True.Illusion

More Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/irene06/Vacation#

[Monday, 16 June 2008, 10.10am]

Well, today’s the day. 10 more hours before we gotta meet at the airport. So exciting! Right now, I’m frantically packing my stuff (nope, I’m still not done). I haven’t got my usual ‘I think I forgot something’ feeling, which may or may not be a good thing. I caved and put my heels in a plastic bag instead of a box. Now I’ll spend the next 20+ hours worrying if it’ll break. (My heels, not the bag) I’m 90% ready I guess. *fingers crossed* Oh, I’m panicking cos Mich didn’t reply me about the London address. I need to register with MFA. OMG! Still can’t believe that in a few more hours I’ll be really on the way to Russia!!!!!

ETA: Jun just sent me the address. So one panic attack averted.

[Monday, 16 June 2008, 10.05pm]

Sitting outside gate C26 now waiting for the rest of the choir to gather. TY came to see me off – so nice of her!

Yup. So excited. We’re really on the way now!! Wonder who I’ll be sitting with on the plane. Hope it’s a good flight.

[Tuesday, 17 June 2008, 12.30am]

The flight was kind of on a delay. Supposed to take off at 11.10 but we didn’t make it off till almost 11.45pm. Apparently someone didn’t show up but his/her luggage did. So they sent the bag back to the terminal rather than bring it to London. Got a middle seat on the right. Between Nadiah and Jasmine. Omg! The plane is like damn small. Tall people find it hard to sit I guess. Gonna be a long 13hr journey, although the pilot mentioned that we should arrive in Heathrow on schedule, despite the delay. So far the flight’s like ok. Bit bumpy but I guess I’ll survive. It’s all dark outside so can’t see anything. Anyway, supposed to be served dinner soon. Omg. More like supper, it’s past midnight. So sleepy! Think I’ll watch Spiderwick Chronicles then go to sleep. Maybe pick at the food a little. Wonder what it’s gonna be.

[Tuesday, 17 June 2008,10.40am]

And we’re almost at Heathrow. 2 more hours to go. Can’t wait to get off the plane. Was supposed to be sleeping but unfortunately, these seats are so cramped. Couldn’t get comfortable. So I guess I was more or less dozing only throughout the flight. Daifeng is going around taking snapshots of everyone. Lol! Not a nice way for some of those still sleeping to wake up. Anyway, like I was saying, Andrew would’ve just died trying to fit in the seats. Jun’s lucky she can sleep on her bf’s lap. Anyway, had ’supper’. Roast chicken pasta. It was pretty good, even though I was feeling a tad airsick. The movie was kinda interesting but airsick lah, so switched it off. My throat’s feeling fucking dry. Robitussin helped a little. It’s kinda funny now that everyone’s awake and talking, laughing, taking candid photos.

Finished watching Spiderwick Chronicles. Damn stupid fantasy movie. Guess it’s alright though.

[Tuesday, 17 June 2008, 9.05am, London Time]

We landed at Heathrow at around 6am this morning.

Sun already up and nice cold weather. I kind of miss this part of London – the cold air. Anyway, nothing much. Transferred to Terminal 5 to wait for the flight to St Petersburg. 3.15hr flight this time, thank god. Wonder who I’ll be sitting with.

[Tuesday, 17 June 2008, 12.15pm]

Halfway through the flight now. It’s been fun so far. BA378 is an airbus, like the budget airlines, except that there’s food. Haha! 3rd breakfast I’ve eaten this morning but miles better than the one on B16. Those eggs tasted like plastic. These eggs were like, real. Bacon and sausage. And I ate the yoghurt and fruit too. Today’s breakfasts are the healthiest meals I’ve had in the past day. Now seated with Xuefang and Rhoda. Big group in front of us playing cards (Bridge?) and making a heck of a lot of noise. The rest of the plane is kinda sleepy. The flight attendant – Jamie – is kind of cute. Hehe! The girls are all going on about him. Lol! We all appreciate cute guys. Especially ang mohs. Anyway, it’s freaking cold on board. Put on my choir black top. At least it’s long sleeved. Wonder how cold it’ll be when we arrive. Looking forward to finishing travelling at last.

