I am going to rush through the next couple of days as I am falling behind and I have a hangover the size of which I have not experienced for a while, but back to that in a while. We went into town to hand in the completed forms to the passport office and to finally register me! The large diplomatic woman behind the desk seemed adamant that I required medical insurance. Yuliya said it was unnecessary as I was married to a local! She phoned someone who obviously ve...

Monday meant the town was open which meant 2 things: I needed to be registered with the local authority and Maia and James required to apply for their passports ( both my children being dual-nationals)! Off we went in our little Lada 1300SL into town, which in itself was a rollercoaster ride, with only one working seatbelt between us and enough potholes to rattle to back teeth out of a rattlesnake! I spent the journey trying to figure out how I was going to catch...

After a restless and slightly moist night ( no sexual undertone in that sentence intended) We awoke to a sound of farm life. Tanya was in the kitchen preparing meat and cheese for breakfast having already milked the goats, fed the chickens and the pigs and cleaned up after our arrival yesterday! It was 7.30am and the kids were excited to explore! The biggest joy of the farm is the innocent fun that can be found. From chickens to feed, to buckets and spades in t...

The phrase "we're not in Kansas anymore" is so far removed from Belarus than Lenin belongs in the docklands of London but it is one phrase that has cropped up so many times in my first few days of this Belarusian family adventure. It has been several years since I last visited this former soviet state and things have been pushed forwards to make Belarus a lot more western and visitor friendly, certainly by the initial greeting that welcome us. Recalling the last ...