"Муж и жена одна сатана"/ Husband and wife live the same life

Есть такая поговорка: "Муж и жена одна сатана" и чем больше я наблюдаю, тем больше соглашаюсь с этим высказыванием. Уже не верю, а настораживаюсь, когда мне говорят: "Он хороший человек, но его жена - это что-то!" или "Она просто душка, а ее муж настоящая скотина!" и т.д. Мне кажется, что раз люди живут с друг другом более чем 1 год, значит у них одинаковый интеллектуальный уровень, общие ценности, взгляды на жизнь, интересы. Теперь, узнав партнера, я меняю мнение о человеке в хорошую или плохую сторону../ There is a saying: "Husband and wife live the same life; they are indeed of the same breed" More I look around, more I agree with this phrase because if people live with each other for more than 1 year, they for sure have the same intellectual level, the same interests, values, etc. Therefore, when someone tells me: "He is the nicest guy ever, but she is a witch" or "She is such a sweet lady, but he is such an asshole" - I do not believe that... Moreover, I change my opinion (good or bad) about one or another
partner.

Российский мужчина переходного периода

"Блажен, кто посетил сей мир
В его минуты роковые!"
Ф.И. Тютчев (1803-1873)

"Российский мужчина переходного периода" - именно так я хочу назвать эту заметку, свои "пару ласковых" я обращаю к мужчинам родившимся во времена Советского Союза, формировавшимся во время "Перестройки" и возмужавшим в период "дикого капитализма". Это тот, можно сказать, исчезающий или, точнее, непополняющися подвид, который в эволюционно-революционном процессе сформировался в то, что мы наблюдаем сейчас - сильный, выживательный, широко-образованный и иронично-скептичный организм. Этого человека тяжело обмануть, "промыть мозги" с помощью пропаганды или напугать общемировыми крисисными ситуациями, обвалом валюты, переменой политического строя.
В полне возможно, что мое мнение идеализированно, идет уже пятый год как я не живу в России, но до сих пор самыми интересными, внимательными, понимающими и, поэтому, привлекательными собеседниками мне кажутся именно "российские мужчины переходного периода" - мой муж один из них, и я не могу представить себе полноценной жизни и общения с мужчинами "с других планет'": стопроцентными "совками", фанатами "демократии" или просто иностранцами.
Это не означает, что я избегаю канадских, японских или других мужчин, я веду с ними приятные поверхостные светские беседы, но "настоящего" многоуровнего общения с ними не получается, а с мужчинами, которым я посвящаю свою "пару ласковых" можно поспорить о фильме "Аватар" или "Семнадцать мгновений весны", вместе послушать Цоя и Шевчука и с удовольствием пораздражаться на Киркорова с Басковым, обсудить теорию вероятности Энштейна и "Историю государства Российского" Карамзина. Эти мужчины не читают книги исключительно связанные с их профессией, они позволяют себе знать много и обо всем, они любопытны и скептичны одновременно, - вся эта комбинация качеств формирует так называемую загадочную русскую душу в самом лучшем ее проявлении.
Для этих людей еще не исчезли такие полустертые понятия как вера, честь и дружба, но при этом хорошо известны такие определения как "время-деньги", "накопление капитала" и "деловые взаимоотношения". Они мастерским способом нашли баланс в быстроменяющемся мире и найдут его в будущем, они сформировали свои собственные ценности и попытаются передать их будущему поколению, потому что "российским мужчинам переходного периода" выдалось жить во времена очень резких перемен, и тех, кого это не сломало, сделало только сильнее.

Bilingual "West Jet" pilot

September 22, 2011. 10 am, Mountain Time. Flight Calgary - Toronto. My husband and I are in a very good temper - excited about our trip to the biggest city of Canada. We already on the plane waiting for a take-off, chatting about one of the hottest news - commodity market decline, wondering what our impression about Toronto would be traveling there second time after 2.5 years, reviewing our schedule, looking at the people sitting next us - in other words, doing basic stuff which most couples do, I guess, anticipating 4 hour flight and trying to fill out this time with some action. Right across the aisle, on a diagonal, I mentioned a handsome man in his middle thirties dressed into pilot uniform. Recall any classic movie about civil pilots, then, this guy looked exactly like an actor from one of this movies. Our attention switched to the pilot,and my husband and I started discussing his neat appearance and presentable uniform. Also, we noticed how good-looking this guy was, wondering why he travelled alone, et cetera. I forgot to add that, of course, our conversation was in Russian. After approximately two hours, flight attendants started offering snacks, which are available on the most "West Jet" flights for additional cost. When steward approached us, he said that we might choose any snacks for free. My husband asked why we had such a privilege. Our flight attendant answered that this was offered by our neighbor - the pilot. We asked why. The steward responded that the pilot had heard us speaking Russian; moreover, because his wife's Russian, he understands Russian pretty well. I was blushing.. Until the end of our flight, my husband and I did not talk much. I thanked this bilingual pilot saying: "Spasibo" (which means "Thank you" in Russian) when we arrived to Toronto

