Ira, myself, Walton and Assel all went to the Chelsea ‘English Pub’ (well they have a few UK football club shirts on the wall, and it is closer to a pub than a bar…) again on Saturday evening. Had a nice time, and the two men decided to limit themselves to sharing a 500ml bottle of vodka, with absolutely no ‘assistance’ from their wiser&better halves .
We had quite good food there; the Chelsea has normally had good food, but the potato skins were bigger, and the burger tasted of meat more last night. The apple pie and ice cream has even now replaced the chocolate dessert as my favourite at that place.
Having said all that, the prices appeared to have increased, so it is probably a good thing we don’t go there too often.
Anyway, a summary of the evening, I hope, is that a good time was had by all, so thanks to Ira, Assel and Walton for their company 🙂
Although a few of the stories reported in this book have been covered in earlier releases, there is enough ‘fresh’ content in here to keep even an ardent fan happy. Unlike previous books, most of the items covered in this book are reports of true events, from a Judge proudly proclaiming how to reduce wind problems (of a personal nature, not weather) to snakes that have learnt to navigate the plumbing systems used in American houses!
I had better warn Walton to watch out 😉
Assel went on a business trip to Britain, and asked if there was anything I’d like bought back from Britain.
I think they only asked for a laugh, anyone who knows my choice of desserts over in Kazakhstan knows I have a penchant for Angel Delight. So, for my birthday, Assel kindly got me 20 packets – 10 strawberry and 10 butterscotch. We were at a restaurant at the time, so I had to wait until we got back to theirs afterwards, before I could sample one.
Delicious.
It was my 28th birthday today.
We got a TV. Eventually. More details to follow.
Had a great meal with Ira, in-laws & Walton. Went back to the Chelsea ‘pub’. Where we originally met up with Walton last summer.
I had garlic bread as a starter, chips & cheeseburger for main and a chocolate mousse for dessert.
A little vodka and Baileys kept me even happier. Good food, good company.
Hope everyone else is happy with their life right now, or at least on the up.
Thanks to everyone who passed on their congratulations…
This is the video from our first (and last :< ) visit to Tom‘s flat. We went round with Walton and had a nice meal, and spoke with one of his student’s.
This is a video of a Kazakh drinking game, recorded at Ira’s Dad’s birthday celebration, in 2003, I think.
You have two teams, two bottles of vodka, and have to serve a shot, drink it, tidy up, and repeat, in a relay team.
It will make (a bit) more sense if you just watch it, I promise…
Again from the same party, here we have some Romanys(?) singing for us
From last year, we have Irina and I shooting shotguns at a salt water lake near by
Dubai dune driving is next, from 2005, when Ira, myself and the in-laws all went to UAE
This one is to check whether or not AlexC actually reads the blog properly. It was filmed back in Bourton On The Water, which seems like a long, long, long time ago now
Almost done :-)… This is from a party back in the UK, where someone bought their Dad’s Land Rover to a party. Not too unusual around Cirencester, except this one had a couple of cool hidden extras…
Finally we have a clip from a Russian news channel. There had been an accident in a mine, and there were rumours of an alcohol problem with the miners there. Just as a responsible looking representative came on air (live!) to dispel such scandalous thoughts, someone pops into the background. (This is from a while ago, there were apparently no serious injuries reported)
And yes, I’m well aware all these YouTube videos are making the front page of my blog untidy and excessively long.
Tough, I kept forgetting to sort out and upload some videos, and it was now or never.
Also, astute readers may notice a temporary bug or two since the re-installation of WordPress and the new theme was chosen. I’m not sure whether the problem with advert code not being processed when you click on a category is a problem with the theme, or the plugin I use to display the ads, but I’ll try and find out.
Ira and I went with Walton and his wife to a concert on Saturday night. (See below for a scan of the ticket).
I’m glad we went, and most of it was quite good.
It started off with a group that use a violin, electric guitar and a kazakh instrument whose name escapes me right now. (Bit like a two-stringed guitar). They played music that matched the composition of the band – western classical intertwined with Kazakh melodies and riffs. Unfortunately, the fact they were miming to pre-recorded music was quite obvious, and the majority of the other bands/singers did the same.
Whilst this was going on, they had a ballet troop/troup(?)/troupe(?) performing in from of them (the Exclusive Ballet mentioned on the ticket I think.) Most of the performances went well, although a few looked relatively un-coordinated compared to the high standard of others.
Compared to my normal gigs/clubs in the UK, I felt relatively cultured, and enjoyed pretty much all of it, apart from some bloke in a suit crooning along; no facts to base my opinion on, but he looked and sounded like he was the son of someone important, who decided that a career in music was his calling. Who am I to argue? We also had a KVN like sketch or five, and I understood a couple of jokes, which is an improvement over when I last saw on one on TV.
Anyway, after the concert ended we all headed to a taxi, but got diverted by the prospect of a quick drink, which then turned into a meal at the local Tex/Argentinean/Italian restaurant.
When done, we all went home and I had a nice lie-in the next day. Sadly Ira (who had already worked Saturday at her office) then had to head back to work a while on Sunday. Who knows who reads this blog, so I shan’t complain about the amount of work/attendance her company require. Her boss is great, and who could ever fault Kazakhstan office work?
We went out on Wednesday to an Uzbek restaurant, near KMG (where Ira works).
Unfortunately, Walton was ill, so couldn’t make it :<
Click the link below to see the pictures
Continue reading “Last Night Out With Tom”
An evening with Tom, a sad moment, and yet a happy time.
For our last Saturday with him, we were honoured with (finally) being invited round to his flat for a meal.
You can read more about it here, but to keep you going, here are some pictures of the evening. Continue reading “Last Saturday Night With Tom”
And I’ve been very bad at posting recently. Apologies to anyone still reading this 😉
Irina has just returned from Moscow, Karra is fine and still biting us randomly.
Mum had her birthday on the 5th, but her presents and card didn’t arrive until yesterday, and one still hasn’t made it 🙁
I hope to see Tom and Walton before I leave for my Christmas break, and Tom#2 (‘pilot Tom’) has been in contact to confirm he is fine, but wasn’t able to meet up with us recently due to his work commitments.
It is quite late now, so heading to bed.
Oh and Dad & Nick have received their visas, so it looks like everything is good to go for their visit over here for New Year 🙂
Hope all who read this do so in good health…
Tom #2 (the pilot) didn’t turn up, hope his flight to Astana was ok…
Anyway we (Myself, Tom & Walton (and Ira when she had finished at Work)) went to Cafe Shymkent, and had a nice meal and a couple of drinks. Talked about all sorts, and I managed to stay sober enough to remember everything this time. Having spent the night working on getting links to my Ad Sense websites up, I’m about to head to bed.
Looked out the window, and it appears to have been snowing a fair bit over night…
If you compare these two photos to the ones here, you can see the lanes are now covered over again completely.
Doesn’t seem to slow down some drivers though…
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