Monday 21^st April

The BA flight actually lands 10 minutes early, I float through passport and visa control, they really seem to have improved things at Domodedovo recently and I’m stood by the carousel waiting for the bag to appear.

AND IT DOES!!!  Yee! Haa! T5, I love you, my day is set up now, a few hours wait then a flight at 9 out to Lipetsk and we’re back on track.

Of course it couldn’t last.

There is thick fog in Moscow and despite being able to check my bag straight in which saves me lumping it all around the airport for a few hours, all flights to and from the airport are delayed for an unspecified period.

After a brief update that there will be an update at 9:10 (and it’s only 6:30 now), I decide to lash out and buy a pass for the business lounge where at least I can grab a “complimentary” coffee, bit brekkie and get my head down for a bit in relatively safe surroundings.

Of course, the whole buying a pass, checking into the lounge is unnecessarily bureaucratic, but I soon have a glass of juice, a double espresso and some snacks to keep me going, and I manage to grab around an hours kip before the lounge fills up and the updates start to come through.  An update promising another update and so on until I get news that my 9:00 flight will be at 11:25, so I settle down and update this piece de resistance for the past few days.  (You don’t honestly think I type it each day, surely?) bureaucracy – ah! That’s how you spell it.

The good news is that just as we land, Irina from the office pulls up outside the airport so it’s not long before we are hurtling through the streets of Lipetsk at breakneck speed, with Irina telling me how she likes to drive fast.  VERY fast!!!

Irina also informs me that we have a “little problem”.  The little problem turns out to be that we will have no electricity until 4pm.  I can see how that could be just a wee bit tricky so I ask Irina to take me to the hotel where I have a much needed shower (I stank) and then we head off for some food and hope the leccy is back on soon.

It is, but this day keeps going from bad to worse after such good early promise from the T5 experience and I spend the remaining time in the office trying to talk the ISP through what we need, and indeed should have had for the past 2 months in the way of an internet connection so that we can set up the VPN to the corporate network.  I fail miserably and leave the office very tired and dejected.  It’s not been a good day, so I go back to the hotel and just crash through sheer exhaustion.

And there's a mossie buzzing around in my room.

Ha! I just killed it, things are looking back up again!