Big Beluga Baby

Bye Bye Big Beluga

2011-04-20T12:15:00.000+07:00

Big Beluga is signing off for ever. We have moved to Moscow and I am going undercover on the blogosphere there. Email me if you want to know where I am going! Nearly three years in mighty Kazakhstan and I must admit, I was very, very sorry to leave. We made some really great friends, hung out with a totally awesome crowd of interesting people, tough individuals, no one worrying about trivial

Worst meal in Kazakhstan and possibly the world

2011-03-07T21:50:00.000+06:00

We had a leaving party on Saturday night which was a classic expat rite of passage. Tons of people, some good friends, some total strangers and quite a lot of booze. Leaving dos are ten-a-penny in our line of lifestyle, and if I were a more sensible and restrained kind of character, I would have probably taken it easy and paced myself. Not being such a character, I had much too much to drink and

My love affair with Chimbulak

2011-03-07T21:15:00.000+06:00

Our local ski resort, the piste of which I can see when I wake up in the morning (once I have located my glasses), has had a massive upgrade this year as a result of hosting the Asian Winter Games in January. This six or seven nation championship saw approximately 25 contenders in every competition, and there must have been upwards of 200 million dollars spent on upgrading the infrastructure!

A long long break

2011-02-25T17:24:00.000+06:00

Well, the fourth baby did it! Life became too full for a while there, and I just did not have the gumption to get on the internet in the evenings and record my thoughts, observations, frustrations and occasional outbursts in the blogosphere. But Number Four will be one next week, and I finally feel as though I am getting back to normal energy levels at last. Thank god. I say that with a heavy

Kazakh road building

2010-10-14T12:27:00.002+07:00

There has been an absolute spate of road building in town lately. You never know if a road will be open or closed from one day to the next. If roads are bring re-surfaced, then it is up to you to find your way round the problem. Fortunately, our awesome driver Baktiyar is pretty resourceful about these run-of-the-mill issues on the roads. The other day, facing a blocked route onto the main road

Over-wrought mother of four

2010-10-13T12:55:00.000+07:00

So it is happening. My prediction is coming true. Life is simply too hectic at the moment. As I always thought it would be with four kids. There is no slack. The days are long, noisy and full. I am sure one day I will look back on all this time and wistfully wish the weeks could be so full, so unpredictable and so varied as they are now. Husband thinks I am going mad, I think I am just blooming

Altyn Emel continued, tourists to Kazakhstan be prepared!

2010-09-28T11:09:00.000+07:00

Continuing on the theme of the wonderful tourist facilities in the Altyn Emel Park, you can see below photos of the spa and leisure complex at our guest house. Here is the outdoor sauna: The sauna being conveniently located adjacent to the plunge pool with well ventilated toilet and shower facilities: This is our guest house, which, sarcasm aside, was pretty comfortable and clean. Although the

The Ying and the Yang

2010-09-27T23:10:00.001+07:00

I have just been to yet another glorious place in the extraordinary country that is Kazakhstan. This place is absolutely amazing in so many ways: one day you may find yourself exploring the stunning country, gazing upon, or hiking through, huge, panoramic unspoilt vistas of untold beauty; another day you will face rotten corruption and attitudes that can make you want to explode with frustration.

How to leave your two-year old on her own in the wrong school for four hours

2010-09-23T23:02:00.000+07:00

The title of this post might make you raise an eyebrow, but I am ashamed to admit that I can now provide a detailed description of just how such a mistake can be made. On Tuesday and Wednesday this week, the school of the two elder children was unexpectedly closed because the Medeu district water authority needed to connect the Olympic Ski Jump to the water mains. The Olympic Ski Jump is about

The Law of Three

2010-09-23T22:15:00.000+07:00

The Law of Three (three things not working or broken in my house at any one time) is back with a vengeance. Even worse, the Unreliable and Incompetent Workmen Equilibrium (UaIWE) has kicked in as well. And as any seasoned housewife will know, when the Law of Three and the UaIWE are added together in an equation, multiplied by the number of children you have and then divided by the number of

Another rant about Telly

2010-09-23T22:07:00.000+07:00

One of the most boring of all expat conversations at dinner parties is about which fecking cable TV company you use. This conversation follows the exact same pattern week-in/week-out. The smug techy person sitting at the table will have bought some massively expensive satellite system and imported it into the country in a way that mere mortals without connections could never possibly manage. The

My favourite shots of Kaz recently

2010-09-13T22:40:00.000+07:00

No new places here, but still these easily-accessible parts of Kazakhstan are so stunningly beautiful that every time I go I suffer an almost religious sense of well-being. Practically deserted as well, which is lovely, not so much for the country which could be doing so well out of planned and managed wilderness tourism, but for us. Charyn Canyon was just us - I saw three other people leaving

