Well, it's been an interesting couple of warm months in Nur-Sultan, but summer has ended - almost concurrently with the time it ended in Saskatoon (within days). Managed another trip home in August before it got busy in September (busy for both the family at home with school, work, and hockey starting up, and for me in the nuclear industry).

Home
Family was away in Penticton when I arrived, and we didn't tell the kids I was coming back...so hid in the crowd at the airport when they landed in Saskatoon for a surprise! And once home, furry kid tried to figure out where I'd been going for the past 7 (dog) years..

Took off to squeeze in one quick trip to Candle Lake with the kids to make it feel like it had actually been "summer".

 

Lots of good fishing - dog loves to fish - at one point when we reeled one in close and it splashed, she fell off the boat to chase it around. Had to be brought back into the boat by the kids.

 

 

Haylee continues to work on her brain surgery skills.

Before leaving Saskatoon, we adopted one more kid that I now miss dearly. That kid makes great wings and a mean 12-hour brisket...

Back to the grind
Then it was back to Nur-Sultan and back to (the paper) work. This was for a 3-day trip that only involved flights and one hotel:

The walk to work is great in the summer - about 10 mins door to office door - not looking forward to the return of winter, since it's icy as hell (statement makes no sense when written) and they generally don't clear sidewalks or salt/gravel anything around the construction areas!

 

 Half-way point - flat/apartment behind me, office in front...

And brought a piece of home back for the office! 

(Kavia Autobody, shop my wife owns)

August was spent preparing for the Company's first release of half-year results, highlighted by a conference call...

On a few rare days, there's some time to putter around town on a friend's dirtbike to see the parts of the city I have not been to.

Local friend, speeding around on a CBR sport bike: "We got separated, where did you go?"
Me: "I dunno, I'll look."
Me: "I'm on a island"
Friend: "WTF? An Island? There's an island in Astana???"
Me:

And of course, no tour around the city is complete without getting stopped by the cops. Through Google Translate, I determined he was looking for insurance. After some back-and-forth, giving him the local registration card, pointing to the license plate...it ended abruptly when I handed him my "Saskatchewan" driver's license. At that point, he just shook his head and walked away.

Off to a September filled with conferences and meetings...

World Nuclear Association Symposium, with IR marketing!

The first two weeks of September were a whirlwind - meeting investors before, during and after the WNA symposium in London...

...caught up in Brexit protests...

...then more in London, spending a few days at Canary Wharf - very cool yuppie area.

In the waterways around the financially-focused area, you can rent these little 8-person boats - some are a circular tubes with a BBQ in the middle and seats around, and people dress up in their Sunday finest to putter around and eat dinner. Other boats, like this one, are floating hot tubs to rent and drive around...need one for the lake!

Then on to Frankfurt, for some German Simpsons:

...and NY and Boston over a few days, all to keep "selling" Kazatomprom.

Found out that JPMorgan has an extensive art collection, and their new "meeting" office building is as much a gallery setting as it is an office building.

Since the trip ended in Boston, what's a few more hours to catch ONE Saskatoon Stars midget AAA hockey game in Calgary...making the full round trip a nice even 30,000 km?

Into Calgary at 3am, caught a quick game on a Saturday, few Monkey Shoulder (Moose Knuckle) Scotch with some friends, and back on the plane for Sunday! Even timed to see daughter getting game MVP! Worked out, only big, big downside was dearly missing one kid!

FOOD!

As always...food. But not just Kazakh this time (though there has been some superb Peking duck  - still can't get over the sense that North American food, while diverse, has lost much of it's original ethnic flavors, much better over here). No, this time, we do have Kazakh subway at the mall (or at least it used to be Subway, before the franchise agreement was apparently torn up)...

...but we also have London, with cook-your-own-steak-on-a-hot-stone (which was wayyy too much work)...

...and the highlight - Boston cuisine (my favorite US city)...and sure, seafood is great there, but a bacon food truck? How can you go wrong.  

Random learnings

A few random points of interest these last two months:

1) if you travel alone anywhere, and you like musicals/theatre...don't pre-plan. Walking around NY and London, I always manage centre prime seats every time. Last trip to NY, walked in for a show with Bryan Cranston on stage (breaking bad). This time in London, $160 prime seat to Come From Away (about Newfoundland's airport during 9/11 - great show, non-Canadians will miss so much of the humour) - $37. 

...and centre dress circle single to John Malcovich on stage in Bitter Wheat (story of the slimy Hollywood producer that resulted in the MeToo movement), $180 seat - $45 walk-up.

2) Istanbul's new airport that opened in May - largest in the world - is as amazing as it is massive (pictures don't do justice). Hour to walk end to end, including moving sidewalks, plus a ton of halva and Turkish delight...

Shopping area alone is about 2x the size of midtown in Saskatoon

Next up - back to London on Sunday and then through South Kaz for an Investor mine tour! Then, things settling down for a while...