Could any of my readers in the Gloucestershire region leave a comment if they know whether the danger has now passed, in terms of flooding near them? As you may remember from last year, Rich (Alex’s brother) posted a video on YouTube of the flooding around Cheltenham. Although I obviously hope no one is as badly effected this year, if things do get a little watery, that our intrepid correspondent will be letting us know what’s what…
Anyway, whether the river is lapping at your front door, or all your neighbours are already getting rid of their sand bags, let us know how things are going.
Ooops, the BBC have complained to YouTube about my Top Gear upload. Never mind. It received around 6000 views last time I checked. Hope you all managed to view the clip of various motor homes being raced around an oval circuit. If not, keep an eye out on YouTube, there are still a few versions floating around. In the mean time, I apparently need to check through all my other videos, and remove any that also infringe copyrights. Either that, or wait for them to close my account and lose all the other vids.
and any other motor home or Top Gear fans out there. I’ve ripped the section from Series 10 Episode 6 (last Sunday’s?) where Richard Hammon and James May team up with some Touring Car drivers to race various motor homes around an old track. That is if it ever completes uploading to YouTube… I’m glad I didn’t include the last segment (otherwise I would be waiting all night) that featured Jeremy Clarkson showing a behemoth of a motor home, big enough to hold a sports car in one it’s storage areas!
I still think the little red Toyota was a bit of a cheat, calling it a camper van clone maybe, but a proper motor home? Nope…
OK, this is one of the last posts I will make whilst in Kazakhstan, so I intend to use it to catch up with a few articles, videos and sites I have been meaning to post about in the last few weeks. Otherwise I will return in a little under a month, and forget all about them probably…
BBC article on the growth in high tech online crime. Article on 50 Cent’s promise to quit, which he gave prior to his album being beaten to the UK#1 spot.
Related article on fiddy postponing his European tour.
Cool article on speech to sign language translation software. Most impressive.
Another article, this time on how DNA data could be at risk if funding organizations succeed in twisting researchers’ arms. Article on how Chernobyl is to receive a new steel cover.
Were they pushed, did they jump, or were they stage managed dives? Check out a little background info here on the continuing political family soap opera that is Kazakhstan… Article on beloved uncle Pres Nazarbayev not being nominated for the Nobel prize. Never mind, he got a consolation prize.
From 3 weeks ago, an article on arrest warrants being issued over the Aliyev case. Piece on two bodyguard’s return to Kazakhstan and their confession live to the media. (Related to Aliyev’s alleged criminal activities).
VOA (Voice of America?) summary of the recent elections held in this country.
Is Kazakhstan to follow Russia’s example by moving in on, or at least re-negotiating contracts with, Western oil and gas companies? The International Herald Tribune’s website has a report on the goings on.
Reports from foreign diplomats/govt workers on Astana and Almaty. I had especially wanted to give these two pages their own post. Some of the information is incorrect, some is simply out of date, though there are some gems in there for those considering moving to this country. I may remember to make a more detailed post when I get back half way through October.
Finally a couple of YouTube vids that caught my attention, both from members over at the channels.nl forum I believe. The first is on a man with a lot of vision, and quite a variant on the static art you’ll see in most galleries…
Secondly, we have a video that will have little cultural reference if you are not in the right age band, but is about who would win if all the super heros and villans had a big scrap. Hmm, not sold that too well, sorry. Unless you have tight bandwidth restrictions per month, trust me, it is worth listening to
I’ll not post her name until I know whether she minds, but one of Irina’s friends at work recently took part in the BG (the newer name of British Gas) Energy Challenge 2007, here in Kazakhstan. Last night Khabar had a short piece on the event in their news bulletin, so I have uploaded it to YouTube, and embedded it here. The audio is in Russian, though the video is mostly self explanatory. There are rumours that some participants took this very seriously, and tried to ensure only seriously sporty types joined the teams. Others appeared to have taken a slightly more laid back approach I have also burnt the movie to a miniDVD, as well as the original raw footage to a separate disc for her. Just in case her work PC can not handle it, I decided to embed it in this post as well. My congratulations to all who took part this year.
