This evening we went with Assel and Walton to the roof terrace section of the Sattay restaurant. Although you do pay a little more than some places, it wasn’t quite in the range of the German style restaurant we went to mid-week, luckily. I had some Bousaky as a starter (a roll that tastes a little like a doughnut, without the sugar added), a kebab (Sashlique) with chips, and some profiteroles for dessert. Unfortunately, they were too tasty to pause and grab a photo, sorry, but you can see the edible bowl they came in at least…
One thing that caught our eyes was the difference in prices between the English menu, and the Russian menu. Being inquisitive, we asked the waitress why foreigners were expected to pay more at this establishment. The reason given was that you received larger portions for the more expensive (English language) versions of the items. Having seen how much a Kazakh man can put away in an evening, especially if the food is required to soak up a good amount of vodka, I remain unconvinced. See the pictures below for an example of how the chips cost more on one menu than the other.
The music they played was refreshingly non-pop, and the service level was good. Once we had finished our meal, and putting the world to rights over some vodka, we headed back to Walton and Assel’s place, where we had some popcorn, sweets and a little more vodka. (See the last photo below, this vodka has garnered quite a reputation internationally, apparently.)
Aug 26 2007
Sattay With Friends
Aug 23 2007
My Very Own Restaurant
OK, not quite, but the name of the place we went to last night is not a million miles from my surname…
?????????? which (very) roughly equates to Meramhana, which is pretty damn close to Merriman ๐
Anyway, we met up with Walton and Assel, who we had not seen since he went away to Kyrgyzstan with Tom to help teach some Afghan teenagers.
The last time we tried to go to this restaurant, the whole place was closed to the public, as there were some government big wigs in attendance at someone important’s birthday. That probably should have given us a small clue as to the price range, but we ploughed on regardless… Whilst we waited outside for Walton to arrive, I took a quick shot of the patio seating, though this now being the end of August, no Kazakhs were in view, as it is too cold to sit outside. Apparently.
When we went in, the interior looked quite impressive, and the staff were actually pleasant to deal with; none of the oft-encountered ‘I am doing you a favour serving you’ sort of attitude. I had a nice fried cheese starter, and a pepper steak with chips. Sorry, that should have been a PEPPER steak with chips. (The amount of pepper corns I scraped off the meat would have lasted me a couple of years in a pepper grinder at home.) Walton and Ira had the same dish, though Irina has mushrooms as her garnish. Even Ira noted that the sauce on the meat was really quite hot. Half through the meal I literally had tears coming from my eyes, and this was after shaving the top, bottom and sides of the meat, to try and minimize the strength of the pepper sauce. I enjoyed it, but would not recommend it in a restaurant that was not air conditoned ๐
Please excuse the messy plate – I forgot to take a shot until about 1/2 through the meal. Whilst we ate, there was a live band playing downstairs, who were pretty talented, even if a little loud. The violinist had a stronger talent for playing her electric violin than singing, but their repertoire involved a wide selection of Russian and English songs, that did not exclusively involve female lead vocals, so overall, their input was most appreciated.
So, we finished off the meal with a nice dollop or two of ice cream, and said our goodbyes. It was really good to have the four of us back together again, and to hear (a little) about Walton’s time at the camp.
[EDIT]
Ooops, apparently ?????????? is actually the Kazakh word for restaurant… not the name of the establishment itself. That is now three words of Kazakh I know ๐
Aug 18 2007
Tom And Walton
Have finished the summer camp for Afghani children over in Kyrgyzstan. To catch up with what has been going on, head on over to LifeOf2Me. We were hoping to catch up with Tom before he heads off to his next adventure, but at the very least we will be able to hear from Walton how things went over there, and if there were any stories that could not be published ๐
Anyway, wherever you are right now Tom, hope life is going well, and has a little excitement in store still, and to Walton, WELCOME HOME, see you soon.
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Aug 18 2007
Accountant To Tree Surgeon?
For anyone who has not checked Alex’s site recently, she has made a post regarding a possible career change…
She currently works in accountancy, which pays reasonably well, but does not really fire her up. Having thought for a long time, and actually spent a day helping out some friends already in the tree surgery business, it looks as though she is seriously considering swapping her career.
