Mardi Gras

Since a couple of days we noticed a difference in our morning trip with the bus:

En route, we start to notice the sun rise on the horizon of the steppe.


What a difference from these commuting trips in the dark we had on each morning and evening mid January!

The morning colours of the sun rise on the steppe is absolutely gorgeous.

The second noticeable difference this morning was the soft suspension of the brand new Chinese bus which brought us to the MIK. The Cosmodrome bumpy roads did not only give the final kick to the X-Band ferrite load but apparently also killed the suspensions of our usual bus that needed a serious fixing today. A quick calculation shows that we already ran more than 3000 kms so far with it since the campaign started.

Then, arriving at our usual working place, the sun was fully raised. Despite -14C today and a very slight breeze, it seems that we are going to get a nice day as it as been the case for about 2 weeks now.



Another nice surprise: we received a small present from the MIK cleaning team: freshly prepared Баурса́ки (Baursaki = fried doughnuts), a traditional food preparation of central Asia to be taken with tea or coffee.
Please take some there will be nothing left in few minutes!


so no 'Crepes Suzettes" nor pancakes today, but another way to remind us Mardi Gras ... on the Baikonur cosmodrome!