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HOT News
May 16, 2008
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Couple of days ago, on May 14th, was my birthday and my wife, Olga, made a great present for me - a bus tour to "Golden Ring of Russia". So I would like to inform all my clients and friends that on the current weekend, May 17-18, I and my wife Olga are going to Yaroslavl and Kastroma. We are leaving at very early morning on May 17 and returning back at the late evening on May 18. I will not have opportunity to check my e-mail during this trip and will try to reply on your messages only on Monday, May 19th. In emergency cases you can reach me any time: +7 910 470 7811.
On 21 of May, The Champions League final match between two English teams Manchester United and Chelsea will be held at the main sport stadium in Moscow «Luzhniki». I've received already a lot of requests for my services from football fans who are going to attend their favorite teams, but I would like to inform with excuse and purpose not to waste your time in waiting for my reply, that I have already booked my services on May 20-22.
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May 13, 2008
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The picture of "Belarussky railway station" I took quite long time ago (in May 2004) and now I think that it can perfectly fit to finish my recent story about the case with wrong parking that I started to tell you several days ago. You can read the first and second part of this story here:
"A case with wrong parking (Part I)"
"A case with wrong parking (Part II)"
...A short time later, after seeing my wife off to her work at the hospital very early in the morning (7 am) and while it was still night in Austria, I went downtown to take some interesting photos during the last repetition of Victory Parade on the Red Square I met on Tverskaya street one photographer from Minsk (capital of Belorussia) and one from St. Petersburg and during the parade was able to relax a little bit from the current problem. I returned back to my home about noon and received a phone call from Alexandra and she informed me that she called the airlines and was told it would be almost impossible to fly their luggage to Austria without a passenger. I excepted this information and called DHL where they quoted the price to deliver the 40 kilos of luggage to Vienna for about $900. In addition, I had to prepare an inventory list to declare every item in their luggage for customs. It was a crazy price, but I was not worried about it. The most undesirable thing was that I had to open all of my client's bags to make this inventory. I hope you understand how hard it was for me to rummage though somebody else's things… At the same time I called the Sheraton hotel where my clients stayed for 2,5 days in hopes to find any information about how a hotel could handle the problem if they had to send lost luggage of their clients abroad. The answer was that they don't provide these services and advised to send it via DHL or Russian Post (I knew these answers, of course, to send via Russian Post could be cheaper, but it can take quite a long time to deliver, maybe 2 weeks or maybe a month and also I had to declare every item for customs).. After speaking with the staff of the Sheraton Palace hotel, I got a great idea: I remembered our old, very common and well-known way of sending parcels, papers or any luggage via railway using the services of the conductor of a carriage of the train which goes to the place where you need to send something. When I called the railway station for information about such services, they suggested I talk privately with the conductor...
Continue reading (end of the story): "A case with wrong parking (Part III)".
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May 12, 2008
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Note: Beginning of the story you can read here: "A case with wrong parking (Part I)".
… On May 4th about 5 PM, after seeing off my Austrian clients, Rupert, Alexandra, Victor and Jana, at Domodedovo airport, I was able to quickly get a ticket and catch the "AeroExpress" train which goes to Paveletsky railway station in the center of Moscow within 45 minutes. On the way to Moscow I was very upset about the situation with my car which caused unexpected trouble for my clients and ruined their happy mood at the end of their Moscow adventure. It was the first time in my life when my car was towed and impounded to a special parking "jail" by traffic police. It would not have been as bad if my client's luggage was not inside the trunk of my car and/or we had a bit more time to drive to the place where my car was moved to in order to get their bags. What a coincidence! I remembered the words of my clients when they tried to calm me down: "Don't worry Arthur, this is part of our Moscow adventure and even if this luggage is lost we can buy a new one". Of course, their statement and positive attitude in spite of the bad circumstances made me more determined to solve this problem within the next 30 hours.
When I arrived at the Paveletsky railway station and went into a metro station I was waiting in line about 20 minutes to buy a ticket and for the first time smiled at how one smart Russian entrepreneur (maybe more correctly to call him a speculator) was reselling tickets for 1,5 times the price...
Continue reading: "A case with wrong parking (Part II)".
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May 10, 2008
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With posting this picture of the Dworak family and me (taken by a passing tourist as we stood in Red Square in front of St. Basil's cathedral), I would like to tell you the story of their last day in Moscow and the big problem we were about to encounter. But, at this moment we were quite happy :-)…
After taking pictures on Red Square we went to GUM, the famous department store nearby, to drink something and relax a bit before going to the airport. When it was time to go, being a very punctual person, I became a little bit nervous that we should leave on time. After one last request to send postcards via the post to their home and friends I asked them to hurry. We were to take the metro back to our car which we had parked near the Kievsky railway station before taking a river cruise . The Metro is an amazing transportation system for a huge city like Moscow. It is fast, clean and has fascinating architecture, so my clients were happy to use it again. In 15-20 minutes we were at Europe Square and the new pedestrian bridge where we had parked our car at the beginning of the day…
Now, with a quavering voice, I will tell you about the unfortunate incident which took place next…
Continue reading: "A case with wrong parking (Part I)".
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May 09, 2008
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With the current hot news I would like to send greetings to our veterans, defenders of our Motherland and to all people in the World on the 63rd anniversary of Great Victory and finalizing the most terrible war in human history. During the Great Patriotic War 1941-1947 more than 27 million souls perished in the USSR… Health, Peace and love to all people in the World!!!
Each year on May 9th, we celebrate holiday in our country that makes our hearts both sad and proud: Victory Day. We mourn those who gave their lives in the struggle for freedom and give thanks for - the Day of the Great Victory over fascism and the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945. This morning, from 10 till 11 am, Victory Parade passes Red Square. It was the first Parade during the last 17th years (after crash of USSR) where modern military hardware as like modern tanks, rockets and even aircraft were on displays. More than 100 units of motorized military equipment and 32 military aircrafts showcased modern defense technologies of Russia. The parade was finalized by our best pilots who flew breathtakingly low over Red Square (about 300 meters height) on strategic missile planes such as Tu-160 and Tu-195MS, military transport airplane, an An-124 Ruslan, 2 Il-78s, a bomber Tu-122, fighters Su-25 and-27 as well as Mi-8 helicopters.
Have a look on my new picture dedicated to the current hot news: "Commanders and Flags of Forces"
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Moscow, Russia 
Contact Info: Arthur Lookyanov