As previously suggested by a friend over here in Astana, and obviously moaned about by me most times I cross a road, the pedestrian crossings at traffic lights (that is to say those that have an automated timetable for when people can cross, as opposed to the newer variety, found away from crossroads, where you press a button) REALLY should be timed so that cars are NOT allowed to drive past at the same time as you cross. Granted, almost all the drivers do stop, or swerve to a different lane, but especially when icy conditions prevail, trying to cross a six lane road, knowing that cars could (literally) come spinning round the corner at any moment isn’t great.
Combine this with the fact that drivers waiting for their light to go green normally wait on top of the crossing that pedestrians use, and you can end up in some strange places at a four ways crossroad, just hoping you can get across in time. Obviously if Anna is with us, we pretty much don’t cross unless we have been waiting since before the green man is lit up, but other times, if it is just adults involved, you tend to cross when everyone else does, meaning some of the drivers turning right, whose lights have just turned red, are particularly impatient and want to get down the road quickly, before traffic from a different direction starts trying to cut them up, and effectively queue jump.
Apr 27 2010
Suggestions For Kazakhstan – Part VII
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Apr 27 2010
Photos And Videos From The Park To Come
Now that temperatures have swung from -20/-30C to +10/20C, more walks around Astana park are likely to be on the cards. I will try and remember to take the camera and snap a few shots, or at least use the mobile for some slightly low-res Qik videos. I just wish the makers were able to access the phone’s hardware directly, and take 640 x 480 videos instead. This would obviously take longer to stream/upload, but I think it would be worth it.
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Apr 27 2010
Anna’s First MP3 Player!
This video was shot after the presents were opened, and the bubble machine tested out side. Although we had to wait for the box it was transported to Kazakhstan in to pass Kazakh Customs, it is definitely one of Anna’s favourite toys, especially since we took the audio from her favourite DVD of children’s songs and put it on the player’s memory card. The controls are simple and large, the player lights up during use, and Anna has figured out what most buttons do already…
OK, just got to the end of Anna’s Birthday videos that I had already uploaded to the YouTube account, and realised that the last (in terms of the time it was recorded) is better suited to this post. Anna and her MP3 player in the evening, with us realising you needed to set it to play one song, three songs or thirty minutes worth. (Or something like that).
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Apr 25 2010
Suggestions For Kazakhstan – Part VI
Just a very quick one today. Upon arrival in Kazakhstan (at least in Astana airport), all visitors have to proceed through an x-ray machine, after collecting their luggage, just before they enter the arrivals area, and can hop into a car. However, this section is also useful for telling which foreigners have been to this glorious republic before… Anyone who has spent at least some time over here will often follow the lead of many locals, and simply elect to walk straight past the machines and out the door. Only once has a guy in uniform convinced me that I can not leave until I’ve waited in yet another queue and had my bags checked over again. A couple of times someone will make a small amount of noise, but if you just keep walking and assume they must be talking to someone else, nothing ever happens.
If this was on the way INTO the airport, before departing on a flight, I would be more concerned, and most likely follow the procedure, however, as I’ve most likely been through security checkpoints several times that day, and not about to get onto a plane, but into a private car, I can’t see the point. To have people in uniforms, with machines ready to scan your luggage, which most passengers then blatantly ignore does not do much for the security reassurance that I suppose these machines are there for. They certainly can’t be there as a real method of ensuring nothing dodgy enters the country.
