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After all of the palaver of our arrival, we went shopping in Newcastle yesterday. See above for a picture of the city by night. It's dubbed - correctly - the party capital of the UK and it's certainly a great place to go out if you want to relax with friends. But that's not what we were after!
Our mission was very simple: shop. Fortunately most of our shopping had been ordered online so there were literally only a few items to get in town. We still ended up spending most of the day there, just enjoying wandering around and seeing what was new, what had gone, sipping coffee etc.
Those familiar with Newcastle will know that at this time of year, one of the big things to see is Fenwick's window. Akin to Macy's window in NYC or that of any other large department store, it's a treat each year to see which puppets and display will go up as part of the Christmas festivities. Local schools bring the children (usually KS1) to come and see it, and there's always a crowd. What (pleasantly) surprised me this year was that it was the Christmas story - no interpretation, no frills - but all scenes from the Bible. I applaud Fenwick's for doing this, in these days of PC and 'having to please everyone' of celebrating the correct holiday at the correct time.
The traffic and transport chaos continues. Two of my colleagues had similar issues getting back to Bradford area, albeit with different airlines. Picking up 'The Times' yesterday and finding an article from their correspondent in Russia therefore provided an interesting counterpoint:
I include some extracts from it to give you an idea of what I'm referring to.
In Novosibirsk, the unofficial capital of Siberia, temperatures were reading -33C yesterday and kindergartens and schools remained open, although children were not required to go out at playtime.
Outdoor market traders and street sellers were at their posts as usual, undaunted by temperatures well below those found in a domestic deep freezer. Felt boots and fur hats, seen as wisest protection against the cold, were on sale, although many locals also rely on vodka to heat them despite medical advice against drinking alcohol in such extreme conditions.
In Yakutsk, the diamond capital of Russia, it was -36C, a little mild for this time of year. "All of our flights were on time," confirmed the local airport spokesman, puzzled by the question. "Why should we have any delays?" There were also no reported delays on the Trans-Siberian railway over the seven time zones of its route from Moscow to Vladivostok, despite heavy snow.
Moscow, this week at -15C, faced the greatest disruption, with snow falls of 23cm in recent days, but Yuri Luzhkov, the mayor, was able to deploy a total of 15,000 ploughs, gritters and other vehicles, along with an army of men and women with shovels and brushes, to clear away the snow as soon as it fell.
A spokesman at Domodedovo Airport in Moscow, looking at the problems at Gatwick, explained sardonically, "Winters tend to happen every year so we can usually predict when they start and therefore prepare ourselves."
It's just such a different outlook on the same problem. Agreed, Russia is set up for the cold weather - there are three or four months of it each year - but if what has happened in Britain this last week happened in Russia every time there was a snowfall, there would be (even more!) chaos.
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