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
December 17th, 2009 5:29 pm
Hi Chris,
Great pictures, children are wonderful at that age, albeit tiring 🙂
Just wanted to say sorry for the site listing mixup at The Expat Directory. It should be working okay now. Email me directly if you get any problems.
Have a good Christmas,
Ted
December 19th, 2009 6:28 pm
Thanks Ted. Can’t remember if I’ve linked to TED. Ah, see what you did there. Are you really called Edward, or is that a nom de plume for The Expat Directory? I should probably go and read your about/FAQ pages again. Anyway, if I don’t drop a link for TED in next couple of weeks, feel free to throw some (small) stones at my blog’s windows 🙂
December 20th, 2009 2:48 pm
nom de plume my friend. I conceived the idea for The Expat Directory a number of years ago and a colleague at the time spotted the acronym, it stuck, I was busy with others things then and basically tinkered with a few ideas, basically just looking for feedback to identify general expat needs etc (rather than a site which provides what I think everyone needs), hope that makes sense 😉 . Anyway, settled in one place for a few years now to do the parent thing… so far its great but I fancy a change of scenery again. I’ve worked in over 20 countries in the past fourteen years, staying in one for a while is quite a challenge but it give me time to focus on this project.
So far it’s been an interesting journey and the site is really coming together now (about 20 new members per day 🙂 ). Next year will be the big one. Anyway, I’m waffling on and your probably wondering when I will get to the end of the comment 😉 its now! Have a great Christmas,
Ted – Peter Starmer [Revealed – You read it here first! lol]
December 22nd, 2009 2:18 am
I’ve seen a few other sites attempt something a little similar, but they normally either end up as unmoderated honeypot for local spammers (Cheep Nokia Hendsets Four Sale!) or an admin loses interest and updates seem to stop. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for you, and once Xmas/New Year is out the way, please do feel free to throw those stones if I’ve not posted something properly.
Have a great holiday time.
December 22nd, 2009 11:18 am
Agreed, too many have tried and given up. This is one of my motivators. Spam is always an issue hence the bespoke design rather than an open source CMS site.
I monitor every action that occurs (probably as you do) so this helps to reduce spammers. Thankfully its not been too big an issue since the redesign but we will see what happens. I expect to get into the top 100,000 on Alexa in the new year and current usage makes in inevitable that Spammers will pop round for a visit.
Enjoy your Holiday, my last day of working today before the break.
December 23rd, 2009 5:08 pm
Not sure how easy it would be to re-code & integrate into your site, but the WP-Blackcheck and Akismet plugins do a pretty good job of keeping out the spammers, and for those that get through (from IP addresses that aren’t yet flagged as persistent spammers) to detect the spam and channel it away for double checking before binning. Excuse any typos, Anna on my lap and occasional battles for the keyboard.
December 23rd, 2009 9:40 pm
Thanks Chris,
I’ll take a look and see how feasible it is. I monitor all specific actions via specific visitor / users and so far have been quite effective at sending unwanted guests elsewhere. Notwithstaning that, tips are always appriciated 🙂
On a follow on, we are now # 2,764 in alexa for Khazakstan. Guess I owe you a virtual beer for the interest sent. Maybe I should send you a mince-pie, can you pick them up there?
A thought for Anna, have you seen the drawing interfaces for Toddlers (plug and play usb virtual paintbrush and colouring et al), Annabel loved it. Great for training future techies 🙂 Its hidden away in the loft now and I cant remember the maker… Hmmm will get back to you.
December 24th, 2009 1:08 pm
If we ever cross paths in real life, you can buy me 50ml of vodka 🙂
Re. virtual painter, my mother-in-law has a digital sketchpad thing (can’t remember the proper name right now), so when Anna gets a bit older, might see how she copes with it 🙂
December 29th, 2009 3:39 pm
Hi Chris,
50ml of vodka? youre a bit pushy but I suppose I can stretch to it 🙂
I remembered the name for the painter, its Arts and Crafts Digital Studio by Fisher Price, I took a picture and added a little meat at the link (so that I could add the picture, also its the first post in the Astana Forums 🙂 ).
All the best for the New Year, I’m just doing a little now before moving on to a couple of hours on Lego Batman with Sam (eldest – 7). Great game, or am I a little childish… bit of both I suppose 🙂
December 29th, 2009 4:42 pm
Hi Chris,
I dont think my last message processed. I didn’t get a posted waiting moderation or similar, not all wordpress plugins provide user confirmation messages (frustatingly) so here goes again.
The drawing interface I was referring to is Arts and Crafts Digital Studio by Fisher price. I put some info and a picture in the Astana Forums on The Expat Directory [first posting for Astana 🙂 ]
Have a good New Year 🙂
December 30th, 2009 1:56 am
In general your comments won’t require approval (after the 1st was approved), however that one was sent into the spam bin, not sure why. TBH I don’t bother checking the spam (even with WP-BlackCheck as a first line of defence, I still get quite a lot per day from “first time offenders”), so it was good you posted a second message.
Just went and read your info, most thorough, thanks. Ta also for the links to back here, appreciated.
Re. Lego game, I’m hoping Anna will be into gaming in the future, multiplayer gaming on a 256kbit internet connection can suck sometimes.
Hope you have a great New Year.
December 30th, 2009 7:43 pm
Glad it was useful. Your welcome on the links, The Expat Directory is about connecting people, you have some great information here and I know those considering KZ will find it useful.
Thats a tough bandwidth, I still get fragged on 50Mb (although usually in the back by Sam… Gotta love kids).