Travels

It is COLD!

2012-01-23T23:30:00.000+06:00

Today it was -23 C. That is really cold. But it is also the first day of the Lunar NewYear so to celebrate we bundled up the kids and went out to a hotel restaurant for their lunch buffet. The food was good, but, amazingly enough, in a city or 2.5 million people we were the ONLY diners! So we had it all to ourselves. The kids were able to also watch the fish swimming in a moat surrounding the eating area.

Happy New Year!

Getting colder

2011-09-28T07:47:00.001+06:00

Summer is over. Autumn has come. Even so it is quite cold. So far the house is ok, a little chilly at night but livable. Here the heat comes on at a specific date so if it gets colder than expected you'll need more blankets!

Greetings!

2011-09-09T15:36:00.001+06:00

Here it is a new semester! And a new way to update the blog!

Student Days

2011-04-01T22:40:00.000+06:00

Years ago I began studying the Kazak dombura. I learned several songs and tunes. I am back now to try learning even more about their musical culture.

Time flying

2010-11-25T14:17:00.000+06:00

While we’ve been here we’ve seen bald eagles flying above. There have been coyote packs hanging around, quite big. Two of them ran beside Shane while he biked to school one morning. The big yard has been fantastic for the kids to crawl around in and play and explore. It’s been nice to have a car this time since we are living outside of the city proper. Without one we’d have to walk 30 minutes to a bus stop...not the end of the world, but this IS convenient. Liberty has enjoyed her pre-school and has made many friends.

Business Card

2010-08-24T23:20:00.001+06:00

Here is a link to one of our business cards
https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D87784_663921_630185

Peachbud 5K

2010-07-06T09:52:00.000+06:00

After too many years to mention I registered to run the Peachbud 5K. My time was 35 minutes. How far I’ve fallen! Two children beat me! But I finished, and it was precious to have my family there cheering me on.

So Sorry!

2010-06-10T22:27:00.000+06:00

You may have noticed you were redirected to this, our usual blog, after a brief moment at http://cookesoverseas.blogspot.com. My apologies, I entered the wrong name in the email template. It will be fixed soon.

home for health

2010-05-12T00:42:00.000+06:00

Dear friends,
Here we are in Winona. It came as a surprise. I had some kidney problems 10 years ago, and some related problems have arisen. So, rather than return to Canada in July 2010, we find ourselves unexpectedly here now, in May.

On a positive note, Michelle did get her Permanent Residence card and status renewed for another 5 years. Yay!

Shanghai, live

2010-03-28T11:11:00.000+06:00

A few posts below you will find a video shot in Shanghai. Amazingly, I am now in Shanghai. The family is back in Texas on their way to Canada for Michelle to do some Permanent Resident things; I stayed behind after seeing them off from Hong Kong. After adding up flights costs, it was only a little more to fly to Shanghai, then Urumqi, as it was Shenzhen-Urumqi. So, because there are 2 coworking sites here in Shanghai, and this is something we are thinking of doing in Urumqi, I decided to come here. Michelle really wanted to come, and for that reason I am holding off on going to some of the nicer sites, such as the Bund, until we can all go together. Likely we will come through here on our way home in July.

It’s an amazing city!!!

Rain rain

2009-07-01T08:59:00.001+06:00

Has been making a usual hot summer into a refreshing time. It's been nice and cool, plus, the rain cuts down on the dirt and dust in the air.

Only problem is the roof repairs aren't finished so we once again have major leaks coming into the apartment. Of particular concern is the leak running through the fuse box!!

repairs galore

2009-06-28T22:28:00.000+06:00

Dust is an ever present companion here. More so when your apartment is being renovated! We have just renewed the contract to stay another year and during the process pointed out various water damage originating from the outside. What we thought would be a simple seal and patch job has turned out to be a massive undertaking involving: ripping out the entire cement floor of the roof balcony; tearing out of the insulation from the outside of the building (they insulate outside-in, rather than on the inside, here.); and the resultant dust is terrible. Just terrible!

But I suppose it will stop the leaks. We’ll see!

Gong si gong si

2009-01-24T19:21:00.002+06:00

Happy New Year! This weekend is the Lunar new year weekend, and here in Singapore everyone is happy and ready to celebrate. The weather has been wonderful, and the location of where we are staying is perfect. There is an outdoor childrens' play area that puts anything in Canada to shame, and Liberty has so much fun playing there and making friends with the other kids. Since this is Singapore, practically all the kids know English, whether Chinese, Indian, Sri Lankan, so it makes it possible for Liberty to really make friends.