So, airport security when leaving the airport… x-ray machines shouldn’t be voluntary, but thanks anyway…
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Apr 16 2010
Suggestions For Kazakhstan – Part V
It is entirely possible that this post should be titled “Suggestions for the people that specifically look after the water supply to the blocks of flats in our area” rather than “Suggestions For Kazakhstan etc. etc.”, however I do know that people living in other areas of Astana (and certainly more rural areas of Kazakhstan in general) find this subject to be a matter of concern… Put simply, the supply of water needs to be monitored more closely. We don’t give plain tap water to our cats, let alone drink the stuff ourselves. The reason for the water (now less occasionally, admittedly) going orangey/browny is normally that some work is being done with pipes elsewhere in Astana, and that once the pollution has been run through the taps, all will be back to normal. I know of other people living in this city that don’t even brush their teeth in anything other than bottled/boiled water. This makes sense when you think of the ease with which diseases could enter our bloodstream when brushing our gums, however we have not yet decided to go that far. If contractors or maintenance companies (as opposed to some sort of municipal water company) is/are involved, perhaps closer monitoring/regulation is required. Properly enforced oversight or legal ramifications is needed, not just yet another layer of paperwork/stamps/”fines” to be paid. There are some truly revolting theories online as to reasons for the occasional colouring of water that can be observed in Astana, especially from ex-pats/people involved in the industry, but most of these sources were written a few years ago now.
Since we started using a water cooler type setup in our flat (and therefore had some other person deliver huge containers of clean water, rather than transport five litre bottles of water ourselves), I can’t really complain about the physical effort involved to ensure our drinking/cooking/pet/child related H2O needs are met, but when it comes to a shower or bath, I can’t help feeling a little repulsed when the water comes out anything other than clear.
Am I alone in feeling these concerns?
Apr 11 2010
Can anyone tell me what the fr…
Can anyone tell me what the frack a _Fajita_ is doing on the menu in an Irish pub in Kazakhstan. It makes sense in Vaqueros (sp?), but here?
Apr 11 2010
More whiskeys than your averag…
More whiskeys than your average UK “Irish” pub … http://twitpic.com/1evpf1
Apr 08 2010
For friends back in the UK. No…
For friends back in the UK. No need to panic, #Kyrgyzstan is not Kazakhstan. Will try and post info on the situation there tomorrow. #freekg
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Apr 06 2010
Funny Man Isn’t
Dom Joly recently wrote an article on eating horse meat in Kazakhstan. My thanks to Irina for sending me the link. All of the comments there (I see KZBlog got there first!) seem to be defending horse meat dishes, though I feel that spirited1away has slightly overstated his(?) case when claiming that Britain has no dishes to be proud of.
It is true that Dom seems to have slipped into lazy journalism, OR really didn’t have much luck with the choice of restaurant his host selected. I just hope the poor guy doesn’t read the complaints online – it does sound pretty ungrateful, as I imagine Dom would have expressed an interest in finding out what unique experiences Kazakhstan had to offer. Yes, the man is (at least in Britain) known as a comedian, and most people would expect his articles to offer a humorous short story, but as one commenter stated, this just seems like lazy journalism.
Apr 06 2010
Suggestions For Kazakhstan – Part IV
This one is quite simple, and some may even argue petty (in which case, just wait until you’ve seen a few more of these Suggestions For Kazakhstan posts!).
What it all comes down to is cover your mouth if something liquid-based is coming out, and don’t spit in public!
If you really feel the need to spit, then do it at home, where people have the choice to share the area you live in.
For a while around the time of the swine flu epidemic hysteria here in Kazakhstan, I had really hoped that people might take heed of the (surprisingly) sensible advice posted up by the authorities. However, behaviour on the street since then suggests that people still think nothing of bringing up a large amount of phlegm, or even just saliva, and projecting it onto the nearest area of ground they are not immediately about to walk over.
I might just be able to lend a small amount of credence to the overall majority opinion in this country that you get a cold from being cold (modern doctors are finally realising that the major issue isn’t temperature, but germs in the air from already infected people), if people would just stop their saliva, snot and phlegm from being launched into the air at around 50 mph!
You could argue that sneezes (and to a lesser extent, coughs), are often involuntary and come with little warning. In which case, I’ll compromise, and focus on the spitting in the street. Premier league footballers across the world gob onto the pitch, but lets be honest, they aren’t normally ideal role models for many areas in life, so why let them influence your approach to hygiene?
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