Sometimes things happen that are well, kinda spooky.  A long time ago while people still used horses to travel in the USA and Alaska was not yet a state some people whose descendants would one day in the early 1980 s become my friends, received a letter from there relatives living in the  far off homeland of Germany I think.  This letter arrived in their post office with the only address on it being the persons name, the name of the city, and USA.  That was all it took, now had they lived in a common named city or a large city it may have never found them but as it happened they lived in a small town in Kansas which has the honor of probably being the only place on earth with that particular name it arrived.  Far-Out isnt it.

I always thought that was a rather quaint tail.  Well that is until last week.  Last week I received a letter here in Russia.  It was addressed to:

 "Siberia Tom and wife" 

Krasonyarsk Kray 

PO box #### 

Russia.  

Translated into American that is basically

"Siberia Tom and Wife" 

PO box ### 

midwest 

USA

Shades of Geroge Orwells world send shivers up my neck.  Who all know where I live???  Why do they Care??  

So what do you think......   Can the post office find you so easily??

Welcome aboard our Flight

Hey, have you ever flown?  You know in a real airliner, not one of those dependable little Bumble-Bees I work on.  Ok, ok, do you listen to the welcome Aboard Dream-air flight number 3332 from Inner-Podunk to Outer-Podunk tak-a-tak-a-tak-a ~~~ please note where the exits are ~~~ your life vest is under your seat~~~~~.  You know, "that part".  Do you pay attention to it?  Maybe you should, really, I mean, you should listen to it.  There can be some rather important news included.

Last week I had a conference in Turkey.  (It is really a tough life and Yes I am making the sacrifice to fill in as best I can.  I did spare Diana the hardship of this trip so she could enjoy February in Siberia at -40f/c while I toughed it out on the beach)  I thought that was the least I could do for her with Valentines-day coming up so quickly.  All that travel and nothing to do there on the beach but sit and go shopping and tour Antalya while I had meetings.  Nope, no fun for her there.

I like dogs so I thought I would include this pup just to cheer you up,  I can tell you were feeling sorry for me and I didn't want that feeling to get too strong, I mean I do appreciate it but really I can handle the stress of these hardship assignments as they only come along now and then.  

   Anyway back to the flight info announcement.  The background is important here so please bear with me.

    I left Turkey at about 15:50 arrived in Moscow about 19:55 and boarder my flight to Home about 00:45.  So along about 1:00 am the cabin crew is making the announcement relaying between Russian and English.  The lady doing the English part is not a native English speaker but her accent pronunciation and inflection are really good so I am kind of think wow I wish my Russian was as good as her English is and listening to the announcement but not as close as I could have been. 

 She does the seat belt part, the life vest part, the oxygen mask part, and then starts in on the legal part,  No smoking, no drinking your own booze and these laws are part of the XYZ code of federal aviation law in the Russian federation and if you are caught breaking any of these laws you will have to go to Church.

What a Country.

Amen 

Over past finished done.

Yes well, now we have moved into the has-been column for history to record and remember as a foot note *Tom and Diana were in Mongolia for 4 months between October 08 and January 09.  During the last days in Mongolia we enjoyed watching our friends win the Mongolian national Hockey tournament.   Go Pelicans.  There is something oximoronical about that name for a Hockey team isn't there?  Through that we met some interesting people.  One was a starter on the team.  #777 he is 53 years old and is the pastor of a energetic church in UlaanBaator.  We were told that he is still an effective Hockey player as in the culture one must respect ones elders and as he is so old no one on the opposing team can hit him, thus he can often score where a younger player would be knocked out of position.  He also has a very mature knowledge of the game and tends to be at the right spot at the right time.

John Luke and his family returned to UlaanBaator and we were not needed there any more.  The night he arrived as we pulled up to the guard gate our friend Sufda asked John Luke what the man opening the gates name was.  He replied Sambeno.  The guard then recognized him and greeted John Luke like a favorite nephew he had not seen for a long time.  

As I left the building that night to go back to the hotel where we stayed the last few nights I thought about how much we had enjoyed our time in Mongolia and the people we met and some we were able to help in one way or another and how the guard had greeted the son of the regular manger on there return and I knew it was time to go, time to move on, time to go home to Russia where we have other friends to care about and to be there for and yes to love as one does extended family,  the brothers and sisters we accumulate who just don't happen to have the same parents.

The memories we carry home are special;  Good food at really good prices at restaurants in UlaanBaator,  Special friends in the office who we will cherish knowing for many years,  baatar and David special folks who are in the same line of work as our Father.  We really enjoyed talking about the family business with them.  Diana found her fur coat in Mongolia.  We decided that wearing Sheep skin is actually greener than a synthetic coat that contributes to global warming.  Even greener than one with down as there is synthetic materials used in the shell and stitching.  Yes the only way to really fight global warming is to only buy real fur coats.  Besides she looks pretty cute in her Darkhan Minj Mongolian sheepskin.   Speaking of Global warming there is some debate here in Siberia as to it really being all that bad.  Tomorrow night is forecast to hit -50f here, at -70f the trees start to explode.  Some more global warming should help save some trees so would it not be greener to warm up some more?  "right Jewel"?

We did enjoy a 44 hour train ride home with our boss in the coupe as well as a nice Mongolian lady who seemed to have bits of clothing and shoes and blankets scattered all over the car.  It was a rather interesting ride especially at the border where she managed to be wearing about 6 shirts and 3 or 4 pairs of pants and a couple coats while we were clearing customs.  The heat in the car also seemed to have been set to about 90f at the crossing for some unknown reason.  We saw one of her friends being escorted off the car with a queen sized blanket full of coats, shirts, pants, shoes, and all kinds of nice stuff from China.  Later in the trip we saw the nice lady literally selling the shirts off of her back at each train platform in Russia.

Quiz time.  Both of you who read this,  As I am now back in Russia and soon may be off to another location should Sambeno be replaced with a more local themed blog or has Tom and Sambeno become one linked eternally in your mind thus changing it would doubtless result in causing irreparable damage to your mental state?  Ok really, should Sambeno only deal with Mongolia stuffffff?