From Munich with Love

Let's start this way - I has been trying to write about this, in my humble opinion, funny incident for almost a year. It actually happened almost a year ago in Munich, at one of the cars of S-Bahn (Electric rail transit) - my husband and I just arrived to Munich from Calgary, Canada, and we were at the train, browsing through the map and looking for a Johanneskirchen station, where our friend from Germany had been waiting for us. I don't know what was the reason, we were too exhausted after 10 hour flight over the Atlantic Ocean or our Northern American "small town mentality", but, as hard as we tried, we could not find this station on the map. Finally, being afraid that we might be lost in this "sin beer city", my husband- Igor, on his broken German/English decided to ask one, obviously local, lady sitting next to us how to find this "something-kirchen" station. In our surprise, breaking all stereotypes about German unfriendliness, she and her almost 10 friends (we did not know that she had such a big company of friends around her in the train) started looking for "our" station on the map. They were very emotionally discussing something in German or, how most local people like to refer to their language - northen Bavarian dialect. Finally, they came to conclusion that Johanneskirchen station would be very soon - after two stations. My husband and I thanked that lady (which we asked at the beginning) for her help saying: "Thank you", then my husband decided to add (taking into consideration help of all that woman's friends): "Thank you - all of you!" Lady looked at Igor as he was very strange, even awkward person and responded politely in her best English: "I love you too, dear". It was a long long pause for everyone in the car for awhile, until we arrived to our station. Then, after couple hours, I realized that she (the "train-lady") had heard (I don't know how) from my husband a phrase "I love you" instead of "all of you"; therefore, decided to respond in a way which she thought, I guess, would be polite for a "wild" Russian-Canadian/weird guy. We still laughing when we recall this story from Munich - from Munich with Love;)

"Mammoth" movie and "Ladytron"

Recently, I discovered for myself one very talented Mexican actor - Gael Garcia Bernal. It all started from movie of Alfonso Cuaron "Y tu mama tambien", Gael Bernal was acting brilliantly, the movie is full of young uncontrollable energy, after watching it, everyone might start regret about passing by years of youth. Next time, I met Gael Bernal couple weeks later on TV, I was just randomly going through various TV channels, my attention was caught by surrealistic flow of the movie, then there was Bernal - the movie "The Sience of Sleep" by Michel Gondry. This movie is a piece of art, or how said my younger sister Sophie - it is a work-shop for all theatre decorators. The directors does not use computer graphics to make this movie three dimensional- surrealistic, to show all dreams of the main character which is acted, almost lived, by Bernal. After this movie, my husband and I started watching all movies with Gael Bernal there. Yesterday, we have been watching "Mammoth" by Lukas Moodysson, Bernal is playing a young, successful IT businessman. In first episode of the movie, happy and wealthy family: husband (the main character), wife and seven-year-old daughter cuddling and laughing. Then, the man goes to business-trip, his wife on her night shift to the hospital, and daughter stays with a baby-sitter. Then mixture of "mother-and-baby" related strories come together. In my opinion, the combination of great camerawork, music of Ladytron (it's playing in my iPad right now), talented acting, especially, the scenes with the hospital, brings this movie into the level when I will never forget this movie, and, definitely watch it again.

by Jenny Joseph WHEN I AM AN OLD WOMAN I SHALL WEAR PURPLE

by Jenny Joseph

WHEN I AM AN OLD WOMAN I SHALL WEAR PURPLE

With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.

And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves

And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired

And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells

And run my stick along the public railings

And make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in the rain

And pick the flowers in other people’s gardens

And learn to spit

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat

And eat three pounds of sausages at a go

Or only bread and pickle for a week

And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry

And pay our rent and not swear in the street

And set a good example for the children.

We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?

So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised

When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

Canadian entrepreneur or excerpt from Nabokov's "Lolita"

A couple weeks ago, I had a dinner with one pretty successful Canadian/Albertan entrepreneur. Nowadays, he is investing into various projects all over the country, but before he was a farmer, on the farm which was selling its production to Procter&Gamble. This man, Jim, was born and raised on the farm, hard-working person, good-looking man, in good physical shape, 50-60 years old. We had pretty good conversation about random staff, then we started talking about English and Russian literature. I mentioned one of the greatest Russian writers - Vladimir Nabokov and his book "Lolita", that he first wrote it in English (because English, French and Russian - all three languages in which he was very fluent). Then Nabokov translated this book into Russian. I asked Jim if he knew this author and his great novel. For my great surprise, Jim not only knew this author, he also thought that he was one of the most talented writers of 20th century. But the most amazing was when Jim repeated, word-by-word, the excerpt - beginning of "Lolita", he knew it by heart, "Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta". At the end, he added that he thinks that this was the beautiful beginning of the novel ever. That is why I like Canada - the country where, everyday, I meet people from different countries and with various backgrounds, people which ready to share interesting and sometimes surprising stories.