As long term readers will know, I have been following a blogger’s preparations for a charity road trip in Austria. He is the author of my favourite plugin (WP-Headline Animator, see my “Extras” link at the top of each page), and his trip is to be on a moped.
Except it looks like I have missed the start of it 🙁 Check his site (StarBlog) for more details, but in case he has not yet completed his trip, I wish him the best of luck and a safe journey. All proceeds raised are going to a childrens charity, and the man himself is a bloody nice bloke, to quote a Harry Enfield character (Tim Nice-But-Dim?). I am not sure which logo won his contest in the end, nor when it ends. I’ve just checked the road trip specific section, but as I don’t know the total length of his journey, I can’t figure out when he will finish, even with the 200/300km per day target he has set.
Anyway, I am sure we will hear from him when he gets a moment to relax 🙂
Sep 07 2007
I Can’t Believe I Missed It!
Sep 05 2007
Astana Day Concerts #9
This is it… the last four videos recorded on the evening that Astana had a concert to celebrate the President’s birthday and also that Astana became the capital of Kazakhstan almost ten years ago now.
Here we have the fireworks starting, with a message in Kazakh, and some more carnival dancing and music in the background.
The fireworks have properly started, and we also have the Rio Carnival procession finally makes its way to the stage.
Excuse the strange start to this video – I couldn’t believe it when a heavily pregnant woman stood on top of an unstable chair to take some photos, so I got a little distracted. Anyway, it leads into the 13th act with singing in both Russian And English. The track Dancing On Broken Glass has also received a fair amount of air time on the radio stations over here. The President had already left by this point. Apparently the singer is quite popular, at least amongst woman. Ira was recently on the same flight as him, coming back from Moscow, though sadly there was no gossip to report back…
The end Of the Astana Day concert, with a cameo by AlexC, testing the low ambient light setting on the camcorder.
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Sep 02 2007
Ildar’s First Day At School
Yesterday we went to meet up with Ildar and Mum (Balzhan) to attend his first day at school. Dr Natalya and her daughter Sveta also came. Sveta is still a few years away from going to school, but it looks like she was interested in everything going on at least.
One of the things that really stood out (apart from the fact that Kazakh children appear to start school a year or two later than in Britain) is just how seriously they take the first day at school. There were boys in suits and girls in their Sunday best. (As Kazakhstan is, at least nominally, a Muslim state, perhaps that should be Friday best??). The ceremony lasted a little over an hour, with flags, music blasted out of speakers, the national anthem, lots of kids with flowers, speeches by those about to leave the same school, and plenty of proud relations milling about.
Anyway, on to the photos (I hope to finish editting the videos later and if I get time will post them on here this evening)…
First we have mother and son
This is the better quality of the two group photos…
However, I could not miss this one out, primarily because it has Ildar showing off his milk teeth missing – truly growing up now 🙂
Here we have the children ready lined up to be bored to sleep by the speeches. (I was really impressed how well they all behaved – I got fidgetty enough to sneak off for a cigarette half way through.)
Perhaps their good behaviour was attributable to the formidable presence of the headmistress?
The school flag was wheeled out…
Finally a quick shot of the school building itself. In times past, it would probably have at least received a quick lick of paint before a ceremony like this, but the sculptures were still pretty impressive.
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Sep 02 2007
HaPpY BiRtHdAy WaLtOn !!!
Hope you do not have a too busy day, and that this coming year is a good one for you…
from,
Chris, Ira, Karra and Muska
PS Please say hello to your dearly beloved as well from all of us.
Sep 02 2007
Uphill Water Travel?
I have just sent a message to Alex and ChrisD, asking if they fancy visiting the Escher museum whilst in Amsterdam. Although I do intend to get thoroughly relaxed whilst in the smokers’ haven, I would like to check out a couple of places of cultural interest. I’m not sure if we will make it to all of these, but I would also like to check out the Anne Frank hidey hole, if we can arrive when the majority of other tourists are not causing a log jam, as well as going on a boat trip around the canals. Rather than using one of the tours organized by the big three companies, I found a charity that runs a trip on a different type of boat, where drinking, smoking and eating is welcomed, and there is no fixed charge. If the trip turns out to be a waste of time, all we will have lost is a little time and gained a fresh perspective on the city. Hopefully it will go well. I intend to write posts on points of interest following our trip, though it may need to wait until mid-October, when I get back to Kazakhstan. Anyway the catalyst to me writing this post was a garden designed by the inventor of the famous Dyson hoover (James Dyson), who came up with the concept of a water feature that had water travelling uphill.
I have to admit the photos got my attention… Although obviously water can not naturally travel against gravity by going up hill, my first couple of assumptions did not hold up to any sort of analysis… Vacuums and mere optical illusions that involved having the hills not actually inclined in the way they appeared not would be too easily noticed by the public. Anyway, check below for a diagram of how it actually works…
Ps If you have not figured out what Escher has to do with this, either look at your average student’s poster covered wall, or Google it 😉
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Sep 02 2007
Fresh Content over at the English Advantage Blog
As Walton, the author of the English Advantage blog, is now back in Kazakhstan, posts have resumed over there. He created a post on Slang used in American schools that I found useful, so check it, and the rest of the blog, out when you get a moment. If you happen to be based in Astana, you may also find his business very useful if you have an interest in learning English. Even more so, if you wish to visit America one day, to attend university for example. He has also recently joined up with PayPerPost, so can earn a little extra money informing his readers of useful sites and products.
