Moby - how did I get here:
part IVSo, I've been to Russia and the Ukraine and it is late August...
I have met two great ladies, but their circumstances and mine don't coincide.. [ they'd like me to live in Kyiv/ Kiev] I stay in touch..as our 'partings' were civil and measured..
I'm back on the net, again, searching and spending the weekends with 'the gals' Russian speakers - who also seek guys..
Alexey, my mate wants to 'help', too but this is my 'project'... !
I have joined bride.ru and found a women who is Russian, speaks English, and is an 11/10... [I never did meet a guy who's jaw didn't drop when she walked into a room.. ]
She has a daughter slightly younger than mine and I knew she would have had lots of letters, so I DIDN'T write to her - allowing five months to pass, and the frenzy to pass..
In the mean time I am contacted by a lady from the Crimea - divorced and with a daughter - and studying for an MBA- she works in finance.. I am interested to see the region, so I fly to Sevastopol.
This is QUITE different to Kyiv... very Russian - with Russian sailors walking around, and Russian being the most widely spoken language.
The lady is pleasant and takes me to see the Panorama and Balaklava - an important place in British history. I met Russian speaking yachties and enjoyed the time.. the weather was warm - September..
I liked the lady, but when I saw her apartment - and went to the loo, I found it somewhat 'unkempt' .. the daughter did most of the cleaning as Mum, studied and worked...
I might seem like a 'snob' , as I'm not 'Mr Tidy', myself.. but two messy ppl living together?
There really was a chemistry, but I couldn't get that apartment out of my head..... I had seen the inside of a few ex-Soviet apartments, by then.. Possibly Miss 11/10 was a 'distraction' .. I decided that the 'rush' of 'keyboard romeos' would have died down.. and wrote to 'Miss 11/10'.
During the autumn / winter, I was trying to get a Russian Sat TV deal off the ground and I suggested meeting '11/10' in November. she lived in Novorossiysk - a big port on the Black Sea ... the scenery was SO similar to Limassol in Cyprus... I did my biz thing in Moscow and flew to Anapa to discuss a contract to erect a HUGE dish at a luxury hotel south of Novorossiysk
I'm in on the last flight and it is windy and chilly outside the terminal... where I end up as 'madame' is late to collect me - I'm used to Cyprus weather, which is considerably warmer..
'Madame' ran her own biz, had her own house / car which was still relatively rare.. I knew she might be a LITTLE late, but..
I am locked out of the Terminal - which is in the middle of NOWHERE... and thinking " What if she doesn't show up"... My mobile is new - I have changed provider - but kept the same number and the IDIOTS haven't enabled roaming... I can't call her and she can't call me ..
Luckily, there is one worker - who seeing me STILL hanging around offers me a lift into town.. I explain my dilemma and he lends me his local mobile ( cellphone) to call' madame' - who answers and says she is 20 minutes away.. So I give the kind chap 50 Roubles for the call / trouble and try to shelter from the wind..
When 'madame' arrives - 25 minutes after - I am nearly blue, and as she pulls up I leap in the car, turn up the aircon 'full wack' [ hot setting , Don !] and hold on to her for dear life = explaining, I need her body heat ad if she doesn't like it she must 'suffer' for keeping me waiting....!! .. I swear I didn't look at her for before the 'bear hug' !!
After about a minute she asked when she could drive and I said, when I was warm THAT took another minute , during which time she asked if I was angry, and I could truthfully say I was too cold to debate, but f she didn't like sharing body warmth - I would soon be able to release her.. but I noted that the Gods might have some sort of punishment planned...
We arrive at the Hotel - which is TR owned and I have some work to do there.. so I make myself known to management, check in and madame is waiting for me in a lounge area just off reception.
I'm very tired and really want to sleep.. so we agree to meet the next day in the afternoon - as we bot have work commitments. Madame apologises - again - for being late and that's it for the night.
In the afternoon, after work, madame comes to the hotel and we go for a walk along the coast - I am grilled about lots of subjects and the short time of daylight left to us passes swiftly. I need to work all day so we agree to meet in the evening.
Madame arrives in an evening dress and looks good... The food is good, but madame is too concerned about the standard of service of the staff .. bringing the wrong wine glass....
She is intelligent, articulate, very attractive, but I find it hard to resist to ask her why she can't just relax - so I do... she tells me of the places she's been and how Russia will never be able to compete if service doesn't improve... the conversation seems to be about business and my hopes / aspirations for the future.
