Broiling in Baikonur...

[alexpgp]

My trek to MTS yesterday came up fruitless, as the young woman who was helping me noted that she could only activate my roaming for the period of my residence in Moscow, i.e., for one day. I made my exit and called LJ friend auto194419, with whom I had established contact earlier.

Some time later, we met at the TGI Friday's on Tverskaya and chatted over a couple of BLT sandwiches about life, the universe, and a number of common interests. Eugene is an interesting chap, and I hope to meet with him again, someday.

I did quite a bit of walking yesterday, pausing only after 9 pm at a restaurant called Якитория (Yakitoria) for a light sushi dinner.

The fairy godmother department working this launch campaign did its magic and instead of having to be out on the street at some ungodly hour this morning, we assembled - after a quick breakfast - at 7 am for the trip to the airport. The rest of the day has been pretty routine, if you consider flying to a space port in Kazakhstan "routine."

More later, maybe. There's a bunch of details to take care of.

Cheers...

Comments

[maykov.livejournal.com]

Can I aks why do they bring a translator from US instead of hiring someone local?

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Well, after taking several factors into consideration (e.g., I charge by the day, not by the hour, and also interpret French), it's actually very competitive. It also happens that using my services allows the client to conform with U.S. export control requirements, when such come into play.

Cheers...

[maykov.livejournal.com]

Yes, unfortunately (for Russians), Russian labour costs more and more. It makes USA workers more competitive.