Almost at home

This is the first long-term job abroad I have undertaken for seven or eight years, having spent most of the intervening period hanging around at home and pretending to be a student. Mrs. Smerus having had enough of this has sent me out to earn a living, pay for my daughter's wedding etc. - and quite right too I suppose. The first time I undertook such a mission was about 15 years ago, when I was posted to a curious place called Kaliningrad - in fact, I was the first Englishman to live there since the RAF had bomber it to smithereens in 1943, in the days when it was still called Koenigsberg. In those antique times, the internet was still a novelty - I had to explain to everyone carefully about e-mail. Now of course one has broadband almost wherever one goes. The immediate consequence I recognise is the absence of any feeling of isolation, which regularly attacked me in my Kaliningrad days. I can for example skype Mrs. S. and chat face-to-face for as long as we like, free of charge, or have BBC Radio 3 or Radio 4 playing in the background as I work or read. There is also the miracle (which in the present economic and eco-fascist climate may not be long-lasting) of cheap air-fares - one can even fly Luton-Kyiv return (no visa needed) for around £100 - so Mrs. S. can come out to sample the shampanskoye and the opera with me whenever she wishes. It's not much more stressful, in fact, (and a good deal more pleasant), than being posted to Birmingham.

By the way, the hryvnia is now 9 to the dollar and still falling........