Blessed Christmas 2006 Part 1

Finally Christmas is over.

Hey, I’m not being a Grinch here, I love Christmas alot. But as u all know by my absence from blogging, been very busy planning the Christmas party at my uni. 50ppl planning a party (Christmas service plus dinner) for about 250ppl. There were carolling, worship session, cooking (no catering service here k), small media presentation (using the brains of med students only)

Thank God…it was a great success despite alot of hiccups we went thru for past weeks. I hardly had any sleep and sacrificed my classes for it. sigh. Back to my normal life now…and exams are coming.

Will be bloggin in details about the party…when i have the time (still recovering from Xmas) hehe.

This is our Nativity media presentation…taken from various sources mainly ‘trailer of Nativity Story’ and some videos from YouTube. It was nothing special, cant do much….we dont have any graphic, IT, media students here….ONLY meds here. hehe. It was just to share the meaning of Xmas to non-Christians.

Middle of December!

It is the middle of December now. It also mean that Christmas is coming soon…in about 2 weeks. Instead of my usual-waiting-anxiously-for-my-presents….*sweating….the CF will he having a Christmas party for 250ppl and we need to get things done asap. I need to get my job done asap.

sorry folks for the long absence. I guess I can only start bloggin properly when this party is over. sigh* Can u believe it that I actually forgot to top-up my internet credit and internetless for a week? haha.

When IKEA n MEGA (a huge mall joining to IKEA) first opened, I was so happy cuz there are now a decent place for my christmas shopping. I even planned wat to buy n when to buy. But sigh*….this has to happened at this time. With the great amout of things to do for the party, my upcoming exams and now i need to hunt around to buy presents….AArrghhhhhhhh…..

IKEA Out for 2006

State Duma Deputy Alexander Khinshtein said Thursday that no backroom deal would allow IKEA Russia to reopen its Mega Mall near Nizhny Novgorod in time for the holiday shopping rush. “They will not reach an agreement with the government,” said Khinshtein, who represents the Nizhny Novgorod region in the Duma and sits on the Industry, Construction and Technology Committee. “I guarantee that, no matter what happens.” IKEA Russia’s chief spokeswoman, Natalya Altynova, on Thursday reiterated the company’s hope that the Nizhny Novgorod mall would reopen soon. On Nov. 30, the Kstovsky District Court ordered the mall to close for 30 days for fire-code violations. The order was not enforced until Tuesday. The delay resulted from “pressure put on the court by [IKEA's] home office, from the Swedes,” Khinshtein said. The firebrand Duma deputy said IKEA Russia’s general director, Per Kaufmann — whom he referred to as “some young billionaire” — had approached Nizhny Novgorod Governor Valery Shantsev soon after the court issued the closure order in an attempt to cut a deal. Kaufmann declined through a spokeswoman to comment on Khinshtein’s statements. In December 2004, the opening of IKEA Russia’s Mega Mall in Khimki, north of Moscow, was delayed two weeks because of safety concerns. The mall only opened after Moscow region Governor Boris Gromov intervened. In the case of the Nizhny Novgorod mall, however, “the governor has made clear that the law is the same for everyone,” Khinshtein said. The courts could still order the Nizhny Novgorod Mega Mall to be demolished, Khinshtein added, citing traffic problems it had caused and other “irreparable complaints.” “Coming to Russia, putting your feet on the table and spitting on the floor is unacceptable,” Khinshtein said. “We have corrected that. If they come to Russia from Sweden again, they will know what the score is.”

Source

Ok, what started the investigation and lead to this unfortunate event was a freak accident. The accident had nothing to do with why IKEA was ordered to close…but, maybe u can say…they(the investigators) sniffed out something else.

A shopper loaded almost 200kg of building materials into the cart and was pushing it down the moving walkway. Obviously, he lost control of it and the cart with 200kg of stuff, hit a 5 years old boy. The boy didnt survived.
Living in Russia for 3-4 years now…I could picture it very well how it can happen and how that guy will look like. Just pity that the boy had to be the victim because of “the stupidity of certain people”

Anyway, Christmas is coming….I’ll be busy. And I’ll try to update this blog as frequently as I can. Alot of people doin the year-end resolutions, yearly reviews n wishing list…I wan it too!

Toodles
My LifeLog_