Back from the abyss

2010-09-13T21:32:00.001+07:00

Wow. June 23rd last post! That is a manic summer holiday with four children to look after for you. A brief summary of the summer follows. Of course, I have completely forgotten all my insight moments that I wished to record for my memory having not written anything down for ages. I have lost the hilarious sequences of events that happen almost daily with children of these ages and I am annoyed

Birthday time and sleep deprivation

2010-06-23T16:10:00.000+07:00

Our second daughter was seven yesterday. We had a party for her at home on Sunday and she got presents and a little bit of special attention yesterday and has since declared it the best birthday ever, and us the best parents anyone could ever imagine (she got a DS game boy machine thing, which she was not expecting at all) - children are so easily bought! In time-honoured fashion, the

A short moan about BBC World

2010-06-15T00:00:00.001+07:00

We recently got our telly connected to some channels - it has only taken 22 months since arriving here. What prompted this flurry of technical activity? The World Cup, of course. Not only did husband arrange for some men to come and fit a cable TV connection, he also went out and spent a considerable sum of money on a brand new Sony Bravia flat screen TV to watch. The old tv went to the

Wild flowers in the hills

2010-06-14T22:50:00.002+07:00

We went for a walk up in the hills this weekend. It was the first proper walk we have done since the back operation and the baby was born. And in fact, thinking about it, it is possibly the first hike I have done since about October last year which is kind of shocking. But then in November it was all about skiing, and January until now has been a medical write off. So, anyway, it had been a long

Mother of four goes bonkers

2010-06-07T16:55:00.000+07:00

It has been pointed out to me that I am not longer a travelling mother-of-three, but one of four, so I have amended my Big Beluga title strapline accordingly. I am still not completely remembering all the time that this is the case - when will this sink in, I wonder! The other day, I was lying on the bed with the baby and toddler. The older two were crashing around downstairs making up a (yawn

Jolly thief man

2010-06-07T16:37:00.001+07:00

I don't know if you do Facebook and any of its time-passing games? Some of my friends are more than addicted to Farmville, a virtual farm where you can plant, harvest and profit from your efforts on a small holding. In my garden, I have real life farmville (minus the lonely lambs, pigs and horses that are prone to wandering into Farmville smallholdings) - gardening here is like gardening in the

Phewy!

2010-06-05T23:15:00.003+07:00

Well, after a wait of a few days, during which I must admit I have slightly sweated, I got a message back from one of the girls who had been concerned about my blog posting, and it seems I am in the clear. She agreed with me that my original post had been nothing more than a call to action for people to support the AIWC, and a general comment on the apathetic approach of our small foreign group

UhOH!

2010-06-05T22:56:00.001+07:00

Seems like my blogging is going to get me into trouble. I recently wrote a pretty strong piece about people behaving badly in Almaty, since I had been to about three social events in a row where I had come home at the end of the night feeling slightly depressed at the attitudes of a few people who would rather criticise others and spread rumours, than big things up in the name of a happy life

Browsing Baraholka

2010-06-03T09:19:00.002+07:00

After living in Thailand and Korea for 5 years, I found coming to middle earth a very disappointing experience for shopping. Although I had a wonderful time last year when I was in London for a whole week without any children or husband and was able to spend 5 days on Oxford Street, stocking up on everything that we needed and buying myself some threads for the pregnancy, this is not normally

Mammaries on strike again

2010-05-19T09:18:00.000+07:00

After a whole eight weeks of having to pump one breast or the other for cracked nipples, I put my pump away two weeks ago and was able to live a normal life - baby in her baby bjorn, feeding as I went about my day to day. I thought I had the baby breastfeeding nailed at last, and she seemed happy enough on it. But the other night, she slept through and so I had an excess of milk following a

Bad Dog Day

2010-05-18T23:31:00.001+07:00

Monday mornings usually sees me on a power walk up the river behind the house (the site of the infamous pack of wild dogs that keep me awake most nights and live at the bottom of my garden - you can read some of the numerous posts I made on this subject before I gave up here and here (there are others but you will need to browse)). This Monday was no exception, and the boss's girlfriend and I

Giving up capital i's

2010-05-11T09:12:00.000+07:00

I am typing this with one hand, the first time i have been able to get onto my blog in weeks (boo the kazakh internet censors and the crappy internet service here, although admittedly the weeks are flying and I do seem to be a tad short of idle hours in which to blog away to my heart's content). The baby is firmly attached to me feeding, right hand is occupied holding her. Although she is the

Dodging bullets and red plastic flashing wands

2010-04-23T22:08:00.001+07:00

I absolutely love that after the government has shut down Blogger in kazakhstan, little ole me has managed to download some software that avoids this. It gives me an enormous sense of self-satisfaction, but equally, unfortunately reminds me that big brother is out there, and that big bully powers that be could actually really mess with our lives if they so chose. And so I had better be careful

Adaptation to life as six

2010-04-21T22:48:00.000+07:00

For those readers who have popped over to BBB expecting an interesting anecdote, you had better come back in a couple of days. The last few have been too hectic for me to blog, and so I am once again writing things down more to remember them for my own benefit and because my memory is worse than shit right now, than to recount a wickedly hilarious tale, or solemn, thought-provoking idea. Sorry!

