Russians are coming

 

(Yalta conference in Crimea between Churchil, Rooswelt and Stalin 1945)

There are so many Russians and Eastern Europeans living in the Walthamstow area that they have their own shops. It's good for me because I like to eat pelmeni, Chebureki (that's Georgian by the way) , beef stroganoff   and all that. In fact, we went last Saturday to Walthamstow market and had some food from one of the Lithuanian cafés there.

I have a lot of friends from former the Soviet bloc countries. Russians, Ukrainians, Georgians, Polish, Romanians and many others. Which side am I on this worrying discussion about a war in Europe? I really can't take a side. I may antagonise someone somewhere. But my problem is I can't really keep quiet either.

As we can see clearly, western powers armed the Ukrainian army during the covid period. It is obvious. Ukranian army was awfully inadequate with training and weapons when the country was divided and the  Donbass region claimed independence from Ukraine. Now the situation has changed, and the much improved Ukrainian army is ready to take on the separatists. Quite rightly so. After all it is their country, and they have every right to unite it. 

But is it that simple? Russia vehemently opposes to Ukraine joining the NATO. And it is dangerous to them. Remember, it was the Western powers and NATO who broke the promise not to expand the NATO eastwards when Soviet Union collapsed. They cheated on Gorbachev and Yeltsin. But Putin was in for a different game. Don't forget that NATO immediately went into Balkan republics and then tried to go to Georgia too. The result was Georgia being broken into two pieces.  I am not saying what Russia did was correct.  I am just saying NATO expanding eastwards did not bring desired results. Instead, it created more chaos.

What about Crimea? I have a different opinion here. We know that Crimea belonged to the Russian empire for about 300 years. They took Crimea from the Turkish Ottoman empire around 1774. Before that it was occupied by Mongols. Before that it belonged to Kievan Russ and even before that to the Roman empire.  Then in 1921 it became the Crimean Soviet Socialist Republic. Afterwards it became just a province under the Russian Soviet Republic. Do you remember Nikita Kruchsev, Former Soviet president who nearly started a war with the USA because of Cuba? Krushev, who worked more time in Ukraine in his early years, somewhat illegally gave the province to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist republic, up until a couple of years ago Russia annexed it again,  under President Putin's command.

I am really not against that, perhaps because the majority of Russians living there have allegiance to Russia anyway. In recent history it was under Russia as well.

But Russia or Putin should not mess with the Donbass region. If Ukrainians want to take it back by defeating separatists, that's their right. President Putin should not mess with that. At the same time, NATO should stop here. They should not encircle Russia with Ukraine. Who likes their enemy in their backyard? Certainly, NATO is behaving more like an enemy rather than a friend or partner. Russia can easily be a partner if old warmonger generals of NATO take a step back.

They don't. Hence the problem. Both Putin and NATO generals do not want to give an inch. Now are we facing a long and painful war in Europe? Perhaps. 

Then there is this big elephant in the room. Russian gas.

- Ajith Dharmakeerthi 

Train Passing the Lee Valley Bridge , Chingford Line

Train Passing the Lee Valley Bridge , Chingford Line

Sunday Walk

Someone tried Fundamental Atomic Property To Turn Matter Invisible

 

A new study confirms that as atoms are chilled and squeezed to extremes, their ability to scatter light is suppressed.

How Ultracold, Superdense Atoms Become Invisible

A new study confirms that as atoms are chilled and squeezed to extremes, their ability to scatter light is suppressed.

An atom’s electrons are arranged in energy shells. Like concertgoers in an arena, each electron occupies a single chair and cannot drop to a lower tier if all its chairs are occupied. This fundamental property of atomic physics is known as the Pauli exclusion principle, and it explains the shell structure of atoms, the diversity of the periodic table of elements, and the stability of the material universe.

Now, MIT physicists have observed the Pauli exclusion principle, or Pauli blocking, in a completely new way: They’ve found that the effect can suppress how a cloud of atoms scatters light.

Normally, when photons of light penetrate a cloud of atoms, the photons and atoms can ping off each other like billiard balls, scattering light in every direction to radiate light, and thus make the cloud visible. However, the MIT team observed that when atoms are supercooled and ultrasqueezed, the Pauli effect kicks in and the particles effectively have less room to scatter light. The photons instead stream through, without being scattered.

