May 14 2009

Last Known UK Photo Of Anna?

Category: Anna's Photos,Personal — ChrisM @ 1:34 am

Unless I took some on my phone, here we have a shot from Dad’s camera, when he and Nick met us at the airport, after John very kindly drove us all the way down to Heathrow. Despite over eager rule enforcement from the coffeeshop staff re. exact seating positions allowed, it was great to see Dad and my ‘little’ brother one more time, and we are looking forward to hopefully seeing everyone again this Christmas.
So, here we have it, the last British picture (14th May) before we play catch up with all the Kazakh photos…

Chris Irina Nick Anna at Heathrow

Chris Irina Nick Anna at Heathrow

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May 09 2009

Dressed Well

Category: Anna's Photos,Personal — ChrisM @ 2:38 am

Getting ever close to our leaving date in the UK, this was taken on the 9th of May. Anna is sat in her favourite bouncy chair, wearing a lovely dress, wondering why everyone makes a big fuss when she has certain clothes on 🙂

Anna in a Pretty Dress

Anna in a Pretty Dress

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May 08 2009

Amsterdam 2008 Photos #13

Category: Amsterdam,Personal,Pictures — ChrisM @ 6:40 pm

So, this is the last of the Amsterdam 2008 photos, with the 2007 batch to come sometime in the future.

Just love the red trainers visible below the hooped skirt in this picture
Amsterdam Holland Chris Merriman Irina

A shot of a tram, I think taken on the way back to the train station to leave 🙁
Amsterdam Holland Chris Merriman Irina

A split level train, used on heavy traffic routes I imagine. Probably doesn’t look too unusual to American readers, but all our UK trains are single deck, so this catches your eye the first time you use one.
Amsterdam Holland Chris Merriman Irina

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May 08 2009

Complaining To A Pan Handler

Category: In The Media — ChrisM @ 5:34 pm

Here in Wales, some people with healthcare jobs will be having a brand new uniform sometime this year! New colour schemes have been devised to make it easier for patients and their visitors to identify who is in charge, who to ask specific questions regarding your malaise, who takes BP and pulse observations, and who passes the those funny bottles to wee into. OK, the BBC did word it a little more correctly over here, but I think that is what it boils down to 🙂

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May 06 2009

Catch Up Post

Category: Friends,Personal — ChrisM @ 12:39 pm

There haven’t been a lot of ‘real’ blog posts recently, with tweets from my phone being the normal method of updates. So, just to sync everyone at the same time, we went to see Dad on Saturday, over in Evesham. Luckily the car didn’t need any major work done to it (it was making a noise like an Austin Metro engine when you turned the steering wheel), just a top up of the power assist steering fluid. This meant I was happy driving on the motorway with Anna and Ira, without worrying about breaking down or exploding 🙂
It was great seeing Dad, Aunty Chris & Bob again, and to catch up with what has been going on. I hope to see Dad and my brother Nick (and maybe Roz?) before we leave for Kazakhstan on the 14th. From there, we moved onto Cheltenham on Sunday, to see some friends who had not yet met Anna. Irina managed to find a great deal on a room at the Queens hotel in Chelt, which I’d never been in before, let alone had a room. TBH, the rooms, staff and decor were all fine, but I think the reputation of the place had led us to think it would be a lot better. Ira #2’s boyfriend (Andy) instantly became a demi-god when he took a quick glance at our pushchair, diagnosed and then fixed the fault within a couple of minutes – the brake had been semi-engaged since the day it arrived, which meant pushing it and Anna uphill was un-necessarily arduous. Unfortunately, whilst returning from town the brake had fully engaged, so we had to half carry the thing up the Promenade. Silver linings in a cloud and all that though, as if it hadn’t finally engaged like that, we’d not have mentioned it to Andy & therefore struggled over in Kazakhstan pushing it along stony tracks etc.
So what plans today? Sort out a couple of things for John’s upcoming 60th birthday, help look after Anna, generally not get in the way of Irina who is packing boxes to send ahead of us for Astana & try and check out the rest of the demos I downloaded over the weekend for the XBox 360.