Desperation Breeds Success or Big Beluga Sneaks Past Censors

2010-04-15T22:05:00.001+07:00

The authorities here in Kazakhstan have decided that the best way to avoid people writing horrid things about their nasty, corrupt habits is to block the free flow of information by censoring what is published on the internet. Imagine my dismay upon returning to Kazakhstan to find that my blog was blocked, and access to all other blogs using Blogger were also unavailable. I hoped for a few days

The Beloved V Dub'ya

2010-04-03T19:50:00.000+07:00

Last Easter Sunday we enjoyed a boozy lamb roast lunch with various friends. It was a fun fun day - lots of red wine, a huge Easter Egg hunt for the kids, and by the end of the day and the fourth or fifth bottle of claret it had become apparent that we 'needed' to buy ourselves a vintage camper van. Within a month, we had found and purchased said item, the era of our family having our own wheels

one, two, three, four...

2010-04-03T19:32:00.000+07:00

Let's face it, having four kids is a lot. I know some people even have more - my hat is off to them - but most people have less and if you are a one-er or a two-er, or even have stopped as a three-er then read on, because you will probably send your husband off for a vasectomy immediately. As a total newcomer to the four kids game, I am a total learner, just 30 days in. The difference between

Booberama!

2010-04-02T22:19:00.000+07:00

Considering that for the last ten years I have either been pregnant or breastfeeding, and we have had four children in that time, you might think that the addition of Number Four would present little difficulty. But it is amazing how little you remember between babies, and the long-term effect of preg-head and nappy-brain (both scientifically-proven results of hormonal fluctuations, don't you

The long wait is over

2010-03-08T22:34:00.000+06:00

Here is our new family member, a lovely little girl who arrived on Thursday night, my 38th birthday. I blew birthday candles out in the day visiting room while having a contraction. After being in labour for two slow days, she was almost born in the lift on the way to the delivery suite. I had been doing my hypnobirthing breathing throughout all the contractions. This means that to the outside

Followed by utterly exhausting afternoon!

2010-02-25T01:56:00.000+06:00

So much for the restful morning. An afternoon of incessant noise, as my three little darlings careered around our little cottage and it rained heavily outside, has left me feeling devoid of energy even to climb the stairs to bed! Blimey, children take a lot of work! And that is only a half day. Hope my energy levels return to normal after having this baby, or I am going to be a tired, grumpy mum.

Totally awesome morning of quiet

2010-02-24T18:43:00.000+06:00

This morning I woke up. Sounds normal, doesn't it? But this morning was special, because I woke up without being woken up. I woke up at the time that my body had decided it had slept long enough, and was ready to wake up. I woke up in a lovely cottage bedroom, the sun shining through the gap in the curtains, in total blissful silence except for the odd quacking of a duck outside, a seagull

Waiting game

2010-02-24T03:24:00.000+06:00

After the fairly hellish events of the last few weeks, we all seem to be finally on the mend, feeling pretty good and are just settling in now and waiting for baby 4 to arrive. Husband and I went to see the doctor for a routine check up of the bump this afternoon. It was a happy and exciting check, with everything being so imminent and baby sounding very happy thru the heart beat monitor. My

Turning corners

2010-02-15T20:09:00.000+06:00

Surely the end of this dodgy run is nearly here? As expected, eldest daughter vomited in the middle of the night. In spite of there being a bowl next to her bed, she made a dash for the loo downstairs, vomited copiously on the wooden floor, and unfortunately, as she made her way back upstairs to tell us about this, was struck again twice on the stairs (new cream-coloured carpet, not ours, rented

Noro-virus?

2010-02-13T01:40:00.000+06:00

Oh no. Now our little one has started vomiting and has diarrhoea. Our eldest daughter has just gone to bed complaining of tummy pains and we await the night with some trepidation! Last night, the toddler was quite unhappy having vomited her way to bed. I had to go and sleep with her. It was like sharing a bed with a wild piglet and neither she nor I got very much sleep. I think that tonight she

Final furlong

2010-02-11T14:13:00.000+06:00

It looks like husband will be sent home today, just three days after going for the chop. Amazingly quick considering what he had done, and also slightly daunting having seen him "walk" along the corridor last night. He looks like a 90 year old man, in his pyjamas, taking tiny steps, holding his body like a pensioner. But I am sure that he will feel better tomorrow, and it is amazing how quickly

Relief

2010-02-10T03:31:00.001+06:00

Well, at about 11.30 I called the hospital and they told me that he was still in surgery. This was a lot later than planned and so naturally I started to think that something had gone horribly wrong. Left a request that the hospital call me as soon as he was put in the recovery room. No problem, they said. 12.30, 1am, 1.30... I was starting to really let me mind go to wild places. Widow with

Spinal op a-go-go

2010-02-09T05:13:00.000+06:00

Can't go to bed, too tense. Waiting for husband's nurse to call to tell me he is OK. He has been away being operated on since 6.10. It is now 11.10. I thought I was doing really well (compared to last time he had a back op when I went mentally awol for the three days he was in hospital - practically unable to function!), but have had a few odd moments where I realise that it is quite a stressful

Joyful January continues into February but the end is in sight...

