He has been away in Moscow studying for almost a year now, so it is really good to have him back around, if only for a couple of weeks. We (Ira, myself, AlexC and Oleg himself), all went out for a meal this evening. We headed over to where Irina works (KMG), as she was called in on her day off (quel surprise), and once we were all together, headed to the Uzbek restaurant near there. It turns out they now have a outdoor section, shared with the Samovar restaurant (Russian food) next door, which was based on the roof. For once, the food was tasty and hot, the service was incredibly good by Kazakh standards, with smiles and a few English phrases thrown in by the waitress. Hopefully have a few pictures to follow soon 🙂 .
Aug 28 2006
OK, Back To The Planned Blog
It is Sunday, and we’ve just waved Natalya & Oleg (a different Oleg to the one previously mentioned on this site) off. They visited for a long weekend, to do some business and to say hello to some of Astana’s inhabitants. They stayed with us, and when not working, we went out for a few drinks.
We haven’t seen her for a few years, and it was good to catch up. It was also good to meet her friends. We played billiards, which I’ve not done for 5 years. If you’ve never seen it in person, imagine a snooker table with smaller pockets and the cushions have a square angle at the pocket, not bevelled.
Now imagine the balls being almost too big to fit in the pockets, and you start to see the way the game differs from pool and snooker. Luckily we played American Billiards, not the Russian version, which means you can use any of the balls still in play as a cue ball, and any ball can be pocketed, as long as it makes contact with at least one other ball. After a few vodkas, I managed to down a few of the balls.
Losha, Igor and his wife came round in the evening, which was cool, as we haven’t seen them in a few weeks. Lorsha is interested in PCs, and his English is really quite good.
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Aug 18 2006
A Little Later Than Intended
OK, as promised, here is some more info, from Mum & John’s perspective.
This is basically a cut’n’paste job from an e-mail they sent to family and friends (with permission I hasten to add ;>)
“”For those of you ancient enough to Radio 4 be familiar with Alistair Cooke’s “Letter from America” this is likely to seem a pale comparison. Certainly less erudite and not as well crafted – but hopefully it will inform and maybe even amuse, though the political comment will be markedly absent!
This is Carol’s second visit to this amazing country and my first. As we flew in at night the lack of any settlements for hundreds of miles prior to landing in Astana was perplexing. It was hard to comprehend such vast tracts of land without population. Then Astana appears on the Kazakh Steppes resembling a modern Emirate city. Disney could not have bettered it! When Carol was here last she arrived through the back door, via the old capital of Almaty, then a twenty three hour train journey across a hot and dusty terrain. She made the trip for her son (Chris) & daughter in law’s (Irina) marriage. Jokingly she had said as she left to Irina’s father that he was to have a new airport built on her return. He did – and a pretty impressive airport to boot! It is so refreshing to see architecture which is not afraid to be adventurous, particularly in the teeth of such extreme weather conditions. Thankfully on this trip it has been kind to Carol & me, between 21°C & 30°C. The temperature can famously vary between -30°C in the winter to +40°C during the short summer months.
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