The People’s alliance for Democracy (now there is an inappropriate name, given that the group does not want democratic elections to occur!), are still occupying a couple of airports (Suvarnabhumi (an International Airport) and Don Muang (mostly domestic flights airport,) in Thailand. The political situation in the country is fuelled by a minority of well to do citizens who seem to be afraid of majority rule. Check out Reuter’s article for more info.
Nov 28 2008
Entrecard And Firefox Issues?
To any fellow droppers who pop in, can I ask you to leave a comment if you are currently encountering problems with viewing the entrecard on the right? Recently, I’ve had time outs occur a lot more often (so a “The requested site did not respond to a connection” error message appears, outside the viewable area of the widget). I now find that (in FireFox, but not Internet Explorer) when the widget does load, the image jumps around its original position, very quickly. Anyone suffering the same issues here/elsewhere?
Nov 27 2008
Monitoring Changes
Something that I hadn’t really considered until recently (for obvious reasons) was how pregnant woman can be a lot more sensitive to everyday events than the rest of us. It would appear that travel deals out a lot of bumps that you wouldn’t normally even register. Luckily Ira hasn’t suffered too badly through the trimesters of her pregnancy – no huge morning sickness problems at the beginning, nor extreme swings in taste. With Dad warning before speed bumps were encountered, all seemed well 
Nov 24 2008
Back In Britain
OK, so we have actually been back in Britain for five days now, but sorting out things and settling down is bound to take a while. In the mean time, the blog managed to publish a post for Alex on her birthday
All is OK here in Clydach, and I’ll try and post a little more regularly soon; if you have already read this post, why not click on one of the category or tag links on the right to be taken to posts you may be interested in. To friends in Cheltenham, I’ll be around next week so look forward to seeing some of you.
Nov 22 2008
Alex Is 21 Again?
Given that we were in the same year at school, it isn’t too hard to guess her age, but anyway, here’s hoping she is having a superb day…
Nov 17 2008
Happy Birthday Dad, Babushka & StarGazer
As you may have guessed from this post’s title, today is my Dad’s birthday. Everyone here in Kazakhstan hopes you have a great day…
The title should also give you a clue that Babushka (Ira’s grandma) and StarGazer also share their birthdays with my Dad. Happy Birthday all round then
Nov 14 2008
Cracked Up
Whilst clearing out the rubbish we really didn’t need in the flat (three bin liners so far!), I came across an old contact lenses case, that had a dried out cosmetic lens in it.
It was one (no idea where the other went) of the radiation symbols I bought years ago here in Astana, but it was completely knackered. Something else to keep an eye out for when we return to Wales. That said, I only really wore them for clubbing or parties, and with little Lolik’s arrival pencilled in for just three months away, I’m guessing such partying will be less likely now. Well worth it though
Nov 14 2008
Kazakh Government Catching On?
The last time I mentioned Borat (the fictional character or the film itself) was back on the August 15th 2007, which is reasonably surprising for a blog that is often based in Kazakhstan itself. Anyway, why has he popped up now, such a long time after the movie was released? DavidG e-mailed me a link to an article explaining that Kazakhstan’s deputy Minister for Tourism and Sports (Kenzhebay Satzhanov) appears to have shown that this country finally has the right idea when it comes to publicity and spin. He rightly stated that the character and film, whilst portraying a fictional version of Kazakhstan in a bad light has helped people to know about this area of the world, and consequently increased tourism. I remember when I first met Irina, back before Borat even existed on the Ali G show, most people did not have a clue where Kazakhstan was, or anything about the country. Compare this approach from the government to when they banned a Borat website that used the .KZ domain, and threatened Sacha Baron Cohen with legal action – it looks as though the powers that be have caught on to communication (with the rest of the world at least) in the 21st century
[edit]
link to article removed, as page no longer existed
Nov 14 2008
Moving Around
Irina has been working hard all day on packing together the items that we will be storing at the inlaws. I have written a guide to the flat for Dave, and helping to move the heavy stuff for Ira. I suspect our cupboards will soon be filled with healthy items, like Orovo drinks rather than the Coke and Fanta that used to adorn our shelves. Next on the list is properly packing the clothes and items we are taking to Britain, and porting all the info I’ll need on to the hard drives we’re taking. Trying to decide on what is essential data, and what I can do without is probably going to be difficult, but it may do the PC good to discover what is really critical, and what can be burnt off to disks and archived for now.
Nov 13 2008
Sligo
I have mentioned this pub a couple of times here on the blog, but have yet to post photos or pass comment on the food.
Well, lets start at the beginning. It is located near the Intercontinental Hotel here in Astana, and is most definitely branded as an Irish pub (though it is probably a lot closer to an Irish-themed pub in Britain than the real thing. Not a real issue, just letting you know). The decor is pretty good considering there probably aren’t that many Irish experts in this locality. The staff were very courteous, and I’m told there is always at least on member on duty who speaks English. The first time I went there, they didn’t have much Irish music at all, and as we were returning in the evening, I burnt some Dubliners albums (the only Irish music, other than Enya, I could find on my hard drive) for them. The food was good – I think I had some sort of steak and boiled potatoes dish, whilst the others had various Irish dishes. The stew was a lot more than passable apparently. The dessert was just the right size, and again tasty.
Onto the photos…
First we have Ira and Assel (Walton’s other 0.5)
Ira And Assel Sligo Pub Astana
Here we have the aforementioned Walton and me (I’m the one on the right, posing beautifully for the camera.)
Walton And Me
Here we have Dr Ken (for any macho men out there, you’ll find beers are ALWAYS served with a straw over here – he didn’t actually specifically request one 
)
Dr Ken
And here we have DaveG, loving the camera lens as much as ever
DaveG
The next three are a shot of the back half of Sligo, the cheesecake I mentioned, and finally the band that were playing. Which makes me think all these photos must have been taken the last time we visited Slago. See KZBlog’s post (Live Music In Astana) for more info on the band.
Sligo Pub
Chocolate Cheesecake
Band Playing
- irish bar astana (2), Astana sligo irish bar (1), irish pub astana (1), sligo astana (1)
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