These boots are made for Russian, gay walking

Yest (Sat) I headed out to the coast to see Brighton Beach - a Russian enclave (!). It was cool. With seconds of arriving all you hear is Russian. Spoken by Russians, in big fur Russian hats and coats. But in America. Weird. All the shops sell stuff in Russian so you've not much idea what you're buying (apart from the Russian beer I bought, I knew what I was doing there).

I got chatting to a veteran of the Korean War called Sam. I knew he was a vet since it was plastered across the back of his jacket... He was a cool old giffer though and complained that his kids (who are 45, hardly kids I thought) say he's a dinosaur since he has no DVD or PC. He also noted that they don't think he's such a dinosaur when they need to borrow cash... "you're a dinosaur with a big wallet then" I proferred, to which he agreed. Our scintillating chat was cut short by the appearance of a helicopter, which utterly transfixed him. Must have been having flashbacks of incoming fire or something...

Via an abortive ice-skating attempt in Central Park, ended up going for a drink with a Spanish lass I know. After a couple of beers, I noticed there were no other lasses in the bar. Then she goes "I think that guy likes you". Then I realised there were gay pride flags all over the place - I hadn't even noticed and had been in there for an hour or so. Doh. She'd realised it the instant we walking in there, ha ha.

Then it was snowing. So, in reference to the title of this post, my boots got mud, sand and snow on them all in one day. Go boots!

Photos of Helicopter Sam and Brighton Beach at http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/pedrffynnon8/my_photos as usual. And of a bloke in a pink coat and red trousers. I had to run to catch a shot of him.