Eurovision 2007

It came and went with barely a whisper, at least in my radar of awareness.

Serbia won. Congratulations.

Ukraine was second – way to go Serduchka!!!

Russia was second – impressive. I’ve heard the song and while it’s got a nice beat, the lyrics are … odd. Anyway, nice result. Try to be happy this time.

But, this is really about the Eurovision organization…. I’ve been trying to get info on the contest all morning, and it’s like finding a needle in a haystack.

The Eurovision website looks good, but there are so many things wrong with it or which could be improved. Having missed the live broadcasts, the first thing I want to see is the results. I would expect a big picture of the winner on the front page of eurovision.tv, not some 160×120 thumbnail that you can barely tell if the winner is male or female.

And there should be at least a full paragraph or three about the winner, contest, results before the “Read more” link.

There should also be a list of how every country placed on the front page, with a way to easily see both the final and the semi-final. Each of those lists, should have a link to the full and complete table of how people voted for each country. The only table I have found doesn’t show how Russia or Ukraine voted, for instance. But, there is a column for how “Others” voted. What, are the bad guys from Lost voting for Eurovision, now?

The links should be more user-friendly. For instance, www.eurovision.tv/2003 should show me a big picture of the winner, the full article about the final, with the table of results for both final and semi-final. And, www.eurovision.tv/2003/ukraine (or “ukr” or “ua”) should show me the same format but only showing info on the Ukrainian entry. Furthermore, www.eurovision.tv/germany should show me the history of Germany at the contest. I want to see their results for each year with a brief description of each entry.

Oh, and while we’re talking about Germany, it’s time to get rid of the Big Four. They suck. They perennially end up in the bottom of the table. It’s no fair allowing crap acts into the final when four other acts who are loads better get the axe in the semi-final round. Eurovision should follow the Football World Cup format: hosts are automatically in, everyone else has to earn their spot.

Oh, one more thing…. Israel?!?

Back to the website…on the front page, there are currently three boxes under the heading “Hello Europe”. Each box has a header, a picture, a sentence and at the bottom “Read more”. As soon as I saw the picture, I assumed it was a link, and clicked it. Nothing. When I saw the header, I clicked it. Nothing. Finally, I scrolled down enough to see the “read more” link and clicked it. Why?

I have a fast connection, but the site does not load very fast for me. Perhaps because of all the pretty graphics? Perhaps because the site has not been optimized to take advantage of browser caching? If you are going to use CSS – for which you are to be lauded – you must put the CSS code in a separate file and include it. Don’t force my browser to download the same stuff for every page on your site.

I could go on, but I won’t. Unless, eurovision.tv gives me a call.

Coyote – Mexican

Yesterday, we had a hankering for some mexican food. We had seen Coyote on Prospekt Mira several times and decided to give it a whirl.

Bad decision.

As soon as we entered the place, we were suspect and decided to just order some appetizers and drinks. If that checked out, we could order more. If not, we’d go back to Vapiano for the main course.

We ordered a piña colada, a mararita, nachos, chicken quesadillas and a Caesar salad. It was all bad.

The margarita was in the wrong type of glass, didn’t have crushed ice or enough ice, the mix was wrong, the rim was not salted. We asked for more ice; it came back with big ice cubes, making a bad effort worse.

The piña colada tasted like banana.

The nachos arrived cold, with barely any cheese to be seen. And no sauce

The quesadillas were fried, too oily, already cold when they arrived and the sauce was insufficient.

And somehow the bill was 1100 RUR.

Don’t go here.

Nestle Purelife has problems

We get our water from Nestle Purelife. I didn’t do a lengthy search to choose them. I heard about them, saw an ad, their name is recognizable the prices aren’t awful, so I chose them. It’s been pretty good for almost two years now.

But, in the past month, things are a bit screwy.

First, I called them for 2-3 days, trying to order more water. Couldn’t get through. I forget if it was no answer, busy, or an automated message from the phone company, but the fact is I couldn’t order water. There was no mention of any problem on their web site. I did find a second phone number there, but calling it was equally unsuccessful.

I posted on Expat.ru and Redtape.ru to see if anyone else was having trouble reaching them. Yup. Someone suggested ordering online. Right! So I did. But, I received no confirmation of my order. No email. No phone call. So, I called them, hoping their phones worked again. They did. But, the operator had no record of my online order. So I placed an order. They apologized for being unreachable.

OK, so situation back to normal, right? I thought so.

