Tue 15.01.13 – Mon 21.01.13:
I was hoping to be in Russia today. But since when has The Odyssey Expedition run as smoothly as you or I would like?? The past week has been spent crashing on a variety of London couches waiting waiting waiting for the call that never comes. Three this week: Paradigm, Guinness World Records and the Russian Visa Guy.
Paradigm
The problem is that since Paradigm expressed interest in me, I haven’t wanted to even consider any other options. I was put in a very similar position in Australia when the guy with the magic yacht came on the scene promising me the known world and all the gold that I can eat. You don’t want to appear ungrateful and you don’t want to jeopardise the opportunity that has come your way. The sad thing is that it would be better not to get your hopes up about such things (I could have shaved AT LEAST 6 months off the completion of The Odyssey Expedition had I not listened to magic yacht guy) than to be strung along like a mug.
Guinness World Records
The lack of any communication back from Guinness is incredibly unsettling. What if I go to Russia, get back, only to be told they don’t like the way I went to North Korea? There is a way of getting Guinness’s speedy response service, and that’s to pay them money. Only me no Bobby DeNiro. Again, I don’t want to push it, getting this record is massively important to me for so many reasons, and it doesn’t pay to bite the hand that’s pondering your very future.
Russian Visa Guy
I keep mentioning things that sound too good to be true turning out to be too good to be true, and perhaps my Russian Visa is going that way. All things being even, a Russian visa costs us Brits £150 and takes a week to come through. However, if I get a special 72-hour visa for the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, I can pick it up at the border and it “only” costs €75. A bargain, if your idea of a bargain is something that’s a little less ludicrous than the original asking price. I was hoping to get the go ahead for this Monday (21 Jan), but so far zip. This is not good.
Not wanting to outstay my welcome at my friend Lindsey’s, I upped sticks to my friend Sally’s gaff, who, wonderfully enough, also allowed Casey to stay – we even had a blow-up mattress Bliss! A blanket of snow came over London on the Friday and in the evening I got to catch up with my friends Natalie, Stan and Helen in a sorta snowy wonderland that had smothered the otherwise unappealing face of Streatham High Street.
