What is it with Georgian bakers these days?

Is there really a flour shortage? Has the demand for bread shrunk? The price has increased by 40% over the last two years.

6 weeks ago or so I had reported on my desperate search for the Georgian lavash.

Yesterday I went off for my weekly shop, and passed by my local baker's which was open. Yeah! So I could leave the bread buying until just before I got home, and it would be nice and fresh.

Tootled down to almost the river, and picked up the other bits, climbed back up the hill, arrived at the baker's - and he had no bread left - would be open again at 8 pm, he told me. So I had to run a bit down the hill again to find my lavash. In the evening, going out, I passed another baker's who does very good bread, and who I had seen open recently, and he was closed, too. Also, I have to say, that the bread has not been as hot, fresh and crunchy as it used to be - a lower turn-over? Does not sell like hot-cakes any more?

Very strange. Meanwhile I am off on the hunt for yeast. Seems difficult to find in Tbilisi - will I really have to go to the hypermarket 16 km from my home, for a packet of yeast?

Eeeek!

This is what I saw when I stepped into the bath first thing this morning.

No, I did not scream. Mainly because I thought it was a baby turtle (we have them here) and I felt all warm and motherly inside.

Then I noticed it's thin, hairy legs! Does the photo reflect my trembling hand?

But what can you do when you are naked? Crush the thing? There would be oodles and oodles of blood. Take it outside? Not until I'm dressed.

So I cowered and showered at one end of the bath and it clung to the wall at the other end.

But you should have heard me swear at it as I carried it outside on, very luckily, an old Guardian I had left lying around. 'You are not going to climb off this paper, so you are not!'. And it did not. And now I am safe.

But what the heck is it?

Running round Tbilisi

My usual Saturday run, a bit earlier to escape the heat....

• said 'gamarjoba' to a young orthodox priest at the end of my road. Like most such priests he wore his woolly bunnet pulled down to the eyebrows. Gives them all a slightly scary look. He replied with a gesture I could not quite work out. Did he bless me or did he tell me to pass behind his back so I would not interrupt his communion with the wee church on the hill?
• spotted a couple in matching grey t-shirts on their way to their exertions? Or on the return? Or was the walk their exertions? Not a drop of sweat to be seen.
• having run up the hill almost to the late Pataarkatsishvili's glass palace found that the set of steps I usually descend on has been removed, and only a hill of scree left. What's the point of that? They don't want pedestrians near there? So I had to run back down and find another, newly installed set of stairs. It will save the climb in the future, but also the cardiovascular stuff....
• saw a tiny puppy in the middle of a road which is rarely used (thankfully). It looked very lost and depressed. I stroked it, like you stroke a raw egg, and it did not even wag its little tail. Then again, it's not so good here for little dogs to trust people too much.
• reached the new President's palace (the palace, I mean, not the president) from the other side, and found that a set of stairs going down from that side have been closed. I could have climbed over the fence, but seeing as they were covered in rubbish and at each landing had two large open manholes, quite apart from me being unable to see their end, I gave them a miss. Instead had a chance to observe the extraordinary design on the side of the building (the other side is not finished). It's kind of a mixture of what looks like wire mesh and (wooden?) cladding, going up and down in angular waves, with a star-shaped pattern throughout it all. Really difficult to explain! What with all those security people around I did not like to take a photo. Bits of this building seem to be working already. In front of it,overlooking the town, is a modern family house, but I'm not sure if that's for the president, or if it belongs to someone else who would have been very stubborn not to sell the land for the presidential arrangements.

Talking of security guards, the ones at my ministry, at ambassador's residences and elsewhere have new uniforms. A pale green shirt with dark green trousers with a pale green stripe going down the side of them. Makes them look a bit like part of a band.

Safety in Tbilisi

Personally I think Tbilisi is perfectly safe for a person to walk around alone. I've been on the underground, in taxis, in buses, never a problem. I'm kind of conscious of safety, and if I feel that someone is following me, I just stop and let them pass. (Maybe one day that will backfire....).

On the weekend I was warned about walking around alone, by a young man and his mother. The lad had walked up to the TV tower, as described here, and was mugged on the way, being caught from behind with something around his neck. He describes himself proudly as of 'Army fitness' (after I had said that 'oh, but I'm a tough strong person and I can defend myself'...). Hmmmm. But then young men are more often the victim of crime than older persons. Now these people will be putting this story about. Did not share with them the many times I go running alone in obscure corners of Tbilisi!

