21 years of Independance

It's eight weeks until elections and the Independence Day is an excellent occasion to advertise the ruling party. In the morning police was everywhere. Some main city streets were closed for few hours. Everything is arranged in a way to promote the ruling party.
So it was refreshing to see google doodle celebrating  Ukraine Independence.

Perfect Spot

There are many ways one can show to have a lot of money. To show one has a lot of money and a refined taste - is tricky. Showing off and refined taste rarely go along.
Buying a Bentley is a way to demonstrate highly liquid account. I would expect that with cash flushed owner would provide a nice garage as a suitable shelter for such an expensive car.
Not in Kiev.
This white Bentley is parked in front of a rusty garage door and next to garbage bins!!!
What a great spot for a tacky status symbol!

The First Kiev Biennale

This year from May to July Kiev was treated with its first contemporary art Biennale. It took place in Arsenale building. It presented works of prominent contemporary artists such as Yayoi Kusama, Ai Weiwei, Makoto Aida, Choi Jeong Hwa, Louise Bourgeois. Also works of Ukrainian artists were presented. I came one hot morning - planning just to quickly pass through. Stayed three hours.
I was moved by Lara Baladi "Diaries of Future" where artist made a delicate lace-like tablecloth of coffee cups drank by friends and relatives of her dying father.
Rashid Rana Language Series a big mosaic landscapes made up of tiny photographs dedicated to one specific theme. I found it amazing.
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Yulia's 365 days

Few days ago - quite late in the evening - while I walked Iggy - I saw a man putting some stickers on light poles.
Here light poles are "boards" for offering all kinds of services. You can find phone numbers offering apartments for rent or sale, cheap hotels, dancing classes, yoga classes, english classes, selling or buying cars, "cheap" loans. The man who was busy putting stickers looked somewhat apprehensive.
I have not paid much attention to it. 
Next morning I was curious what kind of service was offered on the pole in front of my house.  It was clear why the man was uncomfortable.
He put on a pole small stickers commemorating Yulia's 365 days of incarceration.
Putting up big posters would attract to much attention and would not be allowed. With small stickers - Yulia was on all poles.

Good Wine Sommelier School

Kiev has "Good Wine" - one fantastic wine shop. I'm a loyal client from the moment I arrived to Kiev. Over years I became friendly with the sommeliers in the shop. In the spring one of sommeliers - Anton - told me few sommeliers will start a sommelier school and suggested I join. I was hesitant as all classes would be in Russian. But with Anton's encouragement I signed up. Since April to mid July I attended three to four classes a week. During the week evening classes started at 6.30 pm and frequently lasted until 11 pm. On Saturdays classes started at 10 am and usually finished at 3 pm. The group was small, full of humor and warmth. All dedicated to learn. But who would not be dedicated and enthusiastic when our amazing lecturers shared their knowledge in a truly enjoyable way. Spirits were also part of the course. This was the whole new world for me. One Saturday morning we sampled over 24 different grapas. Cognac, Armagnac and brandy tasting was equally comprehensive. A practical part of vodka lecture was to taste18 different vodkas - to learn a difference between western and eastern vodka style.
Spirits were mostly lectured by Ivan Bachurin whose passion is whisky. His passion about this noble drink meant that we (students) were not allowed to spit it. To my count we tasted over 35 different single malts while "touring" Scotland. Fortunatly Islay and Spey were two seperate lectuers. After the course I became thirsty to learn more. Or possibly I just look forward to more tasting. But now when I taste a wine or a spirit I appriciate more all the hard work and amazing skills needed to produce an enjoyable sip. Many thanks to all lecturers for opening my horizons and expanding my flavour and palate senses during last three months. I wish the school and the lecturers - Victor, Vitaly, Ivan, Anton, Evgeniy, Nadya and Julia - many happy students in their future wine courses. For those interested in the school the link is:
 http://goodwine.ua/ru/sommelier-school-school_info/
On above photo is the first class of Good Wine Sommelier School. 
Photos taken during classes:

Blind referee

In a second half of the Ukraine -England match - when England was leading 1:0 - Ukraine scored a goal but the Hungarian referee decided it is not a goal. And Ukraine was kicked out of the championship.
After the match the tapes clearly showed the referee made a mistake.

Close to my apartment there is a statue to a famous blind poet. Some guys put a referee shirt on the blind statue. Clear message. Unfortunately an unfair decision could not be undone.
More photos:

Euro 2012

During Euro I had many visitors. Everyone was impressed with Kiev, Euro'12 organization and Ukrainian hospitality. The event organization was superb. The fan zone and overall city atmosphere fantastic. Seems that after Euro Ukrainians love Sweds the most. Sweds also discovered a country with cheap beer so possibly more trade  might follow. That Ukrainians won in the match against Swedes possibly helped too. The two goals scored by Shevchenko are outstanding.
During Euro some Swedes lived in my building. The doorman loved them. He would refer to them as"our Swedes". He was very sad when they left. 
While I followed the matches on TV and fan zone I was also lucky to go for Italy-England quarterfinal match. Pics are at: 
I was flying in to Kiev on Sunday when the final took place. I was driving back to the city from the airport and watched spectacular fireworks driving over the South bridge.

