Jul 10 2007

Restaurant Vodka And Monopoly

Category: Eating Out,Friends,Kazakhstan,Personal,PicturesChrisM @ 1:23 am

When Oleg and Alex met up, we all went out for a meal in the evening, and tried out the outside section above two of our ‘regular’ restaurant. The service was friendly, and the waitress even spoke a little English with us. Anyway, here is a quick snap shot of the table…
Alex Oleg Chris Irina Astana Kazakhstan

Alex Oleg Chris Irina Monopoly Vodka Astana Kazakhstan
Later on we went back to the flat, had a little to drink, talked, and played a game. When the sun came up, we decided to end the ‘evening’ and slept in a little late that day 🙂
Anyway, hopefully Ira and I will meet up with Oleg again before he returns to Moscow…

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Jul 09 2007

Hat Fravoured Pizza

Category: Eating Out,Kazakhstan,PersonalChrisM @ 10:43 pm

Today is Irina’s last day of holiday, so we went to town and sorted a few things before she had to go back to the office routine.
Not exactly a thrilling end of the relaxing times for her, but we looked into getting an air conditioner unit installed, which should make a big difference at the flat.
Anyway, we paused for a snack and a drink, and discovered a pizza that was ‘hat fravoured’. Whilst I am really glad more and more establishments are producing English language menus etc., some of the spelling mistakes really do grab your attention. (That one was in fact ‘hot flavoured’)

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Jul 08 2007

Pedalo Photo

Category: Friends,Kazakhstan,Personal,PicturesChrisM @ 9:34 pm

A few more photos before I go and grab some dinner.
Irina Alex War Memorial Astana Kazakhstan
This is Irina and Alex at the War Memorial here in Astana, just before we went on to the map of Kazakhstan I mentioned before. As I said before, you may well run across similar photos to these over at Alex’s blog, especially as some of these were taken on her camera. However, she will hopefully have a few more interesting words on the days we spent, and from a different perspective.

Chris Irina Pedalo River Ishim Astana Kazakhstan
Here we have Ira and I (modelling one of Tom’s t-shirts) on a pedalo, with Alex taking the picture. We were on the river Ishim here in Astana, and after half an hour could almost steer the boat in the general direction we wanted to go. No one fell in the water, and we did not sink any other boats foolish enough to get in our way, so we had quite a good time. From here, we went on to a restaurant. More on that place later.

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Jul 08 2007

Map Of Kazakhstan

Category: Friends,Kazakhstan,PicturesChrisM @ 8:55 pm

If you have already checked out the link I gave earlier for 3D models of the buildings around where Irina works, you may be interested in an attraction Alex, Ira and I visited last week – it is basically a model map of Kazakhstan you can walk around. You get an idea of where the different towns and regions are within this country, and there is also a covered section which ‘zooms’ in on the area of Astana covered by the Google satellite map I mentioned earlier.

Chris and Tired Irina Astana Kazakhstan
Here we have a tired Ira and me carrying out some very important task on my phone. Or I could have just been playing a game, can’t remember.

Alex Map Astana Kazakhstan
That is Alex, standing by the aforementioned map of Astana itself.

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Jul 08 2007

3D Models Of Astana Buildings

Category: KazakhstanChrisM @ 8:22 pm

Whilst double checking how to spell ‘Baiterek’ I came across some 3D models of buildings around that area. I will have to install the Google Sketchup application I downloaded a while back, but it will be worth it to see just what sort of level of detail there is in these models.
The page can be found here, where you will also find a satellite map of the area, which can be useful to give you an idea of scale.
This post is not paid for, the models are free, it just caught my attention…

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Jul 08 2007

Astana Day 2007 #2

Category: Friends,Kazakhstan,Personal,PicturesChrisM @ 7:41 pm

Daytime Shot Stage Astana Day 2007 Kazakhstan
Here we have a shot of the stage in the daytime, to give you a better idea of how it looked on the day. In the background you can see the Presidential Palace.

VIP Area Astana Day 2007 Kazakhstan
That (under the yellow awning) is where the real VIPs (the President and his associates) sat for the evening festivities, though the concert itself was only accessible to those lucky enough to know someone who could get their hands on some tickets (big thanks to Ira’s Dad for sourcing them 🙂 ).

