Contact

I've been watching the weather in Omsk; down to -27C this last week so it is no surprise to me that Larisa has waited until today (a more comfortable -10C) to pop out to the local Internet cafe to check her email and respond to my New Year/Birthday greeting. She tells me that she is fine, that the Xmas/New Year celebrations continue in Russia until 10th Jan, and that on that day she has further appointments with the Doctors. She says that she will let me know what's going on after her appointment but if that doesn't happen I'm not going to worry, she doesn't have the convenience of an Internet Connection at home, it's very cold and the walk to the Cafe is not something to undertake lightly. I remember the other extreme: going to the Library in South Carolina in record High Temperatures to make contact with you through email and I remember moaning about that discomfort!! And bearing in mind that the idea is to get "Fast-Tracked" she may not have an opportunity to write anyway.

It's a chilly 12C here, showers are around and the sky is very grey. There is not much light so I've got all lights burning here in the apartment and, as usual, I'm amusing myself in the kitchen. I was going to go to the shops but the weather has put me off that idea but I must get some more breadmaking stuff in, my firstever loaf is nearly all gone and I'm anxious to make more bread (one loaf at a time of course) trying slight changes to the basic recipe until I get it just the way I would like, which I will. The first has a slightly heavy crumb, a brown tint in colour and a hard crust so I'm going to try putting milk in the mix and cut down on the yeast quantity. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.