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May 03 2009

Anna’s First Ever Trip To Cheltenham

Category: Anna's Photos,Personal — ChrisM @ 2:55 am

After leaving Dad’s in Evesham, we went on into Cheltenham, where Irina had managed to find a good deal on a room at the Queens hotel. Whether the room was not as plush as their standard rooms, or it was simply a case that the hype accorded to this hotel increases your expectations, we couldn’t be sure. Nothing wrong with the place per se, just not as ‘wow’ as we expected. We met up with Ira’s friends from when she worked at PKL and had a nice meal at Cafe Rouge. From there we went on to meet up with the other Irina and her boyfriend, as well as ChrisD, Steve and Emma, over in the beer gardens.

Continue reading “Anna’s First Ever Trip To Cheltenham”

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May 02 2009

Last Visit To Dad’s

Category: Anna's Photos,Personal — ChrisM @ 2:07 pm

These pictures were shot in Evesham, at Dad’s house, on the 2nd and 3rd of May. This was our last trip before heading back to Kazakhstan, though we did also spend some time in Cheltenham on the 3rd.

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May 01 2009

Quick Anna photo on sofa, watc…

Category: Anna's Photos,Tweets — ChrisM @ 9:19 am

Quick Anna photo on sofa, watching the news. Backlog of her photos clearing soon. Cheltenham visit this w/end poss http://twitpic.com/4bpsw

Anna Sitting On Sofa

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Apr 20 2009

Thank You Everyone

Category: Personal — ChrisM @ 9:40 pm

I’m currently a little too pished to type out a proper post, but I just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone that has taken the time to e-mail/facebook/skype birthday greetings & congratulations. I will try and reply properly to everyone over the next couple of days, but in the mean time THANK YOU.
Everything is fine here, I have spent the day with Ira & Anna and Mum & John in person, and others via online messaging etc. having a good time, and being congratulated on my 30th birthday. I did try and stay sober for AlexC and Seb’s arrival, but they were unexpectedly delayed, so I’m no longer 100% compus mentus. Hmmm, firefox UK dictionary not helping me with Latin (Greek?), sorry.
Brilliant day, superb company, really good to hear from everyone.
Apparently friends have arrived, so I’ll sign off for now. Thanks to all the family and friends that have passed on good wishes and sentiments, most, most, MOST appreciated.

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Apr 18 2009

City Link Shit Everywhere

Category: Personal — ChrisM @ 12:38 pm

Having paid extra to ensure birthday presents arrived on time (next day delivery), I was eager to trace the consignment from Amazon. Having entered the consignment number, I was presented with the following…

13:06 Friday, April 17, 2009 On route to delivery depot
05:58 Saturday, April 18, 2009 Arrived at Delivery Depot
06:16 Saturday, April 18, 2009 Goods loaded onto a van
09:24 Saturday, April 18, 2009 Delivery point closed (Carded)
10:03 Saturday, April 18, 2009 Goods returned to depot

9:24am this morning, people were up in this house. No one rang the doorbell, or even bothered to leave a card. Ringing the company, I was presented with a message informing me that they closed at midday on Saturdays. Drove down to the depot, in case they just stopped answering calls, but still had staff there. No joy.
So this Monday, on my 30th birthday, we will need to wait inside the house, for a package that had been sent with next day delivery. Instead, it will now take three days. I should not be surprised really, we often had problems with City Link being lazy and lying in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire – I’d just hoped this was a one off, and that Swansea’s branch wouldn’t be staffed by inefficient lying bar stewards as well. My mistake.
My thanks to Amazon for being very efficient and actually fulfilling their end of the deal, and also to one of the companies that sells second hand XBox 360 games, as their delivery arrived fine (Royal Mail) FOUR days early!

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