Postcard from Bishkek

Back in 1971 a new advert for coca Cola appeared on TV … and although it was based on a not so successful radio jingle …  it turned out to be a highly successful advert, not only for Coca Cola also in it’s on right becoming a chart topping single in the UK, (spending 4 weeks […]

Today, 22nd March, marks World Water Day – and has done so ever since 1993 having been approved as such by the General Assembly the previous year.  The idea of the day is to encourage member nations to implement measures regarding the world’s water resources.  Perhaps one of the most concrete aspects of the day […]

Although I expect to see reports on American Football, Baseball, Basketball and Ice Hockey, I am often amazed as I watch the sports reports on CNN … by the graphic descriptions of the archetypal British with the typical American fixation with sporting statistics.  Most Americans … no, most people outside Britain, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, […]

I was thinking of taking the day off today … not only is it a holiday here, (International Women’s Day), but it also happens to be my birthday.  On the other hand, I am not particularly keen on Birthdays and as this isn’t a particularly significant anniversary, and the fact that I normally prepare the […]

America may be commemorating National Pig Day today, but in Russia it’s Cat Day. Here in Bishkek, I am known for my cats … there are five five of them, (at the moment, that is – at one point there were as many as eleven),  Actually, only one of them, Vita, is mine in that […]

Today is another one of the Professional Holidays that seem to be so common in this part of the world – the Day of Land Management, Geodesy and Cartography - and is meant to commemorate the work and contribution of all those working in land registration and cartography. Two maps of particular importance in Kyrgyzstan’s history are […]

It was a year ago that Chicken Little came to Russia … at about 7:30 in the morning, the dark sky over Chelyabinsk in the Urals brightened, but it wasn’t the dawn breaking … An glowing object appeared in the sky, leaving a white plume in its wake … and was followed by two loud […]

I have absolutely no idea where the phrase comes from … and it seems that I am not alone.  There are several references on line that suggest a link with the ancient Olympic Games … but no-one seems to be able to quote an origin for the catchphrase … I seem to remember Sherlock Holmes muttering […]

Triskaidekaphobia – what mouthful … ! If you split it into its component parts then its meaning becomes immediately apparent: tri, kai, deka and phobia. tri = three, kai=and, deka = ten and phobia = fear of … it’s the name of the fear of the number 13.  For some reason, (apparently tied in with […]

Although Ian is a Scottish name, as far as I am aware I have no Scottish blood flowing through my veins, (however there is some Celtic blood there, because some of my mother’s forebears came from South Wales). I mention my ancestry, (or, at least, my lack of Scottish ancestry), because today happens to be […]