Back in 2007, when I first started this blog, I wrote a series of posts to my mother; electronic postcards based on a trip to Russia, that would hopefully get home much quicker than the real things, they were called Emails to the Big Chief. They went out in the quiet period immediately after Christmas and were seen by very few people. Now, nearly nine years later, I thought they would bear repeating. In part 1, I talked about driving from Moscow to Kostroma, in part 2, the lack of preparations for my visit , in part 3, about the chalet by the lake and in part 4, about food parcels and feeling like a contestant on reality TV . Now read on…
Day 5: If You Go Down To The Woods Today…
I had the cabin to myself for most of this evening. The others were still at the office. And it was dark; so very dark out there by the lake with the trees all around. And you know how much I love the dark – not! So, there I was – alone and surrounded by trees, with curtains too narrow for the windows. They have Soviet standard windows and Soviet standard curtains – just different standards! I spent the whole time in the upstairs lounge, avoiding the eyes of the boars and other animal heads nailed to the wall; ignoring the darkness outside and pretending not to hear the noises. I was imagining bears, wolves – or even worse!
Finally I was relieved to hear Sasha and Anna returning. But I’d locked myself in and found to my horror that the lock had jammed. The girls stood shivering on the doorstep while I tried desperately to unlock the front door. But, the more I struggled, the tighter the lock seemed to get. They were just about to climb through the window into the swimming pool when I finally got the knack. and managed to open the thing. It took them a while to thaw out, but I think they forgave me in the end!
My experiences in Russia led me to write my debut novel, Gorgito’s Ice Rink, a tale of love, loss and broken promises which was runner up in the 2015 Self-Published Book of the Year Awards. If you would like to read it, you can find links by clicking here.
