ohb

hello moto

Was talking to my mom there for ages, my ear is burning. It feels like when they made me sit at that mad machine in the hospital with two cotton covered plates on my head and they tried to call it 'physio', I don't know who they thought they were fooling.
I finally managed to find a phone card with which I can call Ireland from my house, so watch out lads, you might be getting a surprise phone-call one of these days. But as usual it was not as straight forward as buying a call card. It all started at the kiosk.....
Mesha asked the woman if this call-card called "everyday' would allow you to call internationally from a closed line. ( a closed line being a fantastic Russian service which doesn't allow you to call outside of the city you live in. Now the people who own the flat know I'm a 'foreigner' but though I've asked a few times, my line remains closed, work that one out for yourself) The woman looked once and looked back to her crossword, when Mesha didn't disappear as she had hoped, she looked again. This was the crucial moment, she either had to serve us or shout "Nyet", her eyes moved, she rooted around under the counter and thrust a brochure at him, slamming the little kiosk window.
Mesha glanced at the brochure and we discovered that this little card makes what had hitherto been impossible, possible or at the very least it promised it. So, back to Miss friendly, with a nod to Mesha, holding my breath I knocked on the window, determined to make this woman smile. I said 'hello' in Russian, a phrase which Russians never utter to lowly shop assistants. The Russian stereotype of coldness certainly fits with the 'no smoke without fire' idea, but like the Hungarians (it must be a Soviet thing) their resolve is easily weakened and once you get past the cold, unfeeling facade there is often a nice friendly person lurking within. This wasn't quite the case here, but she wasn't the worst I've encountered by any means. So I asked for the 'everyday' card in my best Russian, I can function perfectly in shops and restaurants etc., it's having conversations which are my downfall as they involve grammar and I can't just spout random words and add 'pah joustta' at the end.
The woman in the kiosk didn't know where Ireland was, and when it wasn't on the list she didn't want to sell me the card. Unusually prudent for a Russian salesperson. I told her I was happy enough enough that England was on the list and with a suspicious glance she let me buy the card, though of course she didn't have the one with the number of units that I had asked for, she seemed pleasantly surprised that I was willing to buy the one for 205 roubles (about 6 euros) and well I would be lying if I called it a smile but something other that a frown definitely fleeted across her face.

posted by orlagh @ 1:43 pm