A quick compilation of clips shots today in Chubary. Featuring Anna, Assel, Walton, Irina and Ira’s Mum.
Guest starring Anna’s new play area and house in the garden…
Jun 06 2010
Anna’s Playhouse
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May 15 2010
Beer, Brilliant Buddy Bears And Babies
DanC is back in town for a few days, so we are hoping to meet up on Saturday and see how his family is doing. The other Dan (DanD) will be joining us after his daughters finish their afternoon nap, by which time I hope to have had a few relaxing beers (one advantage of not driving over here), some barbecued beef, and then we’ll all move on to Bayterek to have a look at some brilliant buddy bears. Hopefully the walk will be healthy, as beer and shashlik aren’t known for their fat/calorie free content 🙂 Why all the letter B’s in this post? No idea TBH, but the buddy bears started this whole alliteration theme…
In case I forget to blog on them, or we end up not going there for some reason, here is a quick summary –
The Buddy bears have arrived in Astana! There are 125 brightly painted bears standing in between Baiterek and Keyruen shopping centre. They stand at over 2 meters high painted by famous artists from all over the world, each one representing a country. They are an event of the ‘Germany in Kazakhstan’ programme and will be displayed until July.
(suggested meeting date and time information cut from original e-mail, my thanks to the Astana International Women’s Club for sending Irina this information)
Take a look at the website http://www.buddy-baer.com/united-buddy-bears/world-tour/astana-2010.html for more info and some great pictures.
May 07 2010
2nd Collection Of Videos From Last Night
Here is the second part to the compilation of videos taken last night…
Sitting Down Inside Attila Restaurant
Quick Look Around Outside And Inside Attila Restaurant in Astana
Front Entrance To The Restaurant
More Dancing
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May 07 2010
Compilation Of Videos From B-Day Party
As all the videos were taking up the whole front page on this blog, and contained a few dud, four second long accidental recordings, I decided to compile them into a couple of posts instead.
It was a family friend’s birthday party at the Attila restaurant in Astana, and there was food, drink, dancers, music and an MC, as usual.
Oh, the titling of Qik videos (on the site) is totally screwed up again, most of the videos have the title from the previous clip, and virtually all of them lost these (wrong) titles when tweeted. Combine that with the jerky 320×240 video, and you can see why I’m still looking for an alternative Windows Mobile based live video streaming app…
Shots from outside the Attila (as in Attila The Hun) restaurant, here in Astana…
Irina’s Dad toasting the Yuri Constantinovich – the birthday boy 🙂
People dancing
Golka! (People chant this at weddings to encourage the bride and groom to kiss, a little bit like when the priest/vicar says “the groom may now kiss the bride” during a wedding ceremony). This was a reference to when Yuri and his wife got married many years ago.
Here we had an example of Korean dancing from some local enthusiasts (Yuri has Korean heritage, Kazakhstan has a wide mix of nationalities making up it’s population)
His Mum toasts Yuri
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Apr 25 2010
WP FTW w/EA!
WordPress For The Win with English Advantage just seemed a little bit too long for a post title, even on this blog.
As you may remember, I’ve linked to English Advantage a few times before, but the last 12 months saw the site not producing new content. Well, all that could be changing, as the owner has decided to give WordPress a try as the framework around which he can build the new look site. Randy The Raccoon has already made a very welcome return, though I’d watch out for any shiny things you treasure, and his new friend (a cat) should under NO circumstances be allowed near any gold or diamonds!
Anyway, to “Lurn English Gud Hear” head on over to English Advantage.
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Apr 25 2010
Bigger Belts Because Of A Birthday?
This week I had my 31st birthday. We (myself, Irina, her Mum and Anna) went out on Tuesday to a TGI Friday, where I thoroughly enjoyed the custom cocktail, fried & bread-crumbed mozerella, a proper bacon cheeseburger with chips and then a delicious chocolate brownie based dessert. Come Friday we had Walton (Assel was away), JohnA and Inessa, DanD and Lara and all the children from the aforementioned families all come over, the idea being that people would be able to relax and drink a little more with a delayed birthday celebration bringing the “morning after” to a Saturday, instead of a work day. Irina went out and bought a couple of kilograms of good meat, and cooked some beautiful home made burgers and other delicious courses. It was good to see everyone, especially in one place.
Apr 18 2010
Just shot this clip (#qik) htt…
Just shot this clip (#qik) http://qik.ly/BJEBY
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Apr 17 2010
Qik – Playing (losing at) Pool…
Qik – Playing (losing at) Pool With Dan In Highvill, Astana, Kazakhst by Chris Merriman http://qik.ly/BJCds
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Mar 16 2010
Ira,Ira&Anna @ The Farmers in …
Ira, Ira G & Anna at “The Farmers” in Bishops Cleeve.Huge meringue on the table.Met up with friends in Chelt last night 🙂 http://twitpic.com/18xljk
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Mar 15 2010
Antique Owning Hoodie Wearers!
Whilst waiting for Anna to wake from her lunch time nap, Irina, Dad and I were all watching an episode of Antiques Roadshow on the Yesterday channel. It seems to have moved on a little since I remember it (Sunday evenings when I was a child, with crumpets or savoury muffins for tea!).
Gone were the experts with bow ties on, and in are… well the same experts, but the antique owners seem to be from a wider background now, with hoodie wearing young adults bringing in RAF memorobilia from their Grandad, to a builder who scans the car boot sales at weekends.
The builder did quite well bringing in a hold-all containing lots of things he had bought for less than a fiver – some were worth close to a thousand pounds! Anyway, Anna woke up, so attention switched to feeding her. I’m also arranging meeting up with friends in Cheltenham tonight; it will be great to see them as some I’ve not crossed paths with them in a couple of years…
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