In a little over four months, Mum will be coming to see us here in Kazakhstan again 🙂 Although we had all been hoping this would be possible, since she bought the idea up, with my younger brother and Roz having had a child recently, another bargain holiday for Mum and John found on eBay and the prices for plane tickets to Astana, nothing was guaranteed. We have told Anna that her Nana is coming over, and she points at the photo of her and John, so she might even understand what we’re talking about 🙂 We are all really looking forward to seeing Mum again, and I’m pretty sure Mum will be looking forward to seeing her granddaughter.
Now all I need to do is control my online purchasing, and try not to take Mum over her baggage allowance. If you visit relatives via road, gifts can be reasonably bulky, however as the flight isn’t direct, and you only get 20 kilos, I might need to limit myself to some Shreddies, Orange squash and a couple of powered USB hubs 🙂
Mum did find an airline called Baltic Air (a sort of Ryanair/EasyJet equivalent based in the Baltics) and although their prices were almost half of the next cheapest fare (Turkish Airlines), the reviews indicated that this wouldn’t necessarily be a wise choice to make.
Anyway, John (and Gwen obviously) will be staying in Britian, so we’ll have to wait until out next trip to the UK for a reunion with them, but we’re over the moon that Mum/Carol/Nana is coming to Kazakhstan again 🙂
May 24 2010
Mum Coming To Kazakhstan Again!
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May 15 2010
Assorted Anna Birthday Pictures
I will need to double check later, but I think this post is the last of the pictures from the 21st of February. I will try and get a move on, and post the rest of the UK pictures (none of the other days had quite so many shots taken, you’ll be glad to know 🙂 ) sometime soon.
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- Raring To Go
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- “Uncle” Seb With A Caffeine Fix
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- Me, John And Anna
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- Grandad, Irina And Anna
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- Mama, Anna & Donkey
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- Nana And Anna
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May 07 2010
Arse. Still no power. Ira read…
Arse. Still no power. Ira reading #UKGE results over mobile phone. Fire engines/men parade? again in Astana park – http://twitpic.com/1loyms
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May 07 2010
This is a bit like Xmas Eve (w…
This is a bit like Xmas Eve (w/ UK General Election). Except with the possibilty of finding a turd in my stocking come morning…
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May 06 2010
I Couldn’t Spell Kalmykia Either
Just caught an interesting BBC article regarding claims from Kirsan Ilyumzhinov (the president of Kalmykia (or Kalymkia as the BBC have it currently spelt in the article?!)) that he was abducted by aliens, and spoke with them!
If, like me, you hadn’t heard about this region of Russia before, check out the Wiki page on it here, or a similar BBC page on it here.
Now the question is whether this is connected to recent UFO sightings in Kazakhstan? Tongue in cheek level is around 99.7% here, on my part, but a really small part of my brain wants to hope this is some sort of alien contact involving two way communication. If I have a couple of beers, that stat might alter to 98% 🙂
Hoping KZBlog doesn’t totally hate this post 😉
May 06 2010
Election Time
Most people would probably guess I am not a Tory loving blogger, however with Labour having swung so far away from their roots, I only hope any Lib Dem pact resulting from Thursday’s election results will bring about some positive change, if only in terms of the way seats are allocated. I am not necessarily saying that proportional representation is perfect, but the current system has been broken for a long time.
Anyway, enough skirting around UK political issues, onto the serious stuff…
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May 03 2010
Chocolate – Apparently The Choice Food Of Evil Doers?
According to a BBC article, Israel could have a(n even more) difficult job justifying their blockade on Gaza.
Whilst keeping ammunition, rocket fuel or night-sight equipment out of the area could easily be defended by most politicians that were keen on minimizing military supplies (or dual purpose items) flowing to Hamas, the list that was presented following legal action (similar to a UK-style FoI request I believe) displayed how normal everyday items were also being stopped from crossing the border. A few examples? Canned fruit, fruit juice, jam, chocolate are/were all banned at some point, although canned meat and tuna, mineral water, sesame paste, tea and coffee are all fine apparently.
The blockade is aimed at weakening Hamas’ grip/influence in the Gaza strip, however this sort of action merely reinforces the image for many people of a government/system in Israel that is happy to make the lives of ordinary, non-violent Palestinians worse, day by day, which some would argue merely serves Hamas’ propaganda needs, rather than really achieving it’s stated aim.
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Apr 16 2010
Smaller Screens And Burgers!
On the evening of my upcoming 31st birthday (20th April), I am hoping to head out TGI Friday (Thank God Its Friday) with Irina, Anna and Ira’s Mum – (her Dad will be away on business). At the end of the week, when our friends here in Astana are more likely to be able to meet up and not worry about work the next day, we are planning to invite them around to ours for hamburgers, baked beans and potato wedges/roast potatoes. As some of our friends have children, we wanted to ensure they could bring them along and so hope to keep some sort of entertainment going for them in Anna’s room, as the living room & kitchen/dining room may be filled with “adults”.
Quotations marks, as I’m hoping most won’t want to drive themselves, and so have a drink or three. Does this mean we will be filling Anna’s room with home theater seating? Not necessarily, however I’m hoping to either use this computer’s third monitor, or Irina’s laptop to stream childrens’ cartoon and movies into Anna’s room. This would require the eldest child of one friend of ours to be the nominated supervisor/monitor of children, but she has been an absolute star when required to fill this role in the past, and I’m hoping the menu on offer will go some way to persuading her that the situation would be to everyones’ liking.
Anyway, once I have cleared the backlog of Anna’s photos and videos from our UK trip, I’ll hopefully be able to post some clips of the little angels from that night. Alternatively I may just remember to stream a few clips up onto Qik.com, and have them automatically imported to this site. Whatever the case, I want to say thank you to Irina for her time and effort in organising a Chris/child-friendly menu for the evening.
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Apr 11 2010
More whiskeys than your averag…
More whiskeys than your average UK “Irish” pub … http://twitpic.com/1evpf1
Apr 08 2010
For friends back in the UK. No…
For friends back in the UK. No need to panic, #Kyrgyzstan is not Kazakhstan. Will try and post info on the situation there tomorrow. #freekg
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