Postcard from Bishkek

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 […]

When I was studying to be a school teacher – many years ago – we had a number of compulsory courses which were supposed to prepare us for life in the classroom … well, that’s what we were told. Most of them , in fact, were fairly academic: The History of Education, Sociology, Psychology and […]

No, not yesterday evening … tonight is the Last Night … It’s nothing to do with the end of the world but the Last Night of the Proms – am right week season of Promenade Concerts of classical music, established in 1895 by the famous conductor and composer Sir Henry Wood.  The weren’t the first […]

I have often noticed that when people speak in different languages, they seem to take on a whole new voice, if not a whole new character/personality. In a way, it shouldn’t be all that surprising … the phonetics of different languages vary considerably. The letters of the alphabet are represent different phonemes – sounds associated […]

Today’s a big day for Kyrgyzstan – Independence Day. I’ve written elsewhere about the public holiday and, yesterday, I wrote about the events that led to Kyrgyzstan breaking its bonds with the former Soviet Union – even if it now looks as if they are about to forge them anew. Kyrgyzstan loves a celebration … (No, […]

For a long time I have said that Kyrgyzstan has something of interest for just about everyone – unless their passion is for volcanoes or zoos.  As it happens, there is one zoo, NABU in Karakol – it’s actually an animal reserve and sanctuary.  We don’t however, have any volcanoes. Apparently, for some time it […]

Today is World Humanitarian Day. The day was established by the UN  in 2008 to honour those who have lost their lives in humanitarian service and those who continue to bring assistance and relief to others. The date designated for the day, 19th August, was chosen as it was on that day in 2003 (ten […]

It all started quite quietly … who would have thought what it would lead to. George Carmack had left his native California and headed North in the hope of cashing in on the reported Gold strikes in the Yukon.  He wasn’t having much luck, but heard from another prospector that there was gold to be […]

I was looking some photos of Frunze, (as Bishkek used to be called), when I came across a clip on the video sharing site Bilive – a sort of Kyrgyz youtube, with some photos set to the song “Frunze” by  by Kuban Turdukulov and performed by the Kyrgyz pop group Eles. The photos were indeed quite […]

As I listened to the Global News podcast from the BBC, I wasn’t sure if I could believe what I was hearing … in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, a Gay Canadian comedian was leading a Ginger Pride Parade as part of the Fringe … it has to be a joke, I thought … but no, […]