MIT Physicists Use Fundamental Atomic Property To Turn Matter Invisible

An evening to remember

 

An evening to remember

It was an evening to remember for a long time. It also showed what’s the friendships are about. I am going to write a long blogpost but I cannot help but write this for now.  It was the evening to introduce my book that published in September 2019. After this long Covid pandemic time,  only yesterday I could introduce the book to London.

 There were some problems I could not foresee. Even I wondered that 13thof November may be such a bad day as they say superstitiously. It changed however; things start moving. First of all, my long time Saroj (Who studied in Kiev) came to conduct the event as promised bringing with him Fish curry prepared by Gayani and Sumudu. They could not come due to family emergency in Sri Lanka.  But they made sure that I received the curry. Nandana and Yamuna kindly gave him a lift as his car was not available. Yamuna, made sure the hall is warmed and lighting arrangements work with Rohitha who studied also in Kiev those days. Ines, my kind-hearted wife made all the food arrangements with the help from Sheela, who brought a parrippu (that’s dhal in Sinhalese) all the way from West London.  To tell the truth without Ines’s help all this I could not have done all this.  Kumara who studied in Kiev came with Rohitha, Dhammika and Bandula.  It may seem like a “Kiev Affair” with their contribution but I assure this is a Moscow Affair. Kumara supported the laptop operations with the projector and kindly videoed the event.  

Everyone pulled their own chairs leaving me the hardest bits. To run the vent. And my friends came from places afar. Athula , who studied in Moscow friendship university came all the way from Wolverhampton with a bottle of Champagne (French one, not the Soviet Champagne, but sweet taste was there) He contributed to the event with his readings from the pages of the book and his valuable memories of those times. Subodha came to participate the event from Brentwood, Essex.   Asha S who studied in Moscow State University, Vipuli, a product of Peradeniya, my famous blogger friend Marcus Priyantha read pages form the book and shared their thoughts. Marcus’s speech was particularly interesting and he had sharp insight into the affairs of the then Soviet Union and Russia. Vijitha Gunaratna, the famous dramatist joined the discussion from Sweden with his valuable input.  Nuwan Jay also joined the discussion bringing the examples from films. We were discussing usng Sinhala and English lanaguages so Ines could participate in the discussion too.

Ayumini and Nissanka Wikramaratne, a father and daughter duo contributed with number of amazing songs. I have to mention Ayumini’s mother Indu was helping to prepare the music and event last few weeks.   Delani made a nice Biryani for all of us, although she could not come, Asha made the raita for it,   Ines made a really tasty salad to complement it. Thanks to all of you, the evening was a success. Vajira and Krishanthi gave us the containers to keep food warm.

All in all, the evening well with Champagne and smooth Beluga Vodka to finish the event as the tradition. Thank you to my friend from Moscow Leonid Ponkratenko for the Vodka.  I should mention Bandula’s real Havana cigars he brought all the way from Cuba. We made good use of them for the after party at my house.  Some of us met at our house for the after party and you can see that from the picture.

Thank you all for attending and also from those who congratulated, contributed and gave the encouragement. I felt I really have friends and family. What more Do you want. What more Do I need.  

p.s - When Athul was talking he reminded me when we first met. Our mutual friend Sudath was the Sports Secretary when I was the general Secretary of the student union of state univercities. One of the first things we organised was a cricket match with Lumumba University. We lost. But Athula forgot one crucial detal. We, state univercities team lost every single cricket match we played after that.

Ajith 

Train passing Brimsdown Station towards Stansted Airport.

Express train to Stansted Airport , It does not stop in Brimsdown. Only slowtraisn stops. 

House Boat in River Lee

taken while cycling along the river Lee on 13th fo August.

Zizek did not tell this story in Sri Lanka

Zizek did not tell this story in Sri Lanka

A female teacher went for a coffee latte. Barista told her "Sorry madam, we don't have coffee latte. I can give you a coffee without milk. We don't have milk powder”

But teacher was adamant she wants coffee with powder milk.

"I will bring it to you. Where I can buy it" She asked the barista. 

 

"The shop across the road sells milk powder. But they don't have it." Barista replied.

 

"I am a teacher. I am so tired teaching online since the morning. Can you please give me a coffee without milk then? Anyway, where I can buy a gas cylinder." teacher asked.

 

"The shop next to the shop selling milk powder sells gas cylinders. But they don't sell gas to the teachers. " Barista says.

