Ukraine Memento

More things from the attic!
This may seem like a strange memento of Ukraine but it is a pyramid shaped, and highly polished, chunk of Iron Ore.
Two weeks, in Comsomolsk, teaching the GOK company telecom engineers, about a dozen of them, the software feature programming, and functions, of the Nortel Networks Meridian 1 telecom systems. I taught them the installation and maintenance in the Maidenhead training department, where Nortel had it's European HQ, late 1995 and I travelled to Ukraine in January 1996. Can't figure out why, during summer months, I was usually all over the Middle East but come January I'm in Ukraine and the next year in Moscow, both with -20 deg C during the day!
Arrived in Kyiv, after staging through Vienna, and then flew on to Kyiv. I was met by my escort/bodyguards, Alexei and Tomas. Alexei turned out to have worked on the spy ships in the Mediterranean with the Soviet Navy. I told him about my Nimrod flight from Malta, which included spotting any and all Soviet shipping, and from then on he called me James Bond (James pronounced 'Shems')! We went to a few sight seeing places, bought a Soviet military hat in a bustling market, and spent some time at his apartment before leaving to get the train at 23:00.
It was a great experience though, despite the appalling, overnight, train journey from Kyiv to Kremenchuk, and then the potholed road journey on to Komsomolsk, which is over 300km South from Kyiv. It's on a wide part of the Dniper river. I bet it is lovely in Summer, it's FREEZING in winter!
When I arrived the first day I had a meeting with the GOK board, including the Chairman etc. They welcomed me with half a dozen toasts, with neat vodka, and a buffet lunch. Incredibly hospitable people and I feel so sorry for what they are currently going through with the Russian invasion. GOK was (is?) the leading Iron Ore mining company in Ukraine, probably in the whole of the Soviet Union prior to Glasnost.
Before I left there was another meeting, a few more rounds of toasts, and they presented me with the polished iron-ore sculpture. Apparently my students had reported that they enjoyed the training and I was my usual amazing self at teaching them, along with some humour thrown in via an interpreter!
I could probably write a short novel on that two weeks but this Blip will have to suffice!