There is also a "coffeeshop" in the same area, but it is essentially an outdoor food court for the apartment building complexes around here. So Shane has enjoyed eating outdoors, looking at the sky, watching Liberty.

Michelle has been a hit with the mother and nannies here. She is the only white person, but language is again no barrier. She has met many other women while they are all at the playground with the kids. She is at this moment at the nearby shopping mall doing some reading at a Starbucks.

Urumqi. We do miss you. Really.

i can haz cheezburger?

2008-12-09T00:25:00.004+06:00

Two posts in a row that have nothing to do with Urumqi, my baby, or life here. But, we get a kick out of some of the pics on this site.

more animals

Walking on a Dream

2008-12-08T23:09:00.001+06:00

I enjoy all kinds of music and came across this video by an Aussie group. What caught my attention, other than the beat, was that it was shot in Shanghai. True. That futuristic city is not a set!

Empire Of The Sun - Walking On A Dream

love potion

2008-10-23T12:51:00.000+06:00

Just recently I was chastised for not updating the blog.

Have you ever tried to keep several blogs up to date? It isn’t easy keeping track of everything. To help I have started using MacJournal as a means for recording what I did. I then place the MacJournal file in my Dropbox (getdropbox.com) folder so I can view, and update it, from other computers. All in all very easy.

We had a great visit in Ottawa. Didn’t bring the digital camera so we have no photos to upload right now. I did fin my Canon film camera and shot FP4, fuji b&w film. Ought to be nice.

We are waiting for registration in China. We are also trying to determine the best visa route to get bck sooner rather than later. Not easy.

Listen to music!

She can't walk, but she can get a cab

2008-03-27T21:08:00.002+06:00

Liberty has been surprising us lately. She has begun looking at this clock we have on the wall whenever it is time for her to go to sleep. We think she picked it up by watching us as we looked at the clock to see if it was time.

Now she has picked up something else! While we were holding her waiting to cross the road we noticed she was moving her hands like she was waving. We watched and realized that she was doing it as cabs approached! Sure enough, she was trying to wave down a cab as it approached. Michelle then told me that the other day when she and Liberty were in a cab and almost home, Michelle took money out and held it in one hand while she got things ready with the other. Liberty took the money and Michelle thought she was just being curious as she often takes things from our hand to look at them. But this time, this time Liberty took the money, twisted around so she was facing the front, and started trying to stuff the money through the bars (these are found in many cabs as a sort of protection for the drivers, bars between the front seat and back seat.

What will she think of next?

2008-01-04T17:48:00.001+06:00

Reflections

This blog is supposed to be about our life in Central Asia but these days it is about Liberty it seems.

Well, we must comment on her abilities with reflections. She can see us reflected in almost any surface which can be reflective. Once she does spot us she likes to wave at us, even if we are right beside her! It is really unbelievable, and we are dying to know what is going on her little brain.

This evening she was playing by the fridge, and I was reading her a poem, but she wasn't looking at me... kind of off to the side and up. I realized she could see me, faintly, reflected in the fridge door! So I waved and said hello, and even though we were essentially facing each other she waved back, then looked at me directly with a big smile and laughed! Amazing.

Happy New Year! Жаңа жылыңыздармен құтты болсын!

2008-01-01T14:38:00.001+06:00

2008. Read that again. 2008. I love this time of year in part due to my love of resolutions. Yep, unlike many others I look forward to coming up with a list of goals to achieve. I could do it anytime of the year (and do around my birthday, but that is only 8 days before Jan 1st, so, the overlap makes me wait).

In no particular order:

• Learn better Kazak
• Learn more songs
• Learn another instrument
• Learn another language
• Engage in professional development (classes or books on teams, leadership, project management)
• Develop talks from daily verses
• Learn the order of the books, their chapters, and the topics within, in my favourite book

Well, that is all that is popping up right now. You?

2007-11-17T12:57:00.001+06:00

Liberty is now 8 months and 1 day old. She is growing at an astounding pace. She is verbalizing and mimicing the words we say. She is standing up by herself, propped up by whatever is near her.

We both are growing too! The food here in China is so delicious. Frankly, we only eat in 2 or 3 times a week. And when we do some of those times are the leftovers. We are so grateful the food is not only delicious but inexpensive (unlike Kazakstan).

