A Russian experience

This time in three weeks I will be waking up to the freezing temperatures of Moscow city. Yes I know I’m stupid. For some reason I’ve always wanted to go on the trans-Siberian, so I am. However, as is the way with any holiday I decided to book, something unexpected happens in the period between when I book, and when I travel.
This time it’s the weather. Last week on the news they were broadcasting pictures of Russia in the deepest freeze it’s suffered for near fifty years, with temperatures in Moscow itself dropping to minus 30C. Not to mention that some areas of Siberia had dropped to past minus 40C. Truth be told I’m a little apprehensive and people have started to accuse me of being mad. Still, it’s something to look forward to!

History

It’s a funny one isn’t it?

I don’t have much family, my mother, father and sister are it. We don’t talk to anyone else for lots of reasons, most of them admittedly, are pretty silly.

Anyway, like most people I’ve come to a point where I’m interested, curious if you will, about the family heritage, where we came from, what’s lead us here etc. To my surprise I managed to dig up some pretty interesting stuff.

As it stands, I’ve always had an obsession with the eastern world, I love the lifestyle and people of the east. India, Nepal, Malaysia and china have always been my favorite places. I’ve always felt drawn to them. So imagine my shock when I came across an old photo album in the loft that was stuffed with pictures of my great granddad and his father surrounded by Asian people.
To my knowledge no one in our family had ever been further than Spain until I took up the traveling boots so this piqued my interest enough for me to quiz my dad on the subject.

It turns out that my great granddad and grandma (below) owned and lived on a cotton plantation in Kuala Lumpur and were phenomenally rich.

Apparently he was a Scotsman who served in the army and got a placement over there, he then preceded to fall in love with the country and stayed there to start his family. I also found out that my grandfather was born and raised in Malaysia and only moved back here with my great grandmother when his dad died.

I particularly liked the picture I found of my grandfather as a child at school. If you can’t spot him (?!) he’s the eighth one from the left on the back row.

Not that this has anything to do with my working class upbringing and supremely bland lifestyle, but it just struck me as sort of odd. It’s a region of the world that I’ve always been inexplicably drawn to, and it turns out that I’m not the only person in my family to have ever felt this way.

My grandfather, his brother, sister and their nurse. It just goes to show that sometimes it really is worth being nosey.

Wisdom

"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life."
Winston Churchill

A new years resolution;

Remember to laugh