May 16 2009

Kara, Muska, Anna, Gwen & More Tummy Time

Category: Anna's Photos,Dasha&Kittens,Personal — ChrisM @ 7:31 pm

Today we saw Kara and Muska properly for the first time in a little over six months. We had seen them via a webcam session in Skype, but that obviously wasn’t the same. Anyway, they looked well (Kara especially, she has put on some weight and now looks healthily non-boney), so a huge thank you to Gulnaz for looking after them so well. I’ll try and remember to take a few shots of them once we move back into the flat.
Anyway, onto the reason for this post – Anna’s published photos are a long way off real time, so I’m hoping to upload at least the majority of them tonight, and space out the actual posts over the next week or two. These photos are of Anna having some more tummy time (considered important now that parents are advised to place babies on their backs always when sleeping, therefore their neck muscles need developing), with Gwen guarding her in the background 🙂 See here and here for the last couple of similar posts with pictures.

Tags: , ,

May 15 2009

The View From Our Hotel Room Window

Category: Kazakhstan,Pictures,Tweets — ChrisM @ 2:06 am

The view from our hotel room window. More snow capped mountains to the right 🙂 http://twitpic.com/56xah

View Of Airport And Mountains From Hotel Window In Almaty

Tags: ,

Jan 21 2009

Ali Ba Ba

Category: Eating Out,Friends,Personal,Pictures — ChrisM @ 8:47 pm

Here we have Walton, Asel, Dr. Ken, David, Irina and myself, all eating out at the Ali Ba Ba restaurant in Astana, just after out return to Kazakhstan from Britain and Amsterdam. Which reminds me, I still have a lot of Amsterdam pictures hiding on one of the hard drives that need to be published along with a few coffeeshop reviews.

Walton Asel Ali Ba Ba Astana

Walton Asel Ali Ba Ba Astana


Iria DavidG Ali Ba Ba Astana

Iria DavidG Ali Ba Ba Astana


Dr Ken Ali Ba Ba Astana

Dr Ken Ali Ba Ba Astana

As you may have noticed, this blog now has a very light weight gallery plugin installed. When you click on a thumbnail, you should see the original, higher resolution image pop up in a new box. Do let me know if you encounter any problems. Smart alecs are not welcome to leave messages complaining of no images whilst using the Lynx browser ;-P

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Dec 31 2008

Almost There

Category: Friends,Kazakhstan,Personal — ChrisM @ 8:17 pm

This is just a quick post to wish this site’s readers a very Happy New Year.

We currently have Marilyn & Peter over (Chris & Tim’s parents), as well as John’s son and daughter-in-law and their kids, with midnight fast approaching. To our American visitors, I hope you are warming up to the evening well, to my UK amigos, just under four hours to go. To my Kazakh readers, Snovum Goddum, hope you are already having a great 2009. (Over there, Western Xmas is barely noticed, Orthodox Xmas is observed, but New Year is the big deal.) Big HELLO to Walton, Assel, DavidG, ChrisK, The Dans & their respective familys, DrKen, lovely friendly Northern bloke I’ve temporarily forgotten the name of, Mel, the in-laws, Dana & Assen, Mira, Bayen & son and everyone else – thanks to all for your support over the last year/months (delete as applicable 🙂 ).
With Arriving to Britain, settling in, Christmas, New Year, and the baby due in February, it is possible that site will see a few less posts in the future, however the blog will remain here (assuming I remember to renew the hosting 🙂 ), and I’ll try to get back to regular posting ASAP.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Dec 29 2008

Too Hot, Cold Or Dirty?

Category: Kazakhstan,Personal — ChrisM @ 11:49 pm

Irina has asked for all British tap manufacturers to take note – STOP selling individual kitchen sink taps or anywhere where your hands come into contact with hot water, PLEASE combine them into one stream, so we don’t have to choose between freezing cold or scalding hot water. I originally was going to write about how brilliant it is to now be able to drink water straight from the tap back here in Britain, but decided it would sound to much like a whiny ex-expat. Given Ira has voiced her opinion on combined vs. separate taps, I no longer feel bad about proclaiming clean drinking water as a good thing 🙂

Tags: ,

Nov 14 2008

Kazakh Government Catching On?