 

"Why is that? Isn't it illegal!" Angry teacher asked.

 

"Not at all madam, they don't have gas." barista laughed.

 

When the teacher finished her coffee, another teacher called Mr A. Lover took her to a "One night stand in Australia" hotel.

 

The receptionist at the hotel told them there are no rooms because the hotel is surrounded by the ministerial security division.

 

"Why on earth is that" They both screamed together.

 

"Mr Raheliya Kembukwella is practising polygamy" Receptionist replied.

 

When the T- shirts clad CID officials heard that,  they immediately arrested the receptionist and bundled her to an official three wheeler to take her to the police station,  for the grave crime of disclosing a government secret. 

Ajith D

There is a wonderfully dialectical joke in Ernst Lubitsch’s classic comedy Ninotchka: the hero visits a cafeteria and orders coffee without cream; the waiter replies: “I’m sorry, sir, we have no cream. Can it be without milk?” In both cases, the customer gets coffee alone, but this single coffee is each time accompanied by a different negation, first coffee-with-no-cream, then coffee-with-no-milk.

“It's not the same thing: coffee without cream or coffee without milk.
What you don't get is part of the identity of what you get.”

― Slavoj Žižek

Soviet Joke-

"A man walks into a shop. He asks the clerk, "You don't have any meat?" The clerk says, "No, here we don't have any fish. The shop that doesn't have any meat is across the street."

Virgin Train pulling out from Macclesfield Station

Virgin Train pulling out from Macclesfield Station

Underground water channel resurfaces on the other side

Underground water channel resurfaces on the other side of the small foot.bridge, Millers Dale - peak distrct 

Making Hay Bales (Millers Dale area of Peak Distrcit)

A farmer in Peak distrct is using his tractor to make square hay bales.

Gold digger or Keeper or Russian Affiars

 

There is a new TV series in “All 4” with glamorous Russian actresses and Russian dialog with English subtitles. It is candidly showing off Moscow's social elite. The theme did not change from Soviet days that much except that oligarchs now have more money and new and exclusive homes. At that time Communist party high officials lived with wife in the large flat and lovers in numerous small flats around the suburbs in Moscow. They took their lovers to dachas at the weekend (summer house). Now it’s just changed to large palace like houses owned by nouveau riche oligarchs in subburbs of Moscow and their lovers in Moscow posh flats. Ah yes, rich have a way of dealing with police too. They can get away with murder even.

The name is actually misleading. Russian name for the series is called   sadershanka (содершанка ) , which means the keeper.  German series calls it "Russian Affairs". 

Mistresses wants only the money and easy comfortable life in Moscow that their rich lovers pay generously. And the rich lover will keep their marriage lives intact. This supposed to be a crime thriller by the way.

Director, the script writer and all the cast are Russian and it was filmed in Russia. Why the Russian president Putin allowed such a film series to air in the first place? Perhaps he had enough of the antiques of some oligarchs and "clearing out” operation is on the card? The series depicting the decadent nature of the advanced capitalism to allow president to manoeuvre freely?

waring: You cannot watch it with the family as one can confuse it with an erotic movie.

Gold Diggers 

Bagshaw Cave , Stagalmite creation

We did horizontal caving in Bagshaw cave, Peak district, 2021 July.

We found this water dropping.

-A stagalmite is an upward-growing mound of mineral deposits that have precipated frm water dripping on to the fllor of a case. -(Copied from google)

So about 1000 years from now on there will be a stagalmite here.

Stagalmites are typically composed of calcium carbonate, perhaps also with lava, mud, peat, pitch, sand, sinter or amberat.

My Father's day

Today my lovely daughters 

gave me a father's day gift with flowers

with hugging and kissing

they are making a cake with my wife

she bought me flowers and Champagne

she is doing schichtkraut for lunch

It's a German affair

This father's day

I remember my poor father

There were no father's day

I have no idea 

how he raised us 

on his meagre allowance 

When we passed exams,

doing well at school, and out

That's his father's day

he left us early, at 62

My Mother was younger

 than what I am now

I can't imagine, because

I think I am still young

at least at heart at 56

I can't imagine how lonely for her

how sad its for her

I can promise you,

dear  father

We will look after

Love of your life

For the rest of our lives

The least we can do

For all you did for us

your four children

only treasure you left

 

A & E visit to a NHS hospital

I had my second Astra Zeneca jab recently.  About week and half ago, my head started constantly aching. I took paracetamol (Panadol) 3 times a day to ease the pain. To make matters worse, my blood pressure started going up as well. By Thursday and Friday, it had gotten much worse and I called the GP. They advised me to call the NHS using their 111 service, who in turn told me to see the GP. On Tuesday, I called GP again and the doctor advised me to go to the nearest A&E in order to get a blood test done now that I had taken the vaccine. This was to check D-Dimer levels in the blood to rule out possibility of serious blood clots forming.

