Running round Tbilisi

My usual Saturday run, a bit earlier to escape the heat....

• said 'gamarjoba' to a young orthodox priest at the end of my road. Like most such priests he wore his woolly bunnet pulled down to the eyebrows. Gives them all a slightly scary look. He replied with a gesture I could not quite work out. Did he bless me or did he tell me to pass behind his back so I would not interrupt his communion with the wee church on the hill?
• spotted a couple in matching grey t-shirts on their way to their exertions? Or on the return? Or was the walk their exertions? Not a drop of sweat to be seen.
• having run up the hill almost to the late Pataarkatsishvili's glass palace found that the set of steps I usually descend on has been removed, and only a hill of scree left. What's the point of that? They don't want pedestrians near there? So I had to run back down and find another, newly installed set of stairs. It will save the climb in the future, but also the cardiovascular stuff....
• saw a tiny puppy in the middle of a road which is rarely used (thankfully). It looked very lost and depressed. I stroked it, like you stroke a raw egg, and it did not even wag its little tail. Then again, it's not so good here for little dogs to trust people too much.
• reached the new President's palace (the palace, I mean, not the president) from the other side, and found that a set of stairs going down from that side have been closed. I could have climbed over the fence, but seeing as they were covered in rubbish and at each landing had two large open manholes, quite apart from me being unable to see their end, I gave them a miss. Instead had a chance to observe the extraordinary design on the side of the building (the other side is not finished). It's kind of a mixture of what looks like wire mesh and (wooden?) cladding, going up and down in angular waves, with a star-shaped pattern throughout it all. Really difficult to explain! What with all those security people around I did not like to take a photo. Bits of this building seem to be working already. In front of it,overlooking the town, is a modern family house, but I'm not sure if that's for the president, or if it belongs to someone else who would have been very stubborn not to sell the land for the presidential arrangements.

Talking of security guards, the ones at my ministry, at ambassador's residences and elsewhere have new uniforms. A pale green shirt with dark green trousers with a pale green stripe going down the side of them. Makes them look a bit like part of a band.