Jul 23 2007

Floods – All OK, Family Wise

Category: Friends,In The Media,Personal,PicturesChrisM @ 1:25 am

Well, I’ve now heard back from all the family, and everyone is OK.
Dad’s house is OK, but the town itself (Evesham) was quite badly hit, and his car got pretty badly flooded, he is waiting to hear how long it will take to repair the damage done – I’m assuming the electrics were worst hit.
Nick (my brother) lives on a hill, so as he so succinctly put it, if he gets flooded, the whole town is pretty buggered.
Mum and John, who were down visiting my bro at the time I spoke to him, were very lucky with the timing of their journey – they had already left all the roads that were isolated by the rains – so luckily no unplanned overnight stays in their car 🙂

UK Floods

The photo above does look slightly staged, though it still me made smile.

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Jun 13 2007

Congratulations….

Category: Friends,Personal,PicturesChrisM @ 4:01 pm

On the new arrival to Anthony and Lisa. Baby Amelia was born in Bridgend hospital, and we (Ira, in-laws, friends etc.) would all like to pass on our congrats to the three of them. And of course to John, who is now an even grander dad 🙂

[edit]
Shortly after posting, I received an e-mail from John (Anthony’s Dad), with a little more info and some pictures…
Amelia weighed in at 4lb 10oz, but is doing well.

Anthony Lisa Amelia Wales Amelia John Wales

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Apr 12 2007

Belated Congratulations…

Category: Personal,PicturesChrisM @ 11:57 am

to Anthony & Lisa.
John’s son got married to Lisa 31st March.
Anthony And Lisa Kavanagh Got Married
We met Lisa last Christmas, when we went back to the UK, and we hope that the happy couple are settling into married life well.

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Mar 01 2007

ADSL arrived and We, The Undersigned Petition

Category: In The Media,Internet Connections,Kazakhstan,PersonalChrisM @ 2:13 am

Found a link to a UK Government beta web site that held a petition on the price of Windows Vista, compared to USA prices.
This next caught my eye – …..petition the Prime Minister to Recognize Borat As The Leader Of Kazakhstan (!)
This petition should be of interest to AlexC.
This petition will be of interest to John as it concerns proposed legislation on taking photos in a public place.
Here we have a petition that publicly funded (UK) software should be released under a free licence, so the whole nation may reap benefits.
This one came as news to me

Fingerprinting is being introduced in thousands of UK Primary Schools as part of a subsidised library package called Junior Librarian that they have purchased, encouraged by central government. New schools are joining the scheme at the rate of around 20 a week. To date, more than 3500 schools and nurseries (manufacturer’s official figure, given to the Daily Mirror) have fingerprinted and photographed 3/4 million children, ranging in age from 3 to 11; impressionable, trusting and naive. Involved companies have given premier partners with access to their SQL database AND a commercial arrangement for the reselling or endorsement or their products.
This is always done without explicit parental consent, and even in some cases, without parental knowledge.
Schools strongly resist sending parents the opt-in consent slips that are used for just about everything else. Some parents only find out AFTERWARDS

Finally, we have a petition for Seb & any other schmokers out there…

Oh yes, and we finally have ADSL installed at home. I’m going to have to use the internet LESS than I did on dial up, as we only get 700 megabytes per month (up AND download :< ), but it means I can do my work in the daytime, so I'm really chuffed that it has arrived.

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Nov 10 2006

Hear Ye, Hear Ye – Friday Morning, and All is Well

Category: Kazakhstan,PersonalChrisM @ 12:49 pm

I woke up this morning, looked out the window, and it was snowing 🙂
There were a few flakes a couple of weeks ago, but this was proper fluffy snow.
Dad is off to Paris this weekend with Jan, and hopes to be buying a house in Evesham soon.
Mum and John have hopefully sold the house in St Thomas, and are settling in nicely at Clydach. In case you missed the posts on it, and ignore the links in the sidebar on the right, you can visit John’s site here. Please be aware some of his images are not for minors.
Really looking forward to visiting family and friends this Christmas in the UK, and to Nick (my brother) and Dad coming back with us to celebrate New Year here in Astana.
If you don’t get this post’s title, I’m guessing you’ve never heard a town crier…

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Aug 18 2006

A Little Later Than Intended

Category: Kazakh Driving,Kazakhstan,Personal,PicturesChrisM @ 3:12 am

OK, as promised, here is some more info, from Mum & John’s perspective.