Fireworks Astana Day 2007 Kazakhstan
Again, the photo does not really do it justice, but there is a sample of the fireworks that were let off to celebrate the President’s birthday.

Baiterek Tower AlexC Astana Day 2007 Kazakhstan
The last photo from that evening, here we have a photo of Alex taking a photo of the Baiterek Tower.

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Jul 08 2007

Astana Day 2007 #1

Category: Friends,Kazakhstan,Personal,PicturesChrisM @ 7:01 pm

Here is the first post on the evening we all spent out at a concert to celebrate the President’s birthday and also the day Kazakhstan celebrates it’s capital city, Astana. It has now been nine and a half years since it replaced Almaty as the capital city. The evening started off with a walk from the in-law’s house to the area where the Presidential palace is. Alex got her first real taste of the Kazakh system of non-queueing. Even though we were going to an area where only a few people had tickets to get into, so we could all sit and watch the concert, there was the usual crush, as dozens of people tried to get through the metal detector etc. We had a pregnant woman faint next to us, big fat blokes trying to squash everyone through a small gap between the policeman and barriers.
Anyway, enough of the typing, onto the photos…

Sky Ballet Astana Day 2007 Kazakhstan
This was spectacular, there were two people suspended from a crane, doing ballet type moves in time with the music. There were no harnesses or a safety net; unfortunately I missed grabbing a shot of when the woman was just holding on the man, without her own rope…

Gala Concert Astana Day 2007 Kazakhstan
That is a shot of the stage, with one of the bands that played that night.

Laser Show Astana Day 2007 Kazakhstan
Finally (for this post at least), we have a shot of the laser show, although the camera does not really do it justice. I hope to upload a video of some of the Concert, including the Rio carnival!

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Jul 07 2007

Familiar Voices In A Strange Land

Category: Eating Out,Friends,Kazakhstan,PersonalChrisM @ 2:39 am

The other night, Alex, Ira and I went out for meal in a restaurant near the river. It was a lot busier than the last couple of times we had been there, and a few patrons seemed to have problems remaining perpendicular to the ground. Anyway, about half way through our meal, I swore I heard someone speaking in English, but I couldn’t make out the specific words. Searching around for the likely culprit, we noticed a table without any Kazakh looking people, and I kept an ear out for any words that wafted our way.
Eventually, I gave up being subtle, and just asked someone from their table if they were indeed English, when they passed us. Turns out it was an office outing, and indeed there were some English speakers there. If he ever happens to read this, I should probably apologise for the grilling we gave him on his life over here, it was just quite unusual to come across a fellow Brit 🙂

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Jul 06 2007

Alex’s New Blog – Dryad Musings

Category: Friends,Kazakhstan,PersonalChrisM @ 4:47 pm

Alex has now setup her blog at her new domain – www.DryadMusings.com. When you get a moment, check it out, and if you happen to know anything about CSS, you could even leave her a message about sorting her Internet Explorer rendering issues.
You can find her post on the Birthday Celebrations in Astana , if you would like to find out a little bit more about what has been and will be happening to celebrate Astana’s 10 years as the capital of Kazakhstan and also the President’s birthday

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Jul 05 2007

Push And Glide

Category: Friends,Kazakhstan,PersonalChrisM @ 8:01 pm

We are all off ice skating in a few minutes. There are two ice rinks (that we know of) in Astana, and we have not tried the second one yet.
One small problem – I can not actually skate. If you see me from the waist up, nothing looks too bad – I appear to be moving (albeit a little slowly) normally. However, if you do not have the ice rink wall blocking your view, you will notice a strange pattern to my feet moving. Unfortunately, only one of my ankles will allow me to balance on it, whilst the other foot is pushing at an angle on the ice. As soon as I try to complete the manoeuvre my other ankle just buckles under me. Given that I am not the most stable of people on ice anyway, this tends to lead to me falling on my arse. Which then gets cold and wet, whilst my face goes red and I attempt to stand up. So…. I tend to skate with one leg, hoping no one is laughing too loudly.
Anyway, should be a laugh, and we have just discovered that Lorsha will also be coming with us. Big thanks to his Dad in advance, for giving us a lift. I will try to remember to write a little report later, to let others know what the state of the ice is like… hopefully more like Swindon ice rink than Bristol’s.

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