Freelance teacher and GMAT coach
Place you call home?
Oxford, but I have more friends in Kyiv.
Time in Ukraine?
First visit was in 2001. Knowing this, the Pope decided to come at the same time!
What do you do for a living?
Coaching, in many things from the GMAT (Business School Admission Test) to English Literature.
What brought you to Ukraine?
More challenge than in Bratislava, where I’d worked previously. Once Slovakia was in EU, being British became a social embarrassment rather than an asset.
Your first impression of Ukraine?
A bit Disneylandish, but breathtaking sights, both human and architectural.
Your funniest moment in Ukraine?
Starting to get angry with a woman in McDonald’s shouting, as I thought, “machine” at me, only to realize she was reminding me to take my woolly cap.
Your favorite places (ways) to spend free time in Kyiv?
CiTi coffee bar, The Two Geese restaurant, and the Conservatoire, where at negligible cost you often find more enjoyable performances than at the National Opera House. All within a stone’s throw of the Maidan.
What’s your idea of a perfect weekend?
Pretty much the way I spent every weekend in September here in Kyiv! Typically, Golden Gate Pub on Saturday night: great band, impossible not to dance to it. If up in time on Sunday, going to Roman Catholic Cathedral, for its bells, smells, and a sense of communion with “all sorts and conditions of men” – something you don’t get in all Anglican churches, with their “Tory Party at Prayer” image. Then, the CiTi, and in the afternoon to Christchurch (St Catherine’s), as part of my on-going struggle to be a Christian. On an ideal warm weekend, I’d also fit in a swim in the Dnipro. People who say this is polluted have never seen The Thames!
What’s the key to success in life?
“If alone, be not idle; if idle, be not alone.”
Your biggest pet peeve?
The apparent lack of public spirit here: even on a prestigious building like the National Opera, the rain-water downpipes discharging over the sidewalk; phone-preoccupied other pedestrians and arrogant SUV drivers destroying the pleasures of walking up the Kreshchatyk.
How would your friends describe you?
Eccentric.
What was your childhood dream?
To be a pilot and drop bombs anywhere Her Majesty’s government commanded, which might have included Kyiv. Thank God those days are over.
Favorite movie?
“Calendar Girls.” Low budget, low key. Made me proud to be English.
Favorite author?
St Paul. He’s so priggish and politically incorrect he makes Austen and Chekhov seem positively raunchy.
What is the best place you’ve traveled to?
Kyiv! Isn’t that obvious?
