Ali BaBa w/Agnews – good times- http://post.ly/29AUe http://post.ly/29A7G http://post.ly/299vJ http://post.ly/299qa http://post.ly/29AEx
Jun 03 2011
Ali BaBa w/Agnews – good times…
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Jun 01 2011
Ira’s payday,so off2Assorti (i…
Ira’s payday,so off2Assorti (in Mega) b4 we spend it all 🙂 Anna enjoyed herself at the playground http://post.ly/28TOr http://post.ly/28TPU
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May 25 2011
Melnitza
We haven’t been back there in a while, but last year (the 23rd of June 2010 to be precise) Ira’s parents came with us to Melnitza, the Ukranian restaurant about 10 minutes walk from us. Straight away Anna seemed to like the place again, and a passing waitress was picked out by her to be picked up by. We haven’t been back there this year yet, but I’m hoping we will sometime this summer.
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- Babushka, Dedushka & Anna At Melnitza, Astana
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- That Is Funny. Now Give Me The Camera!
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- Waving To Her Adoring Public
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- Something Has Anna’s Undivided Attention!
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- Rabbits At Melnitza. Pets For Children To Play With. Not For Eating. I Think.
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- Anna Climbing The Stairs To A Slide
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- Bridge Over A Pond
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- Outdoor Oven At Melnitza
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- Mushrooms And Diarrhea Green Bears!
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May 12 2011
Tandoor bar & restaurant openi…
Tandoor bar & restaurant opening night this evening.Indian,Thai & Chinese cuisine. Anna in Chubary, JohnA & Inessa w/us http://post.ly/21nrW
May 07 2011
First visit of the year to Ali…
First visit of the year to Ali BaBa with Ira & Anna! Hope to come here often with friends & family this year… http://post.ly/20Cpu
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May 06 2011
Chaser Becomes The Chasee(e?)
Arrrrgh. Someone remind to get back to tagging posts sometime soon. Please? Back down to about 25% of the posts with proper (checked, not just auto-generated) tags again! Anyway, the final post from the 15th of May 2010, again at Ali Ba Ba with DanC’s family and Walton. Can’t honestly remember right now if Assel managed to make it over, or if she was busy at work.
Anyway, looking back at this video now, it is really cute to see Anna tottering around, still not totally stable on her feet. At one point it looks as though Anna is attempting a game of Kiss-Chase with Aidan, which given his reputation with girls, is quite the turn around!
In case you’ve not been before, this video gives a small glimpse as to how Ali BaBa looks, though you’ll need to return to the previous post to get an idea of how the side tables look.
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May 04 2011
He Wasn’t The Thieves’ Leader Apparently!
OK, on to the next search term that people googled before they ended up at this blog, and a timely reminder… “Ali Baba restaurant Astana” is the term, and apparently they should be opening for business again this month. As they are an outdoors venue (albeit with a tent like covering), and combined with Kazakh’s discomfort with what a British or American visitor might consider a perfectly acceptable temperature to dine al fresco, we have to wait each year to be able to eat and drink there. It is one of my favourite places to chill out in, although you need to be careful if you decide to dine in one of the side tents, with their Kazakh style low tables and cushions on the floor to sit on – too many beers and you might just find the cushion makes an inviting pillow! This site appears to rank 5th, 6th and 7th with Google (I did sign out of Google to check the search wasn’t biased in my favour only because they knew it belonged to me – your results may vary?). If I was running a site that made income from visitors who were interested in a particular niche topic, be it Astana Restaurants or mattresses, then I could probably make some money out of these results, however I’m not aware of Ali Baba (click for their location on Google Maps) running any sort of affiliate scheme. I just hope a few visitors have read previous reviews when looking for somewhere to eat out in Astana, and decided to give them a shot!
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May 04 2011
Birthday Post
As referred to in a recent comment, I appreciate that this blog has been left a little messy since my birthday. What with lots of individual tweets, and no linked media embedded, the page looks a little bare right now.
I’m going to condense a few tweets into summary posts, then get back to posting Anna’s photo and videos.
What seems to be becoming a birthday tradition is Ira, Anna, Ira’s Mum and me all heading down to the local TGI Friday on the eve of my birthday. There is a lot of choice here in Astana for nice restaurants, however the burgers, garnishes and cocktails seem to keep me coming back for more, even if it is only an annual event.
The first thing I noticed was that the TGIF staff training (or perhaps it is just as simple as hiring different/extra staff) seems to have improved their customer service skills exponentially since last year. Without being too sycophantic or constantly hovering near our table, our waiter was eager to answer all questions, spoke some English, and even ran down the road to a local shop to grab me some cigarettes when I discovered the restaurant didn’t sell them!
I unfortunately was too distracted by the tastes to take a photo of the starters, but I managed to snap the other courses – see below. TGIF is obviously still quite pricey compared to some places, but I’d definitely classify it as a nice treat when you can afford/justify it.
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- Ira, Anna & Babushka at TGI Friday
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- Fairly large Mojito and Long Island Iced Tea
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- Here is the half eaten main course. Fajitas. Chicken fingers
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- Double Chocolate Fudge Brownie, Ice cream & Ice cream sundae. Food & cocktails all tasty so far!
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- No High-chair For Anna This Year!
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- Daddy drew little doodles, Anna filled the rest of the canvas in
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Apr 15 2011
At Guns & Roses, UK blokey dri…
At Guns & Roses, UK blokey drinks & food. Poor Justin has just been presented with smallest ever fish with chips. http://post.ly/1tyyH
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Apr 08 2011
Ice, Water, Mud & Pasta
It seems that Britain and Kazakhstan are in sync with the weather changing (if not the actual temperatures) right now. We spoke to Dad earlier today so he could see Anna via the webcam, and discovered that the UK is also experiencing warm weather. Although Kazakhstan is not yet in t-shirt and shorts weather, nearly all ice patches have melted, and temperatures reached 17 degrees Celsius, at least in the sun. Anna did look towards the playground area hopefully at lunchtime, whilst we were walking towards the car (luckily the play equipment is all metal, I hate to think what would happen to any wooden swing sets unlucky enough to be left out in a Kazakh winter that hits minus 35C at times!), however the ground around the slides et al is still water logged – wellies and old clothes might just be OK, but we were on a mission to pick Irina up from work and enjoy a lunch eating out for once. We headed to a new Italian restaurant that I forgot to note the name of. It is in the Mega shopping centre, on the top floor. Next to the indoor man-made rock climbing area, it has replaced the fast food Big Mammas outlet. Ira’s spag bol was definitely nothing to write home about, but with few customers to speak of the service was good, and the carbonara was just right. Happy to return there (I’ll remember the name this time) and try out there pizzas next time.
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