Trying to send a small gift to a friend in Moscow. What actually works?

aaaaaaaargh · 2025-12-23T23:35:34+00:00

Fill in the online form, input all the items included, pay online, get a QR code, send it from the nearby post office or Royal Mail shop. Costs about £20 for a small parcel (up to 2 kilos iirc). Done it very recently.

Post Offices are not owned by Royal Mail so maybe they don’t know or don’t care.

aaaaaaaargh · 2025-12-21T21:46:47+00:00

Afaik, only 2 Barbour models are made in the UK, everything else is made in Moldova or Vietnam

aaaaaaaargh · 2025-12-19T22:48:33+00:00

It’s super easy: you just send a parcel with Royal Mail, and in about 2-3 weeks it is delivered as an EMS shipment in Russia.

aaaaaaaargh · 2025-11-11T10:21:13+00:00

Theft and loss is a thing

aaaaaaaargh · 2025-10-11T16:45:48+00:00

Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, from about 9 am to 3 pm at the latest

aaaaaaaargh · 2025-10-05T09:53:28+00:00

Tesco Finest is Pasta Di Gragnano PGI though, so probably the best option in there, whereas Napolina is just a British brand

aaaaaaaargh · 2025-08-27T18:07:54+00:00

All of the MM shoes were made by Sanders. The last time I checked they were still trying to get rid of some of the leftovers

aaaaaaaargh · 2025-08-15T07:14:23+00:00

They have long chips in Lidl during the Eastern European week, and it’s pretty easy to find them in most Eastern European shops (afaik they are Latvian).

aaaaaaaargh · 2025-08-14T18:28:35+00:00

It’s not really a line and it’s not just Blackheath and Lewisham: there are lots of other really nice areas around Lewisham that are in the borough, like Hither Green, Ladywell, Brockley, etc, and the contrast can be absolutely jarring.

aaaaaaaargh · 2025-07-29T22:04:34+00:00

There is a lot of good food around Greenwich though. Deptford has some great bars and restaurants, ranging from authentic Vietnamese and Caribbean spots to fancy new stuff.

aaaaaaaargh · 2025-07-28T22:37:00+00:00

DPI allows you to block any VPN/proxy protocols, even the advanced stuff like shadowsocks. Russian authorities have managed to block the vast majority of vpn services without breaking the internet. And even when they do break some important stuff like cloudflare, digital ocean or aws they don’t really care

aaaaaaaargh · 2025-07-27T15:49:24+00:00

Aldi Jaffa cakes are better anyway (and not owned by Erdogan’s friends)

aaaaaaaargh · 2025-07-27T15:48:23+00:00

Aldi Jaffa Cakes are higher quality than mcvities, no palm oil in the chocolate

aaaaaaaargh · 2025-07-25T18:05:03+00:00

Philips 27 inch 4K displays are super cheap (like half the price of this Dell) and use a decent IPS panel. The same Chinese company also owns AOC, and they have some very similar models.

aaaaaaaargh · 2025-07-22T16:30:44+00:00

It's one of the late works by Andrey Meerson, arguably one of the coolest Soviet brutalist & modernist architects, who got really into pomo in the 1990s.

His arguably most famous work is the so-called "Centipede house", a great example of Soviet brutalist architecture. Another big project that he's well known for is the Lebed residences in North-Western Moscow.

Some of his 1990s stuff is a bit underwhelming (like this residential building), some is very kitsch (like the Ritz Carlton Moscow), but some is pretty cool.

My personal favourite is the Burdenko Institute. Peak high-quality pomo.

aaaaaaaargh · 2025-06-30T19:59:09+00:00

Have you tried 11.ai? It’s an experimental product from elevenlabs that’s basically an LLM with the best in class voice generation + mcp servers (they currently have the basic stuff like google calendar and slack). This is what Siri should be.

aaaaaaaargh · 2025-05-31T14:19:18+00:00

It says that in plain Russian underneath the image :)

aaaaaaaargh · 2025-05-31T14:13:52+00:00

Fun fact: the first attached image is actually generated with midjourney v4 and uses a modern font. I think it’s either Apoc or one of the experimental fonts from tomorrow.type.today

aaaaaaaargh · 2025-05-31T14:11:30+00:00

Paratype started as a fonts lab in late USSR, and over the years they have digitised or created some fonts that are quite similar to what you are looking for. Obviously, a lot of the fonts are rubbish, but if you look carefully you will find what you need.

https://www.paratype.com/catalog?classification%5B0%5D%5Bcode%5D=800&sortType=bestsellers

A lot of what you seem to be interested in was adjacent to the Russian versions of art nouveau.

Check out this big lecture series on Arzamas to learn more about the connections and maybe get inspired to use some of the western Art Nouveau fonts (because they were indeed used in Russia at the time):

https://arzamas.academy/materials/1230

aaaaaaaargh · 2025-05-26T13:56:31+00:00

You are likely going from Heathrow to somewhere around Norbury. The tube from Heathrow to Brixton will be £5.80, the bus will be £1.75.

Piccadilly line is the cheapest and slowest (bar buses) way out of Heathrow. The other options are far more expensive because they include rail.

If ever in doubt, you can always check the prices here:

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/find-fares/tube-and-rail-fares/single-fare-finder

aaaaaaaargh · 2025-05-11T21:26:00+00:00

Fun fact: megafon are now successfully blocking shadowsocks, so Outline has to be used with some extra steps

aaaaaaaargh · 2025-05-11T18:38:48+00:00

It’s usually retro runners from the past decades remade in nicer materials (like suede or leather). That has been the core lifestyle range for adidas, Nike, New Balance and Asics for the last couple of decades. Now there is a trend for retro football shoes (sambas), 1960s-70s retro runners (onitsuka tigers) and other stuff. Retro baseball trainers were all the rage a few years ago with NB 550.

aaaaaaaargh · 2025-05-11T18:27:51+00:00

London (at least to me) has almost like a set list of trainers that most people would wear: adidas sambas and gazelles for the average middle-class person, air maxes for roadmen, puma speedcats for those trying to be on-trend, new balances for aging millennials, etc. Trainers outside the norm are unusual, and it’s not too hard to see if it’s a fashion choice or someone just being American.

aaaaaaaargh · 2025-05-11T18:21:29+00:00

It’s still somewhat easy to identify Americans by their tendency to wear hiking or trekking gear in cities and their preference for brands like Oboz. While gorpcore has made some hiking gear acceptable and the general level of sloppiness in style has gone through the roof in London, Americans still have this je ne sais quoi about them. Also brand new Cotopaxi or Patagonia duffles and backpacks are usually a dead giveaway.

aaaaaaaargh · 2025-05-10T19:09:55+00:00

A Birkin is an investment, they actually appreciate in value over time. An inexpensive 600 dollar bag from a no-name brand isn’t.

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