We have resettled in Urumqi here, and we have a nice and warm apartment, near the big People's Park We shall take lots of walks through there come Spring.

Signs of Olympic fever are sprouting up. MAny stores are selling some kind of Olympic parnaphenalia already, making us want to get in on the action with our business.

Speaking of which, still has yet to materialize. There are some good companies here which help foreigners set up business, so we are talking with them to determine the bet route.

In the meantime we are often out and about. We will be posting photos online somewhere eventually!

An Appropriate Song as We Head Out

2007-08-30T10:52:00.000+06:00

Child Of The Wind lyrics by Bruce Cockburn.

I love the pounding of hooves
I love engines that roar
I love the wild music of waves on the shore
And the spiral perfection of a hawk when it soars
Love my sweet woman down to the core

There's roads and there's roads
And they call, can't you hear it?
Roads of the earth
And roads of the spirit
The best roads of all
Are the ones that aren't certain
One of those is where you'll find me
Till they drop the big curtain

(CHORUS:)
Hear the wind moan
In the bright diamond sky
These mountains are waiting
Brown-green and dry
I'm too old for the term
But I'll use it anyway
I'll be a child of the wind
Till the end of my days

Little round planet
In a big universe
Sometimes it looks blessed
Sometimes it looks cursed
Depends on what you look at obviously
But even more it depends on the way that you see

Growing, growing, ... !

2007-06-09T01:24:00.000+06:00

Liberty is growing so well! She is trying to sit up while she lies down, her head control is amazing and she likes looking around at everything. She is healthy enough that people gasp when they find out she is only 12 weeks (today!). Michelle is watching her right now, and Liberty likes to always be on the move, like her mom, checking out the world around her.

She has discovered tv too believe or not. While we were holding her the other night while sitting around with the family in the tv room she lifted her little head and began looking around. We realized she was trying to find the source of the sounds which were coming from the tv. Once she found it, her eyes became glued to the screen! It was cute at first, but when she wouldn't look away we were shocked! So we shall try to sit elsewhere.

Her next set of shots are coming up, and we are still in the process of trying to move overseas. There are a few bumps along the way, but we are confident the doors will open.

Being Indian

2007-05-29T09:26:00.000+06:00

Liberty received her health coverage today. She isn't actually a formal Canadian citizen though. How'd she get it then? She is a registered Indian in Canada. Interesting. Through that, and me, she was approved right then and there.

She is doing well. Mom and dad are pretty tired however. We love her. It is an amazing privilege to be given the responsibility of caring for her, helping her grow and develop.

We ought to write more, but hey, we're tired!

Baby

2007-03-28T21:51:00.000+06:00

After 9 months, Liberty Marie Eileen Cooke was born, March 16th, 8:19 am. You can see pics and some more details at our photo site.

We ARE going back

2007-02-21T21:48:00.000+06:00

Kazakstan was always a stepping stone to long-term in central asia. We are back in North America to have our dear Liberty, and then after 6 weeks in the US, and 6 weeks in Canada, we fully intend, plan, desire, aim, crave, dream, work towards going back, possibly as soon as mid-late June. Maybe not that soon what with various Baby papers and shots we will need to get. We will return to the original place you all know about, the place with amazing food, horse riders up in the mountains, wild bus rides, and vast deserts. Right beside Kazakstan.

Not to mention how hard it will be to leave with Michelle's family's first grandchild and great-grandchild, and my family's 4th grandchild. Have I taken for granted the sacrifice the families I meet overseas have made? I think so. It was hard for me to go when I was single. It was so much more hard to leave taking my wife: she is someone's daughter, and my mom loves her so too. Now, we go as a family. It has been 10 years since I began (I first left Nov 11, 1996) but in some ways it feels like the "real deal" is only now just beginning.

The baby is coming...

2007-02-13T01:32:00.000+06:00

And I had my first ever Baby Dream. Yes, that's right. I had a dream last night in which our baby had been born and I was able to take her for walks, show her birds, sing to her, help her stand. Perhaps the most touching part of this dream was when I would hold her up to my face and we'd just look at each other.
I imagine the real deal will be better than a dream!

sweet home ... Texas!

