Sep 27 2012

Riverside Promenade

Category: Anna's Videos,Kazakhstan,Personal,PicturesChrisM @ 5:50 pm

When I am away in Australia, Irina will be looking after Tim and Anna on her own most of the time, and so wanted to check out what the park-like area near Anna’s playgroup was like. The idea being that whilst Anna is inside, Irina could push Tim around in his pushchair for some fresh air, without having to drive off.
Anna had been there before, so led the way as we discovered what it looked like. It was a bit too sunny to see my phone’s screen, but I decided to test out a new app I installed, and so this is my first attempt at an HDR picture on my phone, taken down by the river Ishim/Esil.

First Time Using An HDR App - The River Ishim (or Esil)

First Time Using An HDR App – The River Ishim (or Esil)


Next time I’ll try and experiment with altering the exposure bracketing manually, and get a feel for what works in certain lighting conditions. The image above obviously has problems in the darker areas, but the sky looks nice at least. I’ll also try and find somewhere with shallow water running over rocks or the like, as though often look really good. I probably shouldn’t expect too much from a phone, but I want to play and see what is possible.
Very near this photo is a statue of Ataturk (check here for Astana.kz ‘s impressive 360 panorama of the same place).



Anyway, it looks as though there are enough paths, benches and views of the river to keep both Irina and Tim occupied, and we may all return the next time our morning is booked up with other commitments. We also spotted the passenger ferry, which we’ve not been on since Anna was tiny, and if the weather holds out, we’ll try and take a trip before I go away.


Sep 14 2012

Scooting Around The Park

Category: Anna's Videos,PersonalChrisM @ 12:29 pm

I’ve taken the information and media from a few tweets and condensed them down into one post, as the blog looked very bare with just tweets recently…
We went for a quick walk around the park opposite us (though Anna remembered she had a scooter and so, suitably protected with knee pads etc), we decided to go while the weather was still warm enough. That said, if it dips below 23 degrees here, the playgrounds and park can look quite bare with many people staying at home. Anyway, after slowly getting down the main promenade leading to the green area of the park, Anna wanted to go on a trampoline…

Quick walk in the park before autumn closes everything down. ... on Twitpic

After she had used up her excess energy, and we continued walking through the park, eventually deciding to return to our favourite cafe there. The pepper steak was delicious, their paprika (and ??) covered wedges as superb as ever, and even Tim helped out by having a nap towards the end, leaving us some time to digest our food before making a move home.

Tim Napping At The Cafe

Tim Napping At The Cafe

The menu is in Russian and English (possibly Kazakh too, I can’t recall), they have an outdoor (but with a roof. ummm, no walls, you know what I mean hopefully) seating area, where you can smoke. The service is normally pretty good, though when they get a batch of new staff, it does sometime take a while for them to remember what is on the menu. As standard here in Kazakhstan, blankets are available for those dining who feel the cold, and the prices are pretty reasonable, especially considering the location and quality and selection of food available.


Apr 21 2012

Not really a tweet, faking it via YouTube

Category: Anna's Videos,TweetsChrisM @ 12:10 am

Anna and a boy at the local playground this morning –


Nov 13 2011

Tim, Anna, Ira & Gwen Driveway Clydach

Category: Anna's Videos,Tim's VideosChrisM @ 9:19 pm

Shot yesterday (12th November 2011), here we have Irina, Tim & Anna along with Gwen here at home. I’ve just noticed there seems to be a problem with the resolution, I’ll have to fiddle with some settings on the phone, sorry about that.

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Nov 13 2011

Tim, Anna, Ira &Gwen on Port Talbot Beach

Category: Anna's Videos,Tim's VideosChrisM @ 9:14 pm

Last week (the 6th of November 2011), we all went for a quick drive over to Port Talbot beach, as the weather was very warm and we realized we hadn’t been by the sea for a while…
After a long walk with Tim and Gwen up to the end of the beach and back, we decided that some fish and chips had been earned. Anna was on her best behaviour, I’m really glad we made it out.

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Oct 29 2011

Recent Videos

Category: Anna's Videos,VideosChrisM @ 9:00 pm

I have given up on using PockeTwit to post videos with this blog. Although the auto-uploading to YouTube and the posterous interface itself is mostly great, the video recording resolution is limited far too low. As the program’s author obviously has issues facing bigger groups to sort, I’ve switched to uploading directly to YouTube. So videos should now be a better quality, but there could be a delay before it appears on this site.

First we have Anna, Ira, Lolyk 2 (this was shot before Tim was born, so he was called Cedric or Lyolik 2 as a place holder name) & Gwen walking in the sun to a local play area.

Swansea Beach, again before Tim had been born.

A few days after Tim was born, Anna and I went outside so she could play with her bubble blowing machine.

Nick, Anna, Jack, Ira & Gwen this morning in Clydach. Roz wasn’t in the room, and I think Tim was asleep at the time.

Right, there are more photos and videos to come, but I still need to complete a few other tasks first.

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Sep 28 2011

Cajon (?) playing Anna before …

Category: Anna's Photos,Anna's Videos,TweetsChrisM @ 2:06 am

Cajon (?) playing Anna before bedtime… http://t.co/MdHuGqWl http://t.co/0MqBEuNZ



Anna Escaping The Noise

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Sep 16 2011

With Dad, Ira & Anna in Stratf…

Category: Anna's Videos,TweetsChrisM @ 5:52 pm

With Dad, Ira & Anna in Stratford Upon Avon, on a ccanal boat. http://t.co/Y0Rx5fXh


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Sep 11 2011

Anna playing in a park (Evesha…

Category: Anna's Photos,Anna's Videos,TweetsChrisM @ 4:41 pm

Anna playing in a park (Evesham) http://t.co/NdjHRwB http://t.co/9l4hog9 http://t.co/zKdVsym



Anna Saw A See-Saw

Reaching For The Sky

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Sep 09 2011

Park(now)has a clean slide. ht…

Category: Anna's Photos,Anna's Videos,TweetsChrisM @ 7:20 pm

Park(now)has a clean slide. http://t.co/mX5r9xO http://t.co/c8IB43v Same can’t be said about Anna’s trousers.Going2Evesham 2morrow 4a week



Anna Swingward-Bound

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