2010-02-08T03:23:00.000+06:00

I am going back to my reasons for blogging in the first place and just using blogspot to record these crazy days or I will most likely forget them or blank them from my mind through a mixture of tiredness and preferring not to dwell on the memories of dreadful weeks. Husband got back from Kazakhstan last week with back pain as chronic as I have ever seen him. He is a fighter and had managed the

Joyful January continues!

2010-02-02T02:14:00.001+06:00

So husband will be medivac-ed home tomorrow, a mere three weeks and 2 days after I came home in the middle of the night to go to hospital. He has staggered through two weeks of back agony and painkilling jabs in his bum, overseen the Burns Supper event that we organised last Saturday, and today, finally, more or less collapsed after our doctor in Kazakhstan gave him such a heavy dose of drugs

Shocking news

2010-01-29T03:22:00.001+06:00

Awful news today. One of our hiking group, a lovely American lady who also comes to playgroup with her 2.5 year old and 10 month old daughters, has just lost her husband to a sudden, fatal illness. None of us know what happened yet. Apparently he was suddenly taken very ill, and while being evacuated by airplane out of Kazakhstan, died while still on the plane. I met him just before Christmas

Testing Expat Times

2010-01-28T06:10:00.001+06:00

A lot of the time living abroad, we rather enjoy the fact that not everything is normal in our lives, that things can be unpredictable and lack a constant routine and that our lives contain a slightly greater amount of variety than they perhaps would if we had stayed in the one place our whole lives. But there are occasions when we crave the security and safety of the UK and its well-run,

Hazard-spotting cont.

2010-01-26T05:37:00.000+06:00

My continued shock at our overly-safety-conscious society continued today at a new playgroup (very nice playgroup, lovely church hall, promising looking bunch of people at it, very friendly). I was in the middle of what I thought was a nice conversation with a girl about her baby, where she lived, did she work and a general get-to-know-you chat when her nine-month old baby sent a wheeled toy

An example of not my favourite kind of day

2010-01-24T05:32:00.000+06:00

Friday was the kind of day that can make you want to give up, go home and get into bed! Or at least have strong drink at the end of it, which I am not currently able to do. It all began with the weather being a heavy drizzle (for those of you who are reading this in countries with sensible weather, you may not know that just as the eskimos have about nine words for snow, we British have

Tuning into the UK

2010-01-20T03:14:00.000+06:00

A week has passed since husband left me and our youngest daughter here and had to fly back to Kazakhstan (with his suitcase of haggis!) to be a) at work, and b) with our other two daughters whom we had totally abandoned for five days. It has been an odd week. I usually enjoy being back in the UK since it is part of a holiday or at least a break from the routine, and I have a long list of things

Counting my blessings

2010-01-14T05:03:00.000+06:00

Thank god that we are normally a fairly healthy bunch. I am not a religious person, but I do regularly appreciate my lot in life. I am largely unbothered by traumas and problems, mainly happy (in fact, in a recent Sunday newspaper quiz, I came out proven Extremely Happy with life - more so than husband who was disappointed to find that he was just Happy Enough) and have three, gorgeous, healthy

The Haggis-buying B*astards of Bournemouth

2010-01-14T03:36:00.003+06:00

Husband and I organise an annual Burns Supper in Almaty - a night of Scottish revelry to celebrate the life and works of the Scottish national bard, not as you may think, a mercy mission to help those hapless Kazakhs for whom New Year is an opportunity to test out their operating skills for large, cheaply-made fireworks after drinking vodka all day long. It is a charity fund-raiser with 225

The joys of being far from home

2010-01-05T09:46:00.000+06:00

My on/off tummy aches that I have suffered for the duration of this pregnancy have been occurring, not with increased frequency since I started resting a lot more, but with increased severity as the pregnancy has progressed. Last Saturday night was pretty awful and so I went to see the doctor on Sunday. Although the baby is fine and there is nothing apparently wrong with the set up, these pains

Kaz Post - honest or dishonest?

2009-12-30T09:18:00.003+06:00

Well, it is now December 30 and there is no sign of any of our parcels from the UK. Granny has posted 11 separate items, all individually numbered so that we can check if everything has arrived. Quite apart from the pure expense of 11 parcels' worth of presents going missing, I am gutted that she has spent hours and hours of time, miles and miles of selotape and countless trips to the post office

Further shots of Chimbulak

2009-12-29T18:48:00.000+06:00

I know I am getting pretty boring about this, but you may like to see some more shots of my favourite place in winter in Kazakhstan. Such a beautiful spot. I can't stop taking pictures and also still can't believe (a year and a half on) that we live 25 mins drive from this place.

