Tuesday, February 12, 2008

An exciting day...

It has been quite an exciting day for this kiwi. I woke up to find the world transformed into a better (well, cleaner) place witha a few inches of snow cover. I dug the car out and got to work on time (this could almost be classed a miracle) and then we had a visit from the Environment Minister. He gave a talk to the staff in the snow, well, actually, he stood under the veranda and we all stood out while it snowed heavily. It was pretty much a vote-for-my-party-cos-we-are-the-best kind of speech, and then he looked at a laboratory. I wandered along with the caste of thousands. It was there that I was asked if I would like to attend lunch.

So, I had lunch with the Minister for Environment. There were some other officials as well, but in the end there were only 9 people. In true Armenian style we ate and stood to toast, ate a little more then stood to toast, eat, toast, eat, toast. The toasts were for the company, success and happiness, the minister, the mayor, the martzpetyran (government appointed head of region), to the women in the room (there were two of us), to cooperation, to success, to the new manager, more to the minister, the local environmental staff, the future of Armenia, to success in the elections… I hope you get the drift. I managed to minimise the vodka consumption to the point where I could return to work which was miraculous.

The best bit of the whole day was definitely the Minister presenting two bouquets of red roses to us girls. He didn’t know we were coming to lunch, so he must have sent one of his bodyguards or advisors out to buy them. So, although I didn’t get any photos I did have a lovely bouquet of red roses (7 – the Armenians believe odd numbers are good luck and even numbers are only for funerals).

Btw- check out my lovely mink fur cap, it is so warm i hardly even feel guilty about buying it... It came in handy standing around in the snow listening to election promises...

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