As promised, here we have the videos shot around the same time as the pictures (30th October) when Anna was just starting to find her feet, when it came to moving from one steadying item of furniture to another.
Dec 20 2009
Attempting Box To Chair Transfer Videos
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Dec 18 2009
Reading And Rabbit’s Ears
As promised, here is the second part of the series from the 13th October. Shot around the same time, we have some video of Anna chewing on her poor rabbit’s ears, and checking to see if the book by her feet has been read already.
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Dec 17 2009
Sunny Floor At The In-Laws’
A bit of catching up to do with Anna’s video and photos once more, sorry. I’ve got all the videos on my YouTube account (AstanaClydach) ready, and most of the photos selected and resized, now it is just a case of writing the posts and publishing them.
So, these pictures were shot on the 30th of September, with Anna playing on the floor at Irina’s parents’ house. It was a sunny day, and Anna was in a good mood so Ira took the camera out and snapped a few shots.
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- Smiling Directly At The Camera
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- ROFL
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- Shy Sabaka
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- Morning Stretch Routine
Dec 14 2009
The Specials Backing Track Seems To Be Missing?
Coming to the end of Lucky’s videos now, this was shot a while a go when he was in Astana. Some of the sights to be found on the Left Bank (the newer, less inhabited area of the city) are included. Hopefully should they make it over, we’ll be able to widen their experiences of the town.
The title’s reference to some possibly missing music was The Specials – Ghost Town, as a lot of visitors and disgruntled ex-pats seem to view that area of Astana as very quiet and devoid of any real character, partially due to low occupancy rates of the flats.
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Dec 14 2009
Take That!
Continuing in the series of occasional Chav gets what is coming to him videos, we have a short clip of one highly intelligent young man.
Deciding that a wall somehow offended him with its very existence, he decides to take action. Rather than spray a highly artistic tag on the wall, he takes out his pent up aggression on it. You’ll just have to click the play button to see what happens when thick chav meets thick wall…
Dec 14 2009
Almaty River Jumping
Incredible special effects are used in this video from Lucky (this clip is from his original channel, though you should also check out his newer The District of Lucky). Either that, or the man can truly jump across a wide river in a single bound.
Don’t believe me? Watch the video below…
Like the smoking hookahs video, this is shot in the mountains that surround Almaty (the old capital of Kazakhstan), and he even manages to quote the temperature in Celsius, rather than the American (and confusing unless you’re British and a bit older than me) standard of Fahrenheit. The audio could have done with a little treatment (inaudible speech is covered with some subtitles), as the jump from the river noise prior to the jump and little after is jarring. Some might even infer that some jiggery pokery occurred, but I’m certain he’d not try and mislead us?
This time no slabs of beer cooling in a stream, nor barbecues, were involved, but it still interesting to see what the countryside looks like around that area – I’ve never made it outside of the city when we’ve been there in the past.
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Dec 10 2009
Fanboy In Indignant Ignorant Idiot Shocker!
An example of when a fanboy does absolutely nothing for Kazakhstan’s image can be found here. Lucky’s video (originally to be part of a series, which now seems a little less likely) was shot
Almazonly came along and decided that Lucky was some how being insulting to Almaty/Kazakhstan, and jumped in with a comment telling him he was ignorant. With such hostility, lack of basic comprehension of what he was commenting on, and inability to actually put across what he was thinking, anyone who comes across the comment could easily have their view on Kazakhstan tarnished. That said, Almazonly did have a cool video on marijuana growing in South Kazakhstan. Sadly it seems to have been removed already?
Anyway, I’ve just gone back and watched it again (I drafted this post a while back), to make sure this wasn’t the video where Lucky deliberately made up information and mis-labelled famous landmarks in Almaty.
Dec 10 2009
Foreign Tastes In A Foreign Land
OK, as promised, I’m going to try and catch up with posting some of the Lucky videos before he leaves.
This one is on an American ex-pat tastes in Almaty – from beer to instant coffee, and vitamins to the gym. No vodka or brandy mentioned though? I’ve not been to a gym or done any serious circuit/endurance training in a long time (wow, 1/2 a life time TBH!), and my appetite for good food and long movies has meant that my days of a 28″ waist line are well and truly gone…
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Dec 10 2009
Sadly It Is Official
Yes, Lucky is leaving Kazakhstan, returning to America (along with his wife), and you can see his farewell video below…
We’re still hoping they’ll be able to make it to Astana before they go, as it would be great to actually meet in real life and down a few drinks with the guy.
Hmm, I should probably get around to publishing the drafted posts that feature some of his older videos, and in case I haven’t already mentioned it, he also has another channel setup, The District of Lucky, so if you already found his Lucky21842 channel, and liked it, consider subscribing to the new one as well. Unless you’re easily offended, as I hear the topics/language may be a little more relaxed than the Kazakh-themed Lucky channel. In which case you should subscribe anyway, as it does no harm to a YouTuber’s ego to have a large following (and Lucky is a nice guy), just don’t watch any of the videos. Or turn the volume down first. Or maybe just ask a less easily insulted person to watch it first and report back whether it is safe or not 🙂
OK, I’ve now watched the video (slow internet, so you’re best waiting for it to play through once with muted volume, and then re-playing, when on Kazakh internet connections). Few thoughts I had whilst watching it…
Hat/gloves? Dude, no idea what the temperature was in Almaty when you recorded it, but I went out with no scarf the other day and got frostbite. My wife would have beat you black and blue for such silly behaviour 🙂
We had similar reasons for originally moving to Kazakhstan – we both wanted to find out a little bit, first hand, what life was like for our partners. Obviously a lot of things have changed since they were little, but it is still good to get a handle on the basics.
VERY good advice for ex-pats in Kazakhstan ref. getting to know local people if you want to enjoy your time here. Meeting a Kazakh/Russian on the street does not always leave a happy feeling in your mind, but the majority are SO much warmer and friendlier when you properly meet them in a social setting. Even if you can’t get even a basic grasp of the language, it is worth spending some time with locals, not just fellow ex-pats.
Dec 08 2009
Reversing Into The Barricades
Not a reference to my less than perfect low speed driving/parking techniques, but one of the few videos that did not fail to upload to YouTube recently.
Shot on the 7th October 2009, we can see one of Anna’s previous approaches to getting over the living room ‘safe and particularly clean area’ fence. Although she can now just happily crawl/clamber over the cushions, her co-ordination hasn’t always been so refined. This meant she had to think of a different way to escape increase her knowledge and experience of the flat. Lining herself up with the gap between two cushions, she would slowly crawl backwards until they moved apart, and carry on until she had broken through…
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