A new cell phone My girlfriend presented me a new cell phone for the New Year. It has a touchscreen and a powerful processor, we call this type of phones "smartphone". I told her that my old phone did not meet my requirements anymore, so she decided to please me. But now she's not happy anymore, I think. I spend a lot of time playing games or downloading different applications or watching video on youtube instead of talking to her or spending time together. I know it because she told me it several times. So I think I should treat her better and don't play my new toy when she's around me. How do you think?

A new job This week I've got a new job. My former job was a purchace manager at a motorcyle shop. I worked with suppliers of our company. Now I work at a company which sales all sorts of equipment for different shops, warehouses, bars and restaraunts. And I do the same - place orders with (?) our suppliers. This week was very difficult. First, I am bad with names. I had to write down names of all colleagues and learn them. But now I have no problems in communicating to them. Second, they have no time train me. From the very first day I have to contact to different companies and place our orders. It is so because my trainer is a sales maneger Marina. Before my coming she had to do her job and mine at the same time. You can't even imaging the pressure she had to stand. Now she can give me a part of her current duties and do her job better. I learn in a process, as always. :) But the most difficult thing is a waking up a hour earlier. I hope I'll get used to wake up at 7 a.m. in a couple of weeks.

illness Hi! I've been feeling bad for 3 days. I've got a runny nose and a headache. There's no surprise, because it's the autumn already. There's no sunshine, only clouds and rains. And it's so cold outside, brrrr! We are waiting for the Indian summer, it's to come from day by day (со дня на день). There will be sunny days and yellow leaves all around. So beautiful and romantic!)) It's the best time for walking in a park. I want the Indian summer to come faster and my nose to stop leaking.

Drawing I promised to post a picture I've drawn by my self. Well, here it is and a short story, of course))) When I was a little boy I liked drawing very much. I attended a hobby group at an elementary school. I dropped it out after one event. Once there was a drawing competition held at our school. I had not prepared a picture for this competition. So I thought I didn't contest. Can you imagine my shock when they called my out at the award ceremony?! I was given a prize for the 3rd or the 4th place and two little pictures which I was seeing for the first time in my life. It turned out that my teacher had drawn these pictures and put them up for the contest on my behalf! I don't know why she did so. But I was so ashamed that I was given a prize I didn't earn. So I dropped it out and went in for sports. Once upon a time several years later I missed 2 high-kicks to my head during a training. A couple of weeks later I noticed that I started to forget words, names and dates. Sometimes I even forgot my own name for few seconds! It was scary. I was studying at university that time, so I must say, hard days came. Well, I had to drop the sport section out. But I didn't only started forgeting everything, I began to draw again!))) Honestly, I was drawing all the time before that accident (at school, at university), but it was not serious. Usually I just spoiled the last page of my exercise books with cartoons. But this time I wanted to learn drawing like a real artist. I was attending evening courses at an local art school for 3 years. Why did I stop? There were several reasons: I had not enough time, enough money. And one more (the real one) reason - I tired of my teacher correcting my works. He tried not to correct to much our pictures, but sometimes he got involved and couldn't stop already))) He had corrected my picture of a man's foot so much, that I couldn't recognize it anymore. It was too much for me. I decided to take a break for a few lessons, but my work didn't let my come back. It's a pity((( So, now you can see my best work by this time. It took me a couple of mounths to draw this picture. The teacher always told me to correct it there, there a there. But he didn't help me and I'm greatful to him for that, cause I can say "That's my picture. I've drawn it by my self". Thank you for reading! Please, correct my mistakes.