I didn't want to stay in A&E for seven, eight hours with Covid-19 around so I asked the GP to write a letter to give to my Private Healthcare Provider so I could go private. She agreed but insisted that, because private hospitals may take a day to arrange an appointment, using the NHS A&E was better. I decided to adhere to her advice and my wife dropped me at the North Middlesex hospital's A&E at around 1:00pm.

There were only 3 people in the queue to the receptionist, and within 5 minutes I was directed to a waiting hall. There were about 30-40 people in there and 5 or 6 rooms with specialist nurses who were trained, like doctors, to do the initial check ups. It took only 15-20 minutes for them to call my name. The nurse checked my blood pressure and sugar level, asked some questions and decided I should see a doctor. 4-5 minutes later I was called to a phlebotomist to have a blood sample taken for the tests. 

I was later moved to the bigger waiting room on the other side and told to wait for the doctor's call. About 30 minutes later, a Doctor Riva came and asked me to come to the patient room. She checked few details with me, did some testing and assured me that I did not have a problem, despite the high blood pressure and headaches. It might have been migraine but she was going to consult with a specialist and then come back to me. In any case, I had to wait for the blood test results as well.

After about 10 minutes, she returned and told me that the consultant agreed with her. She apologised for the delay in getting the blood test results. "We're a bit busy," she said. There were about 50 people in the waiting room. 

I was told that if I wanted to go home, she could call me with the results and that if they were bad I could come back to the hospital. At around 4:00pm I was on my way home and received the call from Dr Riva, who told me the D-Dimer test results were good and that I was in range.

Amazingly, the whole process took only 3 hours. A courteous, efficient care and service by the NHS. 

Well done. 

Train Ride in Wales Caernafron to Protmadog_2

Train Ride in Wales 2012- Caernarfon to Porthmadog -1

Journey made in 2012

The Quarantanians

It's already the 8th day of the quarantine period. One can walk up to 300 meters to the left side, then 250 meters to the right side and hit the walls and security. Then one can walk up to 300 meters to the front, there is the beach. You can walk 150 meters up and down the beach but not allowed to go beyond the yellow line. You can come back and walk by the swimming pool, climb up the staircase about 20 meters to the upper floor rooms. That's about it.

Once a busy hotel, but now the place is almost empty apart from package tourists from Kazakhstan or China and us quarantenians. No Germans, No Brits, No Russians. At times silence is deafening. There are only 2 police officers and around 10 private security personnel. You know that there is a world outside these walls, from the facebook 😏. It's more like Soviet Union or East Germany but in a smaller scale. Anyway, the point is, you can get used to the situation and accept it as new normal. Then someone asked what about North Korea. Immediate reply was "oh there are Government run hotels". I hope second dose of the vaccine will make the difference. There you go. Happy quarantine day.

I was given a Vaccine, I posted in facebook

I was given the Astra Zeneca Vaccine and  I posted it in facebook. I said thank you to NHS. It riled some people. 

One reason I posted in here that, I was given the vaccine against the Corvid 19 is this, I was talking to a young man about 24 years of age and who is still believing in fairies. I seriously thought he is one of Peter pan’s long-lost sons. He told me that vaccine has a small chip that is very difficult to detect. Through that chip government can dictate to us what we should do. We will be fed wrong information. I told him that’s already happening through YouTube, face book, twitter and other media anyway. They don’t need a chip to insert.

Then he said they can control us and we will become robots. So, I asked him, are we going to walk like Robots as well? To that he has no reply.

And I found out that his whole family, mother, fathers, sister, aunt, uncle , gran and all of them think vaccine is not needed. Face mask is BS and whole coronavirus saga is a lie.

Well, I asked them what about the deaths?

They asked me, have you seen them? I said no.

“Well, there you go. No one saw these deaths. All these numbers are media lies. Hospitals are empty.”

You know what, first time in my life I stopped arguing. Because I was laughing so hard I forgot to argue.

