RTW II - Moscow - January 16th to 23rd

Postponed too many times, here's my recounting of the Moscow tales, only the ones you haven't seen on facebook though...

I guess the Moscow Metro must be my first topic...
- After some time I was quite familiar, how do you think I re-learnt cyrillic the hard way?
- after some time I even figured out how to find the nearest exit... It's basically only all about looking for the wet trail of incoming passenger. Clearly visible on the ground. Only later would I learn that 'Gorod' means street! Hehe...

Two little anecdotes about specific Moscow sights: Melnikov's House & the Gorki Park

Melnikov's House used to be one of the only privately owned houses in 'CCCP'. It is a little architecture jewel... But it is nigh impossible to find in the Smolenskaya quarter. I promptly lost myself and found myself in front of the Romanov theatre, surrounded by surveillance cameras, armed tall musculous guards, fancily dressed people, Bentleys and men carrying suitcases... Hmmm... Suspicious? No! I'm just a tourist looking for sight number 27 on the plan on page 248. Any potential picture of the guard looking at my plan and trying to make sense of my person would be priceless... Unfortunately, they don't exist... (all other mentionned items you'll find on my facebook album

Gorki Park is a recreational park, but what I ignored is the fact that the youngsters come here in winter to do some ice skating while drinking beer. That was an eye-opening moment...


On a side note about the architecture, there is a diktat of pre-communist conventions and everything is decorated with the same old same old columns and frontons... This made me think of Howard Roark, I instantly understood what the book constantly refers to as overdecorated heavy and useless parts architecture...
*** Wink to Ayn Rand fans across the world!***

Of course, as in the rest of my tales, the nightlife remains a secret, but I can narrate a juicy anecdote of Nicolas and I in the Real McCoy, a meat market for expats and russian girls...
So Nicolas and I queue for the washrooms, that are common to men and women, when I note, in french of course:
P: "You know, Nicolas, when we were at Etag, a girl and a guy came out of the washrooms and the girl behind me assured me it was a common occurence..."
N: "That's true! At the Real McCoy, it's even almost a tradition... Most have done it..."
P: "Ok, even the girl in front of me?"
N: "Yeah, sure..."
P: "Ok, so if I asked her, maybe she'd agree?"
N: "Well... Maybe..."

And at that point, the girl in front of me flashes us her wonderful smile and retorts without an ounce of bitterness:
"I understand everything..."

awkward silence by N and I...

NICE... We chuckled on the way home...

The albums of the Moscow escapade are online:
Here for the cyrillic cultural sights
and
here for the tourist part

Cheers,
P



PS: Stay tuned I intend to release HK, Shanghai and Tokyo quite soon...

RTW I - Athens - Jan 12-15th

*** Pardon my temporary departure from this theorical opinions blog, but this here is my forum for sharing the new of my travels around the world. Enjoy! ***



I had a great time in Athens, but most of the people who know me will know I am fond of antique history and tales... Hence a lover of old stones too!

What is it about Athens that no one knows?

Well there's three things, that I'd like to share:

i) Athens is closed on Tuesdays... The entire city: Museums, Parks, Monuments...

ii) You should go and drink fresh orange juice, wherever you can. There are oranges everywhere, so juices they know about. I had a fresh orange, carrot & apple juice and it did start my craze. I think it'll hold my entire trip... So far it did!

iii) Athens is very slippery when wet. Being build and restaured with a lot of marmor surfaces that were polished by feet over the centuries, Athens becomes a true ice ring whenever it is graced by rain. Yours truly still hurts from encountering these surface with parts of his anatomy not meant for that kind of contact...

The picture album is on Facebook, but you can view it through this link (even if you're not on facebook!)

Cheers,
P

The Hail Mary Pass... Or why some guys do and some don't!

Foreword
This is a call to all other dorks, nerds and other intraverted blokes reading my blog... We need to go out there and try things more!
As I was narrating the story of the end of my evening to a female friend in Canada, I realized this was prime material for some of my readership, so here you are somewhat delayed the edited version of this chat. If you are not a single male, please stop reading now... Or read on to your discretion...

To Barney S. and the Naked Man, without whom this could never have been possible...