Favourite place in Kazakhstan in Winter

2009-12-28T10:32:00.000+06:00

This is my favourite place in Kazakhstan in Winter - the valley you can see is where Chimbulak ski resort is. We took this photo yesterday, after spending seven hours with all the kids skiing and playing in the snow. The eldest two went with their dad and did their first attempt at skiing down the middle ridge of trees, through the powder snow and under branches - a massive step in their skiing

Festive fayre and Christmas Excess

2009-12-28T10:17:00.000+06:00

Last year we weren't at home for Christmas and so I didn't have to prepare anything. This year, I am not sure why, I have literally taken it upon myself to prepare absolutely everything festive that I could possibly think about. I love cooking, and I really get a kick out of making delicious things for friends and family to eat, but I think I have slightly overdone it this year. The thought of

Oh Christmas Tree, oh christmas tree, how lovely are thy branches tra la la

2009-12-20T17:47:00.000+06:00

Last year we moved house on December 11th, mother in law arrived for a month-long stay on December 15th and we went on holiday to the Philippines on December 17th. Our christmas tree was a shambolic plastic affair that I happen to own courtesy of a friend who sold Xmas decorations, and who had lost a section of one of her display trees. Rather than throw it away, she gave it to me to use as I saw

Fire! Fire!

2009-12-20T17:07:00.000+06:00

On Sunday night, husband and I were woken by a strange popping sound which sounded like it was coming from the garden. "What's that?" he murmured. "Sounds like firecrackers. Do you think someone is in the garden?" "Sounds like rocks being thrown in the river," he said. Being woken up is nothing special. I honestly cannot remember the last unbroken night's sleep I had, there are such a large

Head of state on the slopes

2009-11-25T19:05:00.000+06:00

I happened to be up at Chimbalak, our local ski resort, yesterday on quite the most glorious morning. There had been about 7 inches of snow over night, and because President Nazarbayev was evidently planning a visit (we worked this out from the solid presence of policemen and people scraping ice off the road all the way up there), the slopes had been pisted even before 10am when the lift opens.

When shouting works!

2009-11-24T08:40:00.000+06:00

A couple of incidents lately have left me wondering about the local psyche. First of all, I had a long conversation with my Russian teacher about the way English people behave. Apparently, in general, we are considered "tricky" to deal with on account of our lack of propensity to say exactly what we mean, because we are always trying to be polite. Turns out that many other nationalities find our

How to tell your mum you are up the duff

2009-11-23T09:55:00.000+06:00

I am now a full five months pregnant, but I have not told my mother about this. We have a fairly close relationship, but by dint of my being abroad, she has not seen my expanding waistline so has been utterly oblivious and also completely engrossed in the arrival of her fourth grand daughter who was born three weeks ago to my sister. I was really nervous about telling her. She has made it clear

Lurgy central

2009-11-23T09:27:00.000+06:00

Wow. Last week was a house of sickness in Almaty. First our eldest daughter crashed, vomitting and feverish, to the floor for a two-day bout of television watching and recovery. Then, while preparing a large lunch to celebrate our smallest's 2nd birthday, second daughter went bright red in the face and was overwhelmed with a high temperature for two days. By the end of the lunch party, I was

Where's Mummy? Bed

2009-11-21T15:56:00.001+06:00

Since going to see the doctor's in London, and being advised to rest for at least one hour a day for the duration of this pregnancy, I have felt much, much better. Turns out that having three children and being pregnant for the 6th time can take its toll on your body. Unless I rest every day, come one o'clock in the morning, I am woken with horrible crampy pains across my abdomen which only

St Thomas here we come

2009-11-10T10:01:00.000+06:00

For those who check in every so often to Big Beluga, you will know that I have just spent a week in London on a "shopping trip". For those who know me well at all, the idea of me going on a shopping trip is one that I would like the idea of, but not something that I would normally fork out 800 dollars to go and spoil myself with. And in fact, it was not just a shopping trip. I went back to have

A wish for a simpler life...

2009-11-09T08:38:00.002+06:00

Well, I have finally come to terms with my pregnant state. It only took four months to accept it and become even happy about it and so I am really glad (not to mention relieved) about that. But now, we have a few logistical things to consider. Our clinic does not particularly recommend having your baby in Kazakhstan. They couch everything in very diplomatic terms, but when the opening sentence

Pregnancy crisis cont...

