[EDIT 3]
The site is now up, my thanks to Emily for the heads up. Luckily the opp I took last night and posted on was still available. The requested link had only changed by one word, so I didn’t need to change much in the post at all. Anyway, see below for the original version [...]

You may remember I placed a link to the Kontraband site on this blog’s link page a couple of years ago. If you’re at work (and ideally have some headphones), it is a good place to while away a quiet afternoon. Anyway, I came across a Strange Little Office Beings game (nothing to do with [...]

with a few weeks to spare. I happened to open up the blog and I was visitor number 50000
Two years, 1823 posts since this site was started, a lot has changed in my life, as well as the blog itself having undergone several face lifts. Thanks to those that have been regularly visiting, and [...]

Over some of the weekend, for some reason, I was not able to access most websites. I could visit google.com, run searches and check in on Facebook etc. (hi Claire/Wednesday ).
However, trying to visit most other sites, even the News section on google resulted in pages not being found. I checked the sites themselves [...]

OK, so that definitely is not the official way of transcribing the Russian for ‘Happy Birthday’ into Latin characters, but it is close enough. As Irina’s Dad (whose birthday it is today) does not use computers, and therefore won’t read this post, I doubt it matters too much

Just a quick post from the in-laws for now, but last night Ira and I went out to the Queen’s Birthday Party, organised by the British (! (/sarcasm)) Embassy, then went on to the BG Challenge Ball (see last year’s post - if I don’t get around to linking to it properly, it should hopefully [...]

My brother phoned yesterday to let me know he had his results from his degree in Journalism - a 2:1 !
I’m hoping he has started to sober up by now, but from everyone here in Kazakhstan, WELL DONE

Just spoken to Nick, and Roz also got a 2:1, so looks like everyone did well [...]

Today is a good day, at least so far…
I had the stitches removed from where the dentist had removed a tooth, and there were no needles or pliers involved this time, so I was a happy bunny.
Upon returning home, I noticed an update was available from the Alsat forum that enabled our satellite receiver to [...]

OK, so I definitely need to clear some time in the next week or two, and try to catch up with a lot of posts (and photo editing) on this blog. Although my memory of my holiday last September may be a little hazy by now, I’m hoping the pictures will either refresh said memory, [...]

Not just two seemingly random numbers, but in fact related to this blog.
Since 13th July 2006, I have published 1800 posts (well 1801 by the time I hit ‘Publish’ on this one) on this site. That works out at 2.58 posts per day. Obviously sometimes weeks have gone by when I’ve not been at the [...]

Today finally saw the temperature drop a little. The last couple of weeks had seen daytime temperatures hover between 28 and 36 degrees centigrade, where as today was a lot more comfortable, only just break the twenty mark.
Sadly, the last couple of weeks have been missing one heat element - hot water. Because other people [...]

As I mentioned previously, our main PC had a major failure with the hard drive that had Windows and all the apps on it. It is most probably just a coincidence, but this occurred directly after I updated my on board audio drivers. Upon rebooting, I was presented with an error message stating that HAL.DLL [...]

I have finally recovered as much data as possible from the corrupted hard drive, and due to the last install of XP deciding that my new main hard drive (with the OS on it) should be L: , I’ve opted for another fresh install of XP. Anyway, normal service should resume in a few days [...]

The post title says it all really.
My old PATA Maxtor 40Gb hard drive, which contained the Windows OS installation, Program Files, Outlook’s PST File, my Favourites etc. died late last night. I am currently in the process of installing and configuring everything onto my Christmas present - a 500Gb Seagate drive. I’m hoping to be [...]

Both personally, and the flat itself… I’ve not yet posted the pictures from our camping trip over the weekend, but I got quite badly sun burnt on my head, and ended up getting a little ill. Anyway, I’ll learn in the future that just because hair used to cover my whole head, I don’t have [...]

Yes, he has a perfectly valid point about the Eurovision song contest results being all about the politics, and very little to do with the actual quality of the song and performance on the night. However, his threat to quit gets trotted out each year (check the BBC news archives, or do a little googling [...]

I just spoke with Alex online, and she informed she has a new piercing
No pictures just yet, but is apparently a lip ring, not one of those chavvy (Marilyn) Monroe studs, thankfully. Her multiple ear rings were part of the inspiration for my own, back when I was at school. Anyway, hopefully the piercer [...]

Following on from the last post, this one is just a quick message to friends of ours. Seb has his birthday today, and though we did not manage to cross paths the last time I was in Britain, he knows he is in our minds. Lucian, who we met through Irina’s old work in Britain [...]

OK, so I am still behind in updating this blog with recent events. As Irina pointed out, there is a large gap starting with the beginning of our journey to Amsterdam, all of the stay in Britain, returning to Kazakhstan, (finally) meeting Pilot Tom for a meal, and meeting up with Dave, Walton, Assel, and [...]

It looks as though my (entirely arbitrary) target for 50,000 visitors in the first two years of this blog is still (just about) attainable. As this post’s title indicates, the blog has another 68 days in which to record another 4,025 visits. Going from the last six months monthly averages, this should not be too [...]