A week to go……..

I’ve been on a practice run to the fabulous Orkney Isles – on the sleeper train! A wonderful trip, the Folk Festival was brilliant, Orkney stunningly beautiful and it felt good to be on the road! Back home its all emails and lists and printing out many tickets and hotel vouchers. And there is a pile of Stuff for Russia slowly growing…..

Paid a visit to my Russian friend so we could talk Russia, we spread a big map out on the floor and talked practicalities. So, we talked about loos and electric sockets and taxis and food on the trains, and she has given me some small change for those little essentials on arrival and I have recorded her saying, in Russian, such useful things as “Can you show me where the station/toilet is….” which should fulfil my every need and if I don’t manage to learn them I can always whip out my phone and play it to some poor unsuspecting passerby………………She has reassured me greatly that – contrary to popular belief and edicts supplied by guidebooks, websites and travellers tales – its NOT necessary to drink vodka til you drop, all the time, or risk being deemed persona non grata. This is a huge relief.

You may or may not know that I indulge in a bit of activism for Tibet. So there I was yesterday, annoying the Chinese in their embassy in London, waving a placard on the Panchen Lama’s birthday (Not that he was celebrating – he disappeared when he was 6, abducted by the Chinese – the world’s youngest political prisoner, and has never been seen since). My fellow activists wrapped a tibetan flag round my shoulders and instructed me to take pictures of it hoisted it right across Russia and Mongolia. Will do!

I was in London to give my fingerprints to the Russians, a requirement for my visa. Along with bank statements for the last 3 months, my son’s passport number and the date my father died (35 years ago). Oh yes and shedloads of money.

Feeling somewhat down with all the news of escalating hostilities between my country and Russia and wondering whether a) I will be able to go and b) it would be wise to go, not helped by lots of people saying “you’re going WHERE??? RUSSIA???? Are you mad?” or similar.

So I rang my lovely England-inhabiting Russian friend who said it will be fine and the ordinary person in the depths of Russia is no more interested or supportive of their powers-that-be’s anti English activities than we are here of our powers-that-be’s various activities which do not seem to represent the general population of this country AT ALL.

She invited me round to spread out a huge map of Russia on the floor and talk traveling!