The next day is the weekend and madame takes me past Anapa to a little harbour on the Black Sea and we eat at a restaurant she recommends - but she is annoyed to find they have no menus in English and rebukes the owner - who tries to explain they don't get English speaking trade !!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40594486@N06/4129645095/In the evening we eat at the hotel and I say good bye at the car - we have arranged to go to the city the next day.
Madame shows me her city and shop... we drive by and she wants to pop in to her apartment... to collect something for her young daughter - who is staying with dad - her ex-husband.
She seems reluctant to show me her place, but I remind her that I've seen FSU apartments before - it is quite neat and tidy - considering a five yr old kid lives their too .. it is good to see her hurriedly tidying away her clothes that were drying - she had told me that she has a cleaner - but it is clear that she knows how to 'keep house'... which I appreciate.
She is clearly uncomfortable about remaining there and irritated by my persistence as to why.. So she explains that the neighbours will talk, and she wouldn't mind if we were going to be an item.. !
During this conversation - in the car - my mum calls - wondering where I am - and I remind her that I'm in Russia - and madame is irritated that my mum doesn't know I'm in Russia - that my visit can't be THAT 'important' ... My Mum had forgotten, as I had mentioned it.. but hey...madame suddenly wasn't so sure that I wasn't just a 'player'..
The next day was my last day and we took a cable car ride to a mountain overlooking the black Sea.. the views were spectacular - but in was very windy and cold on top - and no facilities were open and we were glad to descend.
She drove me back to the airport .... I liked how she looked, and she was VERY intelligent, but she seemed a little insecure...
We discussed this on the way back to the airport and she explained a lot of her recent history and this reassured me.. I was told that I seemed a 'good, trustworthy man' and that she would like to see me again !
I returned via Moscow - the plane was late and I missed my connection to Cyprus, which met I ended up paying the rack rate at the Novotel, Sheremetyevo airport... not wise
We kept in touch and I still felt I was being tested out - calls coming at any time.
Madame announced that she was coming to Cyprus and arrived 24 hours later !!
This was a very different madame.. she was relaxed and seemed determined to win me over - she cooked, cleaned, and seemed genuinely interested in my business.. Alex - my Russian mate thought she was a bit snobbish !
She stayed a few days and saw how I lived and worked- and we nearly missed her flight back as we got stuck in a traffic jam and she didn't seem to be bothered about being late - surprising as the next direct flight was a three days hence and she had a daughter and a biz to run ! nothing serious seemed to phase her. but silly little things DID!
She invited me to stay the for the Russian new year and Xmas and this fitted in great with a biz meeting - so I agreed to meet the potential partners nr Krasnodar... the airport where I arrived..
I flew to Krasnodar, from Cyprus - only 2.5 hours, and sat with a Russian lady who's Cypriot husband I knew... I was the only non Cypriot / ex-soviet on board.. and she was very helpful - especially,as Krasnodar airport arrivals was SO chaotic... one tiny door for international arrivals.. it took 2 hours to exit, and the immigration guy wanted to know why I was entering with a different nationality passport from last time...
I had rented an apartment in Gelendjik
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexbaranov/3360734206/which is 30 minutes from her home city and I think I finally passed her 'test' as I got to meet her daughter and some of her friends...
We had got on great for the first four days, but things finally went 'crazy' as she decided I was hitting on her friend (?!) - 'ignoring' her - I bet not many guys did that ! - and I mentioned that I thought it bizarre that she would allow her kid to watch 'face off' - a quite violent film - but she would allow the kid to watch a DVD of Shrek - which my youngest daughter LOVED.. as it was 'too dark' for a child of five !
I tried to explain that I had been interested in her friend as her friend... nothing more - and that I didn't need to be in a relationship with someone that was so insecure.. I really wasn't interested in her friend in that way.
Our last day was sad - I believed I had allowed her looks and other redeeming features to cause me to 'ignore' this bizarre behaviour - and I told her exactly how I felt...
We had to get up VERY early the next morning and she drove extremely fast on icy roads up through the mountains and on the Krasnodar plateau - back to the airport - we hardly said a word.. I was too busy with hoping I'd survive..
On my return to Cyprus - she still called - even after I had made it clear that being in a relationship with her would be too turbulent for me ...
She dated two other foreign guys and even asked me advice and when I told her that I believed I had met 'the one' ... Veta .. she even called a few time to ask if all was going OK... to her credit.. when I told her that I wanted to marry Veta and I thought that her calls were no longer appropriate -they stopped..
I'm glad I dated this lady.. she truly made me appreciate what I valued in a relationship.. - I wanted a partner that wasn't eccentric, someone patient...
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