Category: In The Media,Kazakhstan — ChrisM @ 1:56 am

The last time I mentioned Borat (the fictional character or the film itself) was back on the August 15th 2007, which is reasonably surprising for a blog that is often based in Kazakhstan itself. Anyway, why has he popped up now, such a long time after the movie was released? DavidG e-mailed me a link to an article explaining that Kazakhstan’s deputy Minister for Tourism and Sports (Kenzhebay Satzhanov) appears to have shown that this country finally has the right idea when it comes to publicity and spin. He rightly stated that the character and film, whilst portraying a fictional version of Kazakhstan in a bad light has helped people to know about this area of the world, and consequently increased tourism. I remember when I first met Irina, back before Borat even existed on the Ali G show, most people did not have a clue where Kazakhstan was, or anything about the country. Compare this approach from the government to when they banned a Borat website that used the .KZ domain, and threatened Sacha Baron Cohen with legal action – it looks as though the powers that be have caught on to communication (with the rest of the world at least) in the 21st century 🙂

[edit]
link to article removed, as page no longer existed

Tags: , , ,

Nov 13 2008

Sligo

Category: Eating Out,Friends,Personal,Pictures — ChrisM @ 4:12 am

I have mentioned this pub a couple of times here on the blog, but have yet to post photos or pass comment on the food.
Well, lets start at the beginning. It is located near the Intercontinental Hotel here in Astana, and is most definitely branded as an Irish pub (though it is probably a lot closer to an Irish-themed pub in Britain than the real thing. Not a real issue, just letting you know). The decor is pretty good considering there probably aren’t that many Irish experts in this locality. The staff were very courteous, and I’m told there is always at least on member on duty who speaks English. The first time I went there, they didn’t have much Irish music at all, and as we were returning in the evening, I burnt some Dubliners albums (the only Irish music, other than Enya, I could find on my hard drive) for them. The food was good – I think I had some sort of steak and boiled potatoes dish, whilst the others had various Irish dishes. The stew was a lot more than passable apparently. The dessert was just the right size, and again tasty.
Onto the photos…
First we have Ira and Assel (Walton’s other 0.5)

Ira And Assel Sligo Pub Astana

Ira And Assel Sligo Pub Astana

Here we have the aforementioned Walton and me (I’m the one on the right, posing beautifully for the camera.)

Walton And Me

Walton And Me

Here we have Dr Ken (for any macho men out there, you’ll find beers are ALWAYS served with a straw over here – he didn’t actually specifically request one 😉 )

Dr Ken

Dr Ken

And here we have DaveG, loving the camera lens as much as ever 🙂

DaveG

DaveG

The next three are a shot of the back half of Sligo, the cheesecake I mentioned, and finally the band that were playing. Which makes me think all these photos must have been taken the last time we visited Slago. See KZBlog’s post (Live Music In Astana) for more info on the band.

Sligo Pub

Sligo Pub


Chocolate Cheesecake

Chocolate Cheesecake

Band Playing

Band Playing

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Nov 10 2008

Cute Kitties

Category: Dasha&Kittens,Pictures — ChrisM @ 4:50 am

Irina recently mentioned that I hadn’t posted the snaps she took off our cats when they were in a friendly mood with each other…

So we start with Muska and Kara sat cheek to cheek on the sofa, moving on to Muska hugging/holding Kara down (this is often also the start of them fighting – affection and conflict so close together…), then cwching/snuggling, then an ‘action’ (bit blurry 😉 ) shot of Muska cleaning Kara’s face, then finally Muska looking cute as ever whilst rotating for the camera.

Tags: , ,

Nov 10 2008

Plenitude of Past Pictures

Category: Dasha&Kittens,Eating Out,Friends,Pictures — ChrisM @ 2:44 am

I finally got around to transferring the photos from Ira’s camera onto my PC this evening. So you should expect some shots of… DaveG’s party, a few cute shots of Kara and Muska hugging, a couple of visits to the Irish pub (including one when they were had a competition where you could win prizes if you ordered pints of Kilkenny), and some more recent shots of Tishka’s kittens. I also have a lot of news-related posts I need to make, as I want to try and clear down the backlog before we move back to Clydach in a week or so.

(Yes I realise that ‘plethora’ tends to have negative overtones when people read it, but you try thinking of a word beginning with P that means lots of or a bug bunch 🙂 )
[edit]
OK, I gave up and used an online thesaurus in the end. I turned down plenty and pack in favour of plenitude…

Tags: , , , , ,

Oct 28 2008

Catchup 4 – Getting More Random!

Category: Dasha&Kittens,Pictures — ChrisM @ 4:41 am

Almost done now…
We have Gwen looking as cute as she knows, in the hope someone will give her a treat, or take her for a walk, or stroke her, or anything really, she isn’t fussy 🙂
Next, we have a very blurry photo. Sorry, again, shaky hand + mobile phone camera do not lead to great shots. However, Karra just looked SO cute sleeping under the duvet, I had to post it. I wish I could have tip-toed into the room so she hadn’t woken up, but I still think she looks sweet.
Finally, back in Britain again, we were stopped somewhere for a quick break from driving, I think, when I noticed the car you see before you. I’ve seen such an array of stickers in computer games, especially in the Need For Speed series, but it just looked so much more tacky in real life…

Tags: ,

« Previous Page — Next Page »