Ekaterina
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Moscow and the arrival of capitalism
I was a teenager when the Soviet Union collapsed and suddenly I found myself in a new country and in a new regime. As things go in life, when you have to live through the unbelievable, you adjust pretty quickly, especially when you are young. Still, the changes that my country was undergoing right before… Continue reading
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Not quite welcome in Brussels
I was nineteen years old when I took my first flight to Europe, in order to study in Brussels in French. I remember how I was dragging two huge cartoon boxes first to the luggage point in Moscow and then towards the custom area in Brussels. I was crying the whole time during my trip,… Continue reading
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Forever expat
What do you become when you end up living in 4 different countries for many years in each of them? What kind of identity do you create, having being immersed in various cultures, languages and walks of life? Is it a massive valuable experience or a very difficult life road, where one ends questioning one’s… Continue reading
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The Mad Teacher
We all have the potential for madness, but the degree of its manifestation is what really matters, in order to be considered as mental, or just slightly eccentric. The amount of crazy people though is very likely to be on the increase, considering the society in which we are living, not helped by the consequences… Continue reading
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Overcoming the odds
Everyday I get up and keep going, despite multiple psychoses behind. Everyday I overcome a terrible feeling of shame and show up to the world for the sake of my son. I can do it, I tell myself, and I fight for the space on earth – I still managed to create with my diagnosis… Continue reading
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On Being Jesus
Each Sunday morning, when I do manage to attend a service at a Christian Church I like to go to, I catch myself thinking the exactly same thought: It would be interesting to see what a single bored consultant psychiatrist would do with the entire segregation in five minutes time. Call it a mass psychosis,… Continue reading
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Bad witches in Russia
Let’s go back to the 1990ies in Russia to continue with chronology of the events, not just influencing me and my life after, but also the fate of Russia and the rest of the world. When I talk about witches, and apologies to all nice white witches, who wish no harm (I am one of… Continue reading
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The Devil’s Ball
It was while living in Sheffield that I ended up attending the devil’s ball. I woke up in one of my lucid-dreaming and found myself waiting on the road, somewhere near a Dutch forest. If you are not familiar with lucid-dreaming, let me explain. It is a state when you wake up in your dream… Continue reading
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A Crush on a Russian and Bipolar Disorder (By Guest Blogger: David Williams)
I remember my first crush was on a Russian gymnast called Yelena Davidova. I had the copy of Newsweek when she was on the front cover. She was the women’s artistic individual all-around champion at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. I was 14 and intensely miserable. I had undergone a transformative experience at 13,… Continue reading
About Me
I am a doctor of philosophy, a university lecturer, and a lover of cats, fine wine, dancing, theatre, and human eccentricity. Born in the Soviet Union (Moscow), I grew up in both Russia and Donbas. I am fluent in four languages, and have spent all my adult life studying (except from 18 to 19) working and living throughout Western Europe. Despite a surname-Netchitailova- that translates from Russian into English as “unreadable”, my great passions in life are reading and writing. My personal struggles have made me appreciate the manifestations of weirdness that exist everywhere. My novel ‘Elena: A Love Story for Humankind’ telling a story of a Russian pianist, diagnosed with schizophrenia, looking for her twin sister in England, can be found on Amazon (see the link)
Porcupine's wisdom 