2006-12-17T06:28:00.000+06:00

Here we are, safe and sound, back in Texas. It has been a long several weeks filled with packing, moving, good-byes, travel, and visiting Korea too. It is difficult to believe Kazakstan is over. Our time, as far as we know, had come to completion. We achieved pretty well most of the goals we set. We met many many Kazaks in a place we had been told was difficult to meet people. Michelle learned Kazak VERY well. We set up Step by Steppe. And now here we are back, feeling as though we never left. Isn't time funny that way?

Minus what?!

2006-11-24T09:09:00.000+06:00

The Fall here was unusually mild and delightful. It wasn't so cold; there was still loads of mud.

However, within this past week the temperature has dropped all the way down to -22 C?! That is cold!

In packing for our departure we took a chance on how the weather might be and I, Shane, packed away some of my warm clothes. I won't need them in Texas after all. Good thing we have only 4 days left here!

Should it stay or should it go?

2006-11-10T12:21:00.000+06:00

During our studies in Canada a few years back we took in a small little black kitten who appeared in the neighbourhood one night and meowed at everyone who passed by. It was lonely. We gave it some food but didn't think we'd ever take it in. One day we decided we would since it was still hanging around and getting skinnier. We went to Safeway and bought food, litter, and something to give it a bath, and a flea collar. When we went home that night we brought it in, gave it a bath, and except for 2 incidents where it leaped from our balconey to visit homeless-cat-friends it had made while out on the street, it took to us and grew to love us. It was very vocal, loved sitting by our laptops as we typed our papers, and played hide-and-seek with us. In short, we grew to love "kitty" too.

We never thought we'd find another "kitty".

Lo and behold, a few days ago a strikingly patterned gray/black/white kitten showed up in our stairwell. It was starving for both food and companionship. But the outside here is far dirtier than in Vancouver, and what with Michelle pregnant, we didn't take it in. We did give it food, and it meowed and mewed and ate everything. The we let in inside one cold afternoon. It was in heaven! It laid down, rubbed its little head against us, tried to lay down beside us, and meowed whenever we left its side. I am still surprised little animals like this can be so vocal and expressive about their feelings.

Well, we let it out later that night and didn't see it for awhile.

It came back, looking for us. We watched Poseidon together with it. It watched us packing our bags. In the end we still let it out later because we don't know if it is litter trained, we don't know if it has worms, etc., and we didn't want it wandering around while we slept.

Winter is coming, and there is no guarantee someone else will take it in.

We are leaving in 19 days. Should we love it while we can? Or let it be to learn how to fend for itself now?

fresh flowers

2006-09-30T21:04:00.000+06:00

We attended an international singing contest held here in Astana just over a week ago. It was really entertaining and featured singers from Peru, Mexico, Eastern European countries, and several Asian countries.
What caught our attention however was the lady sitting beside us. It wasn't the strong smell of vodka. It wasn't her constant rambling. It was her flowers. She apparently had torn an entire rose bush, albeit a small one, right out of the flower gardens out front of Congress Hall. There she say beside us, dirt falling onto her lap, and sharp thorns poking Michelle. She tried to give us some of the bunch since it was really too much for one concert-goer/gardener to handle alone. We politely refused. As soon as the first singer finished the lady ran up, trailing dirt, to give her bunch of roses. We didn't see her after she went backstage.

There IS a cat in the bag

2006-09-25T08:49:00.000+06:00

The other day Michelle and I bumped into another foreigner who works in town. We were having a nice chat along the road when I noticed this one couple look at us as they walked by. They were carrying a bag, the sort of plastic bag which has the most unlikely decoration on the outside and is used for everything. They were certainly using it. They wheeled around and came up to us and started saying something. It was in Russian, and since we don't know that language all we could do was smile and speak Kazak. Suddenly the woman, who was doing the talking, grabbed the bag the man was holding, held it up a little and shook it. From within came a plaintive meow. There was a cat in that bag. A kitten to be precise. They were walking around trying to give away, or maybe sell, a little kitten. It was a funny, and sad, sight to see the bag wriggling as they walked away.

He said, She said

2006-09-11T20:40:00.000+06:00

Here is an exchange we just had tonight while out for a stroll. We had stopped at a store to get some snacks:

Shane: Do you have money?
Michelle: No.
Shane: What? Don't you know it's a rule of thumb that every time you go out you bring money??
Michelle: Yeah. Do you have money?
Shane: No.
Michelle: gives "the look".

photos and Jazz

2006-09-09T19:42:00.000+06:00

Many of you know we have been posting photos of our time here. The site we have been using is starting to get full so we are moving several albums to Flickr. Our address is http://www.flickr.com/photos/cookes/ and you can find early photos there.

