As the 25th October was Republic Day (celebrating the signing of the papers that made Kazakhstan an independent nation, following the collapse of the USSR, and most people had Friday off as well, this Sunday is a work day here. This is not unusual, as instead of having a random day of the week off, then working, then having the weekend off, they tend to consolidate the days off, meaning everyone gets their days off in one stream. This still seems odd to Westerners, but as I would have been working on the blog anyway, it makes little difference. As I don’t work Fridays with the language school, I told them I would not be in the office today (which is a replacement work day for the ‘extra’ Friday we had off this week).
Oh, and for any friends or family thinking of calling us, back in Britain the clocks went back to GMT again today, meaning that we are now 6 hours ahead once more in Kazakhstan.