Nov 20 2010

TGI Was My Birthday!

Category: Anna's Videos,Eating Out — ChrisM @ 1:01 am

After taking Anna to the playground in the morning, we went to TGI Friday here in Astana. Although some friends comment on the prices, occasional staff attitude issues and better alternatives, I hadn’t tried the Astana branch at this point (20th April). The burger was tasty, the cocktail (custom ordered as the menu didn’t match what I remembered from a UK edition) well made and just right ratio of ingredients. Irina’s Mum came with us, Anna was very well behaved (I was a little concerned she’d try throwing the big girls ceramic plate on the floor) and by the end of the meal I was very glad we went there, and perhaps a little tipsy 🙂

We have since visited again once or twice, and given that there are other expensive restaurants in Astana, and sometimes you just want a Western style burger, I’d happily recommend you try it at least once – if nothing else you’ll at least be able to criticize from personal experience, if you don’t end up liking it 🙂

Tags: , , , , , ,

Nov 05 2010

No Subs Yet

Category: Anna's Videos,Dasha&Kittens,In The Media,Videos — ChrisM @ 11:44 pm

However, here is the video I mentioned earlier in the week. I’ll see if we can get some sort of translation done by the weekend, but the basic idea is a discussion on whether black cats are lucky or unlucky. I’d personally be more inclined to say they are just cats. If you push me on the point, I’d agree some are black. However as the journalist was a friend, and she needed a foreigner to give her a nice quote on some interesting good luck omens we apparently have back in Britain, I was happy to oblige 🙂
You’ll see Karra and Muska in there, as well as Anna enjoying playing with the cats’ toy.

Tags: , , , ,

Nov 03 2010

Karra And Others

Category: Dasha&Kittens,Personal — ChrisM @ 9:57 pm

This morning, while Anna and I were at her regular Wednesday kindergarten, Astana TV ran a piece on black cats that I mentioned previously. Someone somewhere recorded it via a camcorder hooked up to the RCA outputs on a cable box, and left me the tape.
Anna, Muska, Karra and I all make a brief appearance (given that she has black fur and is a cat, Karra was on screen for the longest 🙂 ). Now all I have to do is hope some kind soul with a disposable YouTube account uploads it soon, so I can embed the video here!
The journalist is obviously speaking in Russian, so I’ll hopefully find a version with English subtitles. On a related note, checking YouTube will be a faster experience for us from next month, as we have upgraded to MegaLine’s Turbo Plus account, meaning we will get our first 20Gb per month at a speed of 1 to 8 Mbit/sec. Again, as with our current 1Mbit account, after those 20Gb have been exceeded, the speed will be throttled down again.
Hooray for faster internet! Though I’ll have to be careful as we will soon be able to exceed our monthly limit within about three hours of the first day of the month!

Tags: , , , , ,

Oct 31 2010

Just shot this clip (#qik) htt…

Category: Eating Out,Tweets,Videos — ChrisM @ 9:16 pm

Short video clip of Sligo…

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

Tags: ,

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

Sligo Club Sandwich

Tags: ,

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.

Tags: , , , ,

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:

Oct 22 2010

At Mega with Ira&Anna.Her Qik …

Category: Anna's Photos,Eating Out,Tweets — ChrisM @ 8:04 pm

At Mega with Ira&Anna.Her Qik trampolining vid 2b uploaded later.In “Big Mama”.Hot dog&burger not bad.The fries r. http://twitpic.com/2zsco7

Anna At Big MaMa's, Mega

Tags: , , ,

Oct 21 2010

Anna Clapping With The Dancers

Category: Anna's Videos,Eating Out,Kazakhstan,Videos — ChrisM @ 2:10 am

The first of these two videos (featuring Latin/Mardi Gras style dancers) has a brief appearance from Anna in it, hence this post just making it into the Anna’s Videos category. I just wanted to give a quick explanation in case you are watching these clips whilst visiting Anna Merriman‘s site – there is a reason for the scantily dressed women appearing on her site 🙂
As you’ll remember from the recent “Aunty Gulya’s Grandson’s Birthday” post, the 3rd of April saw all three of us attending the Duman hotel for a small boy’s birthday party. He and his friends had a magician in another room, whilst the adult guests were presented with the following. I’m not certain, but I think if you check the April archives on this site, you may find a clip or two of the magician?



This second clip features a Turkish belly dancer entertaining everyone, and proving that her percussion was strong enough to stand on!

Tags: , ,

Oct 21 2010

Snowscapes

Category: Kazakhstan,Pictures — ChrisM @ 12:55 am

It looks as though I’ll have managed to publish these two pictures before the snow returns again to Astana. The photos were shot in April of this year, just after we had returned from Britain. Even if there aren’t huge snow storms, the amount of snow on the ground means that just a small amount of wind is enough to start drifts in new areas on the road, and you will sometimes find small mounds of snow into mid-May, especially in areas that don’t get much sunlight through the day. You can wandering around in a t-shirt (OK, so local people will still have coats and hats on…), and suddenly find yourself walking through dirty snow!
The second picture shows the guard dog’s kennel, which strangely enough is only used during the warmer months. The rest of the time, she has an area sheltered from the extreme temperatures (which is also useful in the middle of the sweltering summer). I’ve just had a quick flick through the wintery pictures from the last 12 months, and can’t find any snow angel/butterfly ones. Something to remedy in a few weeks/months time when the snow returns to the city. (We’ve had a few random flakes, but it isn’t cold enough to settle on the ground at all).

From The Steps Into The House

From The Steps Into The House

Aynak's Summer House

Aynak's Summer House

Tags: ,

« Previous Page — Next Page »