NEWSLETTERS

Here at Zheti Kazyna we occasionally receive Newsletters from the Management.  There was one such newsletter a week or so ago which both Sandra and I missed and which ended up with her posting the following comment on Facebook,,,

Last week's Newsletter carried the following announcement... 

This confused many residents as they where unaware that we had stained glass windows in some of the apartments.  However it did not faze me as just last week I had tried to take a photograph of the window cleaning and it resulted in the picture below. 

Which as you can clearly see is taken through a very stained glass window! So we have all been blessed with stained glass windows which will fortunately soon be cleaned.  

The cleaning itself is quite interesting.  Instead of lowering cleaners from the roof or using one of the trucks with the telescopic arms and working platforms.

So we had wonderfully clean windows...for one day.  Because, as everyone knows, the sure way to ensure that it rains is to wash your windows or wash your car, and so the next day it rained!  After a couple of weeks here with surprisingly war weather it seems as if winter is finally going to move in.
  

FINALLY BACK IN ATYRAU: MY FIRST WEEK

Well, that was a long time away!  I left Atyrau at the end of June with some apprehension.  The British Prime Minister was due for a visit with Mr President, and although, as you will have seen from an earlier blog, preparations were well underway...bridge painting, flag flying, flower planting, strange model animals appearing etc...I was rather nervous leaving the final preparations unsupervised!  

However, everything seems to have gone swimmingly well, and there were no major incidents that we know of.  I cannot report whether or not turned on the oil, but if they did it was turned off fairly quickly thereafter. Because as far as the rumours tell us there is not yet oil flowing.  

I have to confess that I am beginning to worry that they will find a synthetic substitute for oil costing 50 cents a barrel before Kashagan finally delivers up its wealth and riches.

But what else is new?  I arrived back in Astana after a long journey, three red eye flights in a row with two twelve hour layovers (Toronto and Vienna), and spent a couple of days there with Sandra (working!) before continuing on to Atyrau.  

I was surprised to see how halloween had managed to reach even as far as Astana.  The Khan Shatyr was suitably decorated, to fully exploit the potential commercial value of another strange western custom!









It was Friday and we were just in time for an Halloween party.  I had had the good sense to bring costumes and makeup with me from the US.  Well, actually, to be exact, I had had the good sense to follow Sandra's "suggestion" and bring costumes and makeup from the US.

It made party going a lot easier, but I have to say, it was a good job we did because the standard of costumes were very high, and with anything less we would have been sorely under-dressed.  I must remember to blog a new list of what expats should bring to Atyrau.  Things are changing (improving) so quickly. I used to have suitcases filled with green beans, celery, quaker oats and even parsnips.  Now we bring Halloween costumes, tablemats, pictures and cushions!  

Despite what the pictures might suggest we actually had a relatively early party night.  But we still had a leisurely start on Saturday, with Sandra taking an hour or so to go through her exercises.  Unfortunately, this meant that she got into the shower just in time to catch the alarm for a fire practice (which we hadn't read about so thought might be a real fire).  She is paying good money for people to destroy the photographs of her standing in the courtyard with 50 colleagues in a kaftan, coat and wet hair wrapped in a white towel. 

Sunday night was Dawali, the Hindu festival of lights.  Marina had organised tables at the Green Hotel, which is Indian run and the scene of our usual curry nights, and a party of about 30 of us headed over there.  Sandra wanted to buy a sari so she could dress the part as well, but Marina was kind enough to lend her one instead.  Fortunately Gowri was available to dress the ladies and when they finally emerged they really were impressive.  Dinner was fun and we were entertained by two local dancers that started with an Indianish type of dance but then seemed to morph into a kind of Las Vegas show crossed with Rio carnival mode. 