The Intro (and a bit of shameless commercial for myself)
[01:01:09] PC says: And you? You'll have a tough time then I hear?
[01:02:01] Young Lady says: with this semester? well, the entire semester is going to be rough, but i know when you're coming in, so as long as I don't have a presentation the next day, then i should be up for whatever
[01:02:23] PC says: COOOOOOOOOOOOL
[01:02:33] Young Lady says: i'm excited! it's always a fun time with patrice!
[01:02:38] PC says: let me tell you two things preventively...
[01:02:45] Young Lady says: ok...

The reason this chat took place in the first place
[01:03:05] PC says: #1 : Even though my speech (chat) might sound coherent - I am somewhat under the influence right now...
[01:03:12] Young Lady says: hahahahaha
[01:03:13] Young Lady says: nice
[01:03:18] Young Lady says: i wouldn't expect less, patrice.

The topic of the chat - the Hail Mary pass
[01:03:19] PC says: AND
[01:03:28] PC says: #2 : I have to tell you a little story about what big sport bet enthusiasts call the "Hail Mary Pass"
BTW: sorry you might have slipped into my whining about the current evening, please feel free to do something else while I write my sorry story



The setting of the story

So tonight I had some pints with a couple friends in a trendy location (somewhat off the trend, it was actually trendy 4 years ago, but still)
So I am with those two good friends (two ex-BCGers) at the tramway station (Zurich still has tramways, they are way cool btw)
and we watch the SNL short "Dick in a box" on an iPhone

[01:06:30] Young Lady says: hahaha, that's an amazing skit

then they go with a tram, but I have to go in the opposite direction...

The story per se
I cross the lines and start waiting... and I see a gorgeous even though a bit older looking woman... (when I say a bit older I mean mid-thirties)

[01:07:52] Young Lady says: haha, ok.

so I go up to her and ask:
"Are you waiting for a tram? Do you know for sure a tram is coming?"
She answer that yes, a 2 and a 3 are coming... or an 8 or a 14... No a 2 or a 3...
"oh ok, we live in the same region... Kalkbreite, right?"
She nods... and she says something about my accent and about the fact that she has lived in France back in the days...

We chat for about five minutes about accents, about her having been in France, her being from Germany, not far from Luxemburg, me knowing Luxembourg, her having been in Zurich for 8 years, me being from Lake Geneva region, her knowing Lake Geneva region, me not being french, her knowing Lake Geneva region, her speaking French, her having been in france twenty years ago upon completion of high school...

well... I figure she's at the end of her thirties... She obviously loves my accent, I think of her more and more as a potential lover, so I even decide to go for a so called "Hail Mary Pass" (like in American Football, when a Quarterback goes for an impossible pass in the hope a wide receiver or a tight end will get it)

Then she somehow mentionned she had had two too many wine glasses. That's where I missed my first opening...

We talk a bit more about accents and I go all shy on saying I like to conceal my accent as I don't like to play it as a seductive play...
She replies it has "du charme" and she "loves it", but she also states she likes it much more than her boyfriends accent, her boyfriend being Swiss German...

And there...

I lost it...

All seduction theory says you should ignore when a girl says she has a boyfriend... But I just didn't... Stupid me!

[01:22:10] Young Lady says: awwwww, you went for it anyways?

No, I didn't! I kept saying "well... You ought to love the Swiss German accent" and imitated it to great comic effect...

I suggested "dinner among girlfriends?"

She said no, dinner with her boyfriend

[01:24:18] Young Lady says: and....?

I should have replied "so why is he not with you?"

By the way: by this time we have gotten out of the tram and we are talking on the street... So attraction is proved, as she'd have walked out on me if it hadn't been the case!

[01:26:13] Young Lady says: hm

So I should have replied "so why didn't you take him home" and followed with a classic "I don't know how you feel about him, I feel you're not so sure, but I'll be away for 8 weeks and I'd hate myself for not doing this..." and kissed her right there on the spot...

[01:26:55] Young Lady says: but you didn't

Considerations
A bit of theory might be needed here

40 year olds think kissing is trivial and shagging can be explained by a mere physical need... So one should kiss them and try to lead from that to actual scoring...

[01:27:43] Young Lady says: well, maybe

It's funny how some women deny the fact that a good kiss with a hand in the hair at the right place and the right whisper at the right strength in the ear can ultimately lead to sex. It's not about feelings anymore, it's all just learned skills... like a circus monkey!

