Flying Visit to Istanbul

Flew in yesterday lunchtime to Istanbul for a meeting. Flying back home today

Nice early start yesterday 4.30am….

My room is on the 16^th floor over looking the airport which is a few miles away.

While working in the hotel lounge a helicopter flew in and drop 4 passengers off for the hotel.

More later

Awesome - BA Flight to Moscow Has Been Found With Traces of Radiation!!!

Awesome News…

Just checked the BA website and the flight Doug and I were on to Moscow has been confirmed as having traces of radiation!!!

Doug and I have had man flu over the last few weeks but nothing serious…

What this space!!

Did You Know

Did you know that Russia has the most TV stations in the world!!

Russia - 7,306

China - 3,240

USA - 2,218

Serbia & Montenegro - 771

Turkey - 635

France - 584

India - 562

South Africa - 556

Germany - 373

Norway - 228

Day 11 - Home Time

Well today is our last day!!

Will be leaving in 30 minutes for the airport

Had a good busy day yesterday – hence no update…

Today has been the same, Out of 50 users, we have migrated 46 which is good going.

Let’s hope our journey home is nice and smooth

Catch you later

Day 10 in Ruski - Map of Russia...

Day 9 in Ruski - The Worst Taxi Ride Back to Hotel

We left the office at 7.15pm and we walked into the hotel at 9.30pm...

A journey that normally takes 30-40 minutes took us over 2 hours!

For some reason our driver went on the motorway instead of going the shorter route through the City. You have not seen so many broken down Russian cars just stranded where they stop with hazard lights flashing - no attempt is made to move the car to the near side so this causes massive congestion. We counted 10 broken down cars...

We had to drive through a tunnel and you could see the fumes as there is no extractor fans - not sure what was worse, the tunnel fumes or one of the lads fumes...

The taxi it self was far from ideal! No radio, no leg room and very uncomfortable!

It might have been worse because CSK Moscow were playing Porto in the Champions League after flying back from a Russian league game 8 hours and 2 time zones... you forget how big this country is!!

Day 9 in Ruski

Having a good day even though I have got a head cold come on – just what you need!!!

After being here a week, we found a nice little café in the basement of our building offering all kinds of food for lunch – we are had a Russian meat stew in a pot with potatoes, mushrooms – it was very nice!!

A consultant from the accounts software came to re-install the Accounts package on the new server – all was going ok until we needed to plug in a parallel port dongle – our new servers don’t have parallel ports – so he has not been able to install the package – something has been ordered and will take 3 days!! Typical something so simple and it turns into a mission!!! Oh Joy…

Day 8 in Ruski

Had a good day yesterday – in the office early as we had made a lot of changes over the weekend, but that seemed to go ok

The email servers here are constantly swamped with bad emails – spam and viruses!! The public mail server was on the verge of falling over as it was just overloaded, and mail that we have setup to redirect to our Global system in the US was not working. Managed to fix the problem and all is smooth

All of us are suffering from being in air conditioned offices, hotel rooms, so we are now sleeping with the windows open at night to get some fresh air – it is surprising how much noise the windows keep out – dogs barking, buses and trams moving around, and lorries making deliveries!

It is very grey here, I don’t think I have seen the sun for 7 days now – a little depressing

Day 7 in Ruski - Back to Work (Sunday)

Yes, Sunday and we are back in the office - we had some language problems with the office security guard today, not sure what he was on about.

Doug is struggling to find drivers for Rover Book laptops, yes we have not heard of these before - the web site is all in Russian only...also don't speak to him about Sony Viao laptops he hates them - can get the correct drivers, web site crashing etc

Managed to get a lot done yesterday and hoping to break the back of it today

Day 6 in Ruski - Sightseeing

We ventured into the city centre, visited Red Sqaure (as you will see in another post), went to a small bar and found they were showing the Arsenal vs Newcastle game. During this brief stop, David checked the rugby score - England 13, South Africa 21 - he thought it was all over so was very happy!

We then went to find somewhere for diner, we decided Italian - found this resturant that had live music (which was very poor and looked like it was all pre-recorded!!) but it also had the football on again, so we managed to catch the last 10 minutes.

We all had pizza except David who had Calzoni - which looked more like a cornish pastie!

I thought I would check the Rugby score again as I was certain there was more time left to play and to my joy England had won!!! David was not a happy bunny after this.

We then wondered around the back streets, looking at the shops, Douglas went into the Savoy to ask for directions. It was very cold wondering about, but it was good to get out of the hotel for a few hours.

Day 6 in Ruski - The Names Bond, but not as we know it!

