Unit 2 / Listening 4B

Hello? Tom? This is Simon. I hope you can hear me all right – the line sounds very bad. It's just to say that I hope to be back very soon, but I'm not really sure. It all depends if I can manage to get on a plane to Moscow tomorrow – a plane that works, that is. There is a plane here but at the moment it's stuck on the runway because we're waiting for some parts to arrive. And if they do arrive, someone will have to persuade the mechanic to do something with them, and right now that doesn't seem very likely. Most of the time he's drunk, and when he isn't, he claims he's on strike. He says he hasn't been paid for over six months. As for the pilot, he disappeared four days ago and no one's heard of him since. Quite honestly, this is the worst trip I've ever been on – just one disaster after another. I've managed to make a few preparations for our documentary – I've made one or two useful contacts – but there seems very little chance we'll be able to do everything we were hoping to. Persuading people to get anything done out here is a major task. Some of the locations I've visited are breathtakingly beautiful, but transport is extremely difficult and unreliable. I really don't know how people survive out here – with the help of large doses of vodka is my guess. Anyway, if I do get back soon, we'll have time to talk about it more at greater leisure. All I wanted to say now is that making this documentary is certainly not going to be as easy as we thought. It would probably take us twice as much time as we planned and cost us twice as much money. Few people are willing to lift a little finger unless you pay them generously. It's understandable, of course – they certainly can't rely on the state any more, everything's falling apart – but it makes it all very difficult. To be honest, I'm thinking of putting an end to all this travelling – I'll help with the documentary, of course, because I promised, but after that I'm going to give some serious thought to looking for a job that's a bit more comfortable. I'm looking forward to discussing it with you in a nice warm pub somewhere. Give my love to Caroline. I hope you're both well. Bye.

  Will Tom find an assistant to accompany him to Los Angeles ?

Has something dreadful happened to Ben Griffiths?

Will Simon ever manage to get back from Siberia ?

  Find out more in the next instalment of My Sweet Babe!