Its been longer than normal since posting only which can be attributed to the new year and time taken up with working, sleeping, and few beverages in between to break up the day. Just before new years allot of time was spent on the east winch farm (above) working on things replacing electronics which had been possibly damaged by the weather/damp. It was a long old week between xmas and new year and i think everyone was getting a bit cabin fever. I have no idea what Davide was saying to Smithy in the picture below but this pretty much sums up the working week.
On the nightshift we had new years eve off work so we took advantage of that and after waking up at 16:00 we had a few beers in the bar and then headed up to “The Grotty”, this is a small bar about 30mins walk from the hotel in a strange residential area. The Grotty isn’t actually called the grotty but was christened that by I think, Bully and Parky who were looking for a bar to drink in which wasn’t the expensive hotel bar. I think this was around May when some of the guys first came out they were walking around looking for a bar near the hotel and Parky noticed that there was some water and the faint smell of raw sewage running down a hill and there eloped like there were buildings further up. Based on the premise that where there is shit, there are people, and where there are people, there is a drinking hole, they marched up the hill to find what is now known as “The Grotty”
Here we had the Stage One New Years Eve bash, there was food and free beer which we all made the most of. Some of us, and when I say some of us I basically mean the nightshift, me included were pretty hanging from the little drink we had in the morning after finishing work. On this day Gethyn won the award for the worst hangover, and i think this picture, (a panorama made to go wrong) kinda sums up the headache.
After the Grotty, Smithy and Myself walked to Adler, to a nightclub called forward tower to celebrate the rest of the evening. On the way there we spoke to some locals who didn’t understand due and nor did we understand the but I think we wished each other happy new year. When we got to the club it was 1000r (£20) on the door to get in to a semi busy nightclub but we paid and went in anyway. We went to the bar and I ordered vodka and whilst we were there a short guy with an impressive jet back monobrow was trying to get us on the dance floor. Im not sure if we were getting propositioned or not as he was quite insistent for a while until the last time we shook our heads and he wandered off to a dark corner somewhere. The club was quite bizarre in the way there was lots of photocopied 5000r (£100) all over the dance floor with people dancing around kicking up the fake money. I think remember the 4th vodka*, and then absolutely nothing until waking up fully clothed onto of my hotel room bed, that was the end of new years eve.
What was nice was the if you have a birthday in the Raddisson you get a birthday cake left in your room with a nice hand written note from the hotel, nice gesture and we all enjoyed a slice at the bar after that nightshift.
I haven’t really posted many pictures of the stadium here basically because a. allot of them are the same a previous photos not much to look at. And b. the ones where there there is something interesting to look at i can’t really publish as ill break some sort of secrecy act and either get arrested or shot. What I can post is “Barry Safety” this is our H&S officer who looks after everyones safety on a night time, he’s not really called Barry but we call him that anyway. As for Tony Danger, well, theres nothing much to say.
In Russia christmas is celebrated on the 7th January, not the 25th December, i still don’t know the reason why but I’ll try and find out. This is what happens when we finish a nightshift, Stiggy decides we should wear xmas baubles and buys everyone Yagermeister, what a great laugh, two Xmas’s Bonus!!
One night in the canteen Kenji decided to show us a picture he had drawn that day, all he said was that it was a famous person and we had to guess who it was. After a couple of minutes looking and thinking I had figured it, and burst out laughing brilliant. Ill post who it is in my next post.
So that was the start of 2014, contrary to all the pictures and stories here there has been a considerable amount of work gone on and I really can’t believe where we are now after the set backs of the previous 2 month. Everyone has grafted their tits off and it looks like were heading towards a show now.
Heres a face to finish off, Smithy has to take credit for finding this one.
*in Russia a standard vodka seems to come as a triple in all the places we have been to.
