Otac na sluzbenom putu, or Murphy's law of (Ruslan's) travels

As Ruslan mentioned in the previous post, somebody in our household is bound to get sick when Ruslan is on a business trip. As if it was not difficult enough to handle a healthy child (two since January!), caring for a sick toddler can be quite tasking (especially if you happen to be pregnant, say). Colds, runny noses, ugly coughs, vomiting--somehow it all tends to strike when the capacity is low in the household. Of course, it inevitably results in nasty phone calls and a lot of frayed nerves on both sides :)

It's all made more difficult by the fact that, being expats, we have no traditional network to fall upon: no grannies, aunties, cousins and neighbors around to call for help and occasional babysitting. At least we are lucky that my Mum and sister can often come to plug the gaps; it must be real tough for friends whose parents are thousands of miles away. I hate to think about what it will be like if we move even farther away, and it seems like we might have to (or choose to) sooner than we thought... but more on that another time.

Kids are Different

Both kids are sick today. It confirms the rule that someone falls ill when I am about to go on a mission or am actually on a mission. Tomorrow I am going to Belgrade for a day and Boris was really feverish today - 39.5 degrees in the morning. We rushed to the hospital - tonsilitis and again antibiotics. His temperature didn't go down and we had to wrap him in a cold sheet. It worked. Somehow, I didn't worry as I had faith that everything would be fine. In moments like that you realise that you are a very little factor in the scheme of nature which, I hope, knows its way.

Andrej has a running nose but he takes it in such a cool manner. He doesn't resist at all the strange procedure of vacuum cleaning his nose. For those who don't know about it, there is a Hungarian invention called orr-szivo por-szivo meaning something like nose-sucker. It is a very simple tube + hose attached to a vacuum cleaner. Imagine Jelica and myself operating the vacuum cleaner at night cleaning Andrej's nose.

My point is that kids are different. While Boris was resisting the cleaning procedure with all his force, Andrej is willingly offering his nostrils. It's interesting to note that Boris has a vacuum cleaner phobia. It was one of the first words he learned. The moment Jelica or I wanted to use it he escaped to the furthest corner of the flat. When passing close to it he followed it attentively with his eyes making sure that it won't jump and eat him. I am looking forward to see if Andrej would have a similar phobia.

Ruslan

When the Salad Was Better

My father-in-law knows I love salads. We are getting really spoilt the last month and as a part of this conspiracy he prepared a nice tomato-cucumber-fresh onion salad this evening. It looked good and I expected it to taste good. However......it didn't. It had no taste, the cucumbers were watery and the tomatoes were not tasty. I don't want to be again as one of those Bulgarians who say that the tomatoes taste better there. I don't know about now but they tasted better years ago. Of course, we could have such a salad 2-3 months later but what a salad it was!!! And add some meatballs on top of it like my mother prepares them. This salad and meatballs really meant spring. It meant mother and father, flavoured wind, long walks on the main street of town.

Ruslan

Tescophobia

I definately don't like hypermarkets. Jelica may have lift phobia but I have hypermarketphobia. Therefore I don't know why I go there now and again. Just to remember how bad it is - it is far, there is no place for parking, there is lots of walking, things are not at all cheaper, bread is bad and same is valid for vegetables. What's more you end up loading in the basket more than you need and pay more than you would have paid elsewhere. On top of that, staff is so unkind. There is never anyone you can ask about anything. After coming home you realise you wasted 3 to 4 hours at the best for buying things you don't need and spending lots of money. In brief, hypermarkets suck. I still remember reading somewhere how hypermarkets in the 60s killed the small shops in France....And I don't even talk about the environmental aspects of hypermarkets, foods travelling 1000s of kilometres and staff....

During the very cold winter of 2001 when I had personal problems and when I felt lonely in general. In hypermarkets, this feeling was strangely amplified. I wonder why.

Ruslan