Well, so much for the burning of the Spring Festival effigy bringing warmer weather. Take that, Russian folklore!

It started snowing sometime on Monday night and it's now Wednesday evening and the flakes are still falling. This is the most snow I've seen since I got here and it shows no signs of letting up. The company has issued a severe weather warning (the first this winter) and told employees to go home. Instead of the usual buses, they've got URALS - I'm not sure what this stands for, but they're massive army-style all terrain vehicles (like hummers but bigger). Unfortunately, we've got a deadline to meet so no snow day for me. It was hard going walking to work this morning as the snow was too deep on the pavements so you had to take the road and dive out of the way of cars - the Russian drivers take no prisoners. With the wind blowing snow in my face, my eyelashes got iced up and when I got indoors my mascara ran so I looked like I was on my way to a Kiss concert.

Last night I went to a concert by the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Chamber Orchestra. We had a drink first and then headed over to the tiny venue. I've never been so close to an orchestra, and luckily they were great! They performed a number of classical pieces and then a selection of modern stuff. We didn't understand any of the intros but applauded politely. There were clearly some relatives of the musicians in the audience, who were clapping and whooping and yelling like it was... well, a Kiss concert?

Am going to try and leave the office now before it gets dark. I don't want to end up like that frozen cat...