Before leaving on a week’s vacation, I couldn’t get through to Nestle. Placed an order online. Left money with my son. But, they never came. Returned yesterday, no water in the house. Tried to call. First, busy. Then, “Thank you for calling Nestle. All operators are busy at the moment. Please hold the line.”  I held the line until the other side timed out and hung up on me. Again, no information on their site about problems or, perhaps they were closed. But, then the message should say that. “thank you for calling. we are currently closed for the holiday.” or whatever. Nothing. So, I placed an order online. Again, no feedback. Called this morning and someone answered. Did they have my online order? Nope. Argh! What’s the point of offering it if it doesn’t work? So, I placed an order. For tomorrow. 9 May. Victory Day. That’s impressive.

To their credit, several days later, I got a message on Expat.ru from someone who works at Nestle and was checking that I had finally taken gotten my order. They apologized for the problems and inconvenience. I thought that was nice.

But then, I also got an email asking if I had received the free gift that came with my online order. I responded that I hadn’t, but thus far there has been no response.

What I like about Nestle is that they come when they say they will come and within a reasonable time window. I always choose 7-9am and they often ring the doorbell at 7:01am. I like that. Plus, if you are short some cash, they will allow you to pay up next time.

So, come on Nestle. Fix the problems. It shouldn’t be so hard. Yes, the phone system is probably not your fault, but damn it! if you’re offline, then LET ME KNOW! Put something on your website. And, by the way, your website needs help, too.

Five pinball machines in 3 days

About a month ago, I blogged about finding pinball machines in Moscow. I got one response directing me to the Khimki Mega Mall out towards Sheremetyevo airport. Since it’s pretty far away, especially with traffic, I had to bide my time until I had a reason to go there.

This week, I had to go to OBI and IKEA at the Mega Mall. Great! I was ready.

Well, the day before, after returning from Domodedovo airport by train, I was walking through Paveletskaya train station on the way to the metro entrance, and lo and behold, I saw a pinball machine! And someone was even playing it! I stopped immediately, bought some tokens and waited. The guy playing was impatient and let me finish his game. Cool! I actually did quite well, getting some free games by match and by score, so I didn’t even use all my tokens. This station is very close to me and I’m meeting a friend near there next week, so I’ll return with my tokens.

The next day, I went to Mega Mall. Did my shopping early went to the movie theatre and the “Game Zone” where they had Simpsons (you know about the Simpson’s movie, right?) and Ripley’s Believe It or Not pinball machines. I played each of them 2-3 times. As always, the flippers were flaccid or stuck on both machines. Makes it very difficult to play. <sigh> But, what’s worse, the Simpson’s game didn’t have any Replay threshold set. Normally, if you get a certain number of points, you win a free game. This is a sliding number depending on how well/poorly the previous game was played, but it’s always displayed when you start the game. Not here. Also, there was no “match” at the end of the game. So, I won’t play that one again until I see it’s fixed.

Then, on Friday, I went out to TGI Friday’s with members of my football (soccer) team. At one point, I realized my phone had no money, so I went searching for a top-up point. I walked into a movie theatre which was attached to TGIF and saw….two pinball machines!!!! An Elvis and another Simpsons. Woo-hoo!! Yes, I played them, too. Fun to play, but still issues with the machines.

I have written to GameZona who maintain/own the machines, but I’m not holding my breath that they will actually fix them.

I also find it so cute that on their website, they have to explain what pinball is. “Objective: keep the ball in play by pressing the buttons which control the flippers.”

So, now I have a few options. I wonder if there are more?

Moscow Metro

A few things of note:

Fare increases

Metro changed their fares again. Single ride fares have increased from 13 to 15 to 17 roubles in the last…..six months? year? At the same time, the 20-ride ticket has increased from 190 to 230 to 250 roubles. It’s still cheap, yes, but that’s a 30% increase! Yikes.

Paper to Plastic Tickets

A few days ago, I bought my first metro card since before the Christmas holidays. I always get a 20-ride ticket. Well, imagine my surprise when I got it and saw that it was no longer paper with a magnetic stripe. Instead, it was a plastic card. There was no indication that it was a 20 ride card or not. Hmmmm. But, quickly realized that it was also magnetic, one that you just swipe over the turnstile instead of feeding it into the machine. Very cool! It took me 2 days to get out of the habit of taking my card out of my wallet as I approached the metro entrance. Now, like all the other cool kids, I can keep the card in my wallet and just wave it over the magnet and waltz right in. Yay!