Day 6 in Ruski - Bugatti Veyron... Awesome!!

While out walking around the centre of Moscow, in a back street out side a very posh resturant, I spotted this beauty of a car... £810,000 of car actually...Awesome!!!

Here is a quote from my mate Mr Jeremy Clarkson - It all started when Ferdinand Piëch, the swivel-eyed former boss of Volkswagen, bought Bugatti and had someone design a concept car. “This,” he said, “is what the next Bugatti will look like.” And then, without consulting anyone, he went on. “And it vill have an engine that develops 1000 horsepower and it vill be capable of 400kph.”

His engineers were horrified. But they set to work anyway, mating two Audi V8s to create an 8 litre W16. Which was then garnished with four turbochargers. Needless to say, the end result produced about as much power as the earth’s core, which is fine. But somehow the giant had to be cooled, which is why the Veyron has no engine cover and why it has 10 — count them — 10 radiators. Then things got tricky because the power had to be harnessed.

Day 6 in Ruski - The Metro System

As you can see from the pictures, the underground stations are very grand with lots of art and scuptures. The biggest headache is finding the right platform going in the right direction and get on the right train. Everything is in Russian, so you need a system to spot the station you want to get to. It cost 15 rubels for 1 journey (45 rubels = £1)

Day 6 in Ruski - Red Square at Night

Day 6 - In Ruski (Weekend)

Yes, we are working today (Saturday)

Booked the taxi to collect us yesterday, but he didn’t show – luckily we were given the phone number of the Taxi office that we have an account with, and an English speaking person – David called and we had a driver within 20 minutes, still wearing his slippers!! The best car we have had, a new Ford Mondeo – David and Doug loved the heated rear seats…

Got through security into the office block complex, into the building, went to open the door with the smart card, and the door was bolted! Oh no, all this planning as we can’t get into the office – all of a sudden a key was unlocking the door – the office has a security guard in the office during the night and at weekends…

No real dramas today – progressing well, a lot easier when there are no users around

Day 5 - Groundhog Day!!!

Douglas is living a nightmare!!

Groundhog Day has revisited him! Trying to get two Russian laptops updated with the latest version of office, both with exception errors or installation errors and this has been going on now for a few hours

“Why does God hate him so much!!”

I wish we had a web cam so you could hear and see Doug’s frustrating – he now thinks rebuilding is easier

It also helps when entering passwords you check which language the keyboard is in as an English password does not work when typed in Russian…

David and I now have sore abdomens’ where we have laughed so much…

No doubt there will be more comedy moments…

Day 5 - Today's "Muppet" Award Goes to...

Douglas…

He was in the middle of moving a users laptop from the old 2000 domain into the Global Active Directory, he noticed there was no Administrator account, so he created a new account, set the password. Removed the laptop from the old domain, and then realised he had not put his new user into the local administrators group – GAME OVER!!

He can’t add the computer to the new active directory

Now the laptop is totally knackered!!

In a statement, Douglas said "to be fair they have all been told to backup their data before we work on them…"

Luckily, after conversing with the user in Ruski-English he found she had a local admin account, so he was able to complete the migration

Well done Doug, David and I had a great laugh at your expense…

Day 5 in Ruski - Lunch...

Well after 4 days out here, we have only today thought about lunch (gone without before) - David made some bacon and cheese sandwiches at breakfast and wrapped them in a napkin. The microwave in the office can grill, so David warmed them up, then added mashed banana to each sarnie...

Bon Appetite!!

Day 5 in Ruski - The Nerve Centre

See men can multi-task!!! 8 laptops...

Day 5 in Ruski - Transportation

Day 5 in Ruski - Doug thinking it is Summer!!

Day 5 in Ruski - The Golden Arches of MacDonalds!!!

Day 5 in Ruski

Morning all

Had to rebuild my laptop yesterday afternoon after something went wrong with it – possible virus or spyware – Great just what you need during an important Project!!!

Drive back to the hotel took over an hour last night, and we saw an RTA – lorry had tried to restyle the back of a car while turning right. We are surprised that we haven’t seen more accidents, as no one gives way, drivers indicate as they change lane, if there are 4 lanes, they make 8!!

Talking of cars, they are so dirty, I don’t think many people use a car wash – they are black with dirt. All lorries, vans and buses have there number plate painted on the back of the vehicle as well – not sure why!

Also noticed today that we never see the children going to school – maybe they start very early?

