ChrisMerriman.com

Nov 12 2010

Long Hair And T-Shirts

Category: Anna's Photos,Friends — ChrisM @ 9:46 pm

Back on the 16th of April (a few days before my birthday) we all popped over to the Agnew’s residence, as we don’t get a lot of opportunities to catch up with each others’ news. I forgot to ask if it was OK to publish photos of our friends, so you will have to make do with just a photo of Anna and me. She is proudly wearing her “I love Wales” t-shirt, and by the looks of it, about to make a grab for something she isn’t supposed to. You may remember that last Christmas we spent Christmas Day at the Agnews, and had a great time; this year however, we will be spending Christmas and New Year back in Britain, and giving our friends a bit of piece and quiet 🙂 Looking back at these pictures, I’m still surprised at just how much Anna’s hair has grown in such a short amount of time!

Chris And Anna Merriman At The Agnews

Tags: Anna, Birthday, Britain, Christmas, New Year's Day, Wales

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Oct 31 2010

At Sligo. No Halloween celebra…

Category: Eating Out,Friends,Pictures,Tweets — ChrisM @ 8:37 pm

At Sligo. No Halloween celebrations this year. Beer prices gone up. One other table occupied. Music very good. http://yfrog.com/2sfi7qj

Tags: Tweets, twitter

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Oct 28 2010

Friends, Guns, Roses And Burgers

Category: Eating Out,Friends,Pictures — ChrisM @ 2:35 am

These are the pictures I previously mentioned. DanD, Walton and I all met up with DanC (who was back in Astana for the weekend) for a meal and a few drinks. Although DanD and I had already been to this bar since the Guns n’ Roses chain had taken it over from Northwind’s management, we weren’t sure if the prices, ambience, layout and staff attentiveness were all just boosted for their opening week, or whether we could consider adding it to our list of regular haunts.
As it turned out, the G n’ R management seem to have noticed all the little issues that prevented North Wind from ever really filling up with customers, and addressed them from the very start. The layout of the bar and surrounding tables has been changed, the prices, whilst not cheap, are certainly a lot more reasonable than previously, and the menu (in both English and Russian) has enough variety (from traditional Western bar food to steaks and garlic bread) to meet most people’s needs. Both times we have been there, there was live music and the normal tables were full up with people enjoying themselves. Finally, the dance floor was occupied most of the evening.

: Bacon Cheeseburger

: Hot (Chilli?) Steak

: Walton And DanC At Guns n’ Roses, Astana

Tags: Astana, Dan, food, Russia, Walton

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Oct 27 2010

Guns n’ Roses Bar – Astana

Category: Eating Out,Friends,Videos — ChrisM @ 7:24 pm

Looking for the Astana branch’s telephone number? Skip to the end of this post
Right, I am going to try and catch up with some of the videos and pictures that were recently uploaded to their respective media hosting sites, but didn’t quite make it to the blog (there was some sort of issue with the free WiFi at the time, either some URLs or ports appeared to be blocked). First we have a clip from the Guns n’ Roses bar here in Astana. It is situated where North Wind “pub” used to work from. This is the house band playing after a lovely meal. I know the quality isn’t great, but this was the best of the bunch. It was very unusual to see the dance floor full for most of the evening – more on the differences between the venue under its new Guns n’ Roses chain management and the old North Wind style later.

Just shot this clip (#qik) http://qik.ly/DH3r4

OK, depending on your exact search term, this site is either #1, #1 and #2 or even #1, #2 AND #3 when you google for Guns & Roses Astana. Having just re-checked their website (which has FINALLY made it into the top 10), there are no contact details given for the Astana branch. It looks as though they haven’t altered the site since this one opened. Unfortunately, the business cards they were (originally?) handing out also have an incorrect number on, so in case you want to make a reservation, please call +7 7172 591809 . No reward has been given for this post, but feel free to tell staff I sent you – a free beer once a month would be a nice start from them 😉

Tags: Astana

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Oct 13 2010

Last Night’s Football Match

Category: Friends,Kazakhstan,Pictures,Sport — ChrisM @ 8:33 pm

As with last video post, these shots were actually taken yesterday at the Kazakhstan vs. Germany EUFA football match here in Astana. I forgot to upload them when I got home to a WiFi connection last night, hence the slight delay…
http://twitpic.com/2x9xwp
http://twitpic.com/2x9y80

Tags: Astana, Dan, Kazakhstan

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Oct 12 2010

Just shot this clip (#qik) htt…

Category: Dasha&Kittens,Friends,Tweets,Videos — ChrisM @ 6:31 pm

Muska being filmed for a piece on the news! Don’t know the cameraman, but the journalist is Balzhan, our friend.
Just shot this clip (#qik) http://qik.ly/C6wIY

Tags: Muska, Tweets, twitter

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Oct 12 2010

First-ish Faltering Footsteps

Category: Anna's Videos,Friends — ChrisM @ 11:57 am

Another video shot on Irina’s birthday (31st of January), here we have a quick clip of Anna munching on some fruit, and continuing to practice walking around. There were definitely not her first steps, but you can see how the experience is still relatively new to her. Towards the end of the clip you can see Losha, Ira’s Dad, Zakhar, Rossita, Balzhan and Dr Natalya.
Which reminds me, no idea when it will be broadcast, but Karra will probably be filmed tonight for a piece in Astana’s (as in the TV channel, not the city itself) news program. Something to do with black cats not being unlucky! (The reminder being that Balzhan is the reporter involved).

Tags: Anna, Astana, Birthday, Dad, Irina, Kara, YouTube

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Oct 12 2010

Nowhere To Run. Just Swerve.

Category: Friends,Videos — ChrisM @ 11:50 am

Just noticed that there are two or three YouTube videos that need to be embedded before catching up with those featuring Anna since we got back to Astana.
This one was shot on Irina’s birthday, and it looks a little like they are playing something similar to dodgeball. I was always more of a British Bulldog lover personally, for the same reason I preferred playing rugby to football. Precise aim and co-ordination were never my strengths, body checking someone and or grabbing a ball was more my thing.
Anyway, we have another video to come after this one, then we’ll be around the end of March timeline wise.