This weekend saw the third annual Astana Jazz Festival. We attended an afternoon show. It was fine I suppose. There was the Astana Jazz Ensemble "Жігер"(it means strength) and a guest vocalist from Moldovia (we think). They did covers of Moon River, Georgia on my Mind, among others. Musicianship was excellent; choice of material poor. It would be nice to hear some Herbie Hancock, some Coltrane or Miles. Oh well.

Bishkek, trains, and cars

2006-09-09T19:41:00.000+06:00

We recenty had to go to Bishkek again to get another visa. This time we took a train leaving at 8 pm and arrive in a place called Shoe (Шу) at the more decent hour of 11 am (unlike the last time when we arrived at 4 am) and from there a taxi to Bishkek.
While there that female US soldier was kidnapped. Michelle had been walking in that very area the day before. We are thankful whatever happened missed Michelle and the baby.

Pipes and water

2006-08-22T12:25:00.000+06:00

Shane has developed a new habit. Cold showers. Yes, it's true! When we returned from our latest trip to get a new visa we discovered the hot water in our building was off. We did the old "boil water, mix it in a bucket and pour it over yourself" routine, but it was tedious. So 6 mornings ago Shane decided that he'd brave showering the way many Russians do. It was amazingly invigorating! I am now hooked on this. If any of you want to try it, I suggest starting with the waist and down first before washing your head and hair. By the time you get to the top your body will be more ready.

Pipe-wise, we have none at the moment. It seems the hot water pipe burst 2 floors down. We have had workmen in all morning removing the pipes from all floors (5). It was about 1 inch in diameter, but it was so full of crud there was an opening barely the width of a pen for the water to flow through. No wonder the hot water pressure was also so low.

2006-08-19T20:37:00.000+06:00

2006-07-08T23:05:00.000+06:00

We have been meeting loads of great people lately. A highlight was meeting a poet named Мұхтар Шаханов, and reading one of his poems at a large concert in his honour. You can see some photos at
http://homepage.mac.com/tayuli/PhotoAlbum23.html

On a sadder note, I learned a lesson the very difficult way. There is this famous female Kazak singer and dombura player named Әсемхан Ғибадет Қызы (Asemqan Ghibadet Kizi) in Xinjiang. I bought all her tapes and hoped to meet her one day. Well, one day I found myself at a large dombura competition several years ago and there she was, not even 20 feet away, getting ready to play. I stood there too shy to go introduce myself and give some sort of blessing before her turn. As she stood there amidst a swirling crowd of people she looked up and right at me. I was one of only 2 foreigners at this event so I suppose we stood out somewhat, but as she looked up and looked at me, she gave a little nod. I took a photo and have it still. The thing is she was battling cancer at that time, everyone knew, but no one was talking about. They all simply wanted to bask in her singing and dombura playing. I never did say hi even though I was there several more days. I always figured I'd get a chance after I returned.

We met a young Kazak girl from Xinjiang, and she shared the bad news: the singer had passed away last year. We never did meet.

Michelle, Cooking Master

2006-05-20T12:57:00.000+06:00

Michelle has shown a surprising aptitude for cooking ever since we arrived in Central Asia. We subsisted on prepared foods while working on our M.A.'s back in Canada. We had no idea of her untapped skills back then.

Here Michelle has decided to make a spongecake. Now, I am not 2% of the assistant chef I used to be, but I know that this is not for the faint of heart. Michelle's heart neither fainted nor faultered. In the end, out came a delicious and perfectly made spongecake! It was for a birthday of a friend out here. ... See my Tabblo>

All highspeed with no where to go

2006-05-02T19:01:00.000+06:00

We finally got highspeed after days and days, hours and hours, sleepless nights of Shane trying to get the high speed to work. But...... now that we have highspeed we are trying everyone in our Skype contact list, yet no one is home!!! Where are you world out there?

We spoke too soon

2006-05-02T16:33:00.000+06:00

Well.... our reports that Spring had arrived unfortunately were premature. Yesterday it snowed. For several days it has been getting colder. And now, in true Central Asia fashion, the turning on of the radiators signals that the cold weather is staying a little longer.
But we don't despair. Spring IS coming!

