It is Sunday, and we’ve just waved Natalya & Oleg (a different Oleg to the one previously mentioned on this site) off. They visited for a long weekend, to do some business and to say hello to some of Astana’s inhabitants. They stayed with us, and when not working, we went out for a few drinks.
We haven’t seen her for a few years, and it was good to catch up. It was also good to meet her friends. We played billiards, which I’ve not done for 5 years. If you’ve never seen it in person, imagine a snooker table with smaller pockets and the cushions have a square angle at the pocket, not bevelled.
Now imagine the balls being almost too big to fit in the pockets, and you start to see the way the game differs from pool and snooker. Luckily we played American Billiards, not the Russian version, which means you can use any of the balls still in play as a cue ball, and any ball can be pocketed, as long as it makes contact with at least one other ball. After a few vodkas, I managed to down a few of the balls.
Losha, Igor and his wife came round in the evening, which was cool, as we haven’t seen them in a few weeks. Lorsha is interested in PCs, and his English is really quite good.