Today is my Mum’s Dad’s (we call him Gramps) birthday, so this is just a short post to congratulate him on this special day, and to wish him as comfortable a time as possible as he recuperates following a hospital visit. Irina and I managed to see him when we visited Britain over New Year, and while I think of it, another big hello to everyone back in the UK, both those we did manage to see, and those who we unfortunately did not meet with. We also have another three birthdays coming up next week with friends both in Britain and also here in Kazakhstan, but more details on that later…

Please excuse the lack of posting… We arrived fine, had Christmas, mum and John got married, the in-laws went back to Kazakhstan, and we’ve just had New Year.
Tomorrow we head to Dads, and see some friends around Cheltenham, moving onto Matt & Ira G’s place, finally returning mum’s car to Clydach, then trapsing down to Heathrow.
Will try and post more info later, depending on internet connection availability and my soberness…

I have been bookmarking a few articles I found interesting recently, so please forgive my indulgence by skipping those that don’t interest you so much… as I’ll be in Britain soon, I want to try and post as many as I can before the time available for blogging is minimized (by travel, Christmas, Mum and John’s wedding, New Year, seeing Dad and some friends in Cheltenham etc.) Although I hope to make a few posts whilst in Britain, I’m not sure I’ll be as motivated TBH, and by the time I get back, I imagine a lot of these news stories will be too old to be of interest to most.
Thanks for your patience

Yep, it is a popular week for birthdays. Today is Mum’s birthday, and she’ll be… … 31 again (?) LOL.
I’ve just spoken to her, as here in Kazakhstan, it is already the 5th December, so I wanted to get a quick congratulations in.
I hope she has a great day, with nothing too stressful going on. This will certainly be a packed month for her, with her birthday, her two sons, a daughter-in-law and Ira’s parents coming for Xmas, her wedding to John a few days later, and then Ira and I will be around for New Year as well. Really looking forward to catching up, and seeing everyone again.

Snomrazh Denya - or something that sounds like that anyway.

To celebrate Dr Natalya’s birthday, we went to the ‘barrel’ restaurant yesterday. I have forgotten the official name of the place, but due to the use of huge barrels outside as dining areas (at least in the summer months), that barrel place is easier to remember As well as Dr Natalya, her husband Sasha (when in doubt, if a guy is Russian, Sasha is normally a safe bet ), their daughter Sveta and Masha, we also had Balzhan and her son Ildar. We finally had a chance to pass on a couple of little presents for the kids (some toys and a British comic each) who seemed to enjoy them. Anyway, we had some salad (OK, I admit I just munched on the bread), a few plates of pork sashliq and I ordered some chips. Topped off with some ice cream, and a good time was had by all. Sadly Balzhan and Ildar can not make it this Christmas to Mum’s wedding, so it was good to see them again before New Year, which is a much bigger holiday/celebration over here, than Xmas.

With the excesses of Christmas Day meals now less than a month away, people are starting to think about post-New Year strategies to deal with the excess weight they will inevitably put on. Some prefer to eat healthily and/or excercise, whilst others hold hope that diet pills may solve their problem. Eight years ago I got down to a 28″ waist, but have since found out that people thought I looked unhealthy like that, and although I could definitely do with losing a few pounds, I have not had to buy larger-sized trousers in a few years, so it could be worse

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Once again, this post is primarily for family and friends back in Britain. A few have asked when and where we will be this Christmas time, and rather than repeating ourselves umpteen times, I thought I would post it up here, and refer people to the blog instead. More visitors never hurt the Alexa rank either
Leave Astana 22nd December : 07:25
Arrive Moscow : 08:00
Leave Moscow : 10:05
Arrive Heathrow : 11:15

At this point John is hopefully picking us up in the motor-home, and driving us back to Clydach
23rd December : Flying visit to, and tour of, Cheltenham, as Ira’s parents will be returning to Kazakhstan before New Year
25th December : Something major happened this day in history, anyone recall?
27th December : Mum and John get married. :) (note to myself, remember to update Outlook Contacts to Carol Kavanagh!)
29th December : The in-laws return to Kazakhstan, so following flight times are just for them…

Leave Heathrow : TBC
Arrive Moscow : TBC
Leave Moscow : TBC
Arrive Astana : TBC

New Years : At Mum & John’s place
Post-New Year : Spend some time in Clydach, Cheltenham (catching up with friends sober enough to move), Evesham (to see Dad), and hopefully London (to finally catch a glimpse of EmmaF’s new home, as well as other friends living there)
12th January : We leave Britain to return to Kazakhstan, with the following flight times

Leave Heathrow 12th January : 12:25
Arrive Moscow : 19:30
Leave Moscow 13th January : 00:10
Arrive Astana : 06:25

All flights are quoted with local times

Oh, and once again, a random two word phrase to make searching for this post, once it has slipped off the front page, a little easier. Hmm we had pink badger last time I think, so today’s phrase will be red dove.

[edit] Well, turns out there is a film called Red Dove. Involving amnesia, communism and water polo. I’m half tempted to try and source a torrent for that, it seems like an interesting mix of plot devices!

Just under 5 weeks now until Ira, myself, and both in-laws will be travelling to Britain for Christmas and Mum & John’s wedding. This will be the first time Ira’s mum has been there, and now they have their visas sorted, it is just the matter of Xmas pressies to sort that is left out standing. Although the in-laws are returning to Kazakhstan for the New Year, Ira and I are spending that with Mum, and then 10 or so days more in Britain, so we can see my Dad, and our friends in Cheltenham etc. So for the few (’real’ world) friends that do bother to read these posts, let me know when you’ll be around via e-mail or IM, or pretend you will be away if you want to avoid us

Following on from my video comparison of Dasha’s kittens in 2003 compated to now , here is a picture of Dasha’s litter from a year earlier (2002).

(We were obviously still living in Britain then, but we came over to Kazakhstan for Summer or New Year trips)