Getting back to the Kazakhstan issues that have jumped back into my consciousness since returning to Astana (and admittedly this one isn’t exactly a calamity for us, as we don’t own a car in this country), a friend of ours was pulled over last year whilst driving in a perfectly normal manner. The reason the policeman stopped (and attempted to fine) him? His car was too dirty. We’re not talking about number plates being obscured (I agree, no matter the state of the rest of the car, whenever practical the number plates should be readable) or even his headlights being dangerously muddy (so cars travelling in the opposite direction at night might not see him in time), no, it was the main body that was deemed to be a disgrace to the city.
I don’t know if there was a visiting dignitary who had a lot of disdain for cars that aren’t sparkling, but TBH, there are SO many more issues the police could focus on with motorists before even considering the cosmetic appearance of a car. More on those other issues in the days to come 🙂
Anyway, if you want to be taken seriously, and not have accusations of possible supplementary income sources levelled at your police force, I feel a muddy car should not be a reason to pull you over.
Apr 03 2010
Suggestions For Kazakhstan – Part III
Apr 03 2010
Love And Forgiveness Day
I know that I have previously posted some pictures that John took and published on his blog, from Valentines Day (14th February), but these also include some shots from our camera. I think in Kazakhstan/former Soviet states that 14th February is Forgiveness Day, hence this post’s title.
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- John And Mum On Valentine’s Day
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- Chris And Anna Discussing Whether A Hat Was Required Or Not
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- Gwen Guards Anna
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- Anna, Irina And Chris
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- Anna Investigates Nanna’s Glasses
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- Peeking At The Farm
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- Gwen Isn’t As Interested In Something
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Apr 02 2010
Suggestions For Kazakhstan – Part II
OK, ten months later than intended, here the series continues from the first instalment.
I’m staying out of the political (OSCE chairmanship, laughable implementation of “democracy” (whether you use the Western definition or not), political prisoners etc.) side of things, as I don’t want the renewal of my permission to stay in the country to be questioned next year.
So, on a more personal level, first things first… Whoever decided that private individuals (as opposed to companies etc.) should only be allowed one international parcel to be received per month, please realise this is a ridiculous law. So stupid, we weren’t even aware of it until this week, when we wondered why only one out of two DHL parcels from Britain had turned up. Strangely enough, if you pay customs a lot of money (around the price it took to send the box over here in the first place!) then you can have more than one a month. We also need to pay DHL again, as they say to deliver it to Astana, once Customs in Almaty release it, will be another chargeable service – despite our initial payment including that leg of the journey. OK, so I’m drifting off national policies into company’s customer service attitudes differing in different continents here, and the other suggestions will be a little more wide-ranging, and involve less infrequent occurrences.
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Mar 25 2010
Smoking Tewksbury’s Audio Problems in Kazakhstan
Firstly, to Dick, I’m sorry for not approving and replying to your comment on the Amsterdam GPS post – I haven’t had the time to sort the files for you yet, as they are still on a hard drive in Kazakhstan. I’ll try and get back to you next week. I’m guessing you are the person who searched for “amsterdam coffechop POI” , “amsterdam coffeeshop gpx” and a few other related terms? I was reading through the list of recent searches that bought people to these posts and noticed that Tewksburys Floods (from a few years ago), Kazakhstan, Amsterdam and audio problems involving some Sonic Focus drivers. I really must try applying that update again on my XP install at home sometime. I’ve not broken anything (config wise) in a long time, maybe I shouldn’t push my luck?
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Feb 21 2010
365 Days Ago…
I wanted to post some videos of Anna and a few more pictures tonight, but either YouTube’s upload service is slow tonight, or Pipex’s performance isn’t top notch once again when it comes to expected vs. delivered speeds. Anyway, it is just a few moments past midnight here, meaning that in just over five hours (I think the time that appears on these posts may be set to Kazakhstan still), Anna will be exactly one year old! I’ll try to write more on this later, and eventually get the photos up, but for now, I just wanted to say a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY Anna! It barely seems plausible that this time last year I was about to head home whilst Irina waited for Anna to be ready to make an entrance, and that after a few hours, the fastest ever Clydach>Swansea hospital journey I had ever made was achieved!
