Moscow Interlude: Conversation between two ladies

Before returning to the account of my trip to the Volga, I want to
take a short break with a transcript/translation of a conversation I heard
on a bus this morning. Setting: the many towered new apartment boom region of
Moscow's Yugo-Zapad (Southwest). I have nothing to read, so as diversion listen
in to two nicely dressed, middle aged ladies standing near me as the bus
lurches along the long route to the Metro station.
Lady #1: Well, I was wondering if you were going to make it. I called you.
Lady #2: Yes, yes, well, I was running late. But I made it.
#1: We might be late, to make those payments to Maria Vladimirovna.
#2: Well, you know if we are -- and I don't think we will be late --
we'll get her to talking and everything will be ok.
#1: Elena Dmitrievna told me that she always goes at least 10 minutes
before the appointment, sometimes 20, just to be sure.
(switch of topic to "weekend just past")
#2: My Dad had left a thin little pencil that he used to sketch with.
It was just laying in the box (when he died) and I just left it there.
Sunday, I was cleaning things up at the dacha. Mopped the floors, cleaned the
toilet, then I decided, well, I'll just throw this pencil away, there's
no lead in it anyway. But then I took a closer look, and, oh, it opens up.
There's lead inside in a hidden chamber inside. I put the lead in and now
it works just fine. Sure glad I didn't throw it away. It's real sharp.
#1: Did you bring it with you? I'd like to take a look at it.
#2: No, no.
(Another quick change of topic, we're getting close now to the Metro station stop.)
#2: My girl friend called and said it's the 13th anniversary of her dog's death.
She just can't stop thinking about it. I asked her did he shake just before
he died, because my dog was just shaking and shaking.
Time for me to get off as they ride on somewhere farther.
******
There it is, fresh from the streets of Moscow. What at least two people
were saying this Monday morning in mid-October under leaden but so far
rain free clouds.
******
For a bit of contrast: imagine GUM, the historic "mall" on Red Square.
I stolled through there late Saturday afternoon. There is nothing for sale
there anymore than ordinary folks like me can buy, except for one
small ice cream stand where the sales oman herself acts intimidated
by that other, extravagant world. No umbrellas, no hats,
not even any souvenirs. It's all ultra-glamour stores, Europe's fanciest
names. Dior, Gucci, Clinique, you name it, from the pages of Fortune or
the New Yorker maybe, it's there. A smattering of curiosity seekers, window
shoppers, but on row after row (three stories) there is no one but sales
people in the stores. Eerie luxury it might be called. Like going to a
ghost mall where the shoppers have all disappeared for unknown reasons and only the
sales girls and the goods themselves exist. GUM during Putin.

********
News flash: Prime Minister Putin unveils a surprise gift he received
(don't remember who from): a baby tiger. He shows it off to the press at
some swank location of his own, to ooo's and ahh's from the reporters.
It's like a cute very large kitten. Looks friendly. Putin says he will give it to a
zoo when it gets bigger.

Slightly older news: The Supreme Court overturned a lower court's ruling
and decreed that Tsar Nicholas II and family can be rehabilitated (cleared
of any crimes). The lower court had refused to do this because it argued
that since he was illegally charged any way (by the Soviet regime) he could
not be cleared. So he was in limbo, in this suit brought by surviving
Romanov decendents. Now he is free to go on to sainthood (he was already
there, actually)and maybe for living Romanovs (many in Florida, by the way) to make some property claims since he's officially now not a felon. This item dominated the news here for two days.
More about news and lack thereof, another time. That's a big topic.