Back to work...

Figured a shorter update was in order, rather than waiting too long, generating a ridiculously long webpage...

There's always something new and surprising around every corner, even after six months.

Work

There have been a couple of interesting learnings this past week. First, every single morning I walk through security and the dudes swipe a metal detector wand over my bag and my lunch. Sometimes it's a close detailed survey, sometime it's a general wave of the wand from 5 feet away. Regardless of an alarm or not, they acknowledge my presence with a nod and I walk on. I'm yet to determine what they're looking for...

Second, with all the travel, I ended up with a wicked sore throat and fever (exacerbated by an air conditioning break-down in my flat during +35C weather), luckily it only lasted a day. However, I discovered that we have a doctor on the third floor of the corporate office building - you go in to get checked out, rather than going to a walk-in clinic (basic checks...they indicated they can't diagnose liver failure and perform a transplant at the corporate office. I asked. For a friend, who might be having a few more drinks after work lately than he has in the past). In any case, they determine what you need for antibiotics or whatever, and send you back to your office...calling you a couple hours later when your prescription is delivered to the office. So I guess it's OK to get sick here...just don't get REALLY sick.

And third learning, they take their "seals" seriously. This was on a Russian firm's audit report on our annual report - the unbreakable binding seal!

Hobby

Last weekend, I took a trip to Almaty at the foot of the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains of the Tian Shan mountain range in southern Kazakhstan. 

The purpose - motorcycle training! Was a great couple days starting out at 6 am at Sokol Race Track, an hour north of Almaty, with Denis the Kazakh superbike racing champ. 

Albeit a hot couple of days...

After strict safety and basic training on day 1, we were doing laps on the kart course in no time. He'd trail me for a few laps, stop for pointers and advice, then I'd follow his lead for a few laps. End result, knee on the ground cornering by the end of it, with confidence to ride...only starting on a 250, but still fun. 

Now I have to learn how to walk again - after about 12 hours riding and generally steering with my legs, it appears I have evidence I've never used the rectus femoris muscles in my quads...stairs and sitting down are a significant challenge.

At the track, I also discovered an explanation for a previous point of confusion. From a restaurant in Nur-Sultan...ummm why are such instructions needed, exactly?

And at the track...ohhh, I see now.

Learning the roads rules

I don't plan to venture into traffic much - reserve the biking for trips out of town or into the mountains, but still went window shopping at the Ducati store. 

And for a drive...

Kim replied to my "what about this one?" questions with a picture of an Alpha Romero in our garage under the heading "prime day deals".

When it comes to road rules, I've picked up on some basic Kazakh audio and visual driving signals.

The horn: the car horn is an extremely diverse communication tool in the Kazakh repertoire, applicable in a variety of situations. Sometimes, it's an expression of anger, like it is in the rest of the world, but it's much more nuanced here. Sure, it can say "get the f*%k out of my way", but it can also act as an early warning, with "watch the f*%k out". Sometimes, it's "yes", sometimes it's "no", sometimes it's "you're an asshole", but many times, it seems to be "you're an asshole, but whatever". It can mean "Hey pedestrian, I'm not slowing down and I might run you the f*%k down", or it can be "Hey pedestrian, I'm coming in hot, so if you're going to cross, do it quickly". 

The Hazard light: Also extremely diverse, with numerous meanings:

- similar to a horn, it can mean "I'm coming in hot behind you, get the f*%k outta the way". At times, this is combined with a horn, making me feel like I'm in a car with a husband rushing his pregnant wife to the hospital (when all I'm really doing is going to Karaoke).

- Hazards might mean "I felt like pulling over in a driving lane. Might be waiting to pick someone up. Might be checking Google maps or texting. Whatever. I'm parked, you're moving, watch out." Interestingly, like paper covering rock, hazards avert the application of a "get the f*%k out of my way" horn, and it's never used if hazards are on.

- Hazards can also be a combination of "I'm going to cut you off/I'm currently cutting you off/I've cut you off". Again, an opposing horn is not wasted by the victim during this hazard signal maneuver. "That asshat just cut me...ohhhh wait, his hazards are on, never mind, it's cool". 

- In the rare event that a person has been LET into a lane without the use of a horn or hazards, the hazards are then applied as a brief "thank-you".

Food

It's always about the good food here. Here's a menu from Almaty - it was awesome. Full page pictures of every item with professional-looking food photography, and the menu was 1" thick. At Turtles Pizza...no copyright issues there...

Filed under "things you've never cared enough to think about", after just over six months here. I've consumed 100 pots of coffee: The box of coffee filters I bought when I purchased my coffee maker just ran empty...

Back at home, everyone is settling into summer...while I work to figure out when the next trip home can be worked into the corporate schedule...

 

Where did June go?

How is it mid-July already? Hard to believe June came and went - but it was busy:

1. Started with an east coast investor relations trip - Washington, Baltimore, New York and Toronto;
2. Followed by a couple weeks at home in Saskatoon, which included a few days at Camp Kadesh for "Grade 8" camp and farewell; 
3. Then a week back at work in Nur-Sultan;
4. Leading to a week with the family in Paris; and
5. Ending with a week in Nur-Sultan with the family (including a side trip to Lake Borovoe up nearer to the Russian border).

