A REAL RUSSIAN FAMILY

What is a good night out? I guess everyone has a different idea? A nightclub? Bar? The theatre or a restaurant? A concert or a game of ten pin bowling?

I used to love it in Russia, if we went out for a meal in the evenings, in their restaurants; there was always a band/group. Everyone danced. It was a great atmosphere. People were just so nice. Also we used to go to friends flats/apartments. They all seamed the same to me. I would walk in on the ground floor. The smell would hit you of boiled cabbage and cat’s pee! We would walk up three steps, and the dimly lit corridors looked a kind of dirty brown to me. Into the awful lift/elevator. Open the cage. The sound of that was like a jail! Into the tiny lift and close the heavy cage gate behind us. The lift was big enough for four or five people, but if five, we would be a little more familiar than one would like?

The lift would arrive, thank god, usually with a thud. We would open the double doors and make sure there was a floor!

Along the narrow corridor again, to a friend’s house. The doors were thick padded leather. Some would have wires hanging from them. This I was told was the burglar alarms? Well, not too safe? Haha.

Then into the most basic house an yet a place full of love and happiness.

I had great times in my friend’s flats. I was in a family. My family of Russian people.

People who would give you their last kopek. We would eat lovely food; you did not get at a restaurant and be entertained by who ever played the piano.

We would play in those days’ records and even dance in the small sitting room, which normally doubled up as a bedroom too.

We would laugh all night; it was a warm feeling of natural love. Escapism of the painful treatment at the hospital and stale conditions of the hotel.

The flats were usually the same not only in the corridors, but the insides too. Wooden floors and the main walls normally had a thick carpet hanging from there, as though a feature. The quality of the carpets was so good. Thick and plush, heavy dark patterned.

The kitchens were really basic as were the bathrooms. Tiny too. People ate in the main room, where the Grandparent usually slept and the family would watch the TV. So a real community room?

So what makes a good night? For me, being comfortable, laughing and good intelligent conversation.

         I won’t ever forget my times with Russian people, I only hope now they are free, they have not freed their hearts and souls to  our western ways!