Trams, run in the middle of the roads, so the pedestrians have to play chicken in the road to get on and off of them – car has priority on the roads

Had a nice meal in the hotel restaurant last night – food has been very good…

This morning temperature is 0 as we drove to work – Doug forgot about the weather and came to work with a short sleeve shirt and his North Face body warmer – he was very cold when we walked to the office from the main road – David and I did laugh!

More later – will upload some pics in a little while…

Day 4 in Ruski

The day has started off well - the internet link is 100% better than yesterday, so we are actually able to get work done.

I am downloading Russian copies of the software we need - that will be interesting when we come to install them.

David and Doug are cracking on and upgrading the client PC's

Last night we were all pretty tired, so we retired early to bed...

Weather is colder today, and I think there was a light snow fall last night.

All for now

Day 3 in Ruski - cont...

Well so far we are having a bad day!

My laptop keeps crashing, Doug is struggling to get drivers for Sony laptops, and David is looking at the network as it is running like a dog! Not ideal when you are using it heavily for the migration of users here. Our Russian software for Windows and Office will not arrive until the end of the week – only taken 3 weeks to order…so that is also holding us up

Bond film is released tomorrow here, but the English Cinema will not be showing it this week – so will see if we can see it next week

David looked at the weather forecast; looks like the temperature will drop to -4 over the weekend – getting colder

Another hour or so in the office and then probably another hour to get across the city to the hotel – just what you need after a long day!

Day 3 in Ruski

David was up and in the gym at 6am wide awake on Aus time... meanwhile Doug and I had rough nights, unable to sleep properly with the plumbing in our rooms constantly making noises with running water - Nice!

We were picked up in a Renault Logan (little car) left hotel early and missed the traffic jams

We have setup our command centre in the office (David on the left and Doug on the right)

Day 2 in Ruski - David Arrives from Aus

Pretty good day in the office – a few issues but we have got over them – Doug learning Russian to install Windows XP

David arrived this afternoon fresh from Sydney looking tanned – I say fresh, but when you have been on a plane for 20 hours – you know what I mean!

Off to the hotel now for some food – been a long day…

Later all

Day 2 - Pictures from Arrival in Ruski...

Above is the dog show to get out of the car park at the airport, no lanes, carnage!!! You can also see how foggy it was last night when we landed!
Oh, saw this Supercharged Rangie looking very clean compared with all of the other vehicles here - Good British Engineering at its Best

One Life - Live It!

Day 2 in Ruski...

This is the view from my hotel room on the 11th floor. As you can see not great - I could get mistaken and think it is Dubai because of the crane, but the weather reminds me we are in Moscow!!!

Hotel room ok apart from the constant noise of running water - Doug has the same problem - kept me awake on and off during the night.

Car collected us and we were in the office within 30 minutes of ducking and diving through the rush hour traffic!

David has arrived in Dubai after 15hrs flying from Sydney, 4 hour stop over and now on his way here in a t-shirt...he will feel the cold!

More later

DAY 1 - Travel to Ruski - Moscow

Doug and I met at Heathrow T1 at 10am – Heidi and Leon came to the airport with me – Leon loved seeing the planes (apparently going to school this afternoon to get Tanisha he saw an airplane – pointed and said Daddy!!! J That’s my boy!)

We had a smooth check in, security however was interesting, especially as Doug hadn’t put his wash bag in his checked in luggage, so had to say good bye to shaving foam, new bottle of shampoo and put all of the contents into a clear bag.

Flight boarded from gate 36, then sat on the plane for over an hour before we left the stand – take off was what felt like hurried, all of a sudden engines were at full and we were turning onto the runway and off we went… taking off in a westerly direction over Eton – it was quite a bumpy take off, so I cannot tell you where we went after that

In flight was ok, good food, leg room being on an exit row! Helps when you check in 23.59hrs before flight!!!

Landing – seemed to take ages from when the crew took there seats, and we couldn’t see anything – all of a sudden we were down in thick fog and snow on the ground – we must have been on auto pilot

Passport control – ok once we have filled in a Russian Immigration Landing card (following a translated version on the centre of a desk for 10 people…)

Russian speaking taxi driver stood at the back, with sign for us – had to queue for a small life that could take 2 trolleys at a time to go down one floor…nice thinking there…long queue!!

Then to get to our Limo, err well small Lada size car that only just took all of our luggage in the boot – 45 minute drive to the hotel, managed to get a glimpse of the Kremlin and we are not far from Red Square

It’s now 00.15 so time for bed – up early tomorrow +3hrs from GMT

First Post...

Wow!! It is up and running

Here is our Blog for our travels and hopefully we will include some interesting pictures (not just pics of server rooms!!)

All for now

Julian

** ONE LIFE – LIVE IT **