As per normal, Ira and I went over to her parent’s house on Sunday, where we catch up on the week’s news, have some lunch, potter around the garden. OK, honesty time, I tend to skip the gardening section. Don’t get me wrong, if there is heavy lifting to do, or something that involves manual labour, I’ll not complain too much, but plants have never liked me; I can try and look after them, but they normally end up in a mess, and wilting; combine my hay fever in, and you can (hopefully) see why I tend to avoid the garden, at least in the hot summer months. Later on, they have a sauna, whilst I appreciate being in a room with normal humidity, and can breathe easily. However, before they got to the sauna stage, Lorsha and his Mum & Dad popped over. The two males had just arrived back from Germany, and wanted to pop in and say hello to the family. It was good to see them again, and then a little while later, Dr. Natalya, Sasha, Balzhan and their respective offsprings popped over, as they had been to the Duman (the big fish place and entertainment centre) for the first time. Yep, they live in Astana, but had never been to the aquarium. I guess it may be a little like the London Eye, or Empire State Building over in NYC – if you live in the city, and don’t have any visiting friends to take to the attractions, you never get round to it. Anyway, as they were in the area, they popped over, as did Asen’s mum, who dropped off a plant for Ira’s mum. It was good to see everyone, though it appears the vodka shots effected me, as I dozed off for a while.
Aug 04 2007
Air Conditioning Allegedly On Its Way
If all goes to plan (never a safe assumption when Kazakh businesses are involved), we should finally be getting an air conditioner installed today, or at least have the process started. When it does happen, I will be very glad to have a slightly lower temperature inside the flat. Although it is not quite so hot outside any more, we still see temperatures of around 27° or 28° centigrade, and next year would have seen internal temperatures reach 31°C/32°C once more.
So, the workers are currently only a quarter of an hour late. Lets see if they turn up today…
[edit]
Wow, I should post about things that I have no faith in more often… having just hit the publish button, they phoned us and confirmed they are on their way over now 🙂
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Jul 26 2007
Glos Flood Webcams
I seem to have a huge surge in visitors, specifically searching for webcams covering the areas affected by the recent flooding.
For some reason www.ChrisMerriman.com is #1 on Google for both webcam glos tewksbury and tewksbury flooding webcam .
As I don’t actually have any links to these sorts of webcams, I thought I would find a couple. As it is currently dark in Britain, I can not tell how useful the following cameras are, but unlike a few others I found, they do appear to be updated very often. The first is Nailsworth Weather Webcam, and the second is a Morten-in-Marsh webcam.
The only Tewksbury (England) webcams I could find had not been updated in days, in one case, not since May!
Anyway, for those people who arrive at this site looking for flooding pictures, check below, for those looking for non-static images, check the links above.
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Jul 25 2007
Eagle Eyed Ira Spots Flooding (Pictures)
Many thanks to Irina for spotting the following pictures covering the ongoing problems in Gloucestershire with the recent flooding.
Continue reading “Eagle Eyed Ira Spots Flooding (Pictures)”
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Jul 23 2007
BBC Reports On Gloucesterhire Flooding
Gordon Brown was interviewed in Gloucestershire, regarding the government’s response to the flooding afflicting the country, and Glos. in particular.
This was then followed a reporter in Tewksbury describing how life was right now for its citizens, with serious commentary; the people playing in the water in the background did not help to add any gravity to his words however 😉
You can also find a BBC text report on the situation here.
Hmm, it looks like the audio is out of sync slightly there, I will have to return to my old method of ripping the video from our satellite receiver, apologies.
Anyway, with more rain forecast, I hope everyone will be ok over there.
Jul 23 2007
Brown Holds Emergency Meetings Re. Floods
The British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, held a Cobra committee (Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms) meeting regarding the response to the national flooding problems. Glos.’s Gold Command emergency response team was represented by Tim Brian – it’s head. He was included in the meeting (via a phone link up) as my home county (Gloucestershire) was one the hardest hit counties. There was the normal amount of slopey shoulders and buck passing, as the government has come under fire for not providing help to prevent the flooding, and assistance to clear up the mess. Some have stated the current military deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq had made their assistance difficult in areas; the response was, no that isn’t the case, anyway, sandbags are the local council’s responsibility…
hey ho.
On a more positive note, it looks like there will be more funding put in place for proper flood defence systems in the future – whilst these may not completely prevent future floods, they may help to stem the flow, and give better warnings.
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Jul 22 2007
Britain Suffers From Flooding
No, not a general warning to all travellers thinking of visiting the UK, but I am instead referring to the current problems afflicting many areas in England and Wales (not sure on Scotland). Although Mum in Wales is in an area that is marked as effected by some maps I’ve seen, they live quite high up, so unless there is a river close to them that bursts its banks, they should be OK. I tried calling Dad at home, as his area has problems with all the rain, but as the phone was ringing, it can’t be too local too him, as the phone lines are working, and considering his answer phone kicked in, I can safely assume that the mains electricity has not been cut off; anyway I hope his and Jan’s houses are OK. I’ve spoken to Alex today, who said parts of the Forest of Dean were cut off, and that other places more local were effected, but that she was ok, and that just leaves Nick (in Falmouth) – if you ever get round to reading this Nick, and have not yet e-mailed, leave me a comment so I know you are not needing to take a dinghy into Uni 😉
Jul 20 2007
Things Are Improving
OK, so the memory card has been mostly sorted now. After using four different data recovery programs, I remembered I had a fifth, archived on a DVD somewhere. It was last used about this time in 2006, when John had a CF memory card from his camera, that his old work had botched a recovery job on. It worked then, and for the most part, it worked today. I now have all the files back, the only small issue is that around a quarter of the directories have a numerical name. However, given that the only problem this will present is with shortcuts not working on the iPAQ, I can check said shortcut’s properties, to find the correct directory name, rename the numbered directory to its original name, and all should be sorted. At least until the iPAQ fries the card again. Needless to say I shall be keeping the recovered files on the hard drive, and probably on a CD as a backup for the future.
The rain has helped to cool the air down a bit, and a small breeze is blowing into the room, so overall, I’m a little closer to being a happy bunny than a few hours ago.
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Jul 20 2007
Room Temperatures Of Plus 30!
One thing about living in Kazakhstan is the extreme of temperatures – between Summer at its hottest, and Winter at its coldest, there is around 80 degrees (centigrade) difference! (In case you wondered, around plus 40 to minus 40).
So, right now, an electric blanket is truly the last thing on my mind, in fact we are still hoping to have an air conditioner installed this year.
However, come winter, they would certainly be something worth considering to warm up the bed for Ira before she goes to sleep.
Luckily, there is a site that enables you to not only find the lowest prices for top brand accessories – from electric blankets to mitre saws, from summer dresses to briefcases, but also read reviews on them.
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Jul 13 2007
Kazakhstan Shows Solidarity With British (Weather)
The past couple of weeks have seen temperatures around 30-35 degrees, occasionally reaching for 40. I just spoke to Dad who said Britain has had pretty miserable weather, or Evesham specifically at the very least. This appeared to trigger a big rain storm back here in Astana 🙂 .
It was actually nice to feel a breeze, though without a sewer system, the rain has nowhere to go really.
See the pictures below for a little idea of how they cope with it.
Basically a big tanker comes along and a couple of guys get out. One sweeps the water to the other, who sucks it up with a big hoover type attachment.
As I write this post another thunder storm has started, and the big puddles all over the road have returned. Sadly, not all the motorists respect the weather, and still speed along the 6 lane road as if nothing had changed. No crashes yet, luckily.
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