Shopping with friends (a part of a test) Write about a time you went clothes shopping with your partner / a friend. There was a girlfriend in the past. And, yes, she wanted me to buy new clothes. “These are old and too worn”, she said. Probably, she was right. I usually wear my clothes till they start turning to rag. “Ok”, I said. “There is a really good shop near here. They sell uniform of European military forces. These are high quality, long life and very comfortable. Exactly what I like.” She looked at me as if I went crazy. “No”, she said. “We’re going to normal shops to buy normal clothes.” “Bad omen”, I thought, but said nothing. So, she walked me to some shops and a shopping centre where I have never been before. She was full with enthusiasm. She wanted me to try on some shoes, jeans, sweaters and even shirts (I’ve never worn shirts since I was 12). Luckily, there weren’t tuxedos and ties for sale over there. And everything she chose didn’t suit me absolutely. That took her about a half a day to see what something was wrong. “What’s up?” she asked suspiciously. An awkward situation. I didn’t want to wear things she liked, but how could I explain that with no harm? She was so inspired to dress me up like a doll. “Just a wrong day to do the shopping, sweet one”, I said. “Let’s try that again in a week or so.” “But why?” she asked. “There are so many cute and beautiful clothes over here. Trust me. I know things about clothes. “Of course, you do”, I said and thought: “But not about my clothes.”

A presentiment Have you ever experienced a presentiment or prevision? Do you believe things like these? I don’t know if I believe them. I’m not sure. Though, I have to say what curious things happen… It was unusual, the story I’d like to tell you. I have a night job, so I finish my work early in the morning. I usually very tired and sleepy at this time, and the only thing I want is to get home as soon as possible. There was nothing special in that morning. I finished work, said goodbye to day shift and got the bus stop across the street. I was standing there, waiting for a bus and thinking of hot meal and warm bed. It was cold enough or, may be just my jacket didn’t suit to this sort of weather. Ok. My bus arrived at last, but I didn’t get it on. You’ve got to understand what I really wanted to go home by that bus, but I didn’t. I don’t know why. Something kept me from that. I was just standing and looking at the bus and other people that were getting it on. I didn’t move. I was like frozen in some strange way. So, the bus left without me and I went home on the next one in about 20 minutes. Then I saw a traffic accident through a bus window. I didn’t see injured people. Only curved metal, broken glass and pools of blood on the road. It didn’t look like a horrible disaster. Not really. But anyway blood on the road meant pain and hurts. And yes… It was the same bus that I missed out with no obvious reason. This story took place last week, but I think of it till now. I don’t know what it was. One of my friends says insomnia turns off a human consciousness, so a person starts to perceive the world by ancient instincts and intuition of beasts. Is it true? I don’t know. Just… Curious things happen with common people from time to time.

Check, plz Something strange is going on with weather in this year. It was cold and wet in the summer. It was windy, cloudy and heavy rains almost every day. Chill wind sometimes turned into hurricane that brought down trees. My friend told me he has watched huge hailstones that punched through bonnets of cars. I’ve believed him because I’ve seen different strange things myself. It didn’t look like summer at all. It is the end of September now and it is even stranger than summer was. It has to be cold, rainy and cloudy, but it is not. Lovely summer weather is outside. There is no cloud in the sky. The sun is even not warm. It is hot. They say the summer is late in this year. Well… I hope it is a not beginning of a Sci-Fi story ))) You know this kind of plots when a hero is walking among ruins of the modern world and he is saying: “Everything has started from that summer”.

Opium for nobody (by «Агата Кристи») Opium for nobody (original Russian lyrics by «Агата Кристи») I’m painting my lips with shoe polish I love black color very much My hero… He is made of smells of sweets I’ve powdered my nose with cocaine To go out for a walk Stars light is beautiful for me And Hell is fine for me Let’s meet in the evening We’ll smoke opium Let’s meet in the evening We’ll speak Chinese Don’t hide the music It is opium for nobody Just for us Let’s die cheerfully in the evening We’ll play decadence Kill me, kill yourself You can’t change anything This fairy tale has no end You can’t change anything Paint your eyelashes with lipstick Paint your lips with hairspray You will be dead princess I will be dog faithful to you Let’s meet in the evening We’ll smoke opium Let’s meet in the evening We’ll speak Chinese Don’t hide the music It is opium for nobody Just for us Let’s die cheerfully in the evening We’ll play decadence