Monday was back to the old routine except that Ram Store has shrunk to half its previous size.  It doesn't seem to have really contracted its product range very much, maybe some of the hardware items have gone, but most of the food is still there.  There was even a better selection of meat in the meat counter, including some that looked like T-bone steaks, albethey from a rather small cow.  I didn't try them, instead deciding to buy a piece of top sirloin from the Zheti Kasyna restaurant.  It was expensive but very good.  I cooked it sous vide at 131F for 4 hours and then seared it in a very hot oven for about 5 minutes.  It came out properly pink throughout with a crispy crust on the outside.  But I forgot to take a picture so will have to do it all again.



It was also time to restock the fridge so I made a couple of cottage pies, and ham and cheese quiches to keep us going.  
 Yesterday I made a batch of plain low fat yogurt, some of which I strained to make Labneh so that Sandra can start having it with apricot jam again for breakfast.  I am so glad that we can now buy jam in the stores.  Only two years ago I was making jam from dried fruit and scrambling around to find empty jars to store it in.  

I also made some polenta.  I had a lot left so I cut it into french fry sticks and fried them till they were all crispy.  Not great for the diet but quite tasty.  Also not conducive to dieting was an attempt I made to make Pasteis de Nata, Portugese custard tarts.  These highlighted the temperature differences in the oven as some had firm set custard and others did not.  Next time I will cheat and thicken the custard more first.

Out of the kitchen and onto the streets...

The weather is lovely, around 10 degrees with clear blue skies. Lovely walking weather.  The flowers have all disappeared from the roadside beds and from around the compound but some evergreen scrubs have appeared.  There seems to be a major maintenance project underway in Zheti Kazyna with scaffolding and ladders and men in hard hats and white cover-alls.  

I can also report that the Satpayeva bridge was finally repainted in this summers ubiquitous green.  

Though as you can see from this detail of the yellow trimming paintwork, sometimes the quality makes one think that it must have been rather a rushed job.

Nonetheless it was done, hopefully in time for the VIP visitors, and it should be good for a few more months. 

I can also report that the construction work on a number of strange structures that was commencing in June on the riverside path has been completed and there are now some completed "things".  I am not sure what their exact purpose is yet, but will investigate and report back.  

This is a picture of the "thing" outside the Riverside Office.  I have it on good authority that at night they are lit with changing colours, but have yet to witness this.  I will have to venture out with a camera.  It doe seem a shame though that there are these grand edifices on the river when those at either end of Satpayeva Bridge marking the ends and starts of Asia and Europe seem to be ignored.

There have also appeared even more model animals.  There is one piece of waste land on Satpayeva which is especially blessed with artificial wildlife.  To wit...

I can also assure you that Atyrau's Christmas preparations are already well under way (though strictly speaking these are New Year decorations as Christmas does not exist here). Tamasha is once again the first to have its tree erected though not yet decorated.  I am waiting to see if the giant inflatable Santa Claus reappears or if last years puncture actually did him in?

I also noticed that there are large snow flakes hanging down either side if the entrance of NCPOC Riverside Office.  I cannot remember whether these have been up all year, being left over from last Christmas, of are the decorations for this season.  

Meanwhile, with the mild weather the fishermen are out in force enjoying the last few weeks of autumn before getting out their drills, little stools, warm jackets and vodka for the winter ice fishing.

I stood and watched the fishermen, hoping I might see one of them actually catch something, which is such a rare event that I have come to believe that it is not the objective of the exercise, but rather an excuse to get out of the house.  Then a battered old boat came chugging up the river. The Ural is supposed to be navigable up to Oral (Uralsk), but I don't know for what draft vessels.  I did wonder where this one was going...

...I guess we'll never know!

PREPARING TO LEAVE FOR THE SUMMER

Wednesday, and I am due to leave on Friday.  I will not be back for a couple of months and so, as is my tradition, I must stock the freezer for Sandra so she can have so easy meals when I am away.

I am afraid that I have been working on a scheme to to make this an easy half day task, so I decided to put it to the test. 

First off was a trip to the store.  I decided to walk, so that I could first stop at Ram Store and if they had what I needed avoid going to Rahat.  But more importantly this gave me the chance of a last minute check on progress before Sundays VIP visits.  I am pleased to be able to report good progress.

