First exercises

I sat down and solemnly worked through the exercises in Chapter 1 of my Durham University Russian course, involving reciting repeated phrases along the lines of "Is this a trombone? No, it is a violin" (at least the choice of vocabulary has some appeal!) And still struggled with the written exercises, being at sea as to which situations require в +prepositional and which require на +prepositional (в клубе? в концерте? в оркестре? Apparently it is НА концерте -- 'on' a concert, just as one writes 'on' paper or voyages 'on' the ocean wave...)

And, embarrassingly, I still mix up 'm' and 't' and 'y' and 'i' when asked to write words from their *sounds* (as opposed to copying from print, which I can do well enough -- that being my main experience of late!)

Little Gentlemen (Ch2)

Having decided to rename Auguste-Philippe-Gérard du Chaligret de Fouilgieux to Henri-Auguste-Gérard in order to avoid an overlap with the familiar Raoul and Philippe of my "Phantom" stories( A Mad Hatter's name-party )

( Class consciousness )

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Viewing stats: Chapter 1 received a grand total of six views [edit: now eight!] in its first few days before getting stuck. ( invidious comparisons :-( )

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Chapter 2 — A Fresh Start

Warm, well-fed and comfortable, Venya slept until long past daybreak, and woke to find himself sharing a bed with a small and wriggling body that was kicking him in its sleep. Venya kicked back, instinctively, with one of Big Dima’s favourite oaths, and sat up with a jolt in the realization that he was no longer in Dima’s cellar. Sun was streaming in through open shutters, boys’ voices echoed down the corridor outside the room and dogs were barking somewhere beyond the window, and it seemed his companion of the night was a curly-headed child some three or four years younger than himself, into whose bed he had evidently been put the evening before.

The two of them pummelled one another wordlessly for a moment, then broke off by unspoken common agreement, with honour satisfied on both sides. The little boy bestowed a beaming smile upon Venya, along with a hopeful enquiry in a language he could not understand at all. He did his best, haltingly, to explain.

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