A night to remember (a part of my last test, check it, please) Last month my friend Andy phoned me and said: “Would you like meet me for drink a little? I’ve got a situation.” Why not? – I thought, and said: “Yeah” Well… We met in a bar in the city centre. “What was happened?” I asked. “I bought new jeans!” said Andy; the wide smile was across his face. “Sure,” I said. It is very typical for him. He can turn any small thing into a big celebration. So we sat in a bar, had a drink and chatted about an hour. Then Andy checked messages in his mobile and said: “Ok. We’ve got an invitation.” “What’s the invitation?” I asked. “You’ll see,” the wide smile was across his face again. We went his friend’s house. They were girls. Well… You can guess, what was next. In the next morning I asked Andy: “Where are your new jeans?” “Oh!” he scratched his head. “It seems to me that I forgot them in the bar.” He smiled again. “That’s nothing,” he said. “Never mind it. We’re going to buy new ones right now!” “Aw jeez, here we go again,” I thought.

Just An Order 2 That was our ship. One of them that dropped us into the darkness and dirt. I remember I was falling. I remember a hysterical scream of sensors and scarlet flashes of alarm symbols across my visor. I remember crimson and dark-orange ribbons of counter fire were cutting darkness around me. They tried defending themselves. They tried stopping us. It was foolish. It would be easier if they tried stopping a sun in the sky. We have fallen upon them like gods from orbit. We were surrounded by a roar of thunder and flashes of lightings. Yes. We were exactly like gods. But not angry ancient gods. We were well armored, excellently armed, ideally trained and devilishly cold-blooded modern gods. They far outnumbered us, but we were better. That’s typical. I don’t know what the planet is it. I don’t know what these people had done or what they were going to do. The only thing I know is an order that we received. And we executed it. As usual. We’re peacekeepers. We keep peace and order all across the galaxy. This is a theory. The practice is looking like boots covered by a dirt and blood, and it have smell of a burning propellant and charred flesh. The importunate blinking request from orbit is appearing on my visor. ‘Sector is clear, captain,’ – I’m reporting. The noise of static. ‘Roger that, lieutenant. Transport ships are coming.’ ‘Roger that.’ The orange fiery tails of the transport ships are lining the pale-blue cold sky. Our job finished here. We’ll soon come aboard and go to meet a new sun to execute a new order.

Just An Order 1 Just An Order The low morning sun is creeping along a horizon. This is the strange cold sun that isn’t warming earth up. The orange symbols across visor of my helmet are informing me what an ambient temperature is -13 C. It’s strange a little, I’m thinking. It was much warmer at the last night. The ground was dirt and we were, sometimes, knee-deep in it. Boots and wheels and blasts ploughed it up for hours, but by this moment it turned into stone due to cold. There are hardened furrows and craters all over here, and you can easily break your legs here. The sun. The dirt. The melancholy. The rifle is across my lap. AFTER almost always looks like this way. Though sometimes, there’re stars or some kind of moon in the sky instead a sun. And dirt not always freezes into stone. I’m absentmindedly looking at my boots. They’re looking like two ugly lumps of whitish dirt. The dirt has red-brown blood streaks and covered with spots of soot. The blood. It was so much at the last night. Whose it? I can’t say sure. Or can I? The short flash back in my memory. My boot is running into a visor of someone's helmet. The soft crunch of plastic-metal. The squelch crunch of facial skeleton. An enemy is dying quickly and silently. Was that at last night? Or was that at one of ones? There is a smoking transport ship at about hundred and fifty meters on the left. The red figures across visor are notifying me about changing of air composition as breeze turns to me. The combinations of chemical elements are connecting in smells of the burning propellant, the melted metal and the charred, over roasted organic matter. I know these morning smells, though I can’t catch them. The sensors of helmet long ago became sense organs for me. And these are typical smells of my morning expressed with figures and symbols.