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 […]

The other day I came across some new research … well, it was new to me, although the paper is dated April 2011. What attracted my attention in the first place was the “teaser”: “Living at a high altitude can protect you from certain diseases“, which was accompanied by a link to a short article with […]

If I say that I have “green fingers” then, back home in the UK, people will think that I am goof with plants … house plants or garden plants … but here it can have different connotations. As it happens, as I type this I do indeed have “green fingers” … but it’s because I […]

When I first came here back in 1995, one of the first things that I noticed was the number of people who sported “gold teeth”.  Believe me, it took some getting used to. You still see some examples these days, but far fewer and they tend to be worn by members of the older generation. […]

There were a couple of very sad items in the news last week … and one of them led me to a shock discovery and a “moral dilemma”. It concerned the death of a fifteen year old boy.  Tragically sad in itself, the article was even more poignant because it went on to report that […]

Many of the Petroglyphs of Saimaluu Tash depict sun figures suggesting that sun worship was a common religion in the region at that time. In a way, that’s not surprising – Solar deities and sun worship can be found throughout most of recorded history in various forms. The sun, of course can be beautiful – but also […]

World Diabetes Day is part of a global awareness campaign which is held on November 14th of each year.  The event is commemorated in over 145 countries around the world – including, of course, Kyrgyzstan. This date was chosen as it marks the birthday of Frederick Banting – who, along with Charles Best, first conceived […]

Yesterday was another one of those days … as well as being the International Day against the Death Penalty, October 10th is also World Mental Health Day,(or WMHDAY). WMHDAY was first celebrated twenty years ago, in 1992, at the initiative of the World Federation for Mental Health, (WFMH - a global mental health organization with members and […]

I’ve said it before, (several times), and will probably say it again, (several times): “Every day is a special day … for someone.” For example, A couple of weeks ago, on September 15th, I happened to call in on the Honorary British Consul, (I have to apply for a new passport and needed a signature […]

One of my staff is approaching retirement age and is busy collecting the documentation in order to apply for a pension.  He was a bit worried the other day because he couldn’t find his copy of his blood donor record.  Apparently, in the Soviet Union blood donors were given a supplement in their pensions and […]