Post NOT sponsored, the linked to blog’s author is a friend, this post was created for free. Unless his giving me ciggies when I run out count? LMAO
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Aug 30 2007
Astana Day Concerts Videos #4
OK, as you may have read from earlier posts, I have been experimenting trying to find the best way to encode videos to ensure high quality clips on YouTube. So far things have not gone well. I have ascertained that I do need de-interlace the raw DV video from my camcorder. I have tried different ways of resizing from 720×576 to 320×240, including clipping, adding letter box strips, changing the aspect ratio, all to no avail – the video quality is still far worse than previous videos I’ve uploaded. I have tried both DivX and Xvid codecs, with medium to high bit rates, but I always seem to end up with quality that would look bad coming from an old mobile phone.
For now, I shall continue posting the videos as they stand. If someone has an idea about how to achieve better results, let me know. Similarly, if someone would like to have a copy of these, let me know which interests you, and we’ll sort something out…
First we have a short clip of the lasers being tested during the 7th Act at the Astana Day concert. Why have I included it? Watch out for a video taken later in the night, that shows just how impressive the laser show was 🙂 As a small techy point, although the square and X don’t appear contiguous, to the naked eye, they were solid…
Here we have The 8th act singing in Russian…
Lastly (at least for this post), we have Alex, Ira and Ira’s Mum after the 8th act…
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Aug 29 2007
The Barrel Restaurant
As I mentioned in the previous post, we (Ira, Me, Balzhan, Ildar, Masha, Dr. Natalya, Sasha & Sveta) went out to celebrate Dr. Natalya & Sasha’s new car. In the same way as you ‘wet’ a baby’s head, major accomplishments are celebrated with a drink over here; if you have something to drink, you should have a meal with it. So, we went to the restaurant that uses huge barrels as outdoor dining areas. We all had pork sashliq (kebabs) a little to drink, and generally nattered a little. Before hand, we went and inspected the VW Golf, which is a definite improvement over their old soviet-style car (could have been an old-style Lada?). After that, Sasha dropped the car back at the flat and walked to the restaurant, so he could drink as well.
Anyway, enough of the text, onto the photos…
So first we have a few shots of the car
Now we have the food, starting with the lovely, straight from the oven, lepioshka bread, followed by the potato sausage thingies, some (apparently) delicious salad and the main course – the sashliq 🙂
Oh, and the leftovers 😉
Finally we have the attendants of the evening’s festivities…
Lastly, Balzhan’s nails, of which she was very proud. We had been waiting a while for our food by this time, so Dr. Natalya was threatening to start nibbling on Balzhan’s hands…
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Aug 27 2007
Oh… I’m A Lumberjack And I’m OK
If you are not a Monty Python fan, please feel free to ignore this post’s title, and skip straight to the content. That sentence is a little redundant I’m guessing, as you probably read the title already. Humble apologies if I just wasted a fifth of a second of your busy day.
How To Recognise Different Trees From Quite A Long Way Away… Number One – The Larch.
So Alex has written a new post, and added some photos this time. Again the subject is her possible new career in tree surgery (Python fans now understanding the why reference to the Larch? Or still unable to find Kosher car parks?). Anyway, despite it being relatively heavy work, and in hot temperatures (at least until Britain remembers it is supposed to be grey and miserable 10 months a year), she seems to have enjoyed herself again. Check out the new post at Dryad Musings. Do feel free to leave her a comment, or if gardening is not your thing, check out the other posts on offer 🙂
It could have been weirder, she could have wished for a gender swap and to become “Bicycle Repair Man”!
And now, Number 3, The Larch
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Aug 27 2007
Random Reunion
As per normal, Ira and I went over to her parent’s house on Sunday, where we catch up on the week’s news, have some lunch, potter around the garden. OK, honesty time, I tend to skip the gardening section. Don’t get me wrong, if there is heavy lifting to do, or something that involves manual labour, I’ll not complain too much, but plants have never liked me; I can try and look after them, but they normally end up in a mess, and wilting; combine my hay fever in, and you can (hopefully) see why I tend to avoid the garden, at least in the hot summer months. Later on, they have a sauna, whilst I appreciate being in a room with normal humidity, and can breathe easily. However, before they got to the sauna stage, Lorsha and his Mum & Dad popped over. The two males had just arrived back from Germany, and wanted to pop in and say hello to the family. It was good to see them again, and then a little while later, Dr. Natalya, Sasha, Balzhan and their respective offsprings popped over, as they had been to the Duman (the big fish place and entertainment centre) for the first time. Yep, they live in Astana, but had never been to the aquarium. I guess it may be a little like the London Eye, or Empire State Building over in NYC – if you live in the city, and don’t have any visiting friends to take to the attractions, you never get round to it. Anyway, as they were in the area, they popped over, as did Asen’s mum, who dropped off a plant for Ira’s mum. It was good to see everyone, though it appears the vodka shots effected me, as I dozed off for a while.
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