Spring is here, and many first's

2006-04-17T07:53:00.000+06:00

This past week saw many firsts. We saw the first butterfly, downtown of all places! We saw the first beetle (other than a cockroach) going along his merry way somewhere. We had our first irritating mosquito in our apartment even though we live on the 4th floor! I was able to swim an entire mile without stopping.
All in all, our first Spring in north Kazakstan is going well.

2006-03-20T01:08:00.000+06:00

The other day news spread that the Circus was coming to town. Now, Central Asian circuses have had a reputation for being very risque, so it is always worth asking yourself if watching dogs jump through hoops outweighs the other visual onslaught. We decided we'd go, and so did half of Astana. It turned out to be quite funny in a good way. But to get there... Michelle called the Astana City Help Line, which is usually anything but, and they gave her the number to the Circus. She called up, connected with a Russian first who then transferred her to a Kazak. This lady was so pleased to meet this American gal who speaks Kazak over the phone that she volunteered to pick the tickets up for us (she does work in the ticket office after all), and bring them to our house. When she arrived, she didn't have tickets, but she did speak French! And that is one of the more interesting aspects of Kazak life we weren't expecting. We have met Kazaks who speak German, French, Chinese, and even Spanish. And all better than, or in place of, English! So, if you know any German, French, Chinese, or Spanish speakers who want to come to Central Asia but think they can't maybe due to language, you go put them on the first plane out here!

2006-03-08T10:18:00.000+06:00

Michelle was at a birthday party tonight (we are back in Astana) and was talking with a Kazak lady about our Fund. She explained that we have a goal of recording traditional music with a view to possibly organizing an international music exchange or festival of some kind. At that point the gal's eyes went big and she burst out asking "Can you bring Justin Timberlake!?". To which her mother added, "Yeah right, it'd cost a million bucks to get him here!"

2006-02-24T12:55:00.000+06:00

Here we are back in the city where we first met... Urumqi. Hard to believe just over 4 years have passed since that eventful day. We were even in the living room of a friend's last night where we actually got engaged too, just over 3 years ago. The first day we went straight to a restaurant we knew had excellent food, and thankfully it was still there!
Now, we are going through all the things Shane left behind, books, gadgets, etc., and trying to figure out how we are going to bring it all back to Astana! Yikes!

Travels have been good. We have met many great people. If you go to our photos site you can see what the places we went to look like. They were all beautiful!

The Longest Day

2005-12-21T19:16:00.000+06:00

The longest day in history just finished. I accomplished an almost impossible feat in Central Asia. In one day I managed to navigate through the 4 story Tax Ministry to hunt down some documents we need for Step by Steppe. I then managed to get to one bank to pay the fees to the Ministry of the Exterior to whom we submit our papers for official invitation purposes. I then managed to go to another bank to pay a secondary fee. Oh, and it was done mostly in Russian. I don't know Russian. This doesn't sound like much, I know. A friend the other day though said "Plan to do one thing a day. Any more and you will drive yourself mad!" Tomorrow we submit our papers to MEED as the first of the final steps of moving from our current visa, to Step by Steppe's visa. Phew!

It once was lost, but now is found!

2005-11-28T15:11:00.000+06:00

A while back we reported that the local Post Office left. There was sign in Russian on the door, but we had no idea what it said and kept forgetting to bring a dictionary, or just ask someone.
Two days ago as we were leaving the apartment to go somewhere we bumped into the neighbour who was going to that general area. We asked her if she knew where the Post Office had gone. She didn't know because she doesn't use it. She offered to go with us and look at the sign though.
Once we got there, she simply laughed and said "The sign says 'Go to the back of this building to the temporary entrance"! And for how long did I prowl the streets looking for it!
Moral of the Story: learn Russian (gasp).

One flew over the Cooke-coos nest

2005-11-23T13:33:00.000+06:00

Perhaps someone out there can explain some bird behaviour for us. We've begun noticing every evening flocks of crows flying in one direction, about 30 minutes before the sun goes down. 15 minutes before the sun goes down jackdaws come flying by. Loads of them. I read once that these sorts of birds all roost in one tree, or clump of trees. Now that it is winter, I suppose this is what they are doing. It is nice to see them, right on schedule, telling us that the working day is almost over.

You may have read the post about the electricity going out. Well, what we neglected to explain is that it goes out rather regularly. At least once a week. But never when the neighbours upstairs are blasting their loud heavy metal music.

Just when you thought it was safe...

