Archive sections: ‘From an Expat’
Let me say at the outset that although I am not a skier, I happen to be the proud owner of two (almost) antique pairs of wooden skis and have a profound respect for exponents of the sport. However, that hasn’t always been the case. When I was a kid, watching ski events on the [...]
This last week I have had a stream of visitors asking to see me, each of them, so it seems, with an air of shy embarrassment and hopeful expectation, and each of them clutching a piece of paper. I know them all. We’ve before and the conversation starts with general small talk: How are you?, [...]
Tuesday was the “Ides of March”. The Romans had a very strange calendar until Caesar decided to reform it in 46BC, (adding 46 extra days in order to bring it back into line with the seasons on which it was supposed to be based, and causing chaos and disruption throughout the Roman world). His reforms, [...]
The other day I had the occasion to call for a taxi for a friend and rang one of the many taxi firms in Bishkek. As usual, they asked for the address, where the passenger was going, and for a telephone number. I gave them the information, and they told me the taxi would arrive [...]
Although I am by no means an expert on the subject, as a former teacher I take a keen interest in questions relating to education in Kyrgyzstan. Until recently, that was mainly an “academic” interest, (no pun intended), but, recently, it has become more pointed as the kids’ schooling has been disrupted by the events [...]
Like, I imagine, most people around the world, I have been watching events in far off Japan and around the coast of the Pacific Rim’s “Ring of Fire” with morbid fascination. Safely cocooned and beavering away in my office at various mundane tasks, muttering to myself under my breath at each and every one of [...]
After several weeks of very cold weather, with four foot icicles hanging down from the guttering surrounding our building, we are now experiencing a warmer period. Even though, however, I am still wearing a pullover, (albeit a short-sleeved one), … just in case. On Friday morning I had an early morning meeting at the Hyatt [...]
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 [...]
I wasn’t sure whether to post this or not … for a start, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to give it any publicity, but when I found a particular post on the website of the Portland Mercury, it made me see red … and I felt that I just had to respond.
“To bodly go … ” is probably the best known example of a split infinitive that there has ever been. English teachers around the world have probably been cringing over it ever since, back in 1966, our television screens went black as a disembodied voice announced, “Space … the final frontier … ” and launched the [...]