Tricky station

Recently, I have been traveling from Prospekt Mira (Orange line) to Kitai Gorod (connection to purple line) and was reminded of the tricky nature of this station. You see, one platform serves two different lines and the other platform serves the opposite directions of those two lines. Confusing? Let me explain.

Imagine I got on at Prospekt Mira, heading towards Turgenevskaya. But, I’m engrossed in my book and miss my stop. No problem, just get off at the next stop, walk across the platform and go back one stop, right?

Wrong.

When I get off at Kitai Gorod and go to the other side of the platform, I’m not heading the opposite direction on the same line. I’m heading the opposite direction on a different line; I’ll end up going to Kuznetskaya instead.

In order to change directions and return on the same line back to Turgenevskaya, you have to go up/down the переход. The nice thing is that it’s really close. Up 15 stairs, go forward maybe 10 meters, and down 15 stairs. Done.

So, Kitai Gorod is very confusing if you’re not paying attention. But, once you know, it’s probably the stop where you can most quickly change lines.

Don’t go to B1 Maximum

I was so excited when I saw that Chuck Berry was coming to Moscow. I mean, the guy’s a legend! So, I immediately got tickets for the show. Начало 20:00.

I found out where B1 Maximum was. No problem there. Work day, but it started at a decent hour, right? My mistake was thinking that it would be anything like B2.

First, general admission. And, being negative, I’m certain they sold way more tickets than they should have. We were like sardines in there. So, we get ther early, but there’s a line a mile long already! And it’s not moving at all.

We got in via the traditional Moscow queue mentality – go to the front of the line and PUSH or be pushed in. As they tear our ticket and stamp our hand, the lady says “Chuck Berry has been delayed. He’ll be here at 22:30.” OK. That’s bad news and good news. Bad news, because it’ll be a late evening. Good news, because that gives a chance to unwind, get a bite to eat, something nice to drink, before the show.

Eh, no.

No chairs. No food. Not even snacks like chips, nuts, pretzels, etc. What the…? And even the drinks were crazy. All the ingredients for any cocktail, but “We don’t make cocktails.” Hunh?! Why the hell not? What DO you do?

Of course, when they said that Chuck would be there at 22:30, you immediately calculate in another hour because concert people are always optimistic. Yes, there were some opening acts, some quite good ones, I must say, but they were just opening acts. Nothing more. Not good enough to dance to, but too loud to have any kind of conversation. Ugh.

Chuck showed up around 23:50 to wild applause, none wilder than mine. Here was the legend who influenced so many others. Even the Beatles did a cover of Roll Over, Beethoven. And, remember how Back to the Future spoofed it? (Back in 1955, Marty is trying to get his future parent to dance at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance. The band playing is Marvin Berry and the something… When the lead guitarist hurts his hand, Marty fills in for Earth Angel. Then, he’s invited to lead the band….He plays Johnny B. Goode while Marvin calls his cousin, Chuck. “You know that new sound you been lookin’ for? Listen to this….” and holds the phone receiver towards the stage. Marty is even duck walking….)

Anyway, here was Chuck Berry, 80 years old and on stage in Moscow. He came strutting out, decked out in his glittery red shirt, captain’s hat, and his guitar. First song? Roll over, Beethoven. (“Tell Tchaikovsky the news.”)

So, ok, B1 has concerts 4-5 nights a week. And they had over an hour to get things ready before he came out. But, the first half hour was ruined by severe problems with the sound. Feedback, outages, too quiet, too loud, loud pops. At least once, Chuck stopped the song and waited for them to fix something before he started again. Fer cryin’ out loud, guys! Do something right, why don’t you?!

The only saving grace was that the female back-up singer (who also played the harmonica REALLY well) apparently was thinking on behalf of the audience. I was already debating how long we’d stay, because it was really late. But, I knew I’d be really disappointed if I had to leave before hearing his signature song, Johnny B. Goode. But, because it’s his trademark, that’s usually the last song. Inner debate, inner turmoil. Well, this lady must have realized this because she told him after the third or fourth song that he should play Johnny next. And he did. It was excellent.

We stayed for a few songs more, but I didn’t feel cheated because I’d heard that song. I didn’t hear Maybelline. My Ding-a-Ling. or several others. But I heard Chuck Berry sing Johnny B. Goode live. That was great.

But, I’m still never going back to B1 Maximum unless someone convinces me they’ve changed.

 

Ice Skating!

Finally, the weather here is such that you just want to go ice skating. Last year, my wife and I bought skates and got a few skates in before the winter was over. This time, we’ve been itching to go since the snowfalls in October, but the weather wasn’t cooperating.

