doesn't get any more English than Bovey Castle. All the staff are in tweed waist coats. The foyer contains an array of wellington boots in case you wish to join a shooting party as well as a pile of towels topped with a sign "Please wipe down your dog".

We walked through the grounds and out up a hill to the nearest village, North Bovey, which consists of a delightful church, a few thatched cottages and "The Ring O'Bells" pub. We sat in the beer garden and slurped some old English ale and wondered if life gets any better than this...

Russian Tour Guide Northern Ireland

Mrs P has just launched her new Russian Tour Guide Web site for Northern Ireland and I rather like it. She did it herself in just two hours and best of all it cost us nothing.
Today, she's meeting a cruise ship in the port of Belfast to take another group of curious Russian tourists around the city and possibly to the Giant's Causeway too.
It's a beautiful day today and I've never seen NI look so green and so good.