Just under 5 weeks now until Ira, myself, and both in-laws will be travelling to Britain for Christmas and Mum & John’s wedding. This will be the first time Ira’s mum has been there, and now they have their visas sorted, it is just the matter of Xmas pressies to sort that is left out standing. Although the in-laws are returning to Kazakhstan for the New Year, Ira and I are spending that with Mum, and then 10 or so days more in Britain, so we can see my Dad, and our friends in Cheltenham etc. So for the few (‘real’ world) friends that do bother to read these posts, let me know when you’ll be around via e-mail or IM, or pretend you will be away if you want to avoid us 😛
Nov 17 2007
Happy Birthday Dad & Babushka…
Today is the birthday of my Dad, Babushka (Ira’s Dad’s Mum) and also Stargazer (if you don’t recognise the name, I’ll assume you have not been reading this blog for a long time, he is the Austrian author of my favourite plug in, and the man who toured Austria on a moped!).
Anyway, assuming the present and card arrive in time, I’m hoping Dad will enjoy them, though I won’t post what it was until I know for sure he has it, I don’t want to go spoiling the surprise 🙂
Once Irina has finished at work, we should be heading to the in-laws for a meal to celebrate Babushka’s birthday.
Anyway, congratulations to all three people, and I hope your day goes well, with family and friends around you to help share in the joy.
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Oct 26 2007
Started A New Job This Week…
Thanks to our friend Walton, I started a new job this week, teaching English to Russians and Kazakhs that want to improve their language skills.
Before people start spitting coke/tea/coffee all over their monitors, I should point out that I am really just there to provide conversational practice, rather than drill the intricacies of grammar rules into the victims pupils. So far I have one student four times a week, and another just once. As they don’t know this blog exists I am obviously not about to post their names, but the first is a retired man who used to work in the airline industry, and wants to improve his English for speaking to foreigners when he travels, and the other is still at school. The first person will have their lessons at 11.30am, which is good for me, as I don’t need to worry about getting to bed before 3am the preceding night, however as the 2nd pupil is still at school, I will need to be at the office by 9am once a week! Don’t go expecting too many blog posts on a Monday night for a while 🙂
Although this blog earns me more money per hour of work than this ‘real’ job, any extra certainly helps, as Ira and I will be travelling to Britain this Christmas for Mum & John’s wedding. Hopefully either Ira’s Mum or both parents will be coming as well, with Balzhan and Ildar another possibility. Anyway, I hope to make a proper post on the planned happy events this Yule tide a little later.
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Oct 19 2007
Back In Kazakhstan
I hope to write a few posts on my stay in Britain later, but for now I have a few things to sort out here at home.
A quick summary of some of the posts to come…
Kaliningrad Airport – Almost there in terms of earning its ‘international’ status
Amsterdam – How not to miss flights (learnt my lesson 6 years ago)
Cheltenham & Evesham – Dad and friends
Clydach – Mum, John and friends
Falmouth – Nick, his birthday, Roz, and the trip down in the motor home
Amsterdam – 4 hour stop over in the city itself
Anyway, hopefully more details to come soon 🙂
Sep 17 2007
Trains, Coaches And Cars…
OK, so after Amsterdam, I am travelling to Cheltenham and Evesham to spend around a week with Dad & Jan and Cheltonian friends. The next week I am travelling to Clydach, near Swansea to see Mum & John, and then some time after down to Falmouth to see my brother for his birthday (12th October).
With the Cheltenham/Evesham to Clydach journey, I need to decide whether to travel on a train, catch a coach or rent a hire car for the day.
The advantages that I can see of each…
Train – plenty of room to stretch my legs, normally has a little buffet section on board
Coach – get on coach, read/listen to music/sleep, get off at other end, often no changes required, usually cheaper than a train
Hire car – a lot more flexibility with when I leave, taking a rest break and don’t need to worry about my luggage getting too battered/stolen
The disadvantages…
Train – often pricey compared to a coach, most previous journeys I have taken have involved a change of trains
Coach – cramped, no food or drink onboard, risk of noisy/smelly/annoying passenger sitting next to me, at least on busy routes
Car – can be expensive in comparison to the others, need to get myself to the pick up and drop off points (hire car company offices)
So, after a little research, things are not as simple as I hoped. The coach (National Express) doesn’t seem to have a terminal in Swansea, the trains are not running on the first date I was looking at (Bank holiday maybe?), and the hire car company comparison sites don’t allow for picking up a car in Cheltenham/Evesham and dropping it off in Swansea to be entered into their comparison search table.
So, does anyone have any advice?
[edit]
Another option I considered would be to buy a bargain banger with at least a month’s tax and MOT left, and hope it lasted while I was in the UK…
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Sep 12 2007
Amsterdam Ingenuity
This is a slightly delicate topic, so I will try to ensure I approach it with some decorum…
Men have an advantage over women when it comes to that time when nature calls… out in the open countryside, give us a bush tree, or simply no one else within sight, and we can all find relief with the minimum of planning or hassle.
However, some men seem to have a problem with… accuracy when it comes to civilised bathrooms (WCs, loos, toilets, feel free to insert your nation’s favoured term here). For whatever reason, their attention can momentarily slip, and a wet floor can follow.
However, some clever designer has come up with a solution…
Yep, paint a fake fly in a urinal, and many men will see it as a challenge – something to truly aim for. According to this report (the site basically debunks myths, or confirms strange stories, depending on the outcome of their research), Schiphol Airport have had to spend less money on cleaning the bathroom floor now that men have something to keep their minds occupied on the job in hand… if you’ll forgive the pun.