Expense Claim in Ukraine

Sometimes I go for a business lunch or a dinner with a client, a visitor from the head office or some professional party. I usually claim such expense. To claim it I need to obtain a "fiscalny check" - basically a form of a tax receipt. Than I should write a call report or a note, the assistant needs to fill two forms, obtain four signatures and eventually claim the expense. Recently the tax law changed and made the whole procedure even more complex. I thought over time I learned to deal with complexity. But recent "fiscalny check" showed me I still have a very simple view and approach.

I had a visitor from the head office. With another colleague from a department three of us had a simple lunch. If you zoom in on a bill you can see we had. The lunch cost  for three of us was UAH 498 (about EUR 50). Once I asked for a "fiscalny check" I received above photocopies and other dox to prove the "fiscalny check". The pack was six pages.  It did not end at six pages. Once the assistant submitted the expense claim with papers below she was contacted by the Tax Department who asked for some papers. It took almost a week to complete a documentation to claim the expense. During that week I often thought of Kafka.   

Smoking ban

Ukraine is s smokers heaven. It is still perfectly fine to smoke in a restaurant. Most restaurant have "smoking" and "non-smoking" sections. Usually "smoking" section is main part of the restaurant.  But not for very long. On May 24th 2012 Ukraine parliament approved law about smoking ban in public places including bars, cafes and restaurants. The law will start to be applied within six months. It would be interesting to see how the law will be implemented. About two years ago - in Feb 2010 - the very last law President Yuschenko signed was to ban drinking in public places - including parks. That 2010 summer many people who would come into the park would take a sip from a bottle wrapped into a brown bag. This summer a lot of people enjoy a cold beer without a brown bag. Seems no one is bothered that by enjoying a cool refreshment one possibly engages in an illegal activity. Draft beer is especially popular this year in the park. Wonder how would the smoking ban be implemented.

Another Embarrassing News

Regretfully bad press about Ukraine does not stop.
Now Ukrainian Olympic official sells "50 to 100 leftover tickets" for cash - on BBC. Interesting investigative reporting of just over 4 minutes at below link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-18232275

Such a shame that yet another greedy official provides such national embarrassment.

Heated Language Debate

Last Thursday, on May 25th members of the Ukraine Parliament saw some serious action. BBC dubbed it "Rumble in Rada".
NYtimes has a short article on the event: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/26/world/europe/ukraine-parliament-debate-over-language-escalates-into-a-brawl.html
BBC coverage is on youtube:



In Ukraine MPs are richest and most powerful people in the country and not everyday one can see millionaires fighting about the language.

Dutch Ad "Keep them home"

The funny Dutch ad angered Ukraine's people in power. The Ukraine Ambasador requested ad to be removed from the TV program. Dutch response is cool and saying Ukraine government is "over reacting". The whole incident made a lot of people to watch the ad.

The other Chelsea - A Story from Donetsk

I received an excellent movie recommendation from a friend in Kiev. It's a heartwarming, thought provoking documentary about Shakhter - a football club in Donetsk, Donetsk city elite and hard working people.
The movie is made in 2009/2010 when Shakhter won UEFA Cup by a german director Jakob Preuss.
In the movie the Head of the City Assembly (young 28 year old )  and a rising start in Party of Regions gives folloiwng statment:
"If you are member of the oposition in Ukraine, you have mainly to beware of the judiciary. In your Europe the judiciary protects both goverment and opposition. Here the judiciary only protects the people in power. If you lose the elections you go to prison".
How very true and very prophetic.
Many thanks to Vjeceslav for recommending it. I can highly recommended too. The link is  www.theotherchelsea.com  and the trailer for the movie is:
   

Local TV Gun Show

I recently saw a gun show on the local TV. Not the program I expected to see. I am not used to watch guns show. Made few photos and than turned to BBC.

"All in the family"

An interesting article in Kyiv Post: http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/123517/ and also the official Pres office comment at: http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/123701/print/

Alexandria Park

Pauline and Wyger came to Kiev over Christmas. I wanted to show them Alexandria park in Bila Cerkev - a small place about 80 km from Kiev.
It was not easy to find the park. I got stuck in the local market first. With Wyger's help found the way to the park. But when we finally arrived to the park's entrance - it's doors were closed. The reason - the park wants to guard it's pine trees. If not guarded pine tree might end up on the Xmas market or in someone's living room. The trees on the market are between EUR 8 for a smallish tree; about EUR30 for a large one. So locals help themselves with the Xmas trees from the 300 years old dendropark for free.

Independence Day

Today Ukraine celebrates 20 years of independence. Ukrainians have much to be proud of given achievements over past 20 years. That some things still have to be work on is natural. Progress is a work in process. Today people walking the streets were nicely dressed. Most put on a traditional embroidered shirts.
Regretfully I had an eerie feeling as there was too much police around the city centre - on the grounds that Tymoshenko protesters are arranging a big demonstration. The numerous police presence was kind of oppressive. Most of the streets in the centre were "sealed". See photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/116335751057137184269/IndependenceDay?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPfYrpCD-9mMwwE&feat=directlink

In the park - next to Shevchenko monument - some few thousand people gathered - to sing Ukrainian anthem and put flowers to Shevchenko monument. There was a good atmosphere in the park which contrasted empty streets with police on.  

Nice thing is Google celebrates Ukrainian independence too!! In case you google but are not familiar with Ukraine - yellow and blue are Ukrainian colours and a cossack plays kobza!