How about you? Have you ever changed from one job to a completely different one? How did you feel afterwards? Since secondary school, I have only ever really enjoyed jobs that involved technical support aspects – I enjoy working with computers, but prefer there to be an element of human interaction as well. Having worked as an engineer, roaming the country to fix, upgrade, and train merchants on how to use credit card terminals, I found the work interesting. That said, it does require a lot less effort to simply turn up at an office, stick on your headset, and answer the phone, helping people out when their PC will only do what they tell it, not what they actually want ๐
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Aug 11 2007
Happy Birthday Ira’s Mum
Today was, as you may have guessed from this post’s title, Jenya’s (my mother-in-law) birthday. Aunty Sveta and her grand daughter Sasha came last night to celebrate with the family. We spent the morning grabbing cake, flowers and a few other bits and bobs. Then we went home to congratulate Jenya on the happy occasion. We and Ira’s dad got a new mobile phone for her (Nokia N76), which is now mostly working ๐ I was not a great deal of help as I have (purposefully) only ever owned one Nokia, many years ago, and so was not too familiar with their approach to the user interface.
We all had a nice couple of meals, with a little to drink, and were also joined by Dr. Natalya, her husband Sasha ยง, daughter, as well as Balzhan and her son Ildar. I built a fire in the living room fireplace, and it did not start the carpet ablaze, so all went well there ๐
ยง – When in doubt over a Russian’s name, Sasha is normally a safe bet ๐
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Aug 10 2007
BG Charity Event – Part #4
Right, I think I now have all the text deciphered ๐ This is the last of the posts on the charity event organized by BG (British Gas) Kazakhstan to raise funds for the Kazakh Paralympic team and their trip to the Paralympics next year at Beijing, China.
Throughout the evening, there were draws for the raffle, with prizes donated by local businesses. The worst was a 20% discount card from a jeweller. If I ever discover the name of the company that ‘donated’ some guaranteed business for themselves, I will gladly post it here, possibly with the anchor text ‘Tight Fisted Profit Obsessed Dratsab’ ๐ Any way, the rest of the prizes were very good, and from the ones I remembered to tap into my phone as we went along, we have a couple of mobile phones, quite a few massages (I am assuming they were of the reputable variety ๐ ), dance lessons, a couple of weekends at a hotel, a few restaurant cards (pre-paid with about $150 on them I think), body spa vouchers, quite a few pre-paid SIM cards with credit pre-applied to them, some month passes for a local gym, a return ticket to Almaty (for one person). In between the raffle sessions, we had a belly dancer. We did not win anything, but unlike the lottery or fruit machines, it was good to know our cash was going to a very worth cause.
Then came the main event (in terms of fund raising) – the auction. This was basically the realm of either foreigners on foreign wages, or Kazakhs who were lucky enough to have a job that paid Western wages. The bidders were very generous, paying more than the item was worth in each case. There was another weekend stay in a luxury hotel here in Astana, and also another return flight to Almaty. The hotel stay was won for 75,000 Tenge (around $575), and then immediately returned to be bid on again (basically a large charitable donation from the first winner), where it then raised a further 55,000 Tenge (around $420). We then had the deputy chairman of the Kazakh Paralympic Committee give a small speech, during which an outrageously rude American group at a table behind us talked loudly all through. If it hadn’t been a corporate event that involved people Irina knew from work, I’d have gladly quietly told the ignorant rude idiots to shut the hell up or take their inconsequential conversation outside. Anyway, the return flight to Almaty sold for 100,500 Tenge (around $775), I think this was also put back in the pot to be re-sold and raise more money for the charity, though I appear to have forgotten to record the second amount. Apologies. Nope, scratch that, I entered the details at the end of my notes. The second time round the ticket sold for 60,000 Tenge (~$460). The ticket was then put back into the auction AGAIN, and resold for a 3rd time, for 51,000 Tenge ($390). So the two auctions items managed to raise around $2600 just by themselves! Altogether, with entrance tickets, donations & raffle tickets also included, the evening raised around 800,000 Tenge ($6200). I will certainly be keeping an eye out on TV for any coverage the Kazakh Paralympic team get next year in Shanghai ๐
Oh, and just for any hard core cynics out there, this is not a sponsored post, I just see this as being a worthy cause to promote.