--It is not me who wrote this false story. _ RobotR2D2XYZ0101010122£$%

East German simple food - Schichtkraut aus der DDR

These days, Ines enjoys testing different types of food recipes on the family. I call them Lockdown Recipes. Yesterday she tried out a recipe we’ve never had before. She told me that it was an easy old GDR recipe (GDR standing for German Democratic Republic, or the former East Germany, as it is better known).

Apparently, it is called ‘Schichtkraut’. It’s pronounced ‘Shiçt-kr-out’* (see below) but for the sake of convenience I omitted the ç. I was lucky Ines didn’t throw the spoon at me.

What I like about this simple recipe is that it only has 3 main ingredients: minced meat, cabbage and sliced potatoes. Ines added goat’s cheese on top, as well as cumin and other spices, and then put it into the oven for half an hour. And that’s it.

I call it 2 in 1 food because you can drink the sauce afterwards as if it were a nice cabbage soup. My stomach has very high acid levels, so this dish is ideal for me. It’s not very heavy on the stomach, and the cabbage and cumin make it easier to digest.

Try it if you’re interested.

*The ç is pronounced like the hissing sound between the ‘h’ and ‘yoo’ sounds of the 1^st pronunciation of the word ‘huge’. It’s difficult to learn, so can be substituted for a ‘k’ or ‘sh’ sound instead.

Cuba and the cold, hard truth - Cuba and the Cameraman

Recently, a friend of mine helped me reconnect with a four of my old friends who studied with me in the USSR through Facebook - another good reason to keep my Facebook account anyway. They were from Cuba, and Mr Rathnapala, the friend who helped me, was also working in Cuba at the time.

I have always had a soft spot for Cuba. It is partly because of the Cuban Revolution and its charismatic leaders: Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. In our youth, we had somewhat romanticised that revolution and its leaders. In somewhat of a pure ideological dream-world, we assumed Cuba was a socialist paradise, and that the USSR was a socialist heaven. To my utter surprise, some Labour party members in the UK also regarded Cuba as a model socialist country. 

Few years back, some even said they wanted to move to Cuba, and some still say that today. I think to myself, 'would you really enjoy living there when the mass media shows you how much they still don't have? I mean not only the freedom to chose your rulers, but comfortable life in the West. What's wrong with life in UK? Yes, it's a capitalist country but you still have the NHS as a free healthcare facility. If you don't have a job you are given government benefits. There are problems but housing is still decent.'

Although I have never been to Cuba, I studied in the socialist USSR during the '80s. I soon realised that it was no heaven, nonetheless we loved the Soviet Union in our own way. We enjoyed the hospitality of the Soviets and appreciated the free education given to us. It was a unique country. Coming from the island of Sri Lanka, it opened our eyes to the world. 

Living in the UK gave us the chance to progress and earn money. It was same for most of the other foreign  graduates who ended up in western countries like the USA, Australia, New-Zealand,  Canada and EU. They have now built new lives in these countries and settled in nicely. Some studied further and became educationalists, scientists and specialists in their respective fields. They used the opportunities they were given in the western world. But the nostalgia and yearning for the socialist USSR still exists among them.

I always wondered what happened to my Cuban friends. They played football and never forgot to call me even in the mid winter. Russian winter was very harsh, yet we played our football.  I have only found Uday, Osvaldo, Ariel and Rubén. Most of my other friends emigrated from Cuba to greener pastures. I can't blame them. Uday and Ariel live in Cuba and are happy there. Uday lives with his family. Osvaldo is working in Tenerife, and Ruben is in Argentina. Ariel, now a director in an Electrical firm, told me that life in Cuba after Soviet Union collapsed was very hard. I knew it was hard for the Cuban government because economic aid from the Soviet Union was invaluable to them. They also gave other types of aid in the form of cheap oil, military alliance, and support with the Cuban industry. All of this stopped after the collapse of the Socialist Bloc. It was a very hard time, and the existing US embargo against Cuba since the '60s did not help either. 

However, there have always been two opposing opinions on Cuba. The Socialists would say that Cuba had been developing fast, and that all would be well if the US embargo were lifted. And then there were those who condemned Cuba to be a third world banana republic. Although, as we all know now, Cuba has made lot of headways in their tourism and health sectors. Where is the unbiased truth? 

