Jun 12 2007

Gwen arrives in her new home

Category: Friends,PersonalChrisM @ 10:28 pm

Mum and John have just got their new puppy home. Gwen is apparently a real delight – she got John up at 4.30am as she decided it was time to play!! She’s one chilled puppy, who seems to have forgotten she is supposed to be traumatised by the separation from her mother.
I can’t wait to see her this Christmas, when Ira and I will hopefully be back in the UK. (Obviously our family and friends will also be a welcome sight, but Gwen sounds so adorable…)
As soon as I get some photos of the puppy, I’ll post them up here for everyone to see.

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May 26 2007

Blackout

Category: BooksChrisM @ 4:15 am

Blackout – Chris Ryan

I’ve actually read a number of Chris Ryan’s books, but as these reviews are only covering the books I’ve read since emigrating to Kazakhstan, this is the first time one of his has cropped up.
I got this book, and the next similar Andy McNab one, at Christmas, when I normally ask for these sorts of books. Some intellectuals have complained about these books being formulaic, and without much originality. I would not argue a great deal to be honest, but sometimes it can be nice to simply veg out when reading a book. Especially if your stomach is still busy trying to digest a few days of over feeding, as well as your liver freaking out at the Vodka & Baileys suddenly assaulting it 😉
In this book, we see an SAS soldier (Josh Harding) regain consciousness, but sadly not his memory, in a desert. The story quickly leads into three cities suffering electrical blackouts. Authorities worry it is a terrorist cell. The story follows Josh’s efforts to rediscover who he is, why he is where he is, and of course, what is behind the black outs.
OK, so hardly ground breaking in itself, but like I said, I was happy enough reading it.

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Apr 12 2007

Belated Congratulations…

Category: Personal,PicturesChrisM @ 11:57 am

to Anthony & Lisa.
John’s son got married to Lisa 31st March.
Anthony And Lisa Kavanagh Got Married
We met Lisa last Christmas, when we went back to the UK, and we hope that the happy couple are settling into married life well.

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Feb 23 2007

For People Who Play At Work…

Category: Personal,PicturesChrisM @ 2:14 am

USB Stealth Switch

When you click the Stealth Switch with your foot it instantly and completely hides any PC application or software window you have chosen. So you can do what you want on your PC at work or home and never get caught. James Bond eat your heart out! This really makes your PC…For Your Eyes Only. The USB Stealth Switch is the The Worlds First Computer Cloaking Device!

From what I can see, a pretty flawless concept, my one concern is that you would need to have admin rights on your PC to install the associated software. (My assumption, they don’t mention it on the page, I just can’t see how something that could hide everything so well could be achieved otherwise.)
So… if you either have full rights on your work PC, or are friendly with your Tech Support, give it a go.

PS The link above isn’t an affiliate link or anything, I just noticed it whilst looking for Christmas gifts, last December, and thought it might be of use.
Continue reading “For People Who Play At Work…”

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Jan 24 2007

A Little Later Than Intended Again…

Category: Friends,Personal,PicturesChrisM @ 10:14 pm

And this will be a very slow post to load for any other dial up users out there, apologies…
Anyway, without much further ado, here are the pictures I promised a long time ago…

(Taken over Christmas, New Year & a little bit beyond, in Britain & Kazakhstan, on our, Nick’s & John’s camera)

(Click the link below, or the post’s title above to see the pictures, as I’m trying to save some bandwidth on the server)
Continue reading “A Little Later Than Intended Again…”

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Dec 10 2006

Had An Early Xmas Meet Up

Category: Friends,PersonalChrisM @ 3:39 pm

With our friends here in Astana…
Tom has already blogged about it, so if you’ve not yet checked out the post, you can read it here.

We all met up early, as this is the last full weekend in 2006 that some of us will be here…
(oh and btw it is now just over 168 hours to go Tom 😉 )
Really enjoyed the night, just wish Dana’s other 0.5 could have been there, but he had a previous family commitment.

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Dec 07 2006

10 Days Until Flying Back To The UK

Category: Friends,PersonalChrisM @ 7:28 am

And I’ve been very bad at posting recently. Apologies to anyone still reading this 😉
Irina has just returned from Moscow, Karra is fine and still biting us randomly.
Mum had her birthday on the 5th, but her presents and card didn’t arrive until yesterday, and one still hasn’t made it 🙁
I hope to see Tom and Walton before I leave for my Christmas break, and Tom#2 (‘pilot Tom’) has been in contact to confirm he is fine, but wasn’t able to meet up with us recently due to his work commitments.
It is quite late now, so heading to bed.
Oh and Dad & Nick have received their visas, so it looks like everything is good to go for their visit over here for New Year 🙂
Hope all who read this do so in good health…

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Nov 10 2006

Hear Ye, Hear Ye – Friday Morning, and All is Well

Category: Kazakhstan,PersonalChrisM @ 12:49 pm

I woke up this morning, looked out the window, and it was snowing 🙂
There were a few flakes a couple of weeks ago, but this was proper fluffy snow.
Dad is off to Paris this weekend with Jan, and hopes to be buying a house in Evesham soon.
Mum and John have hopefully sold the house in St Thomas, and are settling in nicely at Clydach. In case you missed the posts on it, and ignore the links in the sidebar on the right, you can visit John’s site here. Please be aware some of his images are not for minors.
Really looking forward to visiting family and friends this Christmas in the UK, and to Nick (my brother) and Dad coming back with us to celebrate New Year here in Astana.
If you don’t get this post’s title, I’m guessing you’ve never heard a town crier…

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Nov 09 2006

Things Are Improving Again

Category: Kazakhstan,PersonalChrisM @ 3:07 pm

Got a new motherboard for Losha’s PC, installed it (whoever designed his PC case needs to be taken outside and slapped silly though), it is working fine, just finishing a few stress tests to make sure I’m not called out to fix it again :>
Losha is hopefully coming with us to the UK this Christmas, which I’m looking forward to.
Nick (my brother) and my Dad are hopefully coming to Kazakhstan with us, when we return from the UK. (Approx dates in UK 18-30 December, split 50/50 between Cheltenham and Swansea).
I’ve almost surpassed the $100 mark with my AdSense account.

[edit]
Looks like Losha won’t be coming now, never mind, maybe next time we go to the UK…

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Nov 07 2006

Been A Bit Lax At Posting Recently

Category: Friends,PersonalChrisM @ 10:43 pm

Apologies. I’ve been a little distracted re-building a PC for a friend. I had everything just right, all working, and secure (he had stability & security issues that couldn’t be sorted out without a re-install of XP). The final update was to bring the BIOS up to date – it had had a few revisions in 14 months. Unfortunately, for the first time ever, I appear to have killed the BIOS whilst flashing it. The board is supposed to have a 2nd BIOS that gets used if the first is fried, but it hasn’t come into play, no amount of keypresses or floppy disks with binary images & flashing programs have helped. As I did the damage, I’m using up the last of my birthday money to replace the motherboard. Except, of course, that particular model isn’t stocked any more, so I’m trying to find a suitable upgrade for him.
On a more positive note, my brother and dad are hopefully coming over to visit us, around New Year time, and Losha, may be coming with us to the UK for Xmas 🙂

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