Still Sunny

But I think that i have recieved a little too much sun. The last day or so I have been feeling a little off, a slight discomfort in the tummy not so much Stalins revenge, more like a touch of the Lenin revolutions. I have spent some time and effort yesterday trying to increase my liquids, and not beer I might add, to try and get my urine from being a slight squirt of dark orange stuff to the flood of nicely coloured wee that it is now, but the amount of liquid I had to consume was remarkable.

On of the most irritating thing about Ukraine is the total lack of customer focus. To get anything you generally have to queue and that can take forever, because it seems that Ukrainians need to discuss every aspect of their purchase. So for example when we arrived here and got to the railway station in Kiev we had to queue for TWO, yes 2 hours to get tickets. And no there wasn't just one ticket counter there were loads.

The other evening, in the search for food (my Ukrainian diet is progressing well, yesterday I had a plate of chips (of which more later) and three bananas -who would be a vegetarian eh!) we went to an italian franchise sort of place for a pizza, it took one hour of queueing to get our order, the way it works is you find a table, then one of the party queues, after an hour she came back with the drinks and the salad, we then had to wait for the pizzas to be cooked - blimey Gordon Ramsey could have a field day here.

Now you might say that having to wait proves that they are actually cooking the food, but thats no guarrentee of quality. I mentioned that yesterday I had a plate of chips, well thats only half of the story, we ordered the meal in a very nice waterside cafe on the harbourside, waited the prerequisite 45 minutes before the food came, by then I had drunk the beer and a coke and eaten all the bread, when the chips arrived they were smothered in tomato sauce and cold - which in another resturant I was told it was normal. So I sent them back. Then waited for a new plateful, they came covered in some grassy herb stuff they like here but to me tastes foul, I picked it off and eat them - I was hungry.

Later we dropped into another waterside cafe for some ice cream, we ordered fruit salad and ice cream, while we were waiting we were entertained by a whole bunch of former Soviet Saliors getting progressivly drunker in the corner (remember yesterday was a big memorial day) I have a picture of them I want to post but can't till I get home, but they were singing good old Soviet Saliors songs and my wife pointed out that the one they were singing was about how sacred Sevastopol was to them and that the enemies feet would never touch the sacred ground. I hesitated about introducing myself as an Englishman! Andway the ice cream turned up and it was simple a melted mass with a few soggy fruits floating in it. I, of course, sent it back and refused to pay. Which is an unbeliviable act in Ukraine. The waiters can't belive that you are turning down the gastronomic delights that they are placing before you. They need a culture of complaint here, and I'm the guy to teach them - lack of food makes me irritable.

Anyway its getting late 9:45am and I must be off to the beach again, its getting a bit tedious but I have some serious research to carry out - there are an enourmous number of good looking women here, so thank god for the inventor of the thong and I just hope that I don't go blind, or my wife cathes me peeking!