22 February 2009

The Bizarre Appearance of the Sun in Kyiv

Even though it was 25 degF, "the Sun" was actually out today. I bumped into a colleague. "This is great!" he says "I remember two weeks ago as well, it was a Friday morning, the Sun came out for a couple of hours."

09 February 2009

Released Sailors Asked by Company to Pay for Phone Calls?

According to this story, the sailors released from the Ukrainian owned vessel "Faina", that was captured by Somali pirates last September, have been charged 200 USD for phonecalls made while in captivity. I suppose it will help offset the 3.2M USD ransom. Новини України proUA.com - Судновласник Фаїни вимагає від моряків сплатити телефонні розмови із полону

07 February 2009

Laughter at Customs

Heard a new one today when making inquiries about grey market premium car importers and how their businesses are doing. Gentleman from Donetsk:
The customs guys in Odesa are laughing. They were paid handsomely for looking the other way during the importing of these cars, Mercedes, Porsches, etc...and now they are getting paid again for the export of the same cars as grey dealers are shipping out their overstock.