AFK being away from keyboard, but as Petropavlovsk is quite a long word, I thought I’d abbreviate. Aunty Sveta has her 60th birthday this weekend, so we are heading over there to celebrate it with her. I’ve not published any photos or videos from that city (just over an hour away via plane, Anna would not be likely to be in a party mood after a long drive there) before, so I’m hoping to Tweet/Qik some sort of media whilst there. Meticulous planning by Irina has ensured we’re travelling as light as possible, with all likely problems sorted in advance. Anyway, if posts appear on the blog suddenly, without much warning, of a city that doesn’t look much like Astana, you’ll know why. The city is about as far North as you can go in Kazakhstan before you hit the Russian border, and we haven’t been there since Anna was born, so it will be great to see people and hopefully have a good time celebrating Aunty Sveta’s birthday.
Aug 03 2010
Good Evening And Dan’s Birthday Meal At Tiflis
OK, I’ve removed the six posts that were submitted by my phone on Saturday night and amalgamated them into this one post, with the videos embedded.
It was DanD’s birthday the next day, and so we headed to one of his favourite restaurant’s – Tiflis. I forgot to check in on foursquare or Google Latitude, so don’t have the exact co-ordinates, but I’ve searched on Google Map with Irina, and put where we think it is. The road is called Imanova St, but Google has a different label for some reason. However it is nearly opposite Cinema City, so that is the right street.
The old outdoor (well it had a roof but cut down walls to allow fresh air through) section had just finished being renovated, and we were all very pleasantly surprised by the new look. There are two floors, with an open central courtyard. Downstairs there was a normal seating area with lots of tables, and upstairs had some one table rooms. This worked out well, as they had a Georgian band playing for a lot of the night (see the videos below). The band were great, but when we wanted to talk, it was good to be able to shut the double doors, stick on the air conditioning, and not have to shout.
The food itself was great, with some sort of cheesy bread as a starter for me (salads still haven’t snuck onto my menu!), and a lamb sashliq (with chips obviously) for main. We were there for around three or four hours, and had a chance to congratulate Dan on his upcoming birthday (25th if you believe the normally otherwise honest Dan), and talk about life over here. The service was good, especially by local standards, and I’d happily recommend the place for eating out if you want to try something a bit different. You may find you need to reserve the rooms in advance, and I’m hoping Dan will read this post at some point and leave their telephone number here.
A couple of clips of the room, the company and the main course…
Everyone was still very sober by then, not many beers drunk or shots of Cha Cha served. The restaurant has definitely switched suppliers when it comes to the Georgian spirit of Cha Cha. It didn’t feel like paint stripper going down your throat, if anything it was a little closer to brandy, but not overly so.
OK, onto the entertainment…
Jul 27 2010
Opening Presents With Nick
Still in Evehsam at Dad’s place (the same evening (12th March 2010) as the duck feeding video), Nick came over to say hello. He had a job interview in Cheltenham, so we decided to all converge at Dad’s at the same time. Roz couldn’t make it as she was very close to giving birth to Anna’s cousin at the time. Nick bought up all the Christmas and Birthday presents that we hadn’t been able to receive whilst in Kazakhstan, and Anna seemed to enjoy another paper ripping ceremony :). I look forward to using mine in earnest when Winter once more hits Astana, and Anna still plays with hers regularly. The Big Hungry Caterpillar is also a big hit with Anna, and I’m very glad Nick and Roz got it, as it seems to be a “proper” childrens’ book to me 🙂 The hand puppets and toys also get played with often, and Anna seemed to lose interest in the wrapping paper and sellotape very quickly…
Obviously since the clip was taken, we now know that the baby was a beautiful boy (Jack), but Nick and Roz didn’t know that at the time. PS Nick, it has been a good 15 years or so since I studied French, but I’m pretty sure they have male and female endings to words, and it is German that has neutral as well? ;-P The last of the three clips shows me trying on all my Christmas presents at the same time. It wasn’t cold in the house 🙂
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Jul 27 2010
Portable Presents
Once I’ve finished writing these posts, and at least drafted a fair few more of Anna’s photos and video entries, I need to make sure I look through the list of laptops that are currently available from local retailers. Irina still seems reasonably happy with hers, and I can’t justify buying one for myself, but someone in Irina’s family has a birthday soon. Actually as she doesn’t read English, and probably knows already what she is getting, I can reveal it is Ira’s Mum. She doesn’t want a full size desktop-replacement laptop, nor something from the limited range of netbooks that you can find in Kazakhstan. She would like something reasonably powerful, not too heavy to cart around, and it will mainly be used to access the internet and manipulate her photos, as she doesn’t get much time usually to go all the way to the top floor and use the normal PC in our bedroom. I have a basic idea of what to aim for, but I need to check which technologies have made it here to Astana, and aren’t overpriced either.
Jul 17 2010
I’m at Pivavarov (Astana). htt…
I’m at Pivavarov (Astana). http://4sq.com/aukaNG
Hmm, I was going to embed a Google Maps thing here, but foursqaure have disabled some Google features, and I’m too lazy to go and view the source code.
For now, it looks as though if you see a 4sq.com link, you’ll need to visit it yourself to see more information on the venue I’ve just checked into, sorry.
Jul 12 2010
On way home from world cup fin…
On way home from world cup final. not nearly drunk enough. http://twitpic.com/24hxan
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Jul 12 2010
At La Riviere again. Watching …
At La Riviere again. Watching World Cup Final with friends here in Astana – http://twitpic.com/24g5nc location – http://is.gd/do7G7
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Jul 08 2010
Astana Park Being Disassembled
These two videos were actually recorded yesterday, but rather than stream them live, I recorded them without using Qik at all. (This way I can double the resolution used). However I forgot to then upload them, hence the 24 hour delay in getting them on the blog.
Irina, Anna and I went for a walk through Astana park, to take a look at all the equipment before it was disassembled. The castle walls, yurts, stone carvings (painted expanded polystyrene) and Kazakh warrior statues were put up for Astana Day/the President’s birthday, and are being removed. There were quite a few workmen wandering around without shirts – sorry for the women (and few men) reading this post, but I don’t think we actually see any/many of these workers on video.
I hadn’t realised how windy it would sound through the phone’s microphone at the entrance to the park, sorry.
Small break in recording as I needed to use the phone for other things…
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Jul 08 2010
Inside Khan Shatyr, Astana. Li…
Inside Khan Shatyr, Astana. Little bit meh so far. Not totally ready to be open TBH. Will post details later. http://twitpic.com/23gx6f
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