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Travel redux...
Jul. 29th, 2005 02:27 pmIt turns out I've hardly had an opportunity to fire up the VAIO since coming home (I think I turned it on once, early in the morning of my first day home, to retrieve the translation I worked on in Moscow).
Today was mostly a work day, with me tearing into an assignment due for just a few minutes ago (in truth, I sent it off a couple of hours ago). I also spent a lot of time on the phone with the travel agent, as my current itinerary - calling for a departure on the 4th - would appear to be a bit too risky to commit to at this point. An alternative, which gets me there on the appointed day, costs about $500 more. The agent was very helpful and managed a way for me to hang on to my alternatives until my client gets the word on which way the end client wants to go.
It occurrs to me that, short of some relatively small number of people at the spacecraft fabricator's site, very few people get to see a satellite put into its container. It's a fairly time-consuming process, with most of the time taken to make sure everything is just right and to check the other person's work. At one point, one of the persons authorized to take pictures in the facility offered to take a grip-and-grin of me with the half-stowed spacecraft in the background.
I've noticed that the charter almost invariably passes by just north of our area at Baikonur, so I was able to get the following shot (despite some turbulence) looking from the north-northwest. If you've installed Google Earth, clicking on the picture below ought to take you to a satellite view of roughly the same real estate (the horseshoe-shaped lake might help with orientation, or not).
The next morning, Saturday, I got up early to go look for a place near the hotel to grab some coffee without necessarily having to fill in a credit application. Interestingly enough, while most such places in the States would be open first thing in the morning, here on Kamergerskiy Pereulok, the standard opening time was 10:00 am. I killed a little time taking a walk around the place, and found myself in front of an unusual bookstore selling old medical books (and not just medical texts, but tomes intended for a general readership as well). The window layout appealed to me, so I took the following shot:
On Sunday, Alla and I went out to the site of what is now called the "All-Russian Exhibition Center," which is a crazy quilt of pavillions from the Soviet-era "Exhibition of National Economic Achievements," newer buildings, numerous kiosks and cafes, a small circus tent, a couple of amusement parks, and so on.
It turns out that a number of entries had been made in a competition to create a floral tribute to the 60th anniversary of the end of what in Russia is known as the "Great Patriotic War" (World War II for us in the West). The company my sister-in-law works for apparently submitted an entry into this competition, and I took a shot of her standing in front of it.
Well, the translation is done, the ticket is (almost) arranged for, and I'm catching up on various financial stuff as well. I should probably go get some exercise (besides some bicycling, I haven't done much in that area at all since coming home), but I won't. As I said, I have some financial stuff to catch up on.
Cheers...
Today was mostly a work day, with me tearing into an assignment due for just a few minutes ago (in truth, I sent it off a couple of hours ago). I also spent a lot of time on the phone with the travel agent, as my current itinerary - calling for a departure on the 4th - would appear to be a bit too risky to commit to at this point. An alternative, which gets me there on the appointed day, costs about $500 more. The agent was very helpful and managed a way for me to hang on to my alternatives until my client gets the word on which way the end client wants to go.
It occurrs to me that, short of some relatively small number of people at the spacecraft fabricator's site, very few people get to see a satellite put into its container. It's a fairly time-consuming process, with most of the time taken to make sure everything is just right and to check the other person's work. At one point, one of the persons authorized to take pictures in the facility offered to take a grip-and-grin of me with the half-stowed spacecraft in the background.
I've noticed that the charter almost invariably passes by just north of our area at Baikonur, so I was able to get the following shot (despite some turbulence) looking from the north-northwest. If you've installed Google Earth, clicking on the picture below ought to take you to a satellite view of roughly the same real estate (the horseshoe-shaped lake might help with orientation, or not).
The next morning, Saturday, I got up early to go look for a place near the hotel to grab some coffee without necessarily having to fill in a credit application. Interestingly enough, while most such places in the States would be open first thing in the morning, here on Kamergerskiy Pereulok, the standard opening time was 10:00 am. I killed a little time taking a walk around the place, and found myself in front of an unusual bookstore selling old medical books (and not just medical texts, but tomes intended for a general readership as well). The window layout appealed to me, so I took the following shot:
On Sunday, Alla and I went out to the site of what is now called the "All-Russian Exhibition Center," which is a crazy quilt of pavillions from the Soviet-era "Exhibition of National Economic Achievements," newer buildings, numerous kiosks and cafes, a small circus tent, a couple of amusement parks, and so on.
It turns out that a number of entries had been made in a competition to create a floral tribute to the 60th anniversary of the end of what in Russia is known as the "Great Patriotic War" (World War II for us in the West). The company my sister-in-law works for apparently submitted an entry into this competition, and I took a shot of her standing in front of it.
Well, the translation is done, the ticket is (almost) arranged for, and I'm catching up on various financial stuff as well. I should probably go get some exercise (besides some bicycling, I haven't done much in that area at all since coming home), but I won't. As I said, I have some financial stuff to catch up on.
Cheers...
