Day 9 Thurs I Get Rinsed Out At The River Palace

I spent the day on the computer searching for women here in the Ukraine. I'm like a tropical storm about to metastasize into a full blown category five hurricane (sorry, Florida friends).

The evening went not that well. I overpaid the cabby to travel the 5 clicks to the River Palace, a restaurant, disco, casino, and home to hundreds of gorgeous Ukrainian prostitutes. My pal Tom would have been on my case.
The working girls all start at $300, but can be chiseled I'm told.

That was not in my agenda. My plan? To win at Blackjack.

Joe, the manager introduced me to another American, Ron (the names are incomplete to protect the guilty). Ron,a young looking 55, is an executive producer with Paramount in LA. He came here 18 months ago and never left. Every knows him at the R.P. He brought over a Jaguar and a 4 wheel drive vehicle for the winter, which he told me was not that bad.
He has a residence in Beverly Hills. Does he use his business card to attract hopeful actresses like my pal Tom who is presently loving Yaltans.
We played blackjack until he left to go down to the Disco where the action is.

I stayed until 4Am and got wiped out. In lost about $542 USD. That makes my blackjack losses total about $707. Hey, my last trip to Vegas was in the neighborhood of minus 3K. I never made it to the disco.
Joe, the Irish boss wants me to have dinner with him and his wife. He seems like a great guy. He was sad that I lost. He punched into this blog and read some of it.
He may come to his senses and hide when I approach the next time.

In the wee hours, I retired to my flat, homesick, depressed, broke (temporarily) wondering what the fuck am I doing here, why did she dump me so many years ago?

But then I awoke at 11Am to a lovely day. I realized that I needed to hear good old American English so I talked up a storm to myself. I heard things I never knew I knew. Then I took my guitar and played and sang loudly my favorite song of the late great Warren Zevon with a slight paraphrase. He sang about Honduras.
I played and sang:
"I'm stranded in the U' karaine" (5 hard rhythmic strums in E)
"I'm a desperate man" (same 5 strums, hard!)
"Send lawyers, suns and money" (IBID)
"The Shit has hit the fan." (more IBID)

Dearest readers, that did it. It was amazing. Like Don Quixote I'm happily back swinging at them damn windmills. Or as one of my perceptive friends claims, I am unsinkable. I will make something POSITIVE happen.
SOON!
Meanwhile I'll dine at the busiest restaurant in Kiev: McDonalds.