2009-11-06T17:21:00.000+06:00

I have to admit, this 4th pregnancy thing has sent me into a bit of a spin. It is taking a long time to come round to the idea: 1. Having four children - how does anyone manage that and enjoy it? 2. Where to have the baby? Here in Kazkahstan - in some post-soviet clinic full of doctors who have qualified in psychiatric care, working the night shift in a gynacological ward because they haven't

Why I love Mondays

2009-11-03T07:08:00.000+06:00

Total Denial

2009-11-02T08:26:00.008+06:00

It is one thing to miss a period and thus enjoy a long-awaited holiday in France with uninterrupted nookie with husband, but quite another when you realise that this missed menstruation almost certainly means that you are pregnant again, with child number four. Oh lord, four? How can I possibly manage four? Three is bad enough at times. My life usually feels like I am on a hamster wheel, never

Happy Halloween

2009-11-01T21:15:00.002+06:00

With halloween rapidly approaching, and it being a handy festival to spend a few days getting excited about during half term, a friend and I had arranged a party for 13 kids at her house. I was to arrange for a mass pumpkin purchase so that everyone could make their own lantern, parties not being complete these days without a craft activity! The Green Market here is a fantastic place for

Nose stuffing

2009-10-29T09:57:00.003+06:00

Our soon-to-be-two year-old is bit of a character. The third of our children, she is independent, easy going and busy. If her repeated requests for things are ignored (or lost in the general cacophany which is our home), then she will do her 23-month best to sort herself out. As a result, we have had the kitchen flooded as she gets her own water, seen an ipod ruined as she stirred her pretend tea

half term

2009-10-27T15:09:00.000+06:00

After a whole four weeks back at school the kids are now on half term for one week. How was that organized? There seems to be a kind of strange relative phenomenon which is that the more you pay in school fees the less time kids spend at school. Anyway, what with that and generally being pretty rubbish at the moment, my posting rate has slipped. I feel a burst of output coming on... watch this

Never boring, Philip Kurkorov and Kazakh excess

2009-10-18T00:41:00.003+07:00

The last few days have been great, everything running smoothly after my trip to the UK, everyone happy and healthy. We have been in a routine, noone late for school, no bags forgotten, no chaos. In fact, so ordinary, that I did begin to think "Gosh, our life is so normal here!". And then I got to Friday. Ha ha ha. I arrived at school to pick up Eldest and take her for a one on one hot

Technological solutions

2009-10-08T22:31:00.001+07:00

After an extraordinarily long period of time and huge amounts of consideration, I finally bought a new computer yesterday. I have ranted and raved, cried (in John Lewis' customer services department which was excruciatingly embaressing), whinged, prevaricated, almost fluffed the decision several times and finally settled on a new Mac. In order to reach my decision, I had to get past the fact

Contagion and a bit of steam!

2009-10-08T22:19:00.000+07:00

There is a certain establishment here with which I have many dealings. It is the kind of establishment where one would hope some basic norms of honesty, straightforwardness and a desire to do the right thing were driving forces. But this is not always the case. I think it is because so many other things in Kazakhstan are so difficult to achieve without bending the rules, that the powers-that-be

Big Beluga gets some mind-space and reflects on her attitude

2009-10-05T17:04:00.000+07:00

This week I have been on my own in London. Not in a lonely, I-don't-know-anyone-or-have-any-mates way, but without the kids or my husband around who I have left in Kazakhstan. I have been staying with my younger sister in North London, shopping by day, visiting friends (I have happily coinicided with several people being in town from abroad which is double bonus), and been around for the final

Techno hell and indecision

2009-09-29T09:14:00.001+07:00

The white screen of death which I faced last week on my laptop has now been joined by my mobile phone. Obviously feeling left out, my Nokia handset has found a white screen in its armoury, and to give added umph to its strop, it has taken to randomly cutting out midway through a call, or refusing to function at all. Our video recorder has had the same tape of the TellyTubbies stuck in it for

Another bad day in goat world

2009-09-28T09:40:00.002+07:00

The animal welfare lot would not have enjoyed this day trip out. Last Thursday, I had been to watch the Kokpar (Kazakh horse polo played using a headless goat instead of a ball) with my friend. It sounds gruesome, but in fact the horsemanship was extraordinary, and the game itself quite compelling to watch, and so on Sunday we headed back with the children, husband and some friends to watch the

Not a good day for goats

2009-09-24T20:58:00.029+07:00

This morning was crystal clear, perfect blue sky, snow on the mountains, a chill in the air - the perfect weather to go and watch some outdoor sport, and luckily it fell on day two of the National Kazakh Kokpar championships which is held at a ground on the road to Bishkek. Kokpar is Kazakh polo. Teams have ten members, with four players from each side on the field at any time. The field is about

Dead Goat Horse Polo

2009-09-23T09:45:00.004+07:00

All the hikers were notified today that a Kokpar tournament is happening this week on the Bishkek road out of Almaty. Kokpar, in case you are wondering, is horse polo where the riders play for possesssion of a beheaded goat carcass, rather than the traditional ball and mallet which us lily-livered westerners would normally associate with the game.We don't see so many horses around Almaty (they

Terminal Clicking in the Macosphere?