I watched a brilliant documentary very recently. Apparently, Fidel Castro never attacked the American people, however he always criticized American Foreign policy. He valued American achievement in science and other fields, never condemned it, and this documentary proved that. But when Castro flew to United states to deliver his speech in United Nation's headquarters, American immigration treated him very shabbily. They did not offer him any diplomatic courtesy. Castro accepted it with a smile on his face. 

The film was written, directed and produced by John Alpert. He visited Cuba in 

the 1970s. He was interested in Cuban history and its politics. The best days for Cuba were during the '70s and '80s; although there were shortages, generally life was good. Shortly after 1992, however, Cuba spiralled into an economic downturn when the Soviet Bloc collapsed. John documented this very sensitive time for Cubans with compassion and understanding. He didn't judge them when he met a family desperate enough to raid their neighbour's farm and steal the only 2 cows the farmer owned. Throughout many decades, he visited the same families over and over again. Some of them, he found out, left Cuba altogether after some years, like most of my friends had, who had studied with me in Moscow.

 Osvaldo goes back to his village in Cuba from Tenerife and happy to be back in his homeland. But Osvaldo and Uday have very different opinions. Osvaldo believes that Cuba needs a multi-party system. Uday supports the status quo, although he accepts it has its own problems. Uday said "Cuba is a good place to live, but really our economical system isn't working properly. We have to change many things in our economic system, but we can do it with one party. There are many reasons why our economic system does not work properly, but if we think just having multi party system would  fix everything, then we are wrong."

 And who doesn't? Look at the USA's very own Trump: he is not even leaving his post. Look at countries like Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan, who all have their multi-party systems but with corrupt politicians. However, I must say the Western world still doing much better economically than anywhere else.

John Alpert shows with his own excellent narration how Cuba lost their socialist zeal, and how it was tourism that finally saved Cuba. They may have stopped proselytising Socialism but countries like Venezuela still give them chap oil while having economic crisis of their own. Raul Castro slowly changing the Cuban economy. People can engage in limited trade activities, own their houses  and offer services in a limited scale.

I think Cuban socialism has failed, and that they must change their economic policies. There is no other way for them. We must accept the cold, hard truth, even if it is difficult. This is what John's film "Cuba and the Cameraman" showed me. 

I did not understand the scale of Cuba's deterioration after the collapse of Socialist Block until I saw this film.

Pictures were taken from Osvaldo Oliva. 

Photo taken at Moscow Power Engineering Technical University in 1985 or 1986. Front row Ruben and Uday, Behind them were Huertas, Jorge Benitez and Badia. In the background Omar Pino.

Director John Alpert on Making the Documentary 

An evening with Stratford International

A Black boy walks with a White girl

Hand in hand

An Indian girl walks with a White boy

Hand in hand

A Japanese girl walks with a

Mixed Race boy

A woman with a niqab

Walking with a woman wearing jeans

An English builder with his Polish buddy

Buying egg and bacon rolls with coke

From a Chinese vendor who is

Selling German bratwursts    

And American hot-dogs

A disabled man clutches loads of

Sandwiches, distributing them

among the homeless in front of the

Shopping centre, where

All the luxury goods are on full display

Meanwhile trains are passing by

From The Stratford International

A gateway to Europe

Even though the real link

Was severed some time ago

Once rundown city but

Now a cosmopolitan giant

Rising above the skylines

Beautifully as always

Showing us there is

nothing to fear because

People are together

- By Ajith D.

Raising Bridges in Neva River - St Petersburg

Walking along the Neva River is something I enjoy very much. We did the same thing in August 2016 when we visited Russia. Many sailors, their girlfriends, wives and children roamed the area because it was the Navy  Day. We waited until nightfall to give the two daughters a chance to see this bridge opening.

This is really a brilliant show. The opening and closing of bridges in St Petersburg. It Happens from April to November. There are altogether 12 bridges. The mainly cargo ships going along the Neva river to the Gulf of Finland. This last stretch of the canal was built during the Soviet Era.

Aurora

උපුටා ගැනීමේදී කරුණාකර යොමුව ඇතුලත් කරන්න.

Russian Street Artist Performing in St Petersburg

 I have seen many  Performances of street artist in Arbatskaya Street (it's called ulitsa Arbat in Russian) quite often. It was not a new Phänomena in Russia. For  centuries street artists performed all over the Russia. In Saint Petersburg, most of the time they were Performing alongside Newsky Prospekt, Palace Square (dvartsovi ploshad  - Дворцовая площадь) and near gostini dvor (Guest Door -гостиный двор). 

