Happy Birthday, hopefully Sasha and Sveta have been giving you a peaceful and relaxing day 🙂
Dec 03 2007
Barrels Of Fun
To celebrate Dr Natalya’s birthday, we went to the ‘barrel’ restaurant yesterday. I have forgotten the official name of the place, but due to the use of huge barrels outside as dining areas (at least in the summer months), that barrel place is easier to remember 🙂
As well as Dr Natalya, her husband Sasha (when in doubt, if a guy is Russian, Sasha is normally a safe bet 😉 ), their daughter Sveta and Masha, we also had Balzhan and her son Ildar. We finally had a chance to pass on a couple of little presents for the kids (some toys and a British comic each) who seemed to enjoy them. Anyway, we had some salad (OK, I admit I just munched on the bread), a few plates of pork sashliq and I ordered some chips. Topped off with some ice cream, and a good time was had by all. Sadly Balzhan and Ildar can not make it this Christmas to Mum’s wedding, so it was good to see them again before New Year, which is a much bigger holiday/celebration over here, than Xmas.
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Sep 13 2007
Ildar’s Birthday Celebration
Last Sunday we went over to Balzhan’s, to celebrate Ildar’s birthday, along with Dr Natalya, Sasha and Sveta. We bought him a board game that appeared to have a lot of instructions, as it had several different boards and rules as you progressed through the game. It will hopefully provide an alternative when his Gameboy’s batteries run out 🙂
Anyway, the adults had a nice meal, with a little vodka for some, and wine for others. I think. I remember having some nice vodka at least. Sasha is still on the offensive in terms of getting me to go fishing, though he didn’t seem to believe I really didn’t eat any fish. Combine that with my hatred of mushrooms and nuts, and I do occasionally get strange looks from fellow diners. I just hope my enthusiasm and capacity for vodka goes some way to balance it out 🙂
We have in the photos below Balzhan, Dr Natalya, her husband Sasha with Ildar and Sveta, and finally Ira.
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Aug 16 2007
Aunty Sveta, Sasha And A Golden Roundabout
Last weekend Ira’s Aunt Sveta and her grand daughter Sasha came over to celebrate Ira’s Mum’s birthday. On the Saturday morning, as we were all in the car sorting out flowers, presents and food, Ira’s Dad took us over to a monument his company built. When the sun is shining, it is truly spectacular. The whole structure is covered in gold leaf, and really does sparkle when clouds do not dominate the sky. Anyway, enough of the text, onto the photos…
Ira, Walton, Alex and I all originally saw this statue/monument object just prior to going to the horse event around Astana Day. I’m glad to say no one seems to have tried to chip off the gold since then 🙂
I meant to add this earlier, if you want to see an interesting, (in)famous roundabout, check out this Google Maps satellite photo of the Magic Roundabout in Swindon, UK. You end up going the wrong way around the central roundabout!
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Aug 11 2007
Happy Birthday Ira’s Mum
Today was, as you may have guessed from this post’s title, Jenya’s (my mother-in-law) birthday. Aunty Sveta and her grand daughter Sasha came last night to celebrate with the family. We spent the morning grabbing cake, flowers and a few other bits and bobs. Then we went home to congratulate Jenya on the happy occasion. We and Ira’s dad got a new mobile phone for her (Nokia N76), which is now mostly working 🙂 I was not a great deal of help as I have (purposefully) only ever owned one Nokia, many years ago, and so was not too familiar with their approach to the user interface.
We all had a nice couple of meals, with a little to drink, and were also joined by Dr. Natalya, her husband Sasha §, daughter, as well as Balzhan and her son Ildar. I built a fire in the living room fireplace, and it did not start the carpet ablaze, so all went well there 😉
§ – When in doubt over a Russian’s name, Sasha is normally a safe bet 🙂
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