Postcard from Bishkek

  A few years ago I was involved on a number of interview panels to appoint people to senior posts in a variety of organizations … and in the course of a year I saw and reviewed hundreds of CV’s … and one thing struck me as part of the process … people tended to […]

Spoiler Alert: This postcard has (virtually) nothing to do with Kyrgyzstan! Television executives have a predilection for Game Shows … not only do they provide entertainment, they are also very popular … and they are relatively cheap to produce even when they involve celebrity contestants.  One reason for their popularity is that they can provide […]

Djalal Abad lies in the South West of the Kyrgyz Republic, bordering Uzbekistan, and the Kyrgyz oblasts of Talas, Osh, Naryn and Chui.

I was late to a meeting the other day … that’s nothing unusual – after all, this is Kyrgyzstan where people seem to have a different sense of time.  Still. it made me feel a little uncomfortable, especially as I know how annoying I find it when people turn up late and so I usually […]

I am not a great one for playing card games. As a child, of course, I learned and played the traditional games: Snap, Rummy, Whist, Cheat, Fish, Strip Jack Naked and so on … and of course Patience, although mainly just the standard version packed with Windows and Solitaire and Clock Patience.  (And that infamous […]

A short while ago I met a journalist who hadn’t been to Kyrgyzstan for many years … as it happens, it turns out that he had written one of the first, (if not the first), guide book to Central Asia after Independence and he was interested to see that we had a copy on the […]

As regular readers of my postcards will be aware. I have a number of cats – the number varies from time to time – it’s been down to one and as high as eleven. The original, (Synock – sonny), was a gift from a friend and got on with everyone … but one day whilst […]

Comets have been observed by humans staring at the night sky for thousands of years. Until the sixteenth century, they were usually considered bad omens of deaths of kings, or of coming catastrophes … or even interpreted as attacks by heavenly beings. To a Brit like me, the classic example is the appearance of Halley’s […]

Who would have thought it … there is day dedicated to Turtles! May 23rd is World Turtle Day and has been since 2000 and was established in order to bring attention to and promote efforts to help protect turtles and tortoises and their disappearing habitats around the world..  Although it is called World Turtle Day and […]

I know that some people don’t consider Norman Rockwell as a serious artist, including, incidentally, Rockwell himself – who modestly referred to himself as many of his critics did – as an “illustrator”. He was, however,  a prolific artist, producing over 4000 paintings in his working life … but he is probably best known for […]