Funny then, that the only time I was, a little bit, attacked, as described here, it was one of the rare occasions when I was not walking around alone, but distracted by having someone in my company.

Foreigners, especially Murricans, Tbilisi is perfectly safe. Though if you flash what you have then you might be more vulnerable, as you would be anywhere....

The good news....

....is that the path up to Tbilisi TV tower, past the Mamadaviti (St David's Church) has been renovated. It is vastly, but vastly better, with handrails, cobbled paths, steps....I'd hate to think of the poor folk who had to carry the cobbles up there.

The bad news is that just at St David's Church there's a gap, currently being worked on, and essentially you have to walk up a storm drain, with a very scary little set of steps to get you out of it. I thought that only the most athletic people would attempt this, and I would not want to run the hash up here, what with some of the folk not far off the three-score and ten. Then I spotted a lot of young folk on the path above this gap, and you know what young Tbilisi women are like - all high heels and glitter. And they had done it! (I watched some of them going back down). So, no excuses for anyone!

Once you've bridged the gap, and have got to the top, it would appear that there is a further, nicely put together path which takes you all around a valley and back into town. Quite a long walk, I would think, but most of it downhill. And there are picnic spots and exercise areas. Lovely idea. Hope they stay unvandalised and tidy for a while.

At the top, behind the TV tower, there's now a fenced-in leisure park. (The photo does not entirely capture the tastelessness of it. And why are the welcome flags in all languages but Georgian?) I have a feeling it might belong to the late Mr Paatarkatsishvili, and of course there's trouble with his will. So the park is locked up and totally deserted. Mind you, so is most of that area. I walked for four hours, from my flat, up past the TV tower, to a fancy new housing development way out in the countryside, up to a ridge, near which I found the start of another large building in the middle of no-where (see photo) and back down again. After 3.5 hours I met another walker.....but boy, it was soo cold up there! And this is June, in Tbilisi!

Noticed that the cows wear bells made from piston-heads, and very tuneful they were, too. There's a use for everything.

Had to smile today...

...when among a heaving crowd of skinny, chubby, old, young, heavy-bosomed, flat-chested, scarred, unscarred naked women in the sulfur baths I spotted a chubby little boy of about 4. Reminded me of the story some writer (Orhan Pamuk? - not sure - the hamman does not sound quite like his childhood world) tells of when he went to the women's hamman at about the same age, and his dad's friends afterwards asking him all about it. He did not accompany his female relatives for much longer after that....

Running's off!

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In these conditions - consider that these are semi-vertical surfaces covered in a thick layer of ice - there's no way I can go for a long run. The only safe place to run (for the feet) is in the middle of the road, but for the rest of the body that's incompatible with Georgian drivers!

First outing into town after my arrival; on Rustaveli Avenue, opposite the opera house, noticed artificial little trees that can be lit up. Did someone say 'that'll be a symbol of Georgian democracy, then'?

The woman at the opera house ticket office spoke English today and looked very proud. I was happy to indulge her.

Hyper Populi, the supermarket, is having a Kellogg's cornflakes season. Made the most of it, though the bill, also for replenishing the freezer, was eye-watering. The woman who guides people to the taxis appears to have a fractured wrist. Not surprisingly, really.

Brrrrr.....

Back in Georgia, and back into winter arrangements. Ohh, it's cold! Only minus 1 degrees C, but it's the flat that is freezing. After sliding into bed at about 6 am and never getting warm, found out that it might have had something to do with the open bedroom window, perhaps. Will be better prepared tonight!

The one thing that should really have been freezing, and was not, was the freezer. 'eck! When I left my landlady and I had a conversation and it might have involved the word 'elektra'. In my usual 'fake the understanding' way I must have nodded assent, and apparently, it now turns out, the question was 'do you want me to turn the electricity off'. When I first opened the (working) fridge last night, I thought I had left some chilli con carne in the fridge instead of the freezer. Then I spotted a tub of mouldy icecream in the fridge and some other stuff. Obviously someone has been along and rescued what was rescuable at some stage. But my nice frozen baked plums, which are still in the freezer, and some lumps of meat - how are they? Jeeez.

Outside it's nice and sunny, with a huge pile of snow in the garden. The three Alsation puppies seem to sleep outdoors and do the other dog(s). Not sure about the running - there are quite a few icy places; need to scout the situation out - as I go out to re-fill my freezer.....

(Everything looks very quiet...)