2005-11-22T14:42:00.000+06:00

        One challenge we faced when we arrived was a mailing address. We found a place to live relatively quickly, but would it be the place we'd live in for the next year? We couldn't say yes then, and so couldn't use the apartment address for a mailing address. It didn't help that our address actually changed the month we moved in! Yes, the street names just ... changed.
        To solve that dilemma we decided to go rent a post box at the local post office. It took a few trips to get the lingo correct, and to arrive at the precise moment the only authorized person to handle post boxes was present (long lunch breaks and other absences are an artistic endeavour here it seems), but we did it! 2000 tenge later(Kazakstan's money) and we had ourselves a post box for the year. We were pleased. I even checked it the next day to see if any fliers had been delivered. Ah well, for all the other hassles there are here, fliers in the mail doesn't seem to be one of them.
        So, a week later I am walking by the building and what!? The post office is gone. Gone. And so is our box. There is a cryptic notice on the door where it used to be be, but it is in Russian (the most complex language in the world mind you: I once looked up a word in the dictionary and it wasn't there. This language includes all of the difficult conjugation rules of other languages -suffixes, prefixes, gender, location, tense, plural/singular, mid-word-iffixes, whatever challenge you may have with Chinese, German, Italian, French, Polynesian languages, etc, all those tough grammar and conjugation rules are in Russian, but not always in the same order). Supposedly it is relocated to a place on our street.
        Now I have to find where our post box has gone.

3:46 am

2005-11-12T03:49:00.000+06:00

Being sick is not fun. One plus side is that you may end up sitting up at 3:46 am, just the time when internet access is cheapest in Kazakstan! Noisy neighbours above you who seem to be reenacting scenes from "Fight Club" don't help with the sleep factor.

On another note, we had snow for the first time this past Sunday.

On yet another note, November 11th marks 9 years since I first left Canada for overseas life. Nine years.

It also marks 2 years and 1 month of married life!

Cats and Rain and Mud

2005-11-02T18:12:00.000+06:00

It is Winter now, and that means that we see less of something quite interesting: people out walking with their cats. It may be hard to believe, but the cats in this city actually walk with their owners when they are out! And they don't have leashes either. Even out in public along the busy Riverwalk area people would be out with a cat trailing behind. Even more amazing would be the people out with a cat AND a dog. The dog would be leashed however. Now that the winter has arrived, we won't be seeing the cats so much.

And speaking of Winter, it has arrived in all its muddy glory. We were told there were essentially three seasons here: Summer, Winter, and Muddy. We were hoping it wasn't true. So far it has proven to be so, even though we had some snow several days ago which stayed. That gave us hope. Then it melted, and the falling snow increasingly has turned into rain/sleet. It is also very windy, but so far the temperature hasn't been unbearable.

No electricity

2005-11-02T08:36:00.001+06:00

Several mornings ago we awoke and sensed something was off. Literally, there was! The electricity! This has happened before, and usually it would be back on by noon, or by nightfall. Also, usually the whole block was off, but this time when we looked into the stairwell, we could see that the elevator worked, and the lights were on.
I checked the fusebox, and 3 out of the 4 fuses were tripped. It seemed all we had to do was flip them on and problem solved, but nothing happened.
Upon closer inspection, it appeared as though someone had taken part of the fusebox! We called our landlord since we didn't know who to call, and when he arrived he confirmed it. Yes, someone had come and stolen all the secondary fuses from the first five floors, a total of 20 units.
As is usual in Central Asia, no one seemed bothered by this. We talked with a few other tenants and they just said some electrician would come to fix it. We called our landlord again and he told us he had arranged for someone to come and fix things. We thought this meant "replace the fuses".
Sure enough this morning someone came sauntering over from the construction site nearby and came to our floor. He opened the box and you could see the gaps left behind by the stolen fuses. The man then simply rewired our apartment's wires straight into what looked like the main cables! He also added some joiner so others could plug in. When I pointed out the empty slots, and the other apartments, he just shrugged, packed up his things, and left.
We are glad we have our power back on, but now it seems we are one of the only ones!

Spitting on stairs

2005-09-08T10:29:00.000+06:00

The other day we were walking down the street and witnessed a lady trip while she was walking up some stairs. She looked a little flustered, stood there and straightened herself out, then kept going. She suddenly stopped, turned partially around and glared at the stairs, and then began to walk away again. Then she whirled around and walked briskly backed to the steps, leaned over them and appeared to say something, and to our surprise, she spit on them! Smiling, she turned around and walked away.
We think it has to do with the general belief in spirits, the evil eye, negative influences, etc., and she was expressing displeasure to whatever was in the stairs that made her trip.

