It Only Rains With Paul....

So if you have been reading this blog regularly you know that I spend most of my time with Paul.  He's on my sub-team at SASII so we spend every work day and lunch together; we're on the same schedule so we are usually eating breakfast at the same time and because of our age and background (yes I'm a teensy weensy bit older, we're both born in Australia and we each have a son the same age and a daughter the same age) we get along like a house on fire.  Actually, he reminds me a bit of my older brother, Sean, and even looks a bit like him.  Anyway...we spend a lot of time eating, drinking, talking, and sight-seeing.  You know from previous blogs that the general rule here is to carry an umbrella and when Paul doesn't carry one - it rains and when he does have one - it doesn't rain.

On Sunday, Paul wasn't carrying an umbrella so it rained on us while we were out exploring another mall and even after he purchased a new umbrella (somehow he's not OK with walking around in a bit of a drizzle - he's such a girl), it continued to rain and rain and rain.  This second mall we explored was much easier to navigate but still it was empty. I somehow get the feeling that the locals don't shop here - it's too expensive.  We did discover a few pleasant surprises among all the high-end stores of purses, shoes, and women's clothes - the first being a Lenovo (read former IBM Division) computer store.  The guy looked at me weird when I stood there and took a picture.

The second oddity, one I had never heard of, was a Fish Massage.  Yes that's right you soak your feet in an aquarium of fish and they nibble away at your legs and feet.  Cheryl said "We have to it, it's only 89 UAH for 20 minutes, that's about $12 USD. OK, why not, can't spend all my money on food, beverage and metro tokens.  So off came my shoes, up went the bottoms of my jeans and I soaked with the fishes for 20 minutes.  I wonder how many times I can go back there before I leave?  It was quite enjoyable.


Finally, after my pampering session I was starving for lunch so I asked Cheryl and Paul if we wanted to find the food court.  Low and behold we spy a "Texas Chicken" place that was displaying a "Now Open" sign.  Hmm... never heard of Texas Chicken before but the logo somehow looked familiar.  When I got my tray it had a leaflet - history of Church's Chicken - oh so good to be so close to home if only it were a fajita plate.


After lunch I was determined not to be swayed by the light rain (yes Paul it was light rain) so the three of us set off to do some souvenir shopping on "the old road" behind St. Andrew's church.  Nothing suited our fancy so we stopped for a coffee when the rain got a bit harder.  Not to give up on the day I suggested we walk over to the Zoloti Vortoa metro stop so Paul and Cheryl could see the arches and mosaics.  Cheryl had to depart after that stop to work on her charts but Paul and I were determined to keep on walking around in the rain - it was after all only about 3:00 p.m.  So more walking in the rain to another place we knew we could hunt for souvenirs and then a second coffee break when the rain and wind got a little bit too much to bear.

The rest of the day was spent with chores - laundry, ironing, and blogging.  I'm really enjoying the blogging - not loving so much the bathroom sink laundry or the ironing for that matter.  You might be wondering why I don't just send out the laundry to be done - because IT'S EXPENSIVE, really expensive.  Only a few more days of it and then I think the hotel in London has a guest laundry with a washer and dryer.  I better check on that.

So there you go, all caught up with the goings on here in Kyiv.