Sep 11 2007
Ildar’s First Day At School Videos
A little later than originally intended, here are the videos shot the day Ildar (Balzhan’s son) had his first day at school. Over here in Kazakhstan, they start going to school a little later than back in Britain – around seven years old seemed to be the average age there.
Not only is this day special for those just starting school, the last two years also attend this event, as they will soon be leaving the establishment.
First we have Ildar with his last little boy type display of the day. From this point on, he assumed the persona of a serious child – intent on learning, making his mum proud, and looking very smart. Apart from pulling faces to show off his missing milk teeth at the front 🙂 It was obviously an emotional day for Balzhan, though I believe there may have been a small amount of melodramatic acting. (She is the sports news achorwoman on the Astana TV channel, so maybe she picked up some hints from colleagues in the business?) It was quite strange seeing all the little children in their suits and Sunday-best dresses, a little different to the rag-a-muffin appearance of UK school kids at least…
Now all the children are neatly lined up in their classes, with their form tutor in front, the school decided it would be a great idea to get them to… do nothing for a long time. Again I was impressed, as the behaviour at this point seemed a lot better than I would expect from a bunch of British kids being told to stand still and be quiet. The people at the beginning of the video are Ilar’s Dad (Tima) and paternal (patriarchal?) grandparents, who came for Ildar’s special day.
We then had some motivational type speeches from kids who would soon be leaving the school – work hard, it is worth it, do as you are told etc. etc. Some of the message was conveyed by means of a little play.
At the beginning we have the school flag on display, and the children slowly wound their way into the building.
Right, that is it, no more videos are left on my hard drive to be uploaded, nor in YouTube waiting to be embedded on this blog. That said, I do need to record a new vid later on to promote one of the paid blogging companies I use… watch this space 🙂
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Sep 08 2007
First 07 Kitten Video, Alex And A Garden
Other than Ildar’s first day at school, this blog is now up to date with the videos I have shot over the last few months, at least after this post. I’m saving Ildar’s collection until I know whether or not we are meeting him again tomorrow.
Anyway, first we have Tima, the single kitten that Dasha had this year, (the brother of Karra and Muska), shot last week. As he does not live with us, I doubt he will have as many photos and videos of him on this blog, but as a few people asked what he looked like, here you go…
This is the last Alex video, taken when she visited us here in Kazakhstan. Not sure what to title this, other than possibly “Alex No YouTube”? Any other (polite suggestions)? For any fans of hers, we will hopefully have some more during our Amsterdam trip, which should also include ChrisD as well.
And the last two videos in this post are from the same day Alex visited my in-laws, here we have Irina taking viewers on a trip round the garden. Over here, especially in Kazakh (as opposed to Russian) families, gardens (if present) tend to be primarily for growing produce, rather than the British standard of lots of grass and some flowers. Anyway, take a peek, and let me know if you have any questions about the plants you see… I know nothing, but will gladly pass your requests on to Ira or her Mum, who can both tell the difference between weeds and flowers, and thereby best me with their expertise by a long way 🙂
Sep 07 2007
Forgot About These Ones
I had a nagging feeling I had forgotten some of the videos I uploaded to YouTube a while back. I eventually got around to opening all the posts within the Video category on this blog, then checked which videos from my YouTube channel had been posted. So we have a batch of four here, taken from when AlexC was still here in Kazakhstan, and we had all gone round to Ira’s parents for a nice relaxing evening, some food, and a little drink. I am still impressed that Alex was able to hold her own reasonably well when it came to downing vodka, considering she hadn’t had a drink in some five years!
Here we have Babushka (Ira’s grandma), her Dad, Mum, Alex, Myself, some Wild Strawberries (really little fruit that make great jam), and of course Irina filming. In fact I think she handled all the camera work for these 4 shots…
Ira’s Dad is a little old school in some respects, and so was not happy with the prospect of her chopping some wood up for the samovar§. This despite the fact that if I had done it, we would have ended up with wood splinters, sticks that were too wide to fit in the tube, blood, tears, sweat, and possibly a three-fingered Chris. Compare this to the nature loving, camping, tree-surgery-considering Alex, who knows how to handle sharp tools, and you can see why I giggled (oooops, sorry make that let out a manly guffaw…. hmmm why does that sound so unbelievable?) at the idea that I was a better choice to chop wood. Ira’s Dad did it himself in the end.
The big barbecue thing is, well a barbecue, made by the guys ar Ira’s Dad’s work. He complained that most barbecues are made for shorter people, so they made one with extra long legs 🙂 It looks like I had been demoted that day from my normal duties of burning things. hmmmm, fire, flames, burn, petrol……. sorry, where was I? Seriously, I normally manage to burn the wood well enough, as it is not too difficult task to ensure that wood is burnt well to provide the charcoal needed to cook the sashliq (skewered kebabs) later on.
Finally we have almost everyone at the table before dinner, with Babushka chilling in the reclining garden chair. Alex tries out a little Russian, and Ira tells a blatent lie – the cake can’t be have more than my 43rd!
§ – A tea urn with a difference – the heat is provided by burning wood within the tube that runs through the middle of the area that the water is boiled in. You can now buy electric versions, but there is no fun in that, IMHO.
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Sep 04 2007
In Laws Over
We recently had Irina’s Mum and Dad over for tea. They had not been here in a while (we do still see them once a week or so, though, normally over at their house), so it was good to see them. Since they last came, we have had the air conditioner installed, and Irina seemed happy that her Dad approved of it. So much so, that he did not even notice where it was at first.
First we have Karra staring into the flash, I hope we didn’t blind her temporarily…
Next we have Ira, her Mum and Matilda (the little doll in the middle), then we have Irina’s Dad.
Finally we have Irina and Muska both looking very cute 🙂
Anyway, a good meal with good company led to a great evening.
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