Postcard from Bishkek

As a teacher of Computing and Information Technology, I used to set an exercise based on the Premier Division of the Football League. The school was located in North London, and the nearest teams were Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, both of which attracted supporters from among the pupils.  There were a number of of other […]

In the West, (that is in the Northern Hemisphere), there is a general desire for a “White Christmas”, although there are differences in how that term is understood. Here, of course, Christmas comes later, (7th January), and the big holiday is New Year … so the general desire is for there to snow over New […]

Winter certainly seems to arrived! Actually started early – before the “official” start of Winter – on December 1st. We had snow and frosts – heavy snowfall (well, for this time of year) and temperatures falling to -15º … and that was here in Bishkek, so it can be imagined what conditions were like in […]

Different cultures around the world have various ways of determining when the different seasons start. Some use a definition based on weather patterns, but others prefer to base them on fixed dates.  

A sort while ago I was chatting with a client who admitted to being a little disappointed with his trip top Kyrgyzstan. Don’t get me wrong – he said that he really liked Kyrgyzstan and was planning on a return trip … but, (… and there’s always a “but”, isn’t there?), he was disappointed because […]

Whether or not it’s a result of Global Warming and Climate Change (pun intended) it’s certainly been a winter of extremes. OK – I admit that got taken in by the hoodwinked by the photoshopped images of the Pyramids under snow … but, in my defence, I ask if it is all that surprising given […]

Watching the news the other day we were struck by the unseasonable weather that seems to be affecting all areas of the globe at the present time: deadly floods in Europe, India and Canada; extreme winter conditions in Europe and the States; an unseasonably cool spring in the UK … and, for that matter, here […]

  At the highest altitudes, snow falls and does not melt. As more snow falls, it compresses that which is already lying on the ground, and forms sheets of ice – known as Glaciers. Kyrgyzstan’s glaciers – and there are quite a lot of them,  - have been in the news quite a bit recently […]

In 1993, just before I came out here, a new comedy was released which has now been added to the United States National Film Registry as being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”, Groundhog Day, (starring Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell and Chris Elliott). As it happens, today, February 2nd, is Groundhog Day … when, according […]

A new report landed on my desk at the end of last week: The World Risk Report 2011, by a team of researchers from the United Nations University. It came to my attention in a newsletter that I receive several times a week which carried the headline: Malta – the safest place on Earth?  Now, […]