A tiny breakthrough…to Russia with love

A tiny breakthrough…to Russia with love

Hi there,

Thanks for popping in!

Whilst prepping for the Sunday show 2-4, I had a little breakthrough. Now it may only be a little thing, but to me it was a BIG THING INDEEDY!!

Black shrink plastic has always eluded me, so I decided today was the day to figure it out. The new Joy to the World Bauble would look so lovely in gold on black, but tiny. She likes a challenge…

Look! First run at it, not so good (“not so good” said in a strong Russian accent). Let’s learn a bit of Russian at the same time (Why? Why am I shrinking black plastic with a picture on it??)

Disaster in Russian looks familiar actually : катастрофа [katastrofa]. When I use the square brackets, that’ll tell you how to pronounce the word, ok?

[Katastrofa]

Never mind. Let’s rethink this….rethink: пересмотреть = [peresmotret]

That’s more like it!! бинго [bingo] Hahahahaha

But I can’t give the whole game away, now can I?! There’d be no tips and tricks on telly if I spill the beans now! So if you tune into HOCHANDA on Sunday, I will be sure to show you how to get a perfect result.

. I know. Я дразню. [YA draznyu] = I’m teasing. Well I hope that’s what it means! I did see something about sexual arousal there, too! Yikes! It’s a minefield, this Russian!

In a past life, one of my favourite pastimes was to go for a walk in a dictionary. To hop from language to language, from definition to definition. Fascinating – and often very funny. The whole concept of Lost in Translation is very real. I mean, let’s face it, we often completely misinterpret things in our own language, our mother tongue! So who knows what I’ve said in Russian here!

Nice stamp though, eh?!?!?

Enough woffle. Back to work! By the way, we’ve got a good selection pack of top quaklity shrink plastic on our website. Click HERE to investigate


Прощай . [Proshchay].....goodbye....

Love & Hugs,

Barbara xxx



16 thoughts on “A tiny breakthrough…to Russia with love

  1. Ooh, shrink plastic again on telly. I didn’t think I would see you doing that again, but it looks beautiful. Looking forward to seeing the shows this week. I did a whole term of Russian when I was at college, but cannot remember anything at all now. French was my specialty, with 2 years of German at O level (forgotten all the German too), with a few bits of Italian and Spanish learned on holidays thrown into the mix. Looking forward to all the shows this week. xxx Maggie (Silvercrafter)

  2. I wonder what you have actually written hope it is what you think. I have no idea of Russian, I was actually quite good at Latin , not much use as I never aspired to be a doctor. Shrink plastic is something I have never tried, I shall record show so that I can watch closely and now wondering how you got that intense black. xxx

  3. Tickled by your language efforts – well done. My schoolgirl French and Latin skills have long since been diminished.
    Father was Russian born, later naturalised British, so when I got the opportunity I wanted to learn the language. Mother (died in the wool English) forbade it. Seven years later little sister was allowed and did 2 years study of the language but refused to help me. I have since learned to say hello, goodbye, cheers and thankyou. What else would I need?
    Your shrink plastic looks intriguing so I am set to record the shows but will be watching too.
    Need to finish the Christmas cards this week before I start to think about Valentines, Spring and Easter cards.
    I do like to get ahead !!!
    Have a good day 🍒🍒🍒

  4. I have shrink plastic but never used it – would you be able to put a hole in the top, ribbon/cotton through and hang it on a tree? I often surprise myself with knowing what a word means in French and German but not Russian ! I did a year of Latin and it’s surprising what I learnt from that ! Shrink plastic reminds me of one thing on tv and we all know what that is ! X

  5. I looked after a couple of children at Norwich University while their mum, who was studying Russian and French, in Glasgow did a summer school with some other students from Glasgow. The only thing I learned to say was ‘ya ne govorju po-russki’ – had to look that up as the only bit I could remember was the last two words! Looking forward to what you do with the shrink plastic as I bought some in Leyburn. Used it at a children’s club years ago but never since. Bis zum nächsten Mal! Hx

  6. And people still tell me that “no-one” does that! (Hop about dictionaries for fun).
    The black shrink plastic looks very classy 🙂

  7. Black bauble looks very stylish…I have an idea of what you’ve done (probably the totally wrong idea!) but will wait to see. As for Russian…I sometimes have difficulty understanding my husband (broad Geordie) and I was born in the same place as him lol! Looking forward to all of the upcoming shows x

  8. Love the black bauble. Love shrink plastic so must book my seat to watch!! BTW for the lady who asked, punch a hole (larger than you think!) before shrinking. Went across USSR (as it was) in 1969 on the trans siberian train -took 3 weeks with stop-offs. Learned some Russian then, but forgotten it all now -except NIET NO)!!

  9. I read this earlier when I was having my lunch at my moms but put it away as I got the fit of the giggles. I also decided I wouldn’t try & explain it all to my Mom as I thought I would loose the funny side of it in translation !! Will set the shows on to record & catch up with them when I get back from Oldham. The black bauble looks fantastic.

  10. Love Shrink plastic, don’t forget your pokey tool to stop it moving all over hee hee. I’ve used white shrink plastic but not black, looking forward to learning more on sunday x

  11. Oooh – very cool and very brave to do shrink plastic again on live TV! It always worries me when I respond to reviews using Google Translate that I don’t actually know what I’m writing. Hopefully people get the gist of what I’m trying to say, and that it’s not offensive. x

  12. Hi Barb,
    Loving the little bauble. I’ve never been very successful with any shrink plastic ,so I’m intrigued to find out what you’ve done here. I’ve never learned any Russian – Latin and French at school, a bit of holiday Italian and I did start learning Greek using Linguaphone. My Mam lived in Cyprus during the war and was fluent in Greek, so I thought it would be a good idea to try and learn it as I was going on holiday to Corfu. I was doing ok until the course moved on to central heating radiators! Didn’t think there would be much use for them in the middle of summer in Corfu!! Love and hugs Alison xxx

  13. I’m not good at foreign languages and have many issues with black and clear shrinky over the years. Your shrunken bauble is beautiful. Looking forward to the shows x

  14. Hello barb, what a great blog post and good laugh, I am sure your Russian has been careful researched. Love the stamped image on shrink plastic. Bx

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