However the first item of interest was not very presidential.  Progress has been made on the pipe that is being buried along the burr of the canal...a valve has been added at the end.  As yet there is no sign where it is going to, or coming from, which is just as well because I know the other end is similarly disconnected.  But we have a big cylindrical concrete lined hole with a manhole at the top and a valve inside. To wit, the concrete cylinder

And the valve with only one pipe into it.

But shortly after I climbed the bank onto Airport Road I noticed that the corrugated iron fencing that surround (I think by law) land waiting for development, is being hung with colourful scenes of Atyrau on plastic sheets.

And where this was not practical, different decorations were used.

The side of the bridge has been beautified with plant pots mounted to it, not a very good picture but I was shaking with horror at the thought of the poor creature that had to do the watering.  This surely must be impractically sustainable?

I think this lady or man is the one who does the watering as that seemed to be what she was doing here, all manually.

The painting activity is continuing and indeed even ramping up.  Today (Thursday) there were thirty or forty people at this bridge location (clearly a key visual impact location as the entry to Atyrau) and they were painting the curbs white, sweeping the roads, digging a bit, and generally beautifying the place.

All along Satpayeva people are at work.  In one place there was a truck parked  in the fast lane of the road.

On inspection they were putting up flags, one Kazakh, the next British.  They were already hanging all the way to the river, where they decorate the recently planted traffic island.

There are three new urns and a new peacock to report, but no more camels!

There are also newly attached plant pots on the lamp posts.  These are surely going to be another watering nightmare as Sandra says these flowers need a lot of water.

Unfortunately Ram Store only had black mushy celery so it was forward and onwards to Asia and Rahat Ideal.

When I arrived at the bridge I was surprised to see the barrier painting had not yet started.  The repairs to the cabling ducts were partially reconnected to the walls but a lot still had to be done.

But rather strangely there had been some painting done, in two places on the Europe side by the steps the barriers had been partially painted, one side green and the other grey.

I hope somebody will be able to explain this because I cannot!

And then, just as I was getting to the Asia end of the bridge I saw a squad of people walking along with buckets.  I think I can report that the painting is about to commence, but I won't be here to confirm or otherwise.

I walked on and finally arrived at Rahat. Where I did all my shopping and took a taxi home to begin the freezer stocking exercise.

The shopping list is below!

SHOPPING LIST

4lbs                Ground Beef

5lbs                Onions 

2lbs                Carrots (peeled and finely chopped)

1bunch           Celery (trimmed and washed and finely chopped)

3lbs                Potatoes 

2 large cans    Tomatoes (chopped or crushed)

1 medium can Tomato Paste

2x15oz Can     Red kidney beans 

2x15oz Can     White beans

8oz                 Frozen Peas 

2 Medium        Egg Plants 

1 Medium        Red Peppers 

1 lb                 Cheese...whatever is tasty for sauce

1 Box              Lasagne Pasta Sheets 

1 Head            Garlic   

Now you understand why I took a car home to Zheti Kazyna!

This I then had to prep...and I had nearly an hour of peeling and dicing.

After that came the cooking and the "assembly".  I will do another blog of the full recipes, which are probably of little interest to anyone except my sister, to whom I have been promising them for some time.  But here are pictures of a couple of them...

Actually, this is a big cheat!  Just as they do on TV, I do....and say "here is one we did earlier" except in this case it is two (or more if I showed them all.  In fact these are pictures of assembling a Cottage Pie (left) and  a Keema Curry right.  They were ones I made on my last trip here.  The ones I made this week were done individually so Sandra can just take out as much as she needs.  I also did a large batch of lentil curry the night before, as this is very low calorie and therefore has special appeal!

What I actually had to put in the freezer this morning, when It was cooled and bagged is shown below (including the lentils).  This is an honest picture!

In total there are 37 meals of:

Paprika Bean Stew

Cottage Pie ("Shep Pie"!)

Lentil Curry

Moussaka

Keema and Rice

Lasagne

Bolognese Sauce

and Beef Chili

My job done!