Where's Raffi?

Well actually, I have done a few logs, but on the old repat log pages. I think I covered a lot of the interesting stuff going on this past week in Yerevan there. There's a few pictures of April 24 and all, so go check that out. I don't know if logging there was a fluke, or if I'll continue (and what that would mean for this log). I do like the idea of simply photologging there at least... especially with this tiny new camera that I always have in my pocket.

All the events have kept me pretty busy. Now I have 1.5 weeks of work to go... that's it! It will be over before I blink. Of course my post work trip to Tblisi is off, due to the Tblisi curse I have. Meanwhile, the land hunt question remains high on the agenda... the one I was quite excited about seems to be a no-go, thanks to some last minute changes in the deal (read less land, but even more money) at the last minute by the sellers. There is a nicer parcel, but much smaller and more expensive which I'm considering. The unfortunate thing is that a bunch of friends couldn't buy adjacent like we had planned on the previous huge plot...

անձրև

Unicode–ով ավելի դիուն կրնաս Հայերենով գրել և կարդալ: I don't know that I actually will, but it is fun to have that it is so easy to read and write in Armenian now without people needing special software to see the letters in Armenian... it took long enough though I must say.

In any case, it is raining now, after a beautiful weekend of great weather. Today was not terribly productive, but I did get a decent nap :-)

Vahag and the Cats are playing tonight at the club, but I dunno if I'll head out again. Տեսնենք:

kedap

Kedap means riverbank, which is where we found a beautiful big chunk of agricultural land not far from town yesterday. We think this might well be it. I can't believe I forgot to take a picture, but I did. No matter what though I think we'll pick up a chunk of land this week. This one is ready to plant on already, you just dig a hole and I'm sure the plants will just go nuts. There are some really nice fruit trees on it, too. Just gotta figure out how to split it up.

A couple of late nights in a row have wiped me out. I don't know if I'll be able to manage a nap today, but I could really use one. Yesterday the plumbers came at 9am and weren't done until 2:30 - just to fix the toilet and a thermostat for the water heater. But the good news is that the job appears to have been a complete success, and the house is so peaceful now without the water hissing (when I have water that is). And I don't have to turn the water heater on an hour before showering, and then turn it off anymore either. It is just hard to schedule with my plumbers because they are Molokans (a Russian religion) and don't work on Sundays... I may have them bring and install my washing machine Monday night from dad's place, which will also be great. My house will be normal again...

Today I am doing Vernissage in the morning - I'll do lunch with friends... aside from that I dunno what I'm up to. So perhaps a nap will be possible? I do have a couple of other errands I need to get done as well.

dreams

Crazy dreams last night - I could tell what was on my mind. I dreamt I woke up today and it had snowed - even though I remembered the forecast was for 71 degrees today (woohoo! no more jacket!). I dreamt I was encountering obstacles to going and seeing the land we are interested in tonight. I slept a bit fitfully and feel a bit "eh".

Last night about half the cafes at the Opera were open already, and full. All week there have been loads of people on the sidewalks. It's great! Apricot trees are blooming, my vincas are in bloom, leaves are sprouting...

cafe season

Let the cafe season begin! A few had their tables out today and they were packed well into the night. The temprature was perfect and we sat for a while having drinks...

The day began with great progress on my web sites - and mid day was lunch and then land hunting. We found the PERFECT land - but now we are finding out who owns it and how much they'd sell for. We will go back Wednesday to see what we know by then...

But now, I am wiped out and ready to sleep...

i forgot

It was so funny - on the road to the reservoir we took that picture at - we passed an old man on the road with a shovel next to a sign that was small and in Armenian. I read the word on top which I think said veranorokum (repairs), and had little time to look below to what I thought said 700m. I thought it was funny, both because signs like that just aren't used here much - usually they pile some rocks or something just before the work, and also because I thought 700m really was a lot of warning for a place where you had to drive slowly anyway. By the time we had gone 700 meters, so much time had passed that I forgot to note that there was no construction. On the way back, we saw the old man still there, filling pothole with DIRT - and there was a sign for traffic in the other direction as well. This time I got a good chance to read the second line. It said "100dr" - meaning 100 dram (20 cents). He was just filling in potholes on his own, with dirt, and hoping people driving by would appreciate it and give him the 100 dram he was requesting. We did :-)

So today is some kind of womens day here - funny it fell on dad's birthday :-)

I made fajitas for dinner, which came out quite good, and might head out for a drink which I feel like would really hit the spot. But then again, I am quite comfy...

4 weeks

I am now down to exactly 4 weeks - just under a month to go. This week has seen some progress on a couple of fronts - I am working on permission to get the roof raised at my next remond, and seem to have passed the major hurtle. Now I am working on the necessary paperwork. This will be very exciting! On that same front I made some progress with Dad's apartment extention permissions, but the next steps are big and perhaps quite difficult, so let's see if things will proceed or not.

As you saw below, the hunt for land continues. I rather like the spot I took that picture from - but it is a little far from some utilities - and I'd have to have a car to get to it. I'm still not sure if I will buy anything in the end... as it is, the aformentioned remond (remodeling) will bankrupt me as it is.

There are a couple of other things going on (guidebook, website) but no big developments...

View of Mt. Ararat and the Azat Reservoir this evening...

white powder?

neither I, nor my kiwis find last nights snow very funny.

Land

Off and on wet weekend, which is unfortunately about over. The crazy crock files hunter aussie guy has been on in the livingroom for a while now, playing with rattle snakes for the past hour, but I'm hanging out in bed with the laptop. The web is working quite slowly, but I am trying to blog anyway.

This afternoon I headed out of Yerevan to look for land for a dacha/amaranots (summer house) with friends. Some some very nice areas, but no single property that couldn't be

passed up. We'll head out to other areas over the course of the week and then narrow the search down. I like three of four areas, which are either very close to Yerevan (20-30

minutes), or a bit of a drive (1 hr). There was one house that was sold last year that would have been perfect - and for a great price, too.

Oh good, the aussie just caught the largest rattler in the world. 'It took him his whole life to get there'.

I also sorted out my gameplan for Cilicia.com and Armeniapedia.org - the latter will remain what it is, a wiki encyclopedia, while the former will evolve into a more interactive features only site - with the content having moved to Armeniapedia. So there will be the chat, blogs, discussion boards and classifieds on Cilicia... that will help distribute the bandwidth a bit more evenly, too.

There should be more remond progress this week, too. Taking more and more of my time. Crap.

gamats gamats

It's been a somewhat slow week. The remond progress is roadblocked - the guy whose help I need is off to Italy for 2 weeks. Crap. On the other hand, there's 4.5 weeks left on my contract, and I still have a bunch of days off in there.

I just turned on the heater for the shower water. It overheats, so I have to turn it on an hour before using it. It's been like that for months, and I finally called a guy to fix it today, but he was busy :-( I am heading to the bank today. I need to get my assistant permission to deposit $ into my account so I don't have to meet with her to pick up money, I can just go to the bank - which is a big challenge thanks to the short hours they keep.

Oh, my last two purchases on ebay appear to be disasters... there is still hope for something good to come of them, but I dunno... The camera finally came, but it is a worse model than I ordered (much fewer megapixels) and used insted of "New, In box"!! I can't believe it. I have written to the seller and will see what can be done. I would be ok with a partial refund I think, since it is a nice, tiny camera, and it would be a massive pain to ship this back and get another one back here... so we'll see. Then the huge memory card I ordered for it 2 weeks ago just never arrived... just emailed him too now. Uffa...