ChrisMerriman.com

May 17 2009

Old Friends Pop Round

Category: Anna's Photos,Friends,Personal — ChrisM @ 3:11 am

A couple of days after we arrived, Walton and Assel came to visit us at the in-laws (where we lived until our flat could be sorted out properly in terms of re-decoration, hot water etc.) It was great to see them both after one day shy of six months (17th May).
So, we have a shot of Anna on the floor in some dungarees, Anna with Asel (I’ll hedge my bets and spell it with one S this time) and then Walton, and finally a quick picture taken with her Great Grandmother (I think the Russian is something like old-grandmother!)

Anna Dungarees

Assel and Anna at the In-Laws

Walton and Anna at the In-Laws

Anna and Ira's Babushka in the In-Law's Kitchen

Tags: Anna, Anna Dungarees, Assel, Irina, Russia, Walton

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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.

: Anna And Gwen

: Anna Warming Up To The Playmat on Her Back

: Anna On Her Tummy

: Anna Yawning With Gwen

: Close Up Of Anna On Her Tummy

Tags: Anna, Kara, Muska

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May 15 2009

Avoid BMI, Fly Air Astana!

Category: Anna's Photos,Personal — ChrisM @ 1:48 pm

As you may remember from posts around mid-May, BMI lied through their teeth multiple times in order to obtain, and then not lose, two expensive business class ticket sales. Combined with poor customer service in Heathrow, the lack of the promised bassinet made our journey a little more stressful. Anyway, onto the reason for this post – Air Astana actually managed to reverse BMI’s position, by saying there would sadly not be any bassinets on the flight from Almaty to Astana, but upon arrival, we found there were some 🙂
So, here we have Anna, 15th May 2009, in a bassinette on the flight, meaning we didn’t have to hold her in our arms the whole time. Whilst the flights was only a little more than an hour, rather than the seven or so from London to Almaty the day before, it was a relief.

Anna Air Astana Flight Almaty Astana Bassinet Bassinette

Oh, and to be fair, BMI did eventually offer a partial refund on our tickets. Very partial – around 5% !

Tags: Anna, Astana, London

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May 14 2009

Arriving In Kazakhstan

Category: Anna's Photos,Personal — ChrisM @ 1:48 am

No, we didn’t pop back to Britain on the quiet, this post is the first to feature proper (non-camera phone) pictures of Anna since her arrival here in Kazakhstan.

Ira's Dad Anna Almaty Airport Hotel

This was taken on the 14th May 2009, when we were grabbing a few hours rest at a hotel next to the airport in Almaty, before flying over to Astana.

Tags: Anna, Astana, Britain, Dad, Irina, Kazakhstan

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May 14 2009

Last Known UK Photo Of Anna?

Category: Anna's Photos,Personal — ChrisM @ 1:34 am

Unless I took some on my phone, here we have a shot from Dad’s camera, when he and Nick met us at the airport, after John very kindly drove us all the way down to Heathrow. Despite over eager rule enforcement from the coffeeshop staff re. exact seating positions allowed, it was great to see Dad and my ‘little’ brother one more time, and we are looking forward to hopefully seeing everyone again this Christmas.
So, here we have it, the last British picture (14th May) before we play catch up with all the Kazakh photos…

Chris Irina Nick Anna at Heathrow

Tags: Anna, Christmas, Dad, Irina, Nick, United Kingdom

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May 13 2009

Last Clydach Photos Until Xmas

Category: Anna's Photos,Personal — ChrisM @ 1:28 am

Taken the evening before we left (13th May again), here we have John, Gwen, Mum and Anna enjoying a cuddle on the sofa.

Anna Looking At Gwen, Looking At John, And Mum

Mum Anna and Gwen

Tags: Anna, Christmas, Clydach, Mum

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May 13 2009

Anna Typing

Category: Anna's Photos,Personal — ChrisM @ 1:18 am

Irina has just seen the last two posts, and has commented once more that the photos are still old. True, however I do not want to skip out on most of the photos, and as I try to catch up, we WILL ~~eventually~~ soon get to the point where the day we take a new photo of Anna, it can be published, rather than just added to the backlog.
Now if only Anna could help me out by writing some of these posts herself. Touch typing would be a bonus obviously, but I don’t want to get my hopes up too early…

Anna Helping John Type

Ooops, forgot to mention this photo was also taken on the 13th May. For anyone who hasn’t been reading all the Anna Photo posts, I’m trying to include the date each photo was actually taken, rather than only have the date the post was published. Once we’re back to real time photo publishing, I may go and alter the post’s dates to reflect the photo date, as I want to integrate/import them to Anna’s site.

Tags: Anna, Anna Helping John Type, Irina

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May 13 2009

Last Studio Shots

Category: Anna's Photos,Personal — ChrisM @ 1:05 am

hmm, musn’t forget to start clearing the backlog of videos as well. Anyway, back on track, these photos are from the last time we were in John’s studio before we left for Astana. 13th May to be precise, so one day before we encountered the joys of BMI flights 🙁
The first photo is still my desktop wallpaper, and looks pretty good on the Sony TV when in use, and the second is used by my mother-in-law as her PC’s wallpaper 🙂

Irina, Anna and Chris All In (Almost) White

Anna In Her Favourite Position On Daddy's Shoulder

Before I forget, John has started adding a few new posts to his Celt Photographic blog (click the monthly archives to skip to the posts), and also more new photos to the Celt Photographic gallery. Some images are NSFW if your boss doesn’t like nipples on monitors.

Tags: Anna, Astana, Celt Photographic gallery, Dad, Irina, John's studio, Sony

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May 10 2009

Last Few Days…

Category: Anna's Photos,Personal — ChrisM @ 12:59 am

of British photos, before we move onto the catching up of non-Twitter photos taken here in Kazakhstan. If I don’t complete those tomorrow (possible as we are popping to the doctors), I’ll take my hard drive over to the in-laws this weekend and try to complete uploading and at least drafting the posts there.
This was taken on the 10th May, and looking back at how small Anna is, it seems impossible this was only 2 months ago!