Postcard from Bishkek

Maxim, one of the “baseball kids” that I have written about before, has been quite creative recently. For one thing, he has started calling himself Maxim Claytor.  This is not something I have encouraged – but he is using it as a sort of “pen name” when it comes to setting up an email account […]

It was forty five years ago today, back in 1966, (when I was an impressionable 13 year old), that an event took place in San Fransisco which was to be a milestone in musical history, even though we didn’t realize it at the time.  It was the last time that “The Beatles”, (The Fab Four […]

The other day Maxim sat opposite me and asked, “Have you been to America?”. When I said “Yes, four times,” he wanted some more details … so I explained, ” … once to Los Angeles in California, another time to New York and twice to Florida”.That was followed by another question: “What about France?” “Yes, […]

I often comment that the Kyrgyz “love a celebration as much as the next man”, so it’s not surprising that there seems to be a toi for every occasion. For the record: There are several occasions when it is traditional to hold a party to mark some milestone in a child’s life – like a birthday party – […]

I often get asked what sort of music I like to listen to.  It’s a difficult question to answer because I have fairly catholic tastes when it comes to music; I can listen to almost everything if I am in the right mood. I remember that the first record I ever bought was an LP […]

When they asked about political affiliations and religious convictions for my profile on Facebook I facetiously replied respectively: “that’s between me and the ballot box” and “that’s between me and Big G”. For anyone who looks through these postcards it should become clear that part of my reluctance to say is because the picture is […]

It’s nice to know that I am not the only one to get dates wrong.  Yesterday I received a couple of “Birthday Greetings” … a day early, but it’s also nice to know that people are thinking about me. Last year I did the same … and sent my nephew a congratulatory message on Facebook.  […]

Tuesday, this week, was a big day for me.  Well, not exactly a big day, but a “red letter day”, an anniversary.  My fifteenth anniversary.

The other day I had give a statement to the police, (nothing serious, I was a witness … see  An attempted robbery), and I had to fill in a form.  Fortunately, a young policewoman was delegated to help me.  She asked me questions, I answered, and she typed the information onto the form.  I also […]

One evening during the summer, I went into a restaurant in Bishkek to meet a group of tourists who had just arrived.  I was somewhat taken aback because I was greeted by a somewhat unusual question: “Does the name Ashmole mean anything to you?”