Anti-Climax
But I went with a much more defensive line... I made her laugh a bit more and then we parted ways...

[01:30:11] Young Lady says: haha

Much like a quarterback putting his knee down without hope of getting anything out of the drive instead of doing a Hail Mary Pass and try to get somewhere with that... I dropped the ball on "third and ten"! And then all that was left to me was to kick myself...

tsss...

Until next time, may you go for the Hail Mary Pass sometime...
Cheers,
P

Friends with benefits? It's all about bargaining power...

Here my two pennies to that subject as I recently went off uncontrolled in a forum...

The question was:
Is it possible to transform a friend with benefits (FWB) into something more

The thing is: Women invariably fall in love in situations of repeated sexual relations, but they fool themselves into thinking they can go and eff around like boys, so they end up trapped: For better or (more often) for worse...

Depending on the bargaining power between the two persons involved in a multiple night stand (or any repeated act of physical love after some attraction period), there can be different scenarii:

Friends with benefits
Open relationship
Relationship
Relationship including a pussy whipped man...

Depending on the discrepancy in general attractiveness (to this topic this is brilliant http://ladder.politicals.com/) of the two lovers, they agree on next steps...
... If she really shows she needs him and he plays his cards right, he can convince her to become FWB
... If she is just a bit more self-conscious, she'll insist on formally being with him, but he'll say something akin to "ok, but I need my freedom... we can be an open relationship"
... If they are on equal terms and/or the man is not afraid of committment, they'll end up in a relationship
... It he's super needy or obviously doesn't deserve her, he'll become her pussy-whipped puppy

Of course, the girl is considering all these relationships as exclusive, where in the FWB and "open" scenario, the guy feels it's his options to go and look for something else in the meantime...

She ends up broken hearted and there's a game of jealousy, revenge and useless sleeping with guys to get back at him... This is really bad and unhealthy and leads to the destruction of the couple!

For women to come out of FWB-ness and/or open relationships, they need to state it clearly and make sex conditional, sad but true!

It's just the game of life...

And the saddest part in it is that men who have had sex with multiple women during the starting period of a FWB-relationship or an open relationship never really consider the girl as long-term material (or are just pathological cheaters... in both cases, the girl is going for a heartbreak!)

As for me, I'm not into games at all: Honesty honesty honesty...

Cheers and sorry,
P

Just to say hi to friends...

GVA-ATH 12 JAN 2009, Depart 17:20, Arrive 23:05 1249 miles
ATH-SVO 15 JAN 2009, Depart 10:55, Arrive 17:40 1432 miles
SVO-HKG 22 JAN 2009, Depart 18:35, Arrive 11:25 4839 miles
HKG-PVG 27 JAN 2009, Depart 13:05, Arrive 15:30 773 miles
PVG-NRT 30 JAN 2009, Depart 13:20, Arrive 17:00 1111 miles
NRT-SYD 2 FEB 2009, Depart 15:30, Arrive 8:00 5942 miles
SYD-SFO 6 FEB 2009, Depart 16:15, Arrive 10:37 7426 miles
SFO-YYZ 17 FEB 2009, Depart 12:10, Arrive 19:59 2254 miles
YYZ-GIG 21 FEB 2009, Depart 19:00, Arrive 10:00 5145 miles
GIG-GVA 28 FEB 2009, Depart 18:15, Arrive 12:15 5726 miles

Actual trip when I'll have added the little back and forth I couldn't book on the RTW:
Athens-Moscow-Hong-Kong-Shanghai-Tokyo-San Francisco-Las-Vegas-Toronto-Montreal-Rio de Janeiro-Geneva (and then three weeks of army to chill down... so that you don't hate me!)

Decoding of the unusual:
SVO - Shermentievo (Moscow, or should I write MOCKBA?)
PVG - Pudong (Shanghai)
NRT - Narita (Tokyo)
YYZ - Pearson (Toronto)
GIG - Rio de Janeiro International Airport

Stats:
8 flights on an Airbus, 7 flights on a Boeing, 1 flight on an Embraer

Longest flight:
SYD-SFO - 13h22 of flying time
Shortest flight:
SYD-SFO - arrival 5 hours and 38 minutes before depature!

Cheers,
P