Jun 26 2008

Feline Freddy Fortunately Not Fried

Category: In The Media — ChrisM @ 12:45 am

(You try finding a synonym for ‘not’ beginning with F 🙂 )

Lucky Feline Freddy

Yes, that is a cat perched next to live power lines . Luckily, he was rescued successfully without being shocked, and returned home under his own steam. If he had straddled two live power lines, unless the voltage was identical at the time, he would have been unlikely to survive, even ignoring the fall that would have resulted. No word as to whether Freddy went up the pole to chase birds, escape a dog, or just fancied sunning himself somewhere a little higher than normal. Another addition to my list of reasons why our cats are definitely house bound. (Which is quite normal over here, especially with the roads in this area. Ira’s parent’s cats live in a house with a garden and a very quiet road, so spring and summer see them having more freedom.) Check out the article here.

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Jun 25 2008

Cat Review

Category: Videos — ChrisM @ 1:26 am

Ira sent me a link today to another video based on cats. (See here and here for the last animated videos based on felines).
Anyway, this is a real life video, no cartoons, and features two engineers giving their guidance as to what you should expect if you ever own a cat yourself.
Enough blurb, just watch the vid 🙂

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Jun 23 2008

50,000 Target Met

Category: Personal — ChrisM @ 11:59 pm

with a few weeks to spare. I happened to open up the blog and I was visitor number 50000 🙂
Two years, 1823 posts since this site was started, a lot has changed in my life, as well as the blog itself having undergone several face lifts. Thanks to those that have been regularly visiting, and a big hello to those of you that are relatively new to this site.
Anyway, I’m off for now, having returned from the in-laws, where we had a meal to celebrate Ira’s Dad’s birthday, where we saw Babushka, Aunty Sasha and a friend that Ira’s mum hasn’t met for years.

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Jun 23 2008

C Nomrazh Denya

Category: Personal — ChrisM @ 12:19 am

OK, so that definitely is not the official way of transcribing the Russian for ‘Happy Birthday’ into Latin characters, but it is close enough. As Irina’s Dad (whose birthday it is today) does not use computers, and therefore won’t read this post, I doubt it matters too much 🙂
Happy Birthday

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Jun 21 2008

Good Night Out

Category: Eating Out,Friends,Kazakhstan,Personal — ChrisM @ 10:13 pm

Just a quick post from the in-laws for now, but last night Ira and I went out to the Queen’s Birthday Party, organised by the British (! (/sarcasm)) Embassy, then went on to the BG Challenge Ball (see last year’s post – if I don’t get around to linking to it properly, it should hopefully pop up in the ‘related posts’ links below this text, and then finally onto a club called A8. We saw a lot of friends, some of whom had not met each other before, I wore a suit (!), had proper fish and chips (served in newspaper), and finally got to see if A8 lived up to the hype.
Can someone remind me to change that last paragraph from one sentence into something a little more manageable? Anyway, no photos as not enough pockets, but I’ll try and post more details soon, once I’m a little more alert.
I’ve just returned from a nice meal out with Walton and Assel, and returned to the in-laws where Aunty Sasha is.

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Jun 10 2008

Caught Up With Shameless

Category: Personal — ChrisM @ 1:08 am

Irina and I have finally finished watching series four and five of the UK TV series Shameless. The drama has been maturing, and the writer doesn’t yet seem to have run too dry with ideas for plots. Whilst some elements have seemed a little out of character, for example Norma has become a lot weaker in terms of self esteem and mental strength. Overall though, we’re really looking forward to series six. To keep us going until then, we have series one of House MD (thanks Oleg), and a bunch of films. One of which is Sicko, Michael Moore’s film on healthcare around the world, especially in America. I did a little research and found out that some people take out policies to cover what their Medicare insurance does not.

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Jun 10 2008

From Boiling To Freezing

Category: Personal,Weather — ChrisM @ 12:02 am

Today finally saw the temperature drop a little. The last couple of weeks had seen daytime temperatures hover between 28 and 36 degrees centigrade, where as today was a lot more comfortable, only just break the twenty mark.
Sadly, the last couple of weeks have been missing one heat element – hot water. Because other people in the blocks of flats around us have not been paying their water bills, the company has run out of money to buy fuel (I went to a residents meeting with Ira last week – doubt the others will be paying any time soon). This meant no hot water for showers, washing up etc. Whilst the kettle works fine for mixing in with the cold water for rinsing the dishes, taking a cold shower, especially for washing your hair, is getting a little frustrating. Luckily, Ira’s parents and Dave both have working hot water, so offered their showers, but for now, I’m just taking the opportunity to leave the air con off for a bit longer by chilling out in the shower instead 🙂

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May 29 2008

More Illusions

Category: Pictures — ChrisM @ 1:16 am

A few more JPGs and GIFs that caught my attention earlier. (I was actually looking for good photos of the Japanese station master cat when I found these…)
This one has to be my favourite – stare at the black cross in the middle, and you should eventually find that the purple dots appear to vanish, and that the moving dot leaves a green after image. You do need to sit very still for this one – the slightest movement of your eyes seem to cause the illusion to reset in your brain.

Spinning Dot Illusion

To see the rest, click the link below – I’ve had to hide them from the front page, as all the photos were causing very slow loading times on the site.
Continue reading “More Illusions”

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May 28 2008

Cooling Down Finally

Category: Personal — ChrisM @ 3:27 am

Both personally, and the flat itself… I’ve not yet posted the pictures from our camping trip over the weekend, but I got quite badly sun burnt on my head, and ended up getting a little ill. Anyway, I’ll learn in the future that just because hair used to cover my whole head, I don’t have automatic life-long protection from sun burn, and will start applying the sun block a little more liberally.
Secondly, we finally got around to checking the instruction manual on our air conditioning unit (OK, that ‘we’ is a lie, I left it to Ira – I was too paranoid about blowing up my saviour from 27/28 degree working conditions) on how to clean it. So now we can turn it on for the first time this year, and as I write this post, the flat has already cooled down to a nice 23 degrees. All round, a cool day 🙂

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May 23 2008

Alex Has A New Hole!

Category: Personal — ChrisM @ 12:05 pm

(Photo credit details updated – see my last comment from the 14th October. Thank you Rivjejn basically)


I just spoke with Alex online, and she informed she has a new piercing 🙂
No pictures just yet, but is apparently a lip ring, not one of those chavvy (Marilyn) Monroe studs, thankfully. Her multiple ear rings were part of the inspiration for my own, back when I was at school. Anyway, hopefully the piercer used disposable gloves, and the wound will heal well and quickly.

Lip Piercing – not Alex, just the first semi-decent image I could find online… Anyway, due to the time difference in Australia, Alex is now heading out from work to the traditional Friday BBQ – I hope she enjoys her snags!

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