[Tuesday, 17 June 2008, 9.45pm St Petersburg Time]

So, I’m finally in Russia, in the hotel. It’s uber bizarre. You don’t appreciate how strange it is till you’re here. Well firstly, St P reminds me of a cross between Thailand and rural England. The buildings all look like leftovers from the communist era. The hotel also. We had no idea we were here until we were told to get out of the bus cos we’re here. First impression of it is the typical scary hotel.

But I suppose I can get used to it. It’s very like the hotel in London. Anyway, like I said, it’s bizarre. It’s 9.45pm at night but the sun is still shining like it’s 11am or something.

My internal clock is already severely off whack and now it’s even more screwed. I have to keep reminding myself of the time. Dinner sucked too. Had raw salmon potato salad and salted pork chop. Could barely finish so thank god for the three ‘black holes’ seated at the table with us. They say that Glenn thought the whole olives in the salad were grapes and put the whole thing into his mouth and bit. Yuck! It’s quiet here now except for birds cawing and some kind of insect calling. Probably why it’s so strange. Cos it looks like the middle of the day but no one’s about. I’m not sure if I like Russia very much.

[Wednesday, 18 June 2008, 6.15pm]

I’m sitting in the window seat in the hotel room. I assume it’s supposed to be able to take my weight. Lol! The room isn’t all that bad, especially not since I figured out how the window works. I thought it was broken but found out that that’s the way it’s supposed to work. Went out to a playground/park nearby for our first rehearsal after breakfast with Nelson and we almost froze to death.

Supposedly 18 degrees Celsius but it sure didn’t feel that way. Came back to get the heavier coat after to go to town.

Hung out with Jun, Daifeng, Senghong, Jacey, Iris & Huaizhi. It was freaking cold. Jack was right, the wind was especially cold. SH was practicing reverse psychology on himself, saying that he feels hot. Had lunch at a cute Russian restaurant.

Had grilled trout. Not bad. Very lemony. They even had slices of lemon inside. Never ate trout before. It was super fresh. Nice! Would’ve been nicer if had some potato or something. Hungry now. Haha! Maybe I’ll lose weight by the end of this. Drank Russian Kvas. The book said it’s lightly fermented rye and barley. It wasn’t bad. Tasted a bit alcoholic, a bit like liang cha. Yeah. St P is very old outside the city center. It’s all stone and barbed wire. Very communist. The city itself reminds me a lot of Bath. Rivers and building stuff. Kinda nice. Now, if I understand the language, it would’ve been pretty charming. Got a lot of carvings on the buildings so I got quite a few unidentified photos. Haha! Some of the girls are having a PotO song fest before dinner. Jun went over to see. Prob I’ll go over and kaypoh too.

[Thursday, 19 June 2008, 8.05am]

Last night was hilarious. I haven’t laughed so much for such a long time. First a chicken-killing PotO song fest involving Jun, Yan Jun, Vivian & Heidi. Then yoga session in the hallway that turned into a mass exercise. Not me lah. Heidi & the exercise group. We were making so much noise. Lol!

Dinner was not bad. Some kind of pork with melted cheese topping, onion, mushroom and some other unidentifiable stuff. DF, SH and Glenn were providing musical entertainment. Nelson was saying that Glenn should be in Bass, after hearing his real voice rendition of “Can You Feel The Love Tonight”, to which Glenn immediately reverted back to his alto voice. Then yesterday was Adyll’s birthday and today Alison’s. So we had cake at dinner and made the two stand together and we struck up a wedding march. Lol! I doubt the other halves of those two would be very happy but all was just a tease. It rained in the night. Nothing as hard core as back home. We’d think of it as a light shower or really heavy drizzle. Woke up at 2am cos couldn’t sleep and looked out the window. It was dark out. Like twilight or just before sunrise. Couldn’t take pic cos didn’t wanna disturb Jun more than necessary. Btw, the bed is super annoying. It’s narrow (almost fell out a few times) and it creaks. Haha! Anyway, the place is really starting to grow on me. Opening of the festival later today in a church! Hope photography is allowed. Ok, hungry. Gonna go down breakfast in a while. Let Jun have a bit more alone time with the boyfriend before I show up and be 3rd wheel again. Haha!

[Thursday, 19 June 2008, 9.35pm]

Ok, so I’m more or less completely EXHAUSTED right now. A very very long day. First we all got into trouble during choir practice cos we kept going off key. Adyll was pissed. We had to do bits of Luk Luk Lumbu and Credo over and over and over. Then we went to the Hermitage/Winter Palace Museum.

