I am enjoying the quietude of the first weeks of the New Year. Although adults have to go to work, students only go to the libraries and their institutes for exams. As a result, there are nowhere as many people and cars in the streets as “normally” in Moscow.
Therefore, it is twice as important to keep your cool and focus on your goals. If you have hard time “just doing it”, follow the “pawsteps” of this delightful doggy.
And if the abundant energy doesn’t let you calm down in the evening and succumb to sleep easily, then a flock of sheep is there to help. The great Faina Ranevskaya once recommended someone counting to 17mln of sheep, to fall asleep. The person freaked out. “‘Oh, don’t worry‘, Ranevskaya replied, ‘I’m no good at counting either. I just go, “one million, two millions, three millions…“‘
The Russian picture is also a nod to a very popular TV advert starring Mikhail Yefremov, the son of the famous actor and stage director, Oleg Yefremov. In the advert for Tide washing powder he would turn up at a random flat, explain to the hostess that she’s an idiot for putting clothes in the pan of hot water (“clothes boiling” was the single best way to make your whites crispy clean – until the washing machines proved otherwise), show her how to get the same result with Tide, and then he’d turn to the camera, point to it with his finger, and say: “Are you still boiling it? Then we’re coming to you!”
So, be good, do some meditation before going to bed, and then sleep tight… otherwise 17 million of sheep will come to you!