my bicycle When I was a child, I used to ride my bike a lot. I remember my first bike. It's name was "Конёк Горбунок" (the name of a little magic horse from russian fairy tale). First it has two additional little wheels on the sides. I can still remember the day when I learned to ride without them. My father and I spent several hours before I could show my skills to my mother, when she came from work. Lately I used to ride bikes with my friends. We liked to hold the race in the yard. Need to say, I wasn't the fastest racer))) When we became a little older, we started to imitate stars of the World Motorcycle Trial Championship. It was translated via TV on that times. We jumped from stairs, fenses, climbed to different places... Also we liked to ride our bikes in winter. We studded our wheels using nails, nippers and adhesive tape. It was so awful, but that time I thought it was extremelly cool. Oh, my god!))) When I finished school my hobby came to naught. Several years ago I asked a fellow from my work to have a ride on his bicycle. And you know what? I remembered all the feelings from my childhood, all that joy and happiness when you have a wind to your face, when you feel the freedom. So I bought a bike. It wasn't expensive, because I didn't know if I should ride it as often as before. But I liked to ride it more and more. I went by bike to my work every sunny day. My girlfriend wanted to ride it too. I got the saddle lower for her and she rode it while I was running near. So I decided to buy another bike. This time I chose an expensive one, but with the help of my friend I could buy it with a great discount. My girlfriend took my previous bike. Last year I even took a part in a city bicycle race. I used to train almost every evening for a mounth before the race. Of course, I was at the end of peloton. But I wasn't the last! That's what really matters for me. This year it was very rainy and I had a lot of work, so I couldn't prepare for the race properly. That's why I didn't race. Some guys from my work bought bikes too. Now some of them ride it every day, some hold it in a garage. I have not as many time for my hobby now as before. Fortunately my girl gets me out for a ride as often as she can (I bought a new bike for her this year). Yesterday we drove through 13 km and my butt got hurt)))

Traveling I like traveling very much! If you look at a globe, you may think that the world is pretty small. 'Hey, look! I can connect Europe and America with my fingers!'. But when you get to a rather distant place and look at the way you've passed on a map, you understand that the world is many-many times greater than you imagined before the journey. When I was a kid I didn't like traveling. I sorry about that now and try to make up for lost. I visited Moskow, Saint-Petersburg, Volgograd, Yaroslavl, Rostov The Great, Suzdal, Plyos... Half a year before I bought a car, and me and my girlfriend have already visited several ancient neighboring cities: Vladimir, Murom, Kostroma, Yuryevets and other. Just imagine, most of these cities have more than thousand years of history! Unfortunately there's not so many really ancient buildings and other stuff been saved because of numerous wars and fires. The more we have to keep what's left. But the most impressive travel for me was my first visit to the Black Sea. Last year me and my girlfriend went to Crimea (Ukrain). We spent 26 hours to get there by train (it's more cheaper than by plane). There was everything you may need for happiness: sea, sun, mountains, beautiful places, fruits... I'll certainly go to the sea again! From every jorney I bring home souvenirs: cups, fridge magnets, sometimes I buy little statuettes. Sometimes in the evening when we drink tea from these cups, we remember the cities we visited and talk about new journeys.

motorcycles I work at a motorcycle shop. There are a lot of motorcyclists in Russia and in our region too. Unfortunately we have only half of the year to ride bikes. There's no the most popular type of motorcycles people ride on. They ride choppers, enduro, tourist, sport bikes and all the other types. People who ride them are absolutely different too. Some of them are members of motorcycle clubs, some are lone riders in principal. But the mosts like to ride bikes in a company of friends without any club issues. Usually the meet after work at some parking, share news, meet newcomers, chat a ride bikes of course. Some motorcyclists like to ride at extremely high speed and do it in a city, rushing among cars. I really hate this! It's too dangerous both for them and other people, who don't even exceed the speed limit. Every year several motorcyclists have an accident with a fatal outcome. One my close friend had almost lost his leg and two guys I knew died this and last year. Sorry for this sad topic. Two days ago another one of our clients had an accident. Fortunately he's alive. But he damaged the neck and broke a leg. Now he's in a hospital. I needed to write about something, so I wrote what I really worry about last time. Well, if you ride a motorcycle, please, be careful. If you ride a car, please, be watchful. And good luck to all of you!

First notebook entry: Introducing myself Ok, let's begin. I studied English at school and at university. I like this language. It's rather easy and very very useful. Now if you don't speak English you can't be successful. Knowledge of English helps me very much in my work and in other parts of my life. But I'd like to better it. And I hope I'll find new friends who will help me to do it. As for me, I would be happy to help somebody to learn Russian, cause it's a great and very interesting language. Well, it's not so easy to write in English as I thought first :)