2009-09-22T22:26:00.002+07:00

Seems the strange clicking sounds I heard earlier were the Mac equivalent to death throes. Many people I have told of my woes today (why I have to revert to Star Wars speak when doing techy stuff I do not know - Know it, I do not), and these people have told me that macs are prone to hard drive failure on account of their overheating.In my whole, adult, computer-owning life (which extends to some

Horror!

2009-09-22T11:38:00.004+07:00

Horror! I switched on my laptop yesterday to upload some glorious snaps of our rafting trip last Sunday and regale you with the account of our watery adventure, when the machine started ot make a weird clicking noise, like a minute dwarf was playing percussion inside the white case of my macbook. And then the screen froze. And now I have the white screen of death whenever I switch on. Two years

Expatty day

2009-09-18T11:37:00.004+07:00

Friday is probably our most expatty kind of day, especially as during the summer there are just so many blooming people around. We are on a new regime now, drunk nanny Allia's daughter who used to clean for us has gone to seek a new home to push a mop around. We are trying out a lady called Nailya for the deep cleaning (bathrooms and bed changing etc) who is a neighbour of our new Super Nanny

Kid chat

2009-09-17T11:42:00.004+07:00

My children are 8, 6 and nearly 2. I dearly love them. But sometimes I feel battered. Here is an example of why. Kids arrive home from school, hungry and hyperactive. "Mummy, can I use your computer? I need to look something up,""Yes, sure, but tea is nearly ready so you will need to stop when I serve it up," Sigh from child"Alright, how do you spell Linguascope?""What is for tea?""Pumpkin soup

Thrilled!

2009-09-15T21:51:00.006+07:00

I was browsing through a few websites waiting for husband to arrive home and smelling my pumpkin soup getting colder by the minute ("I'll be home by seven" he said, it was by then 9pm). 'I'll just go and have a look at that Expat Mums blog I found the other day at www.expatmumsblog.com' I thought, and who should be the headline blog post? L'il old me, Big Beluga as featured on another blog site!

Budakofka Waterfall, trolls and pixies

2009-09-15T19:13:00.012+07:00

Another hiking expedition this Monday, and with the sun bursting the sky, 21 people turned up to sample the delights of the Kazakh countryside. We walked through Budakofka national park which is just outside Almaty town. Drive up Dostyk Avenue towards Medeu and Chimbalak and turn left at the large blue sign which says Budakofka in Russian. Follow this road along until you come to the park gate

Spaghetti Bolognese and cupcakes

2009-09-14T09:20:00.004+07:00

We decided to take a proactive stance on the subject of eldest daughters "lost" friends at school. On Tuesday, she hastily copied out an invitation to five girls in her year to come back to our house on Friday afternoon for a play after school and delivered them to her classmates.And Friday saw a flurry of activity as new super-nanny and I prepared the house for this important event! The house

Internet drama and cold sweats

2009-09-09T12:48:00.002+07:00

I woke up this morning and the big red russian screen on my computer said "Niet (no)". "You cannot have internet today, for you have a DEBT!""We have not sent you a bill, but neither have you pro-actively contacted our company and requested a bill. So we have cut you off. Spaceba and Das Vidanya (thank you and good bye)."Everything is running pretty smoothly at the moment in Big Beluga's life.

Fear of Flying

2009-09-08T09:25:00.007+07:00

I don't know about anyone else, but I get a little nervous when my husband goes on business trips. It is a totally irrational fear but it makes me feel further away from good old Blighty than anything else. Apart from being diagnosed with some horrendous disease, the second most scary thing I can really think of is being widowed. Agh! Just the absolute pits. Even writing this down makes me

Heart ache at school

2009-09-07T21:50:00.003+07:00

My eldest daughter came home from school today in a foul mood. She was playing horrid games with her sisters, until I told her that if she couldn't play nicely, that she could go upstairs and leave the garden for a while. She stomped off in a fury, but later, when the two little ones were happily engaged on the swings together, I coaxed her into the kitchen and asked her what on earth was the

Monday hiking resumes/ Joy to the world tra la la

2009-09-07T17:08:00.009+07:00

This morning, the hiking club reconvened after a long summer break. We drove up to Chimbalak ski resort in the mist and rain, which then became sleet, and then turned into a full-on snow storm and all piled out next to the smelly farm at the top of the track. The smelly farm's little yurt tent outside was all covered in snow and looked very 'Lonely Planet does Central Asia'. We walked down

Moloko Coco

2009-09-06T09:39:00.002+07:00

Today I am going to admit to a rather shabby bit of assumption on my part, and I record it so that I can shame myself into not behaving like this again! Only too often, I hear people complaining about things here, when quite often I am certain that if they spoke the language they would find that 70% of their worries would just melt away. And so I was quite cross with myself when I found that I

