En passant...

[alexpgp]

Sergey Z. called a little while ago to let me know that if I wanted to, I could join a van headed for town in... just under half an hour, whereupon I realized that I do not have my address book with me, so I shall have to adapt and improvise a new plan to send a few Christmas cards from Baikonur, at least for now.

During my previous trip into town, I bought a couple of packages of аджика (adzhika) mix, which is a condiment associated with Caucasian Georgia. The instructions on the mix suggest adding some salt and some wine vinegar (3-4%) to the desired semisolid consistency.

One interesting thing I notice is that the order of the ingredients differs with the language on the back of the package. The ingredients in Kazakh are: paprika, chili, coriander, sarymsak, and dill seed (names that are either identical to the Russian or cognate, except for sarymsak, which is probably garlic). In Russian, the order of these ingredients is: chili, dill seed, coriander, paprika, and garlic. This would suggest that there is no requirement, as there is in the United States, to state the ingredients in descending fractional order.

I must make a point of looking for birch twigs packaged for use in saunas. I had my third sauna yesterday and shared some interesting conversation with a fellow from Saab Space, who arrived a couple of days ago to install the clamp band that keeps the spacecraft attached to the adapter system, even when - and particularly when - the whole assembly is tilted from the vertical position into the horizontal.

More later, probably. Gotta go get ready for the trip.

Cheers...

Comments

[velvet-granat.livejournal.com]

Re: birch twigs - ask a couple of the babushkas at the markets or older guys, they are bound to have stocked up from summer and might sell you a couple. I think you have to soak them in a bucket of salty water overnight before use, to get them nicely flexible.

Bon voyage!