Archive: May, 2010
I am not a great fan of Internet Chat services. Don’t get me wrong, they can be very useful, especially for someone like me, living so far away from home, with business partners and clients scattered all around the world. I have registered and signed up for a couple of services but, to be honest, [...]
Following last week’s “massive missive” … which could hardly have fitted onto an ordinary “postcard”, I had hoped that this week’s contribution will be shorter, reflecting a more peaceful, if less “interesting”, period. Perhaps that was wishful thinking. Sorry.
Tuesday was a “big day” for what I have been calling “the baseball kids” … the family of ten that I know. It was May 25th, the last day of the school year, the last day of lessons – especially for those in their last year of compulsory schooling – and is known here as [...]
The wolf has a bad reputation throughout the world. In modern times, this is probably due in part to the prevalence of Werewolf stories and films.
There are several different types of birds of prey found in the Kyrgyz Republic: eagles, vultures, hawks, bustards and so forth. The largest is the Golden Eagle – Berkut. The wings of a young Golden Eagle tend to be light coloured with a dark line along the edge – an older eagle will have a white [...]
Son Kul is a mountain lake in the Central Tian Shan range, virtually in the centre of Kyrgyzstan. One translation of the name is “The Last Lake”.
One of my favourite highlights of Summer, is the appearance of Maksym Shoro. During long hot summer days – especially in the capital, Bishkek – the streets seem to be lined with people sitting behind a large barrel … from which they dispense cups of cool refreshing liquids.
This postcard is based on part of an earlier one which was sent as an email describing the events of the week between May 15th and 21st. It contains supplementary information which came to light afterwards. In an attempt to draw the sting from planned protests in Djalal Abad in mid-May, 2010, the authorities released [...]
My brother, Tony, once took up photography as a hobby and I remember how he equipped the bathroom with plastic trays and bottles of chemicals so that he could develop and print his own films. I was too young at the time to really appreciate all that was going on but I do remember the [...]
I appreciate that Kyrgyzstan is not on everyone’s radar … at least one my correspondents has pointed this out to me, what with the numerous other crisis points around the world. Natural disasters, man-made disasters, war situations and civil strife … indeed, it all seems a bit apocalyptic. But then, I’ve had that particular feeling [...]
