Aug 05 2007
Well it looks as though Dasha may be giving birth soon! See previous posts for last year’s result – our very own Muska and Karra 🙂
Anyway, Dasha is now acting a little strangely, so Ira found her favourite box she likes to give birth in. Later on in the evening, Dasha was trying to paw open some of the drawers in the study, again, apparently she tries to build a nest in them sometimes. Not sure if nest is the right word, but you hopefully know what I mean.
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Aug 04 2007
Well, with what was a complete (but pleasant) shock for us, well me at least, the A/C guys arrived almost on time, and proceeded to fit both the internal and external units today. I think Ira and I are going to take a while to find a temperature and fan setting we can agree on – I prefer to feel cool in a house, Ira likes it snuggly and warm. Anyway, I took a few shots whilst the guys were working, mainly to stop myself from getting too impatient, and secondly, in case they caused any major problem with their scary drills. If there was any argument about the situation before and after they came, I wanted undeniable proof. Anyway, no major problems, and all seems to be working well, apart from there being some dripping onto the external unit’s supporting brackets.
So, here we have the units still boxed, with a mere promise of cool times to come. I still did not believe it would all work out within one day. Cynical? Perhaps, I have just tried to lower my expectations in some areas here in Kazakhstan. Otherwise you get stressed over matters you have no control over…
Here we have the proposed site for the internal unit, we had to move the furniture and relocate the curtain, see the next text for why…
This is a serious drill bit. It took two people to safely lift and lower it…
It was not too hot inside today, still one of the installation guys could not handle wearing anything on top.
Here we have the external unit being drilled into place outside the bedroom balcony…
The end… All units in place, cool air (finally, some twelve months after initial decision to get some AC sorted) flowing through the flat 🙂
Apologies if this particular post has not enthralled my regular readers to the normal level, I am just so damned chuffed at having it in place and working finally. Even the CPU has dropped a couple of degrees when working under full load!
I am so looking forward to being able to be fully dressed whilst working at the PC. (Before anyone starts projectile vomiting, I’m not talking indecent, just when it hits 32 degrees, sitting on leather gets a little too hot to keep your jeans on, if no one else is around 🙂 ).
Aug 04 2007
Woke up this morning, and when we looked out the window, we saw something going on, over at the entrance to Astana park.
There were a lot of old Kazakh buses, so it looks like some companies bussed in their workers for some reason.
Then we saw a couple of flags flying and a guy started speaking over a PA system. People in white shirts started milling around, and then a cycling team turned up. I don’t know if it was the Astana team that recently made an early exit from the Tour de France, as I recently blogged on, over at Kazakh Cyclist Shames Astana Tour de France Team Out Of Competition. Anyway, it appears that the political party organized an event for people to see the cycling team, and the event was well attended.
Around 30 minutes later, everyone had gone from the park, and there were no more flags being waved.
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Aug 04 2007
This evening, Ira and I went to find a new cafe to eat at, in Astana Park. Her parents had told us about a place that did good sashliq, and was not too pricey. When I discovered which one it was, I had my doubts straight away; a couple of months back we went in there, and walked out straight away, as the air was incredibly stuffy. Luckily the evening was still warm, so we plonked ourselves in their outdoor seating area.
The food was good, I had beef sashliq, which for once was cooked properly all the way through, but still retained some juiciness and flavour. Anyway, to the next person that comes out to visit us, we now have another local cafe/restaurant that we will be happy to take you to 🙂
PS Walton/Asel, if you read this, we may just have found a new Cafe Shimkent… it was a little more pricey, but the surroundings certainly make up for it, and the food was great.
PPS Walton, the vodka was cheap 🙂
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Jul 26 2007
Three weeks ago, I posted on the legal proceedings in the prosecution of medical personnel having been finished – you can read the original over at Kazakh HIV Case Completed.
Now close to fifty doctors (who were not charged with anything) have resigned from their positions, as a protest at the pressure being placed upon them and their colleagues since the court case.