Mac mini memory upgrade

2005-08-30T01:25:00.000+06:00

As you know, our platform goal in Kazakstan is to meet local traditional musicians (dombura players) and record them playing their songs.

But, how do we record them? We could use existing studios: these are actually rare, and at any rate these are the same ones which produce current commercial products which in our opinion suffer from poor quality. Plus, we intend to approach local musicians on a grass-roots level, and bringing them to a fancy studio would project a different image. Plus, we 'd have to pay the studio owners for the time, and since they'd probably supply their own engineers and mixers, we opted to not go this way. One listen to the average commercial Kazak traditional music tape here, and you'd want to re-do it too! We want good quality!

Would we develop our own studio? Some friends provided an estimate between 5,000 and 10,000 Canadian dollars to set one up (though this didn't include preparing an actual room, just the equipment needed to actually record.) Whoa. And then we'd have to get all that out here.

As some of you may also know, Shane is a big fan of Mac computers. And he loves fiddling with them. While in London, England, we dropped into a nice Apple store near Oxford Circus looking for a desktop system which would suit our purposes. True, they are usually pricier than Windoze machines, but, they are far more user-friendly (and any of you who ever heard my rant on this topic might be able to imagine my tone even now!), with tighter software integration, reliability, etc.

Well, of all things, Apple had just released a new desktop Mac, called the Mac Mini. Sounds like a silly name until you see the price ($400 US), 1.25 gHz processors, 256 ram, 40 gb hard drive, etc. It is only W 6.5 x L 6.5 x 2 inches high! There is a desktop we could bring overseas. It practically fits in a coat pocket. We didn't want to use my current laptop for it contains loads of sensitive work, and Michelle's Sony, well, it looks nice.

Thanks to God, and to all our investors, we bought one. We also picked up an extra 1GB memory chip. The only thing is we'd have to pay 200 dollars to have someone install it, or bring it all out with us and let me upgrade it. Fortunately, the amount of fiddling I have done over the years gave me some confidence that I could do this. After downloading several guides from the 'net, I felt ready. And so, as of 10 minutes ago, I successfully opened our Mac Mini and replaced the existing 256 MB chip with the 1 GB chip. To get a shop to do this would have cost another bundle.

We are closer than ever to being ready to record dombura players here in our home.All that we need now are 1) a nice monitor, and 2) a massive external firewire hard drive.

And if any of you are looking to get another computer, I recommend the Mac Mini.

Our first get together

2005-08-28T22:02:00.000+06:00

Last Friday we hosted our first get-together at our place. Every week we meet with others to sing. So, there was lots of cleaning to do beforehand. It sure is dusty here! Really, every two days you can feel the dust that has gathered on the floor and have to get out the clothe and pail and start wiping. This also makes it hard for the computers.
So, the time was good. We live in a new building, one of many being built in the city. The main aspect which stood out for our visitors was the brightness, for many buildings from the Soviet days are dark and dreary. You can see the nice white walls at our recent photo site.
The highlight however was Michelle playing guitar for the singing time, for the first time ever! She has strummed a chord here and there over the years, but didn't feel she was making progress. Sunday night, a week ago, she was asked to be in charge of the singing, so I suggested SHE do the playing. At first she declined, but Sunday night she picked up the guitar, "just to see", and what do you know! Two hours and 4 songs later a new song leader was born!

Welcome

2005-08-24T00:37:00.000+06:00

Hello dear friends! Glad you found this site. If you are like us, you probably surf the net somewhat. We thought this might be an interesting way to keep in touch. Throughout the day we often jot down thoughts, or think of doing so and forget, and much never makes it into the emails to you.

We shall do our best to make sure this isn't filled with common blogging posts like "just testing this to see if it works", followed by the same 2 weeks later.

The news for today is that we are looking into registering a domain name so that we can put up a proper web site for the music platform we are developing.

Even bigger news: after years of trying now and then, Michelle yesterday has begun playing guitar! Prior to this she would strum a few chords, and that's about it. All of a sudden last night at 11:30 pm she picked up the guitar and two hours later she put it down! Praise God! She was thrilled but tired. And I was thrilled too!

We look forward to hearing from you. Shane