Omg! Words cannot describe that place. Firstly, it’s HUGE. Like GINORMOUS!!!!!! They say that to properly see all the exhibits would require at least 7 years. Trust me. I’m very sure that it’s true. So, cos we don’t have 7 years to spare, we took a whirlwind tour. Few photos cos there was just too much. How to capture the magnificence of every room, decorated in its own unique style. Hopefully I can ‘kope’ DF’s video. Haha! So, the museum took us about 3 hours by which time we sailed through the Winter Palace and billions of artworks (Rembrant and Van Gogh stuck in my mind). After that, went for lunch cum dinner at some buffet place that cost 300 roubles for an hour. Not bad, although everything I ate there just blew the exercise that I had in the morning walking around Hermitage. After food, we walked over to take pics at St Issac’s Cathedral.

Then walked to Church of Sts Peter and Paul for the concert. Apparently this church used to be a swimming complex. Slight deja vu moment about that. We were early so we sat in a little room somewhere (chapel I think). There was a piano and Adit started playing and we sang some random songs. Glenn’s Kyrie/Amazing Grace was beautiful. Must remember to get the score from him. Oh almost forgot, we had a very high and hytper carolling singalong in the bus on the way to town today too. Glenn just couldn’t stop singing the entire day. It kinda got on everyone’s nerves when he constantly sang that one line of Credo while at the Hermitage.

Anyway, so, I’m exhausted right now. The light outside is screwing around with my brain. Now that I’ve experienced constant day in the White Nights, I wonder what constant night is like. Sounds scary though. Anyway, not expecting to do anything after this except shower, sleep. Maybe a work a bit on the clone story. They’ve been talking to me again. Lol! Good weather today. Not very cold and very sunny. Oh yeah, passed by the Church on the Spilled Blood. It is beautiful! The entire building is a work of art. Every bit of its facade has some kind of art on it. It’s just magnificent and I’m awed by it.

Wish could go in to take a look though. Unfortunately it’s not in our tour package so no such luck. The heavy bag syndrome is hitting me again. My bag is once again mysteriously heavy all the time.

Oh, want to talk a bit about the concert just now. TKSS was clearly the largest group there. Won’t say they’re the best though. I liked the Portuguese male chorus aka old men choir. Their “Song of Spring” was so cute as was one of the other songs, the one with the guitars. The Polish choir wasn’t bad either, although their conductor was so action. There was a guy in that choir with super long hair and a beard. I thought he resembled Jim Henson but Glenn started with the ‘Jesus’ lookalike and that kind of stuck.

Oh, one of the soloists from the Portuguese choir looked like Sean Connery. Haha! I’m seeing things everywhere. I’m even seeing faces in the patterns on the bathroom tiles. Not scary. Just bizarre.

Forgot to mention also, Alicia is a Clay Aiken fan! Haha! She saw my orange Clay bottle and told me. Says he’s looking really hot lately.

[Friday, 20 June 2008, 12.27pm]

So, went for city tour in the morning. Wasn’t very helpful cos we’d already visited the place yesterday. Bought a set of 5 Russian dolls from some roadside guy. Should’ve bargained. 5 small dolls (500 roubles), 3 big dolls (700 roubles). Should’ve tried bargaining 5 small + 3 bag for 1000. But, being me, I didn’t think about it till after the purchase was made. Anyway, tested to make sure the guy didn’t cheat me and tadah! I have an army of 25 Russian dolls of various sizes sitting on my window seat.

Very boh-liao I know. When one is anti-social, one develops strange kinds of behaviour. It’s really warm today. Anyway, something I forgot to mention yesterday. At the Hermitage, there was a Chinese group taking a tour and they had a Russian guide and her Cheenanese is like P-E-R-F-E-C-T. You don’t look at her you’d think she’s PRC. We were all stunned when we heard her. Haha!

[Friday, 20 June 2008, 9.53pm]

Ok so Jun’s gone off with DF, I assume to get food. No idea if I’m included in their food plans but I guess I’ll go upstairs in a while to get hot water for cup noodles. Not much.

Had the Festival ‘Concert Marathon’ just now. I fucking ma-lued my self lah. I was first to walk in and I went to the wrong place. Sob. Nelson said we sang not bad though. No one said anything about my walking wrong so I’d do well to forget everything lah. My Russian doll army are standing in a nice row on the window seat and I’m loving them.