Another thirteen doctors are being investigated by the prosecution team and legal authorities for their roles in the infection of more than 120 young children. The doctors’ union have stated that more professionals will be resigning unless the government changes its reaction and edicts to the situation. They also state that individual doctors should not be shouldering the blame for the state of the healthcare system in this country.
Meanwhile, parents of the children infected, ten of whom have already sadly died, are also unhappy, as the higher placed officials have mostly received suspended sentences, and of the doctors who were sent to prison, many will be able to continue practicing medicine on their release.
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Jul 25 2007
Kazakh cyclist Alexandre Vinokourov has tested positive for blood doping (the transfusion of another person’s oxygen carrying red blood cells) in the Tour de France. The entire Astana team has now withdrawn from the competition. He has of course requested for a second sample to be tested, but it is incredibly unusual for a second sample to be clear…
At the time of writing this post, his website ( www.alexander-vinokourov.com ) was working, however the news page was unavailable. As far as I can tell, there is a Dutch news snippet regarding the doping allegations on the front page.
[Update]
Now the entire site is down. My guess is that as it is currently a few minutes past the hour, many news programs will have mentioned his name, so a lot of people will have been visiting his site; perhaps the server could not take the strain?
Jul 24 2007
I have not searched for any new English language blogs from Kazakhstan recently, but did happen upon a possible candidate – a Brit who works in Karabatan. Although he seems to have fallen into the routine of an ex-pat (not really going out anywhere other than the places other ex-pats already go, for example), he seems to be handling life pretty well. He installs mechanical equipment at tje Kashagan Experimental Program near Atyrau. (Which reminds me, does anyone know what happened to TheAI blog, he was based in or near Atyrau, but the blog has either been wiped off, or taken over by someone else! Check my links page for the link to his site.)
Anyway, check out more about Rob here, I am going away and see if he has any other presence on the internet.
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Jul 24 2007
Just caught this report over on the BBC World news channel.
Apparently the American government and GreenPeace (for differring reasons) is not very happy at the prospect of KazAtomProm (the Kazakh Nuclear Company) wanting to buy an 8% stake in an American company, WestingHouse Nuclear.
KazAtomProm is a Kazakh state company that produces Uranium. Anyway, here is the report itself…
On a related subject, I found a video on the BBC website reporting that Kazakhstan has announced plans to build a uranium enrichment facility in conjunction with Russia. Here is the direct video link. If that direct link does not work, or you have a dial up connection to the internet, you could try the following official link instead.
Jul 23 2007
OK, a misleading title perhaps as I first want to mention the similarities – they both serve alcohol, they both sometimes have music playing in the background, and people tend to socialise there.
The differences? Well, people tend to eat with their drink over here – if British people drank as much spirits on an evening out, but skipped the meal or snack, there would be a lot more pavement pizzas around. Then there is the closing time – unless you are a lucky Brit, and know your local landlord well enough to be included in lock-ins, the time to leave can be quite cut and dry, and sadly early, unless they have applied for a late licence; in Kazakhstan, I am sure they do eventually throw people out, but I have not come across it yet. Lastly, most cafes/bars we have been to here do not have an abundance of bar stools on hand, I suppose this is probably related to the first point – if you are eating something, you want a table to lay your plate upon…
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Jul 23 2007
We (Me, Irina, Balzhan, Ildar (Balzhan’s son), Dr. Natalya, Sveta (Dr. Natalya’s daughter)) all went out Saturday evening to celebrate Balzhan’s birthday, and also because we had not all been out together for a long time. (Sidenote: it was also Sasha’s (Dr. Natalya’s husband – nice man) Birthday… his present was to be allowed the night of from social duties and to go fishing 🙂 )
We decided to go to the barrel restaurant again. I don’t know the real name for the place, but if you are lucky, you can sit outside inside one of their huge barrels. Anyway, I had Mexican steak apparently – meat, tomatoes, Pringles and cheese, along with chips, some coke & apple juice and a little vodka. The food was delicious, and the company was great.
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