As you may have guessed from the title, these clips were shot on the 14th February. We decided to get a bit of fresh air whilst the weather was warm, and so took a stroll around the back garden (back in Clydach, Wales still) path with Anna. She was a little unsteady on the stony path, but decided she was going to conquer it, and only occasionally needed picking up. The only other thing that seemed to annoy her was the bright sun. We did buy her some sunglasses, however the concept seemed silly to her, and they haven’t yet lasted more than five seconds before she rips them off and throws them down.
Mar 12 2010
Arrived in Evesham (Dad’s) fin…
Arrived in Evesham (Dad’s) fine. Hope to see Chelt people over the coming days. Two & a half weeks left in Britain. Back to Clydach Tuesday.
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Feb 21 2010
365 Days Ago…
I wanted to post some videos of Anna and a few more pictures tonight, but either YouTube’s upload service is slow tonight, or Pipex’s performance isn’t top notch once again when it comes to expected vs. delivered speeds. Anyway, it is just a few moments past midnight here, meaning that in just over five hours (I think the time that appears on these posts may be set to Kazakhstan still), Anna will be exactly one year old! I’ll try to write more on this later, and eventually get the photos up, but for now, I just wanted to say a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY Anna! It barely seems plausible that this time last year I was about to head home whilst Irina waited for Anna to be ready to make an entrance, and that after a few hours, the fastest ever Clydach>Swansea hospital journey I had ever made was achieved!
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Feb 19 2010
Daring Donkey Dives
As John drove us back from Heathrow to Clydach, we stopped off at one of the motorway services stations for a chance to stretch our legs (including Anna, who walked the length of the car park!), take a comfort break and grab a bite to eat. As Anna went past the first shop, her eyes were immediately drawn to a huge display of stuffed toys. Cynical marketing (like putting sweets at eye level for children at supermarkets check outs), but it worked, as Anna started making some noise and pointing. John succumbed and bought Anna the donkey she seemed to be most interested in. When we got home, we discovered that Anna loves to tackle the poor thing – she’ll literally dive onto it from a standing position, then roll around on the floor ensuring it can’t escape!
Again, credit to John’s blog for the original posting of this picture. The date was around the 14th February.
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Jan 02 2010
YouTube Issues
I uploaded a video that has Anna dancing in it. In the background, you can hear the music she was dancing to at the time.
I’m hoping it was just an automated system that decided to send me a warning from YouTube.
The following is my reply to YouTube through their Dispute Claim. If someone really wants to ban my video, or try and make me pay, to show Anna dancing to Jingle Bells, BITFO.
User Name: AstanaClydach
2. This video uses copyrighted material in a manner that does not require approval of the copyright holder. It is a fair use under copyright law.
Our baby daughter is dancing to a Christmas tune. On Christmas Eve. I have not tagged nor titled this video with anything that would lead people to find it who were searching for the song. I believe the use of the song in the background comes under fair use. The video is still apparently available, dispite what I’m forced to type in the statement of good faith box below.
Signature
Christopher Merriman
Statement of Good Faith
I have a good faith belief that the material was disabled as a result of a mistake or mis-identification and that I am not intentionally abusing this dispute process.
Dec 17 2009
Sunny Floor At The In-Laws’
A bit of catching up to do with Anna’s video and photos once more, sorry. I’ve got all the videos on my YouTube account (AstanaClydach) ready, and most of the photos selected and resized, now it is just a case of writing the posts and publishing them.
So, these pictures were shot on the 30th of September, with Anna playing on the floor at Irina’s parents’ house. It was a sunny day, and Anna was in a good mood so Ira took the camera out and snapped a few shots.
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- Smiling Directly At The Camera
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- ROFL
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- Shy Sabaka
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- Morning Stretch Routine
Dec 02 2009
John, Mum, Anna And Seb In Clydach
This was recorded on the 22nd of March in Clydach, with Anna reacting to John’s funny noises. Can’t quite decide if she was tired or just busy filling her nappy.
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Nov 29 2009
If You Are Waiting For A Reply, Sorry
I have let my inbox pile up once more, so to friends waiting for a reply, people who have left comments on this blog and are awaiting approval/replies, or to the couple of web directories that have asked for my participation/permission to use my Kazakhstan posts, apologies. I’ll try and get most of them sorted by the end of this coming week. It was quite a surprise to receive the request to use my information on this country, as I normally find that (less reputable) sites simply scrape my content. Even though they usually include a link back to the original post on this site, it is still a lot nicer to be noticed by a real human being, and in this case they want to summarize posts, to avoid any duplicate content penalty from the search engines.
I also hope to get around to posting some of the older videos shot here in Astana and a few from Dubai and Britain soon, as I re-uploaded them to my newer YouTube account (AstanaClydach), and some of this site’s newer visitors won’t have seen them before they were unceremoniously removed by the powers that be over at YouTube. I’ve learnt my lesson, and there’ll be no short clips of BBC shows I like with this new account.
Nov 28 2009
Clothes Flowers, Camera, Friends And Gwen
In this video, shot on the 5th of May, you can see the brilliant present that Nick and Roz sent for Anna – a baby clothes bouquet. You’ll need to trawl through May’s posts to see the various pictures of it. We also have the preparations for a photo shoot, where Anna’s little feet were cradled in some big hands, and surprisingly enough, given that this was shot in Clydach, you’ll also see Gwen popping up 🙂
By the way the camera belongs to, and the main photographer is John, we weren’t using his studio as the garage was too cold for Anna, and the nice man you see in the kitchen is Kevin, who was very helpful, as ever.
Jun 29 2009
Gwen Guarding & Ineffective Curries
Just under a week before Anna’s birth (and already almost a week since the due date), Irina is resting on the sofa at Mum & John’s in Clydach. Gwen had already been following Ira around most of the time, obviously sensing that something was a little different, and that she might appreciate the company.
Ira resting with Gwen on the sofa
A couple of days later, we had resorted to the old wives tale about hot curries bringing on labour, and so John and Ira drove off to a local respected curry house. They explained what they wanted, and although Irina seemed to enjoy the curry once they had returned home and unboxed it, unless there is a four day gap between consumption and effect, it didn’t seem to do that much.
Irina with a curry in Clydach
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