Lol! Been a while since I liked playing and arranging doll toys like this. They aren’t even supposed to be toys lah. Haha! Someone’s having a wedding in the restaurant downstairs and disco music is blasting. Sounds like fun though. I’d like to have a wedding like that, instead of a stuffy 12 course dinner. Anyway, that’s like the 4th wedding I’ve seen around today, or else it’s the same bride all over the city. Glinka Capella Hall is beautiful and the acoustics are just nice without being overwhelming like yesterday’s church. It’d be fun to sing there. Love the historical culture of Russia btw. I should’ve been a history major. Lol! So much more fun.

[Saturday, 21 June 2008, 8.15pm]

Whew! Long day so far. Woke up at 6am, earliest ever, to get ready for competition. Did self warm ups in the room too. Anne said that she heard us but thought it was Glenn. Lol! Glenn’s reputation…Anyway, we sang well I think. Nelson said our Credo went flat!!!!! Oh no!

(videos thanks to Jun)

After we sang, we went down to listen to the other choirs sing. (To be continued)

[Sunday, 22 June 2008, Midnight]

So, where was I? Oh, we had a SUPER long wait for the results.

Even though we were ahead of schedule, the results were delayed until the scheduled time. We were told to go and ‘distribute’ the cheesy Merlions from Uniquely Singapore thing. So, there were some choirs we were targeting – the Icelandic girls, and some of the Polish guys, namely ‘Jesus’, ‘Johnny Depp’, and ‘Haydn Christensen’. I swear, they seriously looked like. The ‘Jesus’ guy found out we were calling him Jesus and his choirmates starting calling him that in their language. Lol!! Poor guy. I gave my Uniquely Singapore pin to this set of 3 guys I think were Polish. They looked at me like I’m some crazy girl just walked up and gave them a Singapore pin. Haha! Super embarrassing. Though I think the guy who looked like Adrian Brody from ‘The Pianist’ (whom I think eventually got the pin) is cute. I gave the Merlion to one of the Portuguese old men. Omg! You know what he did? He took my hand, ‘kissed’ one cheek, then the other then kissed my hand. OhMyGod. Unfortunately he’s like real old. Like grandfather kind. But it was sweet anyway. Apparently his brother married a Japanese girl and lives in Japan. So he spoke fluent Japanese. I like the Coro old men. They’re all so nice. They were crazily taking photos of everything and later on, we ran into them at a roadside cafe and they were singing.

Oh, I tried to record their ‘Song of Spring’ that they sang in competition. Hope it turned out ok.

Anyway, I’m missing the point. The Results!!!!!!

NUS Choir achieved…*drumroll*…The Gold Cup of Peter the Great, 100 Points!! Not in one category but TWO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Get that?! We had FULL POINTS PERFECT SCORE for our competition categories. Oh my fucking god!!!! Nelson told us later, it’s calculated as a cumulation of each judge’s score with no communication between the judges, points out of 25. It’s superbly impressive to get full points from every judge. Not once but twice. Oh my god! The significance of it is only now just hitting me. We were really good. Wow! And although it wasn’t explicitly announced, it was obvious we were overall champions (we had the biggest Cup). Hehe!! It felt great. TKSS came in second with 100 and 96 points in their categories. So that was good. We sang Linden Lea and celebrated with lots and lots of photos.

The afternoon was alright. Souvenior shopping. I now have 7 Russian dolls. Mum’s gonna freak. Got 2 Tshirts for Andrew too. Hope they fit. Did some bargaining at the market outside Church on the Spilled Blood. Me & Glenn had a good deal I think. 1 Russian doll 850 roubles, we bought 2 for 1000. Haha! And the shopkeeper didn’t bat an eyelash. I am sort of done with Russian souveniors. I kind of want to buy some caviar or vodka but not sure if I can do that by tomorrow.

Going back to the room after debrief after dinner (~11pm) I had the fright of my life. There was a strange cigarette butt sitting on our toilet floor. I literally freaked out. It was not there earlier. I’m still a little spooked. Got the room door open now so I can hear Heidi & group talking in the corridor outside. Jun’s upstairs with DF. HZ’s going around begging people to do his exercises which I doubt people have/are doing. Anyway, I’m psyching myself to that it’s the chambermaid. DF threw away the butt cos I was still freaking out. :p At least it’s the last night today. Going to Moscow tomorrow. Should be interesting. Still packing now. Probably will be frantically stuffing stuff into the luggage tomorrow. Kinda sad that the choir’s gonna be split their separate ways after tomorrow. As much a loner as I am, they’ve become like family to me. (And I’m a little apprehensive about being 3rd wheel as SH understands). Hehe!

