Day 73

So the snow is finally melting & it's actually feeling a much more sensible temperature. Ray tried to convince me before we came that the winter was only a few short months but on doing my calculations it seems there has been almost 3 months of snow since Christmas & if it started a month or two before that then it really is almost half a year of snow... That's a lot!  Although I know that in the boiling hot temperatures of August I shall be longing for it to snow. I continue to believe that I was born for a British climate!

A great family day. We have given the children the whole week off school as they didn't get a half term break. I am super impressed with Ray who managed to cook a roast chicken in our new 1 metre square kitchen. I was a little sceptical before he began but he did an amazing job and the children were delighted to have gravy again after so long!

Ali

Fun day with the family. Went out to Khan Shatyr and the receptionist actually understood what Ali had said. This has been a battle for a few weeks. It helped to say something along the lines of "Hun Shutup", but I either take it personally or suffer the insult and we get to where we are going. The kids took great delight in repeating it over and over again.

We did 2 lots of roller blading and I managed a run of the stairs, so we are nicely working off the vast quantities of cheeseburgers we had since arriving in Kazakhstan. The downside of the roller blading is that I really like the technology behind it, so have become interested in the type of polyurethane they are using in the wheels and its durometer rating and what is good for the marbleised floor tiles they have downstairs. "Hun shutup" I hear Ali cry; ah, now I know the distinction.

I believe it finally made it to plus 5 degrees C today and the snow is in rapid melt, which means the city's greyness is coming through. It also means the smells of the sewers and creeping through too. Hopefully once all is melted, then the smell will not last, otherwise with a warm Summer things could get riper per than a piece of Brie left on a radiator at full blast.

A saving grace about the Nauryz festival is that work on the building site had stopped for the day. We did try to find some aspects of the festival, but failed. There were some plastic horses and traditional huts, but we had seen them on the way to another shopping centre yesterday. I am still trying to understand the nature of this celebration. There's singing, dancing and eating of food, some competitive games, at least what I remember from last year, but very little focal point other than people celebrating. I think if they could label it, "be happy today day" then I could grasp that. But this whole 5 day event seems rather devoid of meaning. Hopefully a Kazakhstani will take pity on me and explain what it is truly all about.

Matthias took great delight when his Dad attempted a small jump on his inline skates and ended up on his backside. He then proceeded to chase me down the corridor saying "do it again Dad". Poor boy is in for a few surprises on his Wedding Day.

Ray