A little later than originally intended, here are the videos shot the day Ildar (Balzhan’s son) had his first day at school. Over here in Kazakhstan, they start going to school a little later than back in Britain - around seven years old seemed to be the average age there.
Not only is this day special for those just starting school, the last two years also attend this event, as they will soon be leaving the establishment.
First we have Ildar with his last little boy type display of the day. From this point on, he assumed the persona of a serious child - intent on learning, making his mum proud, and looking very smart. Apart from pulling faces to show off his missing milk teeth at the front It was obviously an emotional day for Balzhan, though I believe there may have been a small amount of melodramatic acting. (She is the sports news achorwoman on the Astana TV channel, so maybe she picked up some hints from colleagues in the business?) It was quite strange seeing all the little children in their suits and Sunday-best dresses, a little different to the rag-a-muffin appearance of UK school kids at least…
Now all the children are neatly lined up in their classes, with their form tutor in front, the school decided it would be a great idea to get them to… do nothing for a long time. Again I was impressed, as the behaviour at this point seemed a lot better than I would expect from a bunch of British kids being told to stand still and be quiet. The people at the beginning of the video are Ilar’s Dad (Tima) and paternal (patriarchal?) grandparents, who came for Ildar’s special day.
We then had some motivational type speeches from kids who would soon be leaving the school - work hard, it is worth it, do as you are told etc. etc. Some of the message was conveyed by means of a little play.
At the beginning we have the school flag on display, and the children slowly wound their way into the building.
Right, that is it, no more videos are left on my hard drive to be uploaded, nor in YouTube waiting to be embedded on this blog. That said, I do need to record a new vid later on to promote one of the paid blogging companies I use… watch this space
I had a nagging feeling I had forgotten some of the videos I uploaded to YouTube a while back. I eventually got around to opening all the posts within the Video category on this blog, then checked which videos from my YouTube channel had been posted. So we have a batch of four here, taken from when AlexC was still here in Kazakhstan, and we had all gone round to Ira’s parents for a nice relaxing evening, some food, and a little drink. I am still impressed that Alex was able to hold her own reasonably well when it came to downing vodka, considering she hadn’t had a drink in some five years!
Here we have Babushka (Ira’s grandma), her Dad, Mum, Alex, Myself, some Wild Strawberries (really little fruit that make great jam), and of course Irina filming. In fact I think she handled all the camera work for these 4 shots…
Ira’s Dad is a little old school in some respects, and so was not happy with the prospect of her chopping some wood up for the samovar§. This despite the fact that if I had done it, we would have ended up with wood splinters, sticks that were too wide to fit in the tube, blood, tears, sweat, and possibly a three-fingered Chris. Compare this to the nature loving, camping, tree-surgery-considering Alex, who knows how to handle sharp tools, and you can see why I giggled (oooops, sorry make that let out a manly guffaw…. hmmm why does that sound so unbelievable?) at the idea that I was a better choice to chop wood. Ira’s Dad did it himself in the end.
The big barbecue thing is, well a barbecue, made by the guys ar Ira’s Dad’s work. He complained that most barbecues are made for shorter people, so they made one with extra long legs It looks like I had been demoted that day from my normal duties of burning things. hmmmm, fire, flames, burn, petrol……. sorry, where was I? Seriously, I normally manage to burn the wood well enough, as it is not too difficult task to ensure that wood is burnt well to provide the charcoal needed to cook the sashliq (skewered kebabs) later on.
Finally we have almost everyone at the table before dinner, with Babushka chilling in the reclining garden chair. Alex tries out a little Russian, and Ira tells a blatent lie - the cake can’t be have more than my 43rd!
§ - A tea urn with a difference - the heat is provided by burning wood within the tube that runs through the middle of the area that the water is boiled in. You can now buy electric versions, but there is no fun in that, IMHO.