Anyway, I want to sleep but I don’t know what time Jun’s coming back so I’m not really sure what to do and…oh! I just realised, it’s dark in St Petersburg for the first time I’ve seen.

Kinda sunset twilight. It’s 12.25am now. Cool!!! I sort of miss the night for a while. Interesting to see constant light suddenly dark. I didn’t even realise until I just noticed that I’m in the room with the overhead light on. The Russians say the White Nights are the time for falling in love cos night ‘doesn’t’ come so we’re meant to stay awake longer and…you know. Awake. In the span of 2 hours, I saw 11 brides of which at least 6 were in the same park area.

Heidi’s telling stories in the hallway now. I might go and listen in a while. Get some company.

[Sunday, 22 June 2008, 8.41am]

Sitting in the hotel lobby now cos Jun wanted to bring the luggage down early and then she went back upstairs. In any case, I can’t just abandon the bags and disappear back upstairs to the room cos I just gave Vivian the key and I’m not about to drag my bag back upstairs. So the point is, I’m in the lobby sitting on the floor like a lost soul. :p

Switched rooms with Glenn and SH last night. It was noisy. Apparently Russia won some important soccer match and the locals were celebrating. There were yells, cheers, car horns and fireworks! Of course, couldn’t see fireworks from where we were but could hear them nevertheless. Super sleepy now. Went to bed around 1am. SH’s bed is kinda comfy. And the springs don’t creak when I move – which is a good thing, definitely. Anyway, I’m gonna miss Russia when I go back. I love the weather at the moment. It’s quite a charming place overall. Of course, I know I’m still in the tourist bubble but the weather I definitely will miss. No where in SG can I wear long sleeved shirts and jeans and walk everywhere I go without breaking a sweat. So yeah, I will miss that.

[Sunday, 22 June 2008, 9.03pm]

Sitting around yet again, this time at St Petersburg’s railway station, waiting to board the train.

Good and bad day lah. Bad cos the lovebirds are all over each other again and I still feel like 3rd wheel so I’m pretty lonely by myself. Jealous that people have boyfriends and planning student exchange etc and I’m not. As usual, what’s new?

Anyway, main event today was Peterhof, the Summer Palace park constructed by Peter the Great. Close to the Gulf of Finland. Beautiful place with lots of fountains and places. Like the Botanic Gardens with respect to the park atmosphere but cooler weather. Wonder what it’s like to live in a place like that.

The town of Peterhof is really quaint too. Like, a little town area. Not quite sure how to describe it. On the way there, the bus stopped at a shopping center for toilet break. The toilets were freaking nice lah. And hey used blue/UV light instead of white light. So anyway, my fear of Russian public toilets are unfounded.

Then back to Nevski. The guide, Alexandra, half Korean on her mother’s side, took us to visit a Russian Orthodox Church – St Nicholas.

It was pretty! Lots of beautiful decorations. Inside the church was very ornate too. A lot of gold and religious icons/pictures and candle holders reminiscent of joss stick holders. After the church visit, went to this area close to the university buildings on the other side of the Neva River where there are 2 figures of Sphinxes mounted on a platform. They say that the city would not fall as long as the sphinxes are there. They also say that touching the sphinx would bring good luck. So, all the guys decided to climb the stand onto the statue. Nadiah almost had a heart attack worrying that they might fall and die or something.

Then we got real cam whoring and sat in formation of N-U-S.

Didn’t work out too well I think. So that was that and now we’re waiting around to leave St P. It’s kinda sad. 6 people aren’t joining us to Moscow and Heidi was going around hugging everyone. Gonna miss her when she goes home.

So anyway, leaving St P after the past, what, 6 days? Gosh. It’s passed by in such a flash. Just some stuff I think I neglected to say. There’s a lot of flowers and plants in the city. I see flowers growing by the road and I see pots of plants sitting in people’s window sills. The place preserves its history and culture, not allowing any building to be over 6 stories tall. Only churches tower over the cityscape. They use left hand drive here and it’s strange cos unconsciously I feel like cars are coming on the wrong side of the road. They used trams and ‘electric’ buses here for public transport together with normal buses and their prized metro system. Oh, I think Russian high heel shoes are to die for. Lol! I see women walking down the street in their heels and I’m drooling over them.