The soviet art produced in the soviet union had two main categories.One which glorified Soviet realism and other one which thrived outside of it. It was called soviet nonconformist art and it thrived after the Stalin's death to 0l the perestroika Period,  from 1953 to 1986. It was also called "underground art " as well. After the perestroika era started, most of these artists came out  to popular culture as  soviet realism faded into oblivion.

From Moscow to St Petersburg Train Journey - Complete video 21min

 From Moscow to St Petersburg Train Journey - Complete video 21min, on 13/08/2016 

Climbing Scafell Pike

Previous Article: Climbing Scafell Pike

Climbing Scafell Pike

Our last hike for this year was to Scafell Pike. That was on the 29th of August after our walks in Langdale Pike and to see the highest waterfall in the lake district, Scale Force. Shania, our elder daughter, left the lake district by train to go  home to fill out her university application forms and work on her budding fashion business. We were sad because only three of us were left to hike the highest mountain in England. The height of the Scafell pike is 978 meters. It's about 3209 feet and even though it doesn't look that high, one shouldn't underestimate the long winding climb to the summit.

It was supposed to take 3 hours to climb and a similar time to descend. But Ines and our younger daughter Shakyra had a slightly different idea, and revealed it to me only on the last day. The usual hike from Wasdale to the scafell and back is about 9 kilometers, but Shakyra wanted to take the longer route and climb down from the other side of the Scafell Pike, which meant there were another two mountains to hike - the total length was around 11 kilometers.

The surprise did not end there. I realised there were another 2 summits to climb on our way. That's Shakyra's great idea. The first one was Broad craig, which is 931 meters high (3055'), and the second one was Great End, which is 910 meters high (2955'). (Please see the maps). 

We travelled to Wasdalean, and the car park was already full. Luckily we found a place to park by the gate. However there were many cars behind us and they all had to turn back.

When we started the climb, there were no people walking with us, as you can see from the pictures. But half way through the ascent we realised we had made a mistake. There were many people climbing as well as descending from the summit already. We had to stop each time there was a narrow passage to avoid clusters of people because of the Covid-19 virus. But I realised some people simply ignored that. Sometimes we had to move completely out of the way from the normal route because people were climbing up or coming down in groups. At that point there was no way back either. 

When we reached the summit, in that small space where the last 2 meters to get up were, there were so many people crammed into those 4 square meters that we completely avoided it. Therefore I may not have hiked all the 978 meters, but only 976 meters.

Maybe this is one of the reasons that the UK government was forced to declare the 6 person rule - because people simply ignore the 'safe distance' rules. 

So, we climbed up to the Scafell pike and soon realised that there was very very cold wind that was difficult to bear. Summit was widely open to the strong wind from Irish sea and, boy it was cold evan in a summer day. We sat inside a small area where kind hearted climbers built small walled area with stones. There were three or four structures like that around the summit head.

But it is still cold and I realised Shakyra and I was shivering while Ines was insisting that we should move quickly. But Shakyra took her time to eat her sandwich slowly like she was sitting in the house in front of the TV. Well, she was quick to climb up and down and I am the one who was walking slowly. I was worried about my knee.

To climb down from otherside of the scafell towards Broad Crag was really difficult and steep. Someone already cautioned me about this. Apparently on the other side of the ridge there were few deaths few years back. They mistook the descent route and ended up in the most steeped part of the mountain.

I saw Ines slipped and fell down when we were hiking towards the Broad Crag. There was no way I could help her. I was struggling myself few feets away .Two ladies rushed towards her to help. But Ines got up at no time and moved on.

Climbing to Broad crag was difficult but once there it was amazing. It's partly because naturally created stone wall shielded the climbers from cold wind and one can rest there, while enjoying the beauty of the nature presented to the eyes. I wanted to stay there for a while but very few people were going on in this route so Ines wanted to hurry up. Also there was no proper route as such. You have to negotiate through the heavy boulders surrounding the mountainside. Then we went half way up to Great End where height stands from sea level at 910 meters. We turned to right there and then to an easy descent. When you turn left to get the final part of the journey I could see the beautiful lake called 'Spinking Tam' below.

Descent onwards was not that difficult but very long and tiring. But in the end, after long eight hours we made it.

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