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Aug 10 2007
BG Charity Event – Part #3
So, as promised, here are further details of the rest of Wednesday’s charity event to raise funds for the Kazakh Paralympics team, organized by BG Kazakhstan…
Mira volunteered for a dance competition, where random pairs coupled up to dance to some music. Nothing too unusual so far, however every minute or so, the track was changed for something of a different genre, and the couple had to smoothly make the transition into a new dancing style more in line with the new music. At least that was the theory, however the DJ appeared to be having a little technical difficulty in getting her tracks to change. Anyway, in the end all entrants were awarded with a nice umbrella, which was put to good use on the walk home to our flat at the end of the evening.
In between competitions, we had a couple of singers to provide some background noise. Luckily, they were not too loud, so Mira and I had an opportunity to speak to each other a little. The deal was I would try and speak as much Russian, as she did in English. If you are reading this Mira, I think you still owe me a few ????????? ????? ๐
We then had a lady perform a traditional Kazakh dance, that I had not seen before.
More to come in a moment, need to decipher the rest of the messages I was typing out ๐
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Aug 10 2007
BG Charity Event – Part #2
Rather than relying on my alcohol fuzzed mind to recall the events of the evening, I actually made notes on my phone as the evening carried on, so I am hoping most of this is relatively accurate.
As I previously mentioned, we arrived and found ourselves a table. After quite a long wait, we eventually managed to order drinks and our meal. Being the incredibly adventurous soul I am, my order consisted of steak and sauce. Ira eventually decided to have the same, and we both ordered them to be medium. When the meat arrived, I am pretty sure it had stopped moving, but beyond that, it definitely seemed to be on the bloody side of rare, rather than medium, but they were tasty, so no real complaints there. Whilst the MC announced what was going on, and various videos were played, people came around selling raffle tickets; this was after all a charity event, not just a meal out. More on the prizes later. Towards the beginning of the night, there were a couple of young ballroom dancers swirling their stuff on the dance floor, though we were sat behind a column that blocked the view. Probably for the best, as the young lady did seem to distract quite a few of the men around me who did have a better view!
The British ambassador was in attendance, as was someone Irina and I had previously met at the Tex/Mex/Argentinian/Italian restaurant a few months back, who is apparently quite important within British Gas’ Kazakh arm.
Anyway, at this point I need to decipher exactly what I thought I was typing on my phone, so there will be more to come later, including Mira’s language deal with me, and her entrance to a dancing competition!
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Aug 10 2007
Finally Met Mira…
Though I think I should check how to spell her name tomorrow – Ira (or Mira) if you read this before I speak to you next, feel free to leave a comment laughing at my attempt to spell the name ๐
Anyway, for those who don’t know, she works with Ira over at KazMunaiGaz, and seems like a nice lady. We all went to the EastWest restaurant, as BG (British Gas) had organized a charity event to raise funds for Kazakhstan’s Paralympics team. The idea is to raise enough cash to help them attend next year’s Olympics over in Beijing. They also made reference to the BG Energy Challenge, another event to raise cash, where teams from companies are sponsored to take part in what looked like a cross between an endurance challenge, and the TV show It’s A Knockout. We arrived perfectly on time to the restaurant (which in Kazakhstan means about 50 minutes after the official start!), and eventually found a table to accommodate the three of us, sitting next to two Kazakh ladies. I forgot to bring my camera, and the shots I took with my mobile are not very good. (I also need to get ActiveSync working first anyway), but I’ll try and post photos later on today or tomorrow if I can.
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Aug 06 2007
Completed Our Amsterdam Map
I have now finished creating a suitable map to use with the GPS Tuner application I mentioned previously. With the three calibration points configured, and the best points of interest discovered and precisely located via Google Earth, Alex, ChrisD and I should all be able to get to anywhere we need no matter what time of day, nor our alcohol intake levels ๐ I also installed the Google Earth application yesterday on the in-laws PC; they seemed to enjoy finding all the major buildings and areas here in Kazakhstan, and Ira’s mum was able to check out the village she grew up in, over in Moscow!
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