Home Alone

My wife has left me. For two weeks to visit her family in Siberia. I told her all summer she should go but no, she has to wait until there is a tragedy and then go.

Her brother Sasha died suddenly yesterday of heart failure, leaving a 25 year old daughter, son-in-law and four year old granddaughter. He was at his sister, Luda's, and just keeled over. A sad end to a good man, Tanya said. Sasha had married a raging alcoholic who finally drank herself to death about 10 years ago. Sasha finished raising Lena, saw her marry a good man and stayed home from work three years to babysit so Lena could go back to work. He was now working in the Taiga region, way north of Krasnoyarsk and was home on days off. The funeral is tomorrow.

Tanya and Luda are both worried about Papa and Tanya wants to see him alive, not go to his funeral too.

Getting Tanya onto the plane today was an exercise and there is no guarantee she will make her connection in Moscow. There are two planes per day from Dnipropetrovsk to Moscow. The travel agent in Dnipro said the morning plane left at 10:00 am. We left home this morning in time to buy her ticket and catch the plane except when we got there, we found the plane left at 9:00 am. The next plane left at 4:00 pm, leaving her only three hours to make her connection.

There are three airports in Moscow, we'll call them D, S and V. They are a long way apart. A very long way apart. When we flew to Ulaanbaatar in 2007, our plane landed at V Terminal 1 and a 20 minute bus ride took us to the new V terminal 2. The plane from Dnipro now lands at D and Tanya ahs to get to V Terminal 2. Is there a shuttle bus between airports? Logic would dictate there should be but this is post-Communist Russia. Logic (and democracy) are still unknown. It may be the Metro via several line changes and a minibus at the end. If she misses she can change her ticket for 33 Euro. To Monday.

She thought I could call her mobile from Ukraine even when she is in Russia. So far no connection. I called our friend Galina where Tanya will stay if she misses her connection to warn her this might happen and ask her to see if she could connect with Tanya's mobile. At least Tanya knows her way around Moscow.

Written four hours later: Tanya made her plane all right. She emailed me from V Terminal 2. It is delayed until 3:00 am at least. Way to go Vladivostok Air! At least it is a 737 and not an old Iliushan (I hope). Also a wheel fell off the new suitcase I bought her in Turkey and she cannot drag it. The suitcase is guaranteed but we have to send it to Britain for repair. Right. And she cannot remember the PIN code to turn her phone on which is why I cannot call her. I sent her the PIN code from the package for her new number but that isn't it, she says. Go figure.

Both Galina and I called Luda at 2:00 am her time to tell her Tanya's plane was delayed. At least now she knows.