RT @daninkaz: “about2do Lost,ie watch series 2!hello Anna Lucia!She’s making it very watchable so far!” What becomes of the broken hearted?
Nov 13 2009
Off2 Oasis to meet up with Dan…
Off2 Oasis to meet up with DanD and Walton for a few drinks. JohnA feeling off colour, so not with us this evening. Anna’s walking improved.
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Oct 24 2009
SEC SaryArka
Someone has apparently uploaded the video (unreleased, as they later changed the script when I was no longer around to re-record) I did a voice over for last year. I’m still trying to find the other film (on transport policies) that they did publish, but for now, have a listen to my dulcet tones explaining all about Social Entrepreneurship in Kazakhstan. Don’t laugh too hard, and don’t blame me for the occasional lack of sync between my words and the images on screen – I had never seen the film to which I’m applying my voice at the time of recording!
I’m also hoping to find an online copy of the voiceover work I did with DanD a month back, on Religious Tolerance in Kazakhstan.
Oct 17 2009
Over 21 And Not In Public !?!
I guess I recently focused on the no smoking in public places law changes here in Kazakhstan, but thanks to Lucky21842, I have discovered more shocking news…
You can no longer officially drink in public, and they have raised the drinking age to 21! Yes, really. I’ll not embed the video this time, as I want you to actually click across and watch a few of his videos on YouTube itself. Go on, off you go, leave a comment, consider subscribing. I’ll wait.
….
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Look, I’ve got all day, and all night if necessary, trust me, I’m way more stubborn than you.
OK, compromise, go and open the video in a new tab, and if you promise to switch to it after reading this post, we’ve found a good compromise.
So, I realised why this news slightly surprised me – when we went to the Kazakhstan v Croatia match at Astana’s new stadium, they discovered DanD had bought a couple of beers with him. Luckily they didn’t pass the metal detector over me, so my hip flask got through OK. Now, one of party definitely wanted to walk on and get into the grounds quickly, but that is just because he is an ancient, old, moaning man, who probably never even reads this site 🙂 DanD and I decided that two unopened bottles of beer were just too much of a waste to dump, so we opened them up and chugged them down, before re-presenting our tickets to the street patrollers guarding the entrance. During this time, with a good dozen or so of them hanging around next to us, not a single ‘NYET’ was uttered.
However, I can report that the new smoking law was enforced a lot better. At half-time I left my seat, exited the building and walked on into the fresh air, under the night sky. Lighting up a Parliament, a guard quickly came and told me it was not allowed. Outside. In the fresh air. When I asked where it was OK, he told me the toilets. Inside. No extractor fan, no purifiers. Not even that many people using the toilet, just a lot of smokers!
Oct 15 2009
10 And A Half Weeks
starring DanD. Not a low budget remake of a classic 80s movie, but instead some photos from his birthday meal that are a little late in being posted. We were still able to eat outside at the time, and so he chose Tiflis, a Georgian restaurant here in Astana. Badger lady hasn’t been seen in a long time (a singer with a badger/Pepé Le Pew style hair colouring), but there was a man singing along to some karaoke. Dan had had enough drinks to decide that we should all hear his dulcet tones, however the singer explained that he charged people to use the microphone!
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- Irina, John, Talgat(?), DanD and Larissa at Tiflis, Enjoying DanD’s Birthday Meal
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- See Previous Photo And Add Dr Ken To The List 🙂
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- DanD Negotiates For Birthday Boy’s Singing Rights
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- Sorry John, Couldn’t Leave This Photo Unpublished
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Oct 15 2009
Most definitely a good evening…
Most definitely a good evening. Kazakhstan football match = respectable score. couple drinks with good friend DanD. home in one piece.
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Oct 14 2009
Kazakhstan vs. Croatia
I am off to watch the Kazakhstan vs. Croatia match this evening, in Astana’s new football stadium. It will be the first proper match I’ve attended in about, oh, 20-odd years ?!? Thanks to DanD and his friend for invite and sorting the tickets ahead of time. Looking at predictions on the net, most think it will be an easy win for Croatia, though a couple of people thought that Kazakhstan had a slim chance of at least a draw. Will try and grab some photos/tweet if I remember.
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Oct 13 2009
Vodka And Cat Food?
We haven’t yet made another order with Dostavlyika (the home shopping service here in Astana), though if the supermarket they use has some Orange Drive (a soda and vodka drink) in stock, I’m tempted to order a box or two. They also hadn’t (as of the last time I checked) added cat food to their site, or sorted the difficulties involved in locating similar products that are described in different ways. I noticed they were using Drupal, meaning that even if the original designer isn’t able to fine tune the site, it should be easy enough for other people to come along and improve it. Maybe DanD should wait a few months and then offer his services?
Oct 11 2009
Amabassador And Masks
OK, so here we have the start of catch up photos. First the non-Anna related ones, starting with these taken on the 30th July. We went for a walk in Astana Park, just across the road from us, with DanD and his two daughters. Whilst walking around, we randomly bumped into the (ex? He is leaving for sunnier shores soon, if he hasn’t already) British Ambassador to Kazakhstan, and nice man who works with him. Shame on me, I’ve forgotten his name, but it could well be he wouldn’t want it posted for security reasons anyway. Whilst there, I also spotted some children on go-karts with varying levels of face mask safety in use…
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- Mask In Use
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- Mask Almost In Use
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- (Under) Face Mask
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- Anna’s Pushchair, Nice Man I Forgot The Name Of, UK Ambassador To Kazakhstan and DanD
Oct 08 2009
SEC SaryArka
DanD bought round a video that I had hoped to view for months – the one featuring a voice over I recorded just before I left for Britain last year. In the end, the script had major alterations, and I wasn’t around to re-record it, so DanD provided the English audio for the final release. I will try and upload a clip to YouTube soon and publish it on this blog. I’ve learnt my lesson though – I’ll create a new account as I don’t want to risk losing all the personal videos again when someone decides fair use doesn’t apply and gets my account banned once more. This particular film was on Social Entrepreneurship, which in this case basically means government run organizations that plough the profit from their ventures back into improvements for Kazakh citizens, rather than someone’s back pocket.
We first played the video back on our DVD player (the file is some sort of AVI, not yet checked if it is specifally DivX/xVid etc.), and I had a little shock when I heard my voice – as the audio was encoded with a variable bit rate (VBR), our DVD player got a little confused and ended up rendering my voice falsetto, with me sounding like Mickey Mouse! At first I thought the production company had simply sped up my recording in order to make it match the video footage they were using, but once played on our PC, all was fine 🙂
Once I rediscover the exact title for the film on Kazakh Transportation policies for the future, also recorded last year, Dan should hopefully be able to get a copy of that, and we’re hoping the work we recently did together for a film on the International Religious Tolerance conferences should also be available. Something else to add to my CV to make it stand out a little more than the rest, to potential employers back in Britain 🙂
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