It’s a day late, but congratulations to all my female readers on International Womens’ Day, which means next to nothing to a Brit.<\/p>\n
It means plenty to a Russian though.\u00a0 On Friday and yesterday, every flower shop or kiosk, large or small, was packed with Russian men of every shape, size and form buying flowers of some sort.\u00a0 Most of them looked more than a little panicked, all of them shook their heads in resignation, either at the queues forming outside the shops or at the price they\u00a0had to fork out for the flowers.\u00a0 This husband of a Russian girl was no exception.\u00a0 A single rose cost $8, and there was no discount for volume, so you ended up paying an odd multiple of $8 for your bouqet (the number of flowers given must always be odd, unless the recipient is dead.\u00a0 Or you wish them to be.)\u00a0 Anyway, whoever decided that the day on which flowers\u00a0will be given en masse across Russia should fall in early March was either a complete idiot or a flower merchant.\u00a0 Flowers are pretty hard to grow over a Russian winter, so they were all flown in from abroad.\u00a0 We have\u00a0had a load of Mitsubishi parts on order from Moscow\u00a0which were supposed to be delivered\u00a0this weekend, but the freight handler told us the plane was full of flowers and there was no room.\u00a0 If the green movement wants us all to stop making unnecessary flights in order to save the planet, they’re first going to have to convince a nation of Russian women to go without flowers on Womens’ Day.\u00a0 Good luck with that.<\/p>\n
Looking at what I paid, I was pretty stupid.\u00a0 It is quite easy to get flowers for free in Russia.\u00a0 For example, on the main road between Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and Korsakov there is a particularly nasty bend beside a steep\u00a0embankment where black ice normally forms.\u00a0 There is a tree nearby which always has a nice bunch of fresh flowers propped against it, with nobody guarding them or anything.\u00a0 They’re there for the taking.\u00a0 Next year I’m gonna nab ’em.<\/p>\n
I’m romantic, me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s a day late, but congratulations to all my female readers on International Womens’ Day, which means next to nothing to a Brit. It means plenty to a Russian though.\u00a0 On Friday and yesterday, every flower shop or kiosk, large … Continue reading