"I was hoping for less farting and more hugging" Women's Day

It's a bit of a mistake writing about such a lovely day now when I've been back at work for 2 days and the memories have been tainted by naughty children and a post mid-night text message from my boss... Anyway, it's now or never because I'll just forget otherwise.

This Monday was Women's Day here in Russia, a much bigger deal than Valentine's Day with fresh tightly budded tulips EVERYWHERE and ladies walking home with flowers, chocolate and other gift tucked in the obligatory fancy paper/plastic carrier bag given them by males young and old. I got a single pink tulip but more about that later. We decided to get out of the house, I'm ashamed to say I needed some cajoling to get out of bed and into some proper clothes but I made it and we took the monorail to the All Russian Exhibition where we spent less than half an hour freezing our asses off (it's basically all outdoors) looking for something pretty to look at. We found it - Fountain "Friendship of Nations" and I'm happy to say it was enough because after we minced around taking pictures we swiftly headed off to the nearest McDonald's for a not-so-quick eat before marching onwards to a mystery destination.

From Womens Day 2010

We took the scenic route to the mystery destination (my surprise for Women's Day) past a beautiful old cathedral and across the Moskva River all the while trying not fall and break something on the ice whilst seeing as much of the spectacular view as possible. We made it just as the sun was setting to the Swiss Hotel and up to the Sky Lounge on the 33rd floor.
What a view! The sky was still light and changing from light blue and pale lilac to deep sapphire and violet with a deep orange band on the horizon, we walked round the 360degree restaurant before settling at the bar where we had the most expensive cocktails ever made by a short man dressed in a pale pink shirt, the sleeves rolled up and held neatly in place by metal bands and neat black trousers held up with suspenders all of which was topped off with a trilby hat. It was all very immaculate albeit a touch Muscle Mary, but he was a friendly little guy and recommended one of the special Women's Day cocktails. I had a Cosmo Ginger Shot, tiny but perfectly formed - citron vodka, raspberries, cranberry juice (I think)and something else I'm forgetting, garnished with home-made crystallized ginger and ginger froth (no idea how he made it!). Our little bartender recommended one of the 2 cocktails on offer for "gay's" the typo made us giggle quite a lot! D had a Kamikaze thing which was also gorgeous. As the setting was so perfect and we could only afford one drink we took our sweet time and savoured every second, which was just as well because although the portions were small they were strong, we both got a little giggly on our one drink.

From Womens Day 2010

It was such a gorgeous evening, we sat and chatted, took some pictures, held hands and just generally enjoyed ourselves. Lush. We payed up and took another leisurely stroll round the restaurant to admire Moscow at night, we could see St Basil's Cathedral, GYM, Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the University and loads of other places and winding through it all was the Moskva River. It was so beautiful and made me remember how gorgeous some cities are at night, Moscow has to be up there with the best of them. And the icing on the cake was getting my beautiful pink tulip on the way out, the whole night had me beaming all the way home.