I don't Monday

2009-09-03T21:50:00.007+07:00

Continuing my rant about policemen all over the city of Almaty who stop, hassle and then extort cash from drivers for no reason whatsoever I would like to share with you some advice I was given by Wise Old Owl, a long-time expatriate who has coped in regimes worse than this one before now and is utterly inured to coruption. "When you're stopped," she said, taking a break in her sentence to inhale

Police harassment

2009-09-03T21:24:00.007+07:00

I am officially getting a bee in my bonnet about Kazakh police and their traffic control measures. Husband was stopped three times in under an hour last Sunday. Admittedly, we had lost our front bumper in an unfortunate traffic incident - more of that on another rant. But we still had our license plate attached (yellow for foreigners, instead of white for locals, making us all the more easy to

Expatriata! Ruminations on coffee morning etiquette

2009-09-02T21:30:00.007+07:00

Blimey! What a day. After a whole summer of absence, ladies from all over the world are back in Almaty. Today was the Almaty International Women's Club coffee morning at the Intercontinental Hotel (great hotel but = can of diet coke, only 9 dollars! ha ha). The coffees provide a chance for people to catch up and for new girls to meet a few people then mill about alone for a while wishing that

And now PIzza Hut

2009-09-02T09:55:00.008+07:00

I don't really think of Almaty as a difficult place to live on the whole, but then from time to time we all get very excited about a new service, or shop that has come to town and it makes me recognise the paucity of things here, that in the west we take utterly for granted. My recent Marrone Rosso post gave you an insight into the dearth of decent coffee shops. And it is the same for pizza and

Big Cheese Mega Sonic Woof Woof

2009-08-30T16:53:00.004+07:00

The pack of wild dogs living at the bottom of our garden, the subject of previous posts "the dog catchers cometh.." and others, seems to have moved on. Returning from our summer holidays armed with a Big Cheese Mega Sonic Woof Woof dog deterrent, an ultra high frequency motion activated animal detector sonic zapper thingy, I was confident that I was going to rid my life of the nuisance barking

Marrone Rosso gives Coffee Delia a run for its money

2009-08-28T17:51:00.009+07:00

Great sandwiches, but what about the service? Expectations have been high for the new coffee shop Marrone Rosso, since frankly the choice of coffee houses in town is sadly lacking. To date, every expatriate in Almaty has used Coffee Delia for its Wifi coffee space, groovy lounge music background and funky orange décor. Obviously, the Israeli coffee chain Aroma, the company

Keep Calm and Carry On

2009-08-28T17:06:00.005+07:00

So, not being able to buy the camping equipment you so desperately need instantly is hardly going to shorten ones life. Admittedly it is frustrating from time to time, but there are so many other compensatory factors to living the life I do, that I shouldn't complain at the unsurprising difficulty in acquiring basic items like cocoa powder, contact lenses, fresh coffee or decent bread (go get a

Stock issues

2009-08-28T13:45:00.007+07:00

The curse of Tsum, the department store which has reduced me to tears before now, seems to affect the whole block in which it is located. Planning a one night camping trip to the wilds with friends this weekend, I set off at 10am today to buy a gas canister for our lantern, a tarpauline and poles to give shade and some camping chairs. Possibly, even, I dared to imagine, I might buy a plug into

A mother's lot

2009-08-26T09:23:00.003+07:00

Feeling quite the Nigella Lawson yesterday, I knocked up a couple of banana and chocolate chip loaves after lunch, and the house was full of the wafting aroma of delicious baking. Warm, moist banana loaf was ready for the children and I had a totally clear conscience as I left in the evening for a supper meeting leaving the children with our new nanny to have their tea and be put to bed. Arriving

Big Beluga on the Radio!

2009-08-24T17:51:00.004+07:00

Big Beluga Baby is all of a twitter today because she was interviewed on BBC Radio 5 Live this morning. You can hear this here if you click on listen again for Monday 24th August. Kids were thrilled to hear Mummy on the radio as we always listen to some radio at breakfast time. If you do go to this link, then scroll along to about 2.45 hours thru the programme to find the section I am in. It is

Fermented Bread Soup

2009-08-21T11:50:00.003+07:00

To mark my husband's 100th Russian lesson, and as a small reward her for her immense patience in the face of incredible repetition rates, we decided to treat our Russian teacher to dinner. Her favourite Russian restaurant in Almaty is called Namedin (I will try to add the Russian script later) and it is at 44 Furmanova Street, on the corner with Makataeva Street (tel: 8 727 273 8494 - no website)

Slumdog Toilets

2009-08-18T23:46:00.010+07:00

I have finally watched the film Slumdog Millionaire. What a fantastic story - so optimistic and romantic, beautifully filmed and with an amazing sound track. Top film. My comment today is that other people who have seen the film scoffed at my earlier description of the horrors of the toilets at the border between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan (19 October 08, The World's Worst Toilet blog). They told