During the holidays, we were in Germany and went skating there a few times. Very nice atmosphere.

So, when it turned cold in Moscow last week, we pulled out the skates in search of a place to go. We had heard of the skating rink on Red Square. Sounds romantic. It’s not. We got there when the Zamboni was supposedly clearing the surface. But, it quickly became obvious that reality was not even close to the posted skating/cleaning times. We were in a long line, placed in such a way that you think you’re close to a касса, but in fact, you are still quite a distance. First thing that amazed us, was the 500 rouble price per person! And that for only 90 minutes. Then, I saw people who worked there scalping their own tickets. They would pace the queue until someone would ask them a question, at which point they’d say they could get you in for the next session, but the tickets would be 700 or more. <sheesh>

We stayed put as the line was moving. moving. moving. We got close to the front, but then the ticket window closed: “No more tickets.” We, and others, asked if we could buy tickets for the next session starting in 90 minutes. Nope. The ticket seller was already gone. So, we could stand there and wait another 90 minutes or so, or come back. We chose to just leave. And never to return. Over two hours wasted doing absolutely nothing while freezing.

Last weekend, we went to Сад Эрмитаж and skated there. There’s a place in the front and one in the back. The front location, while smaller, seemed to be better kept. They had sprayed water across all the walkways to create the surface. Seems a common thing, because we saw that last year at Пагк Горкого. When we returned, some people in our building asked if we had been to Соколники which is closer. They do the same thing there, it seems. We’re going there tonight, so we’ll see how it is.

Update: two nights ago, I picked up my wife from work and we were off to find somewhere to go skating. We heard about Sokolniki and another option, but on the way, passed Chistiy Prudi. It was virtually empty, but I saw people skating there. We stopped, put on our skates, and skated for about an hour. For free! The ice was not completely cleared, but enough. Quite a bit of space, too. Come to think of it, I remember seeing works clearing off Patriachy Prudi about a week ago.

Looking for milk and bread

Recently when shopping, I’ve noticed that two products I usually purchase are no longer available. Dvortzovoe Moloko and Harry’s American Sandwich bread.

I used to by the milk at Ramstore, but they don’t stock it any more. Harry’s was available in most stores, but since I got back, I haven’t seen it.

Update: I ordered again from Vigodno and was surprised when they didn’t call to tell me that the milk I wanted was not in stock. I got the milk, but they have changed the packaging to a standard TetraPak model with no closure. They used to have a taller, slimmer package with a screw on top, which is the primary reason I bought that milk. Win some, lose some.

Furthermore, now there seems to be a shortage of Tropicana Orange Juice. The traditional places I shop don’t have it in stock; in some cases, they have NO Tropicana juices in stock. Others have at least some.

I thought supply problems were a thing of the past, at least for Moscow.

Looking for a pinball machine

I love pinball. I don’t know why, but I’m good at pinball. And, every once in a while, I get a craving to play. Much better than my cravings for root beer and Krispy Kremes, eh?

When living in Kyiv, I found several pinball machines to play over the years, but I haven’t found any here in Moscow. If I find one, I’ll be sure to let you know.

Update: I have found some pinball machines. Read my new post.

Leningradsky Prospekt and Parking Violations, Part II

Happy New Year!

I just returned from holidays and when I drove to OBI yesterday, I noticed that part of the new section on Leningradsky Prospekt is open. It seems to be only on the outbound side, starting not too far after Dinamo Stadium. Felt nice, skirting I think two or three intersections and stoplights. I wonder when more sections will be opened? In any case, it’s nice to see some progress on the roads.

Does anyone know of any other major changes for Moscow roads, either future or recent?

Plus, it seems that this crackdown on parking violations is not just a fad. In fact, before Xmas, I was at a very cool restaurant on Pokrova and parked behind a string of cars on the left side, just in front of the restaurant. Sat down, ordered drinks and then the waitress asked, “Are you parked in front? They’re towing cars.” So, I ran outside but the tow truck guys just smiled and said, “We don’t tow red license plates.” Still, I moved the car. Across the street, between all the other parked cars. But, the driver of the car next to me was lingering. “What, is this not a parking spot?” I asked. Well, no. It was a bus stop. So, I got back in and moved it to a legal spot. But, every evening, whenever I drive somewhere and find myself thinking, “Wow, traffic is moving nicely and no cars par…..,” I see the battalion of tow trucks, just waiting for someone to park.