In total, June's kilometres totaled just shy of once around the circumference of the earth - about 37,000 km in the air, 600 km by car, and 250 km by train! Adding in the family at about 26,000 km each for their round-trips, and assuming the Koses each ran a portion of a triathlon (big assumption for me after eating meat and pastries for 2 weeks), we went around the world almost 3 times. So THAT's where June went!

Be warned that this post is more of a family trip journal than "Kazakhstan life experience" - and with nearly 3,000 photos added to the family Google Photo stream this month, I'll have to be selective.

1) Work - uneventful...

Washington:

 

New York:

 Toronto:

 2) Home - a lot more action:

Reece finished grade 8 and now moves on to high school! The year ended with a traditional grade 8 camping trip, and while they don't usually bring along parent chaperones...they made an exception for me. May have had something to do with a dad living 8,500 km from his kids, and only home for the week of the camp.

Got to have a fun couple of days with an awesome son who isn't too embarrassed to give me a hug in front of his buddies. We returned to the city for his grade 8 farewell event - and this handsome dude is going to knock em' dead in high school...

 It was bittersweet to move on, happy to get out of the junior school, but sad to leave some people he's been in school with since the start!!!

But now, on to high school with big sister (who also started learning to drive while I was away...)!

3) Week back working in Nur-Sultan was uneventful, aside from a culture fest next door to my building. 

Got to watch some Kokpar - a central Asian sport in which horse-mounted players attempt to place a goat carcass in a goal. Here, they stripped off their shirts and wrestled on horseback. No idea if it was related to the game in any way - I assumed there had been some whipping behind the play and it was like a hockey fight (back when the jersey pull wasn't outlawed). Might have to start up a league when I get home.

4) Paris: Paris was awesome, and it was truly special to take the kids (small payback for dad disappearing...). Mollie wanted to come, but she was undoubtedly happier at the lake with grandma and grandpa than in a cargo hold for 20+ hours.

Ended up in a great hotel with an awesome view...

And of course toured, visited, walked and toured some more.

 We made a point of taking family selfies everywhere like a bunch of tools...

 

Happy times throughout - aside from the picture with Notre Dame Cathedral in the background, where everyone was visible distraught at not getting to go inside.

Renting scooters every day was a definite highlight, and it was nice to be away from friends and video games and distractions!

  

 And what's a post without food - macrons, Steak Frites, and Reece taking on a pretty sweet Chateaubriand steak.

 And of course, kids drinking wine since we were in France. 

 

 Couldn't NOT take the Paris photos everyone on Instagram has already taken...

We ended that leg of the trip with a couple days in EuroDisney since it's clear we won't make it back to Disney World anytime soon.

5) And it was off to Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, to see just how hard life was for dad. If that was the goal, it was a miserable failure...arrived at the flat and started touring (as much as possible, since everyone was pretty "museumed" out), with everyone quickly appreciating that Kazakhstan is massively underrated.

 

 

 

  

And of course - food as always. Similar to my experience upon arrival, the family was fearing they wouldn't like the food, but quickly found that the diverse cuisine in Kazakhstan is much, MUCH better than our selection and flavors in Canada (or North America), at far more reasonable prices. Kim's highlight was the Ukrainian (with unbelievable lentil borscht and varenyky (Pirogies)) while Haylee was a fan of the Shashlik (12-hour marinated shishkabobs) and intricate deserts (as I knew she would be).

 

Reece was the hero, trying everything from a local burger (gloves always provided since there's so much hand-shaking here), and an incredibly tender horse steak. The best by far was the Georgian dishes - Khachipuri bread cheese-boat thing and the most flavourful steaks and brisket you've ever imagined. It left Reece saying "let's never go to Boston Pizza again and start trying food from other cultures in Saskatoon" Amen to that.

 

It was awesome to show them the city - from the Expo Death Star, to the Nur-Sultan eye, Even some mall skating so Haylee could keep up her training. They tried to offer figure skates, but she somehow communicated "no! hockey only!"

Interesting while riding that Ferris wheel we looked down at the go-kart track and saw:

- a car hit the wall and have to hop out and pull themselves out (no track person help)

- a car run out of gas

- a tire fly off a kart, requiring a three-wheel limp back to the pits

Much to mom's chagrin, 5 minutes later, the kids were off to the races (without any of those pesky waivers or safety demos). Reece kicked ass with his video game driving experience leaving an upset Kazakh driver in his wake.

And what's a visit to Kazakhstan without a 4 am Karaoke night with a couple of locals!

  

Since it was peak summer weather and +30C and clear every day, we took a 3-hour trip north to Borovoe to see that central and northern Kazakhstan is really just a carbon copy of Saskatchewan! 

 

  

Pretty pristine - and the lake was bizarre - hundreds of people out on the water, but yet, clean and quiet. No $150,000 wakeboard boats creating chop, no seadoos or noisy toys - just paddles and peace. Kim compared it to BC back when we were kids.

On the way out, we stopped by the original home and monument to 17th century leader Abylai khan, taking the opportunity for a close encounter with some Golden Eagle hunters!

Pretty incredible couple of weeks and a very sad parting at Nazarbayev International Airport. Back to work for mom and dad while the kids move on to the summer off and with grandparents at the lake and to Penticton.

On the bright side...Trump decided against trade actions for the US uranium market. With an unknown timeline for the next family visit, I'll have to take the positive developments where I can! Thanks Mr. Trump.