Mama Manoogian is in Armenia and so am I. Yes, I'm back to Yerevan and though I was planning on being here 2 days ago, it just was not happening due to too much work to be done in Artsakh.
Last night we went out with J&H from New Jersey, whome I met in Artsakh during the NK Arts festival and since we got along so well, I just had to see them one more time before they left this morning.
We went out to dinner to celebrate my birthday, which was a couple of days ago and I wanted to go to Paplavok, the jazz club for sushi, but when we got there, there were a million police cars. A closer look revealed some rock concert and a crowd and presence of government officials and diplomats. Since I didn't have a football helmet to wear and since I knew from my last visit that the bathroom was recently remodeled, I thought it was best to avoid the place, as I really do desire to celebrate my next birthday.
H suggested that we have Thai food at Breeze, which is on Nalbandian. We walked down there and I have to tell you that for someone who has not had Thai food for ages, it was great!!!
After Breeze, we walked over to ArtBridge, where H wanted to purchase a painting and I also suggested that she purchase a copy of Jack's photo book "My Limp". Mama Manoogian, J and I had some ice cream coffee thing and H had hot coffee and talked about their trip here and some of their adventures.
We called a cab to take us home and on the way I engaged the driver in conversation and I have to tell you that all the taxi drivers I have talked to on my last 2 trips here have been very depressing. This one added something new. He told me that the company that he works for has their drivers work 24 hour shifts. Yes, you're reading this right, 24 hours of driving around and by looking at the circles under the drivers eyes, you can tell this guy was deprived of sleep big time. I asked him if this was just his company or others. He said that it was all these large companies. I asked if he knew if there was an increase of crashes and the likes and he said it has happened that a driver has fallen asleep behind the wheel and crashed into another car. I told him the standard in the West and how a driver has to have by law a reasonable number of hours of sleep each day and he said in the old days it was like that too (and I think that law is still valid here). I think this issue needs to be brought up to the people in Parliament and a law need to be enacted or enforeced to cover this issue, as it is not only a public safety hazard, but it can't be at all healthy for the drivers to be putting their system on such an unhealthy cycle.
The birthday gifts my family sent me were great, which included a couple of pairs of New Balance shoes, which after 3 years of no new shoes, were well overdue. The new diginal camera with a movie feature will be lots of fun and maybe when I get my real site up, I’ll have video clips. Anyway, thanks family for remembering me. The jacket and winter shirts will also come in very handy.
Last night we went out with J&H from New Jersey, whome I met in Artsakh during the NK Arts festival and since we got along so well, I just had to see them one more time before they left this morning.
We went out to dinner to celebrate my birthday, which was a couple of days ago and I wanted to go to Paplavok, the jazz club for sushi, but when we got there, there were a million police cars. A closer look revealed some rock concert and a crowd and presence of government officials and diplomats. Since I didn't have a football helmet to wear and since I knew from my last visit that the bathroom was recently remodeled, I thought it was best to avoid the place, as I really do desire to celebrate my next birthday.
H suggested that we have Thai food at Breeze, which is on Nalbandian. We walked down there and I have to tell you that for someone who has not had Thai food for ages, it was great!!!
After Breeze, we walked over to ArtBridge, where H wanted to purchase a painting and I also suggested that she purchase a copy of Jack's photo book "My Limp". Mama Manoogian, J and I had some ice cream coffee thing and H had hot coffee and talked about their trip here and some of their adventures.
We called a cab to take us home and on the way I engaged the driver in conversation and I have to tell you that all the taxi drivers I have talked to on my last 2 trips here have been very depressing. This one added something new. He told me that the company that he works for has their drivers work 24 hour shifts. Yes, you're reading this right, 24 hours of driving around and by looking at the circles under the drivers eyes, you can tell this guy was deprived of sleep big time. I asked him if this was just his company or others. He said that it was all these large companies. I asked if he knew if there was an increase of crashes and the likes and he said it has happened that a driver has fallen asleep behind the wheel and crashed into another car. I told him the standard in the West and how a driver has to have by law a reasonable number of hours of sleep each day and he said in the old days it was like that too (and I think that law is still valid here). I think this issue needs to be brought up to the people in Parliament and a law need to be enacted or enforeced to cover this issue, as it is not only a public safety hazard, but it can't be at all healthy for the drivers to be putting their system on such an unhealthy cycle.
The birthday gifts my family sent me were great, which included a couple of pairs of New Balance shoes, which after 3 years of no new shoes, were well overdue. The new diginal camera with a movie feature will be lots of fun and maybe when I get my real site up, I’ll have video clips. Anyway, thanks family for remembering me. The jacket and winter shirts will also come in very handy.
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