Postcard from Bishkek

I have had some difficult and worrying times recently … It began one day when one of the kids started complaining of not feeling well … which was a bit odd because he had appeared perfectly happy the previous day … bright, lively and extremely active working on his various projects. It could, I thought, […]

I have written before about Maxim and his hobby: Photography. He certainly seems to have taken to it … and the results are quite impressive. Of course, he knows that many photographs are just “snapshots”, ruined (or at least marred) by bad positioning or not taking proper account of the light … or speed.  As with […]

Today’s a big day for me … my birthday. I can’t say that I am looking forward to it.  In a year I’ll reach my eighth landmark birthday, (16 – Sweet sixteen, 18 – Coming of age, 21 – Coming of age II,  25 – A quarter of a century and leaving youthful things behind […]

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 […]

Saturday evening, and a knock on the door dragged me away from my computer.  There stood Maxim, an embarrassed grin, (or was that grimace), beamed from his face as he informed me: “I think I have broken my toe.” He hopped into the office and sat down on the first available chair.  He couldn’t bear […]

The other day I was showing the kids the photos of our trip to Ala Archa and Alamedin, and the video that Alicia, Philippa and Sebastian shot and they asked me if it was possible to create a website for them so that they could upload posts about things that interest them. I know from […]

Maxim spent the back end of last week busily scouring the internet for inspiration. For homework, one of his teachers at school had given him the task of drawing a poster, (a gazeta), to commemorate February 23rd, Dehn zashitnika Otechestva, (Defenders of the Fatherland Day – otherwise known as Army Day or Men’s Day). February […]

I have been asked some questions about the “Baseball Kids”, so I thought I had better spend a little time explaining the situation. I have known them for about four years now … Although they live on the outskirts of town, some of them used to hang around the city center, (around Beta Stores, the […]

It looks as if 2010 is going to end, at least in some respects, as it began. Back in January, “Siberian air gripped Britain” as unusual High Pressure systems massed over the Atlantic from November 2009 onwards, blocking the customary Westerly winds that would normally bring mild weather to Western Europe.  The result was that […]

The kids have had an extended half term holiday.  The school remained closed after the usual week’s break because there were problems with the heating system.  It took the school authorities two weeks to resolve the issue – and they tell that, even now, the school is still quite cold.