Saturday saw me heading to the end of the purple metro line to Vykino station to meet members of the choir for a BBQ at Irina's dacha. Once we had all assembled we caught the electrishka (suburban) train to her dacha village. This is not like a village as we know it. Basically it's a community of houses set along dirt tracks. No villlage centre, shops, nothing. The station was a platform in the middle of nowhere. Irina met us and after a 15 minute walk we arrived. It was built in the Soviet times and has not really been upgraded since. All around are smart new houses, all behind gates and wall.
Irina has decided to live there full time having sold her flat in Moscow so she is about to have it all updated. So this is what is looks like now.
Back of the house. Asbestos roof
Kitchen - and the boiler has broken
Bath in the kitchen
Loo at the end of the garden
As you can see the garden is also a bit of a jungle, but hidden away are some lovely plants - the mock oranges here are wonderful. Everyone pitched in - the men getting the BBQ going, the ladies the rest of the food. The Brits and Americans will make do with the containers the food comes in, but the Russians like to do it properly with the food placed on plates, and everyone sitting around a table if at all possible. Here are some faces to names I have written about in the past. Sadly Claire whom I sat with most of the season was ill and couldn't make it. As she is off to St Peterberg soon and then home I guess I won't have any photos of her.
Jonathan - I did the fun walk with him last week
Jennifer sings tenor and is an American who has been here 13 years. A very helpful person.
Irina (left) first alto who has offered to speak Russian to me in the autumn and Corinne, choir administrator, first alto and Welsh though she has lived in Moscow over 20 years.
The cooks - Julian in front standing in front of Dima and Chris in the background.
Esther covered in goo.
Sergey our leader and conductor and recently married
As with these things there was plenty to eat and drink. It was lovely just to sit and get to know people. I talked to all sorts of people. Many of them speak really good English and I just didn't realise. Here we are just eating.
After lunch Irina offered to take us for a walk to her local lake. She said a twenty minute walk but we seemed to take longer. Perhaps it was Julian's ball, perhaps we just walked too slowly but it was further than we expected. This is the local roads and the lake.
By the time we got back it was time to think about getting home. Chris had to go to work and the rest of us had long journeys to do. Some stayed on into the evening.
Irina tells me she has a lovely town a short bus ride away, so I am hoping to see her again in September. I hope she has been able to get all the work done that she wants. It will be interesting to see the changes. Seeing a town as opposed to a city will also be interesting too.
By the time I got home I was shattered so I headed to bed and was asleep at just gone nine.
The internet is being very slow tonight so I will continue this story tomorrow. Till then.
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