A foggy day in sunny village 2
It was a perfect sunny afternoon today, and only Fraser’s mouth had been covered by fog:
The Kuno Park, traditional Japanese dry pond garden, looks ghostly:
Russian geese like the pond in the middle of Garry Point Park:
Walking around the pond, looking at the geese and watching my steps to avoid their poop I recalled the subject of my recent post, the cultural values. Somehow, due to Russian geese excrement I guess, my thoughts switched to Russian public toilets as a national cultural value.
Russian public toilets are shame of Russia. I realized this quite by accident visiting restroom in Zwinger art gallery in 1969. Of course I saw and recognized the difference in Russian and German toilets before. But it happened that on my way to Dresden I spent couple of days in Leningrad, where had a chance to run through Hermitage. Shithouse on Stepan Khalturin Street and restroom in Zwinger were so contrast that this comparison left a deep track in my memory. The question WHY still has no clear answer. Then there were many events when I was very ashamed of our national shithouses:
• Central Special Design Bureau in Samara, Soyuz rocket cradle, the most advanced Russian high-tech and R&D facility. I was working there with American delegation. Nelly needs the toilet. The CSDB ladies had some doubts, but after Nelly’s request they understood urgency and one of them accompanied her there. As a result Nelly lost consciousness right in the toilet. Later she explained me that the strong smell of ammonia was the major reason of her unconsciousness.
• American girls from Manhattan High School of Humanities being in Samara Summer Aerospace Campus wanted to use the toilet during excursion to downtown. We were on Kuibyshev Square where underground facility is available. But the girls couldn’t go downstairs. They jumped out from the staircase shaft and asked gasmasks or other place to pee. There was construction site not far from the square with dense fence and bushes. We found quiet place to relieve our bladders there.
• The Head of the Aircraft Design Chair proposed me and Prof. Shaw from Oxford to work in his office for couple of hours. After five minutes being there Brian told me: “Slava, it’s stinking here so hard that my eyes are watery. Let’s go other place”. The reason of this terrible smell was the shithouse situated on the first floor just under chief’s office.
There were much more similar events in my life and very soon I recognized that there are two major Russian cultural values that contradict each other. They are High Russian spirituality and Stinky Russian shithouses. I guess that 90% of Russian problems are related to this contradiction. But the government doesn’t know this yet. I believe that if Russian Russians solve the problem of their shithouses, all other problems will be solved automatically due to High Russian spirituality :)
Okay, the philosophical statement I made needs verification. Maybe I will continue the subject of cultural values in future posts. And, as usually, more pics of today.
Cormorants are fishing in Fraser:
Time to have a rest and dry the wings:
Foggy harbour:
The sun is somewhere above:
Dry pond garden:
Pro is working, but I continue to shoot from the waist:
Enough for today, I guess.
The Kuno Park, traditional Japanese dry pond garden, looks ghostly:
Russian geese like the pond in the middle of Garry Point Park:
Walking around the pond, looking at the geese and watching my steps to avoid their poop I recalled the subject of my recent post, the cultural values. Somehow, due to Russian geese excrement I guess, my thoughts switched to Russian public toilets as a national cultural value.
Russian public toilets are shame of Russia. I realized this quite by accident visiting restroom in Zwinger art gallery in 1969. Of course I saw and recognized the difference in Russian and German toilets before. But it happened that on my way to Dresden I spent couple of days in Leningrad, where had a chance to run through Hermitage. Shithouse on Stepan Khalturin Street and restroom in Zwinger were so contrast that this comparison left a deep track in my memory. The question WHY still has no clear answer. Then there were many events when I was very ashamed of our national shithouses:
• Central Special Design Bureau in Samara, Soyuz rocket cradle, the most advanced Russian high-tech and R&D facility. I was working there with American delegation. Nelly needs the toilet. The CSDB ladies had some doubts, but after Nelly’s request they understood urgency and one of them accompanied her there. As a result Nelly lost consciousness right in the toilet. Later she explained me that the strong smell of ammonia was the major reason of her unconsciousness.
• American girls from Manhattan High School of Humanities being in Samara Summer Aerospace Campus wanted to use the toilet during excursion to downtown. We were on Kuibyshev Square where underground facility is available. But the girls couldn’t go downstairs. They jumped out from the staircase shaft and asked gasmasks or other place to pee. There was construction site not far from the square with dense fence and bushes. We found quiet place to relieve our bladders there.
• The Head of the Aircraft Design Chair proposed me and Prof. Shaw from Oxford to work in his office for couple of hours. After five minutes being there Brian told me: “Slava, it’s stinking here so hard that my eyes are watery. Let’s go other place”. The reason of this terrible smell was the shithouse situated on the first floor just under chief’s office.
There were much more similar events in my life and very soon I recognized that there are two major Russian cultural values that contradict each other. They are High Russian spirituality and Stinky Russian shithouses. I guess that 90% of Russian problems are related to this contradiction. But the government doesn’t know this yet. I believe that if Russian Russians solve the problem of their shithouses, all other problems will be solved automatically due to High Russian spirituality :)
Okay, the philosophical statement I made needs verification. Maybe I will continue the subject of cultural values in future posts. And, as usually, more pics of today.
Cormorants are fishing in Fraser:
Time to have a rest and dry the wings:
Foggy harbour:
The sun is somewhere above:
Dry pond garden:
Pro is working, but I continue to shoot from the waist:
Enough for today, I guess.