Sun Sand and Glamour

First of all in reply to your question Andy, Reindeer meat tastes very like beef, but I prefer reindeer, it is just a little bit liver like which doesnt sound like a great reccomendation but you will have to try it yourself. Also I am belly free for the first time in about 10 years so the diet here must have something going for it.

Anyway yet more excitement in petrozavodsk as we play host to the finals of the Miss Russia competition, which is held on the lakefront - thus justifying the name of my post. I am begining to feel like some of the russian is sinking in which is good and my trip to Sortavala (a pretty village west of here which used to be in Finland) is arranged for tommorow after I cocked up buying the tickets the weekend before.

Photo's of Sortavala to follow - I can see a Miss Russia website on the web with a presume pics of the contest and Petrozavodsk but the Universities computer system is blocking me from getting beyond the front page so I suggest you google it from home.

By the way I am also becoming increasingly tight with my money now I have tuned in to local prices, its interesting to see just how much athe price of something is dictated by wether its a luxury or not rather than the costs of production. Hence Chocolates and Coffee are much the same price as in the UK and I avoid them and tea and beer are dirt cheap, I am altering my expenditure accordingly and can now be seen in resteraunts and cafes doing maths under my breath before exclaiming something like "over a pound for a Cappuchino - not likely"