People talk about Melbourne, Australia having four seasons in one day. Well, Manchester in the northwest of England could well become the twin city of Australia's sporting capital. Today's temps. ranged from 0C to +6 with rain, light 'hail', snow and then brilliant sunshine.

Not that it made any difference to me. I was inside stuck to my desk studying Russian. I've had my head buried in books, websites and paper for the past eight days, 6 hours each day. Am I making progress? Certainly. Will it be worth it? Only time will tell.

In regards to actually making a move over there, well.. Progress is moving at a slow-to-stop pace and being hampered by either disorganised people or those seemingly unwilling to help. Things might change and I hope they do, and quickly. I'm getting bored stiff.
It even crossed my mind today to head back to China and the northeast where there is a lot of Russians. That way I could at least practise freely.

Don't fret, Harbin and Suihua are both bearable in the summer months.

I'm tuned-in to Авторадио which, as you can probably guess is a Russian radio station,Avto Radio. Amazingly when I am listening to the russian songs I am hearing tens and tens of words which I understand. The music they play is quite awesome too. Some classics.

I didn't have the same success with the news!
Listen to this and then tell me that I'm not climbing a near-vertical mountain with my latest language challenge!



Apart from learning Russian, what else have I been up to? Well, to be honest not a great deal. But more on that in the next 'gripping' entry!