We used the balloon trick for the first time ever on the kitchen tap. Nothing seemed to happen at first but then quite a bit of water came out of the bottom of the tap base.

We were shocked at how much there was - no wonder they have a tendency to freeze and split. Both taps wrapped up and we will bubble wrap the lower bit tomorrow.

MikeT

Just given my sink tap a blowout with a balloon. We have the hot/cold mixer tap and I found it easier to blow up the balloon and clip a food bag clip onto the nozzle whilst I stretched the balloon around the tap. Needed a bit of stretching to get it over but once on, release the clip and hopefully the tap is now clear of residual water. Got a small puddle under the van so I am sure it worked. I repeated this a few times to be sure. The washroom was easier as we have the shower attachment so can just take the hose off and blow down that without the aid of a balloon. What fun!

On the same lines even though I had run the hot water taps until they were empty before our last trip home from Angelsey, I thought I would have a quick check of the hot water boiler.

When I opened up the valve next to the boiler I was quite shocked how much water dripped out of the bottom, when I had assumed that any that hadn't been sucked out through the hot water taps might have dr1ed up in the 2 months since we have used the van.

This got me into taking the top off the water tank to see what might be left. Again I was quite shocked how much there was. I got a lot of it out through the drainage hole by using a sponge and then dried the rest up with some paper towels.

Tomorrow has been scheduled for using the bubble wrap around the water pipes and then lagging with some old towels to try to ensure that we have no frost damage without using any heating unless we get some Siberian frosts. (I once landed at Omsk airport in the middle of the night and we were told it was minus 26 as they bundled us into some old Ladas with heaters fully blasting out.)

MikeT

Hi Colin

They had to be flipping effective or we would have frozen...................

It was a strange visit of many contradictions. We would be trundling along in the back of these Ladas and then suddenly very flash dark-coloured Mercs/Beamers/Audis would zoom past us at high speed.

Or being guests of honour at a 3 hour long play in Russian about how one collective farm triumphed over a nearby corrupt one in getting a bigger harvest, and being plied with ice cold neat vodka at the interval. In my case it meant I slept through the second half, only to awake to applaud the actors.

Or going to an ice-skating stadium owned by Abramovich of Chelsea fame and being guarded by soldiers with Kalashnikovs....

Oh and getting arrested by the KGB in broad daylight...............................less said about that the better

MikeT

We need to know about your arrest by the KGB now, can't leave us on a knife edge now

He can still type so assume that his fingernails are intact!

John to satiate your curiosity............................

DSCN1298 (3).JPG - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

I was dressed similar to this with two athletic young minders in black leather jackets and a Russian interpreter outside the KGB headquarters in Omsk. One of the minders took a photo of us outside the building & the KGB thought we looked suspicious and arrested us.

It was very frightening being arrested by large men in uniform carrying Kalashnikovs on a middle of the day. They immediately took our passports and phones from us and kept us in a cell for over an hour. An officer came to question us fairly aggressively in quite poor English and then left shaking his head......we were a little bit worried to say the least. From what we could gather it was illegal to take photos of any KGB buildings and that is why we were arrested. They went through my colleagues digital camera asking why we had taken photos of various state buildings in Omsk and also of the Tupolov Jet Airliner that took us from Moscow to Omsk

Then strangely there was a total change of tone as a smooth higher ranking officer came in and shook our hands. He spoke in excellent English, wiped all the pictures off the offending digital camera, apologised for any misunderstanding and gave us back our passports. He then escorted us out of the main door and wished us a successful stay in Siberia....the giant who had arrested us saluted us as we left. The rascal had a gold front tooth just like in some 007 film. We didn't really know why everything had changed

It turns out that the Principal of the University where we were doing some consultancy work had contacted his friend, the head of the Siberian Fire Service whose brother was a high ranking KGB officer in Moscow. He contacted his brother, who apparently ordered our immediate release.

We were excessively relieved to be released but felt that we were closely watched for remainder of the time in Omsk and also when we got back to Moscow.. We were very pleased to land back at Heathrow. It is certainly not an experience I would like to repeat.

To make it more bizarre our flight back was the one that our Security Services suspected of being used by the Russian agents to carry the radioactive poison used to kill the Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko in London. We were tested for any signs that we had been effected but we were all OK.

I was asked to return to do some more work in Siberia but Kath and I decided that it was not a good idea.......

Looking back it all seems a bit unreal & dreamlike

MikeT