Days 27-28 – Getting Lazy, Promise More Regular Posts

June 26, 2008

In the morning Georgia put on her red hat, we stopped at Šviežios Bandelės to get some sweet buns, and went to visit Alicia. She was not feeling well in the last few days. But she kept it well under cover.

We did not see a wolf on the way. But we found Alicia in good spirits but she’s lost some weight and is looking tired. We left her some instant oatmeal, water, and rice pudding.

In the evening we met with Dan’s former classmate at Forto restaurant on Algirdas 17. It is the original one of the Forto chain. 30’s style setting is really pleasant and the menu is different and also very good. We had a very nice evening. Georgia watched cartoons.

Sergey is the main programmer in the company. It was interesting to hear his account of work environment at his first job and the current job as an employee. Both were small privately held companies. In both it is unthinkable to telecommute. Schedule at the current job is 9-6 (considered almost luxurious) with one hour lunch break but you are expected to remain at work during that time. There were periods when things were tough and employees had to work without salaries and management sort of blamed the team. In his first place of work verbal abuse was not so rare. Vacation is at the discretion of the management and you can be told no vacation for a year if the team is working on something. And in the meanwhile he seems totally dedicated and loyal employee and envisions very long engagement with his current company.

When we put Georgia to sleep we watched Russia/Spain soccer match. Russia did not do a good job and played on defensive the entire time. Lost with the score of 3:0.

June 27, 2008

The next day Georgia and I went to the market near the Gates of Dawn looking for wild strawberries. The market is highly organized and looks like a big store with multiple stalls selling the same groups of items – meats, vegetables, milk-based products. Everything looks very pretty and smells great. There are also clothing vendors stalls all around and that does not add to the atmosphere.

We found just 3 vendors selling wild strawberries and got ourselves a cup from one of them.

Georgia and I went to our playground downstairs waiting for Dan to come out. There were lots of children. Caretakers, mostly older women, probably grandparents, chatted among themselves and paid no attention to Georgia whatsoever. There was a girl older than Georgia who was blocking access to the slide. Georgia asked her to get through to no avail, then I did too nicely and used the body language in case she did not understand. The little shit just sat there. No one seemed to claim the responsibility for it either. Then Dan came out and stopped contemplation of serious action to respond to the obvious act of aggression against Georgia.

We walked around during lunch. There were lots of people out – I guess it is Friday and lunch time. Many lines to the ATM machines. We tried take out coffee from Paulyg booth that are in several places in the city. They run the same machine they had in the doctor’s office and it gives you a thistle worth for 3LT.

In the afternoon we made waffle cake with Georgia. They have here cocoa and caramel flavored condensed milk over the counter.

We went again out at 6 and Dan found a pretty angel on top of St.John’s. It is really not possible to see it from the street in front of the church. We wanted to walk up the Gediminas tower. However the walkway up is closed and there is a sign indicating to use funicular. We walked on the side of Vilnyale opposite the youth park (where I’ve tried to go before running into an alcoholic. This time there were lots of students drinking beer on the grass clearings along the path. With Dan leading, we bravely moved forward on the narrow path. Georgia was very good and walked quite a long distance without asking to go on a stroller – Dan had to drag it most of the way.

We got some beer and the appetizers on the way home because Dima Khitrov was coming. Turned out we forgot that he is not into pig ears or similar delights. When he came he was just sipped the wine he brought.

His perspective as an owner of the rapidly growing multinational cell phone retailing business was interesting as well. We were very impressed with his future initiatives. He also shared an interesting childhood tidbit about Dan, Dan R, and Gabriel from Omnitel. Dan said given that Gabriel must have eaten his vitamins better, Dan R is on his own. Dima also promised to give us a ride on his boat.