This is basically a cut’n’paste job from an e-mail they sent to family and friends (with permission I hasten to add ;>)

“”For those of you ancient enough to Radio 4 be familiar with Alistair Cooke’s “Letter from America” this is likely to seem a pale comparison. Certainly less erudite and not as well crafted – but hopefully it will inform and maybe even amuse, though the political comment will be markedly absent!

This is Carol’s second visit to this amazing country and my first. As we flew in at night the lack of any settlements for hundreds of miles prior to landing in Astana was perplexing. It was hard to comprehend such vast tracts of land without population. Then Astana appears on the Kazakh Steppes resembling a modern Emirate city. Disney could not have bettered it! When Carol was here last she arrived through the back door, via the old capital of Almaty, then a twenty three hour train journey across a hot and dusty terrain. She made the trip for her son (Chris) & daughter in law’s (Irina) marriage. Jokingly she had said as she left to Irina’s father that he was to have a new airport built on her return. He did – and a pretty impressive airport to boot! It is so refreshing to see architecture which is not afraid to be adventurous, particularly in the teeth of such extreme weather conditions. Thankfully on this trip it has been kind to Carol & me, between 21°C & 30°C. The temperature can famously vary between -30°C in the winter to +40°C during the short summer months.
Continue reading “A Little Later Than Intended”

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Aug 17 2006

Mum And John Westward Bound

Category: Kazakhstan,PersonalChrisM @ 2:36 pm

Mum & John left early this morning, heading to Heathrow, via Istanbul.

It was brilliant to see them again, and a little sad when they left, but Ira & me hope to visit the UK around Christmas time.

I’ll post more on their visit in a while, but just wanted to take this opportunity to thank them for coming, and our Kazakh friends & family for making them feel so welcome.

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Aug 10 2006

5 Years Today !

Category: Kazakhstan,PersonalChrisM @ 1:27 am

This time 5 years ago, I was about to get married here in Astana, Kazakhstan.

In a few respects, so much has changed in my life since then, but most of the time it truly does not seem such a long time ago I was putting on that suit, willing myself not to sweat too much in the blistering heat, and exchanging vows with my beloved, Irina (Ira).
It has been really good to have Mum&John around for this celebration, and to be making friends out here. I’m hoping Dad and Jan will be able to make it out some time next year. It is also a sad time, as Grandma passed away last week. I don’t really know how to convey the emotions this obviously invokes, except to say she will be missed by many, many people.

Whilst I don’t know what exists beyond our understanding of the physical world, nor what happens to our essence when we pass on, I hope that the joy she gave to others in her long life will mean something positive for her in whatever journey she is now on. Good bye grandma. We all love you…

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Aug 08 2006

Mum Has Arrived

Category: Kazakhstan,PersonalChrisM @ 12:41 pm

It is now Tuesday, and Mum & John got here early Sunday morning.
Great to see them again, and I’m hoping they’ll both enjoy their stay here, and also get a feel for this country and its people.
We’ve been to the in-laws a few times, had a walk through the local park and the river, and had a quick wander round Ramstore (??????? in Russian).
Going to get going for now, just wanted to get out a quick post on the happy news.

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Jul 17 2006

Introduction

Category: Friends,KazakhstanChrisM @ 2:12 pm

OK, this category has been set aside for any friends & family who are thinking about coming over to visit us here in Kazakhstan some time.

Feel free to check out the other posts, which are about my business sites. Right now, SkyDiving-News.org is the only one I’ve created myself, but there will hopefully be more to come in the next few weeks. I want to say a BIG thank you to MattG for all his help so far. He has made some excellent videos to guide me through the processes required to setup the sites, and all the other technical gubbins therein associated, and also spent a lot of time replying to my badly formed e-mails requesting more details.
Please feel free to leave comments or requests for more info here. If I don’t get back to you quickly enough, try e-mailing me. (Please don’t forget this area isn’t private, anyone on the net will be able to read it ;> )

To those already committed to coming (Mum&John, closely followed by ChrisD) , a BIG BIG thank you, I still have a huge dopey grin on my face just thinking about you coming over.

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