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Feb 21 2010
Phones Arriving Soon!
My main phone (the HTC TyTn II) and backup phone (HTC Hurricane/Orange C550) were both sent away at the beginning of the week to have a cracked LCD screen replaced, and the joystick on the Hurricane also need replacing, as not being able to move the cursor left, down or up did make text message writing and menu navigation that little bit more difficult. Combined with the fact that we eventually found the code for the car radio (the car required a new battery), and this Monday should see the return of tunes beyond the scope of radio stations, and also GPS, which will help when driving to areas around here that I’m not yet familiar with. Irina’s new laptop battery should be arriving soon, meaning that when we return to Kazakhstan, she may get more than 3 minutes of use without the mains lead attached, before it shuts down! We already upgraded the RAM from one to four gigabytes, so I’m hoping the notebook will have a new lease of life 🙂
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Feb 19 2010
Chomp, Gulp & Brrrrm!
As the time drew closer and closer for our trip to Britain, my mind automatically started fixating on those things I missed from home. So what have I crossed off the list already, since returning to Britain?
A nice Chinese takeaway – I’ve slowly discovered that there are normally a few dishes I can enjoy, and Irina loves them.
Shreddies and Weetabix (not simultaneously) with milk that tastes like it is supposed to 🙂
Coke Zero (I love Coke, but want to have some teeth left – Coke Zero isn’t yet sold in Kazakhstan). I still try to be sensible, but knowing that I’m not destroying my teeth quite so quickly is a relief 🙂
Tinned steamed chocolate pudding (the two minutes and you’re done type – apparently not yet a recognised treatment for depression, I suppose not enough peer reviewed research papers have been written???)
Marmite on toasted tiger bread (white bread with some sort of coating on top, no felines harmed, I promise).
Orange squash (for non-UK readers, this is a concentrated fruit based drink that you dilute to taste)
and, of course, driving our car again.
We still need to see Dad, visit friends in Cheltenham, have proper fish’n’chip shop chips and a battered burger, a bacon double cheese burger from Burger King and buy a few things for Anna, but given that we’ve been here less than a week, I think the amount of ticks in the To Do list is more than satisfactory 🙂
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Feb 17 2010
Quiet Arrivals
Almost a week with no posts! As you may have guessed, I, Irina and Anna all arrived in Britain safely last Friday. Our car is back on the road, various gadgets have been fixed/sorted at Mum’s, and we are starting to arrange seeing people across the country. It is Anna’s first birthday this Sunday, so we also need to sort a card and some presents. Speaking of presents, I’m looking at getting a Seagate 500gb Portable Hard Drive
Feb 11 2010
Grumpy Young Man
Just a quick embedded video from LuckyInDC here – he outlines one of the differences between America and Kazakhstan – strangers talking to you, or rather the lack of them in Kazakhstan. Some might argue that complete strangers talking is a good way to make friends outside of your normal circle of associates, but I suppose that insincerity from all around you could be just as bad?
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Feb 03 2010
Questions
If I do ever decide to modify our Xbox 360 (so we can play backups of legally purchased games of course!), how difficult will it be to write firewall rules in the router so that internal network traffic (such as media sharing) but ensure that it doesn’t contact Microsoft at all. (They recently banned the hardware IDs of a lot of consoles that had been modified).
Does the arrival of Apple’s iPad really spell the end for netbooks, or will it fall into the pit of forgotten gizmos like the Newton?
Can I really fit all we need (data wise) in Britain onto a 16Gb thumb drive (and therefore not have to worry about customs hinting at a bribe being needed again), or will I end up giving up and just taking both portable hard drives again? In case you’re interested, yes customs officials in Kazakhstan don’t care if you are carrying 1Tb of data on hard drives, memory cards or thumb drives with you. Have that same data on a DVD or CD though, and you’re supposed to get them pre-checked (and pay the fees) a few days before your flight.
Answers on a postcard to…
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