Something happened on this trip that I had sort of told myself not to do and that is to develop infatuation with one of the guys. Such a bad idea and I know perfectly well that it’s just infatuation. Anyway, he has other friends and he’s nice to everyone. I guess I gravitated towards him this trip cos he’s the only other one to kinda understand my situation with _______. He’s going back to SG later today and I’m really dreading being alone on the extension. Oh well, loneliness is the human condition. Learn to live with it. We are born alone and we die alone in the end.

[Sunday, 22 June 2008, 11.45pm]

Quick one. On the train to Moscow now sharing a cabin with Jacey, Rachel & Ann.

Well…It’s an Experience. I’m scared I’m gonna fall out of bed during the night cos I’m in the top bunk. And there are scary strange bundles of things that sound like plastic in the overhead compartment but we were joking that they may be bodies. The toilets suck. The ‘flush’ is like a dustbin that you press a pedal and the bottom of the toilet bowl opens up and empties the stuff I don’t want to know where. And the taps don’t work. We’re 4 to a cabin and we’re supposed to have the whole wagon to ourselves, but there’s a strange Russian man in the last cabin and no one knows what he’s doing there and we can’t speak his language and vice versa. Glenn and SH are in there now. Like Jun’s mum said, don’t know who’s more frightened – him or us. Lol!!

Now the good part. The scenery passing by is beautiful. I still can’t grasp the sheer immensity of Russia. I could stand by the window all night watching the country go by. It’s just beautiful. Got a video in my hp but I doubt it does justice to the real thing.

SH & DF are going round with handfuls of chocolate cereal. The nice ones with chocolate in the middle. Wonder if they sell it in SG. I’d really like to buy some. Been eating it with yoghurt for breakfast the past few days.

yeah anyway, for my first significant train ride, it’s not all that bad. Hopefully can get some sleep before we pull into Moscow (Mockby) in the morning.

[Monday, 23 June 2008, 6.35am]

Pulled into Moscow train station about half an hour ago. Freaking sleepy and freaking cold. It’s the wind lah. It does nothing to help either complaint. Slept reasonably well on the train. Woke up once when the train stopped at a station somewhere. Otherwise, it was impossible to wake up. I’m still half asleep as I write this. I should go and splash water on my face or something.

Moscow train station is very like St P’s. Except that in the middle there’s a huge bust of Lenin. But the effect is cool. Kinda imposing in a way. Imagine a communist movie then zooming into the bust that has this super serious dominant face.

[Monday, 23 June 2008, 4.50pm]

At Moscow’s airport now, still sitting around. The flight’s been delayed half hour. Which is a good thing cos apparently a lot of us are still stuck at customs clearance. So sleepy today. Toured Moscow a little. I’m not entirely clear exactly where we went to. Visited the Kremlin (Which is like a huge fortress like building). There’s a church there that looked like Church on the Spilled Blood.

Visited Red Square and the surrounding area and took pics.

Saw changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. There’s an eternal flame there too. (cue singing of song of the same title. We really did that. We went like, “Close your eyes, give me your hand darling, do you feel my heart beating (no), do you understand (no), do you feel the same (hell no!), am I only dreaming (hell yeah!)“) The soldiers marched so funnily. They kicked up their legs practically >90degrees when they marched. Predictably the guys just had to try it out too and they all complained that it hurt. Lol!!!

Anyway, not sure what will happen in London/Paris. I heard there’s some problems with the planning. Misunderstandings and conflicts and such. And as usual, I feel invisible. Hope things turn out good in the end. I’d hate for such a nice journey to be spoilt.

Oh, and I don’t dislike Moscow. It’s very very city and lots of constructions and some skyscrapers. It’s like St P was some cultural heritage town and Moscow is the ‘real world’. It’s quite like SG. Like I said, I don’t dislike Moscow, neither do I like it. I still prefer St P I think. Which makes me different from Jun cos she prefers cosmopolitan Moscow to ‘boring’ St P. Oh well, to each his own. I didn’t like London much when I was there last time.