Jun 12 2010

QBP Videos

Category: Friends,Kazakhstan,VideosChrisM @ 2:41 am

So, as I mentioned in a tweet, Irina and I were invited to the Queen’s Birthday Party (organised by the British Embassy) on the 10th of June at the Radisson Hotel here in Astana. This was the first QBP since the new ambassador here in Kazakhstan took over.

A short summary would be no speeches (apparently the correct tradition for celebrating HRH’s birthday), a good local band that played a wide variety of covers, free good food (fish and chips in cones again, as well as a buffet (curries, beef kebabs, potato wedges 🙂 ) and free drink. I’ll leave the details of my mishap on the way home until another day.

The following videos were supposed to be uploaded on the night, but I was too drunk TBH. They were then supposed to be transferred via Qik, but once again the program got very tempremental. So, I reverted to YouTube.

I’ve not yet had a chance to actually watch all the videos, but I wanted to post these up tonight, as I’m away from the PC tomorrow for half the day, then giving a lesson and running an English Talking club in the afternoon and evening, then hopefully off to watch the England vs. USA football match during the night.
So it was now or at some random point in the future for embedding these clips.

Oh, and Irina took some proper photos with a real camera, so I’ll try ad post those up soon as well.

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Jun 05 2012

Jubilee Party In The Park

Category: Anna's Photos,Friends,Personal,Pictures,Tim's PhotosChrisM @ 8:48 am

Once again, this is a quick summary of a few tweets and photos from yesterday. I’ll also add some pictures that Lara and Marina took.
Lara organized the event, with the idea of it also being an alternative to the Queen’s Birthday Party that most of us have been attending every year here in Astana. With John and Inessa now gone from Kazakhstan, our QBP invites have not magically appeared, so Lara decided to have an alternative QBP/Jubilee celebration. We toyed with the idea of renting a yurta out by Metro, but the cost and prohibition on bringing your own food or drink (there is a cafe at the same location) meant that we held it at a park near Highvill, and then moved on to Dan & Lara’s flat afterwards. Lots of delicious food (marmite sandwiches, mini-beefburgers and some Long Island Iced Teas were my personal highlights), and we had various forms of entertainment. The bits I remember were Dan finally playing some Green Day on his guitar (and I think Paul also played on his guitar), some Dombra-playing, and a game of Which Monarch Am I?

OK, I’m publishing this post now, otherwise it will sit as a draft forever. I’ll try to remember to add a few picture titles later.


May 30 2012

Moving Pictures

Category: Personal,VideosChrisM @ 5:04 pm

Apparently some people have an issue with the way Getty Images operates as a company, but I did like this video. A story told with lots of pictures. In a video. Click play, you’ll see what I mean.

PS To the people I was supposed to meet up with this past week, I apologise for wimping out and staying at home, but this cold/mini-flu/man-flu has hit hard. Hoping to recover by Friday for the concert, and come what may, I’ll be attending the Alt QBP this Sunday.


Jun 09 2011

Crowd has thinned out a little…

Category: Pictures,TweetsChrisM @ 9:07 pm

Crowd has thinned out a little. People on the dancefloor. Band is better than expected… http://post.ly/2BJWW

QBP

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May 17 2011

2010 Queen’s Birthday Party

Category: Friends,PicturesChrisM @ 5:07 pm

Temporarily away from Anna’s photos, it looks as though I only posted pictures and videos from my phone last year at the Queen’s Birthday Party. Last year was when I discovered that manhole covers in Astana aren’t necessarily actually stable. After a few drinks, walking home with Ira, I managed to half disappear down a maintenance shaft, removing a fair amount of skin but somehow not ripping my suit trousers!
Anyway, back to the event itself, it was well attended, and I believe the first to be hosted by our (then) new Ambassador, who delighted some in the crowd by re-instating a tradition that QBPs are not weighed down by long winded speeches, but instead the focus should be good music, food, drink and company, to celebrate the Queen’s birthday. It looks as though I didn’t manage to grab any shots of John. Apologies.


Jun 10 2010

Matriach funking barsteward of…

Category: TweetsChrisM @ 10:42 pm

Matriach funking barsteward of a kentish manhole cover on the bridge over the river Ishym here in Astana. Walked home after QBP, owwwwwwwww.

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Oct 28 2008

Catchup 3

Category: Friends,PicturesChrisM @ 4:23 am

Here we have a couple from back in June. One evening, there was the QBP (Queen’s Birthday Party) celebrations at a hotel, with BG’s (British Gas’s) charity event immediately following it.
The first shot is at the QBP (where delicious battered cod’n’chips was served), with a speech being given, and the second shot was taken at the BG event. We’d moved upstairs to some comfy sofas, rather than stand around the dance floor. You’ll find DaveG and Shymkent Dan featuring here…

QBP Speech

QBP Speech

DaveG Dan BG Event

DaveG Dan BG Event

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