Sovsem russkaya!

Or in translation, 'completely Russian'. First said to me in December 1997 or January 1998 when I came home one evening to the halls I was living at in St Petersburg and went into the wee office to get my room key (we were in a pretty posh halls by Russian standards, though my mum wasn't too fond of the mushrooms growing in the shower). As I walked in I was still eating an ice cream, though it must have been about -15, and with the humidity in St Petersburg it felt much, much colder. I'm sure the street kiosks selling ice cream must use their freezers to keep it warm more than frozen in winter! The warden took one look at me, laughed and pronounced the phrase given above. It is an acquired taste, to eat ice cream on the street when it's freezing outside, but it's one well worth acquiring. I have heard it a lot in the years since, and not just about ice cream, most often about my knowledge of Russian film, theatre and, of course, language. The other common phrase is 'the most Russian foreigner I've ever met', also something of which I'm rather proud.

I had a wee 'morozhennoe' craving on the way home from work tonight, so decided to give in and while I was at it to blip it. Unfortunately that turned out to be harder than I thought, as the autofocus appears to strongly dislike ice cream (which rather disappoints me, ice cream should be loved and respected by all, humans and technology alike), meaning I had to switch to manual focus, and holding the camera one handed and the ice cream outstretched in the other makes adjusting focus manually somewhat more complicated than usual, but I managed it eventually. Anything for you, blip community! And yes, it was lovely, though the air temperature was far too warm really!