Approaching One Year...

Well, Kazatomprom has been publicly traded for a year - and I've now been in Kazakhstan for nearly a year. The day-to-day differences are a little more normalized, but there's always something new. Take the little room I noticed across from my office...

As usual, there's a poor Google translation available...apparently it's a fire safety room for minorities.

I was recently asked to provide a talk to a "JasTalks" group - a forum for young employees from the Samruk Kazyna group of companies to hear about the career experiences of management personnel. The poster they put together was awesome:

 Luckily I was actually a speaker...and not just a guy sitting at the back that they referred to as a "FAQ up story" in Russian. I even got a speaker gift (that I'm nowhere near being able to read, but cool to have a Russian book for the shelf).

General Nur-Sultan

I came across some great aerial photos of the city, including the Expo Center, which was built for the World Expo in 2017. It now hosts a multi-story energy museum in the "Death Star", with restaurants, the Astana International Stock Exchange (AIX), and Kazakh financial regulators and such in the surrounding building (and the big Mega Silk Way mall across the street - top centre of photo).

Here's one of the Kahn Shatyr mall, with my flat on the left (building attached by walkway), and the Kazatomprom HQ in the black buildings in the upper left.

...of course, it's no longer quite so green at the moment with -30C's and snow back for the season. Guess it's back to the indoor hobby...with some green for the desk.

Food as usual

While this is probably at risk of becoming an ongoing food blog, it's hard not to keep bringing it up!

There were a few big highlights this past month - this first was learning to cook Kazakh/Uzbek Plov (pilaf). A colleague invited me over to his house where his family took me through the 2+ hour process for making the dish - rice, carrots, onions, tender meat (horse in this case) with Achichuk salad and Tashkent Uzbek tea. 

 

And as per Kazakh tradition, the guest had to leave with food and gifts...in my case, the plov the was left, a variety of fruit, and the rice and specific spices needed for plov so I can take it back to Canada and make it at home (with some Alberta beef...)

The second highlight was a Sunday brunch with Italian Michelin Star chef Fabrizio Ferarri.

Learned a lot about Michelin Stars lately - the Brunch day, and the chief marketing officer at KAP owns a restaurant in Edinburgh, UK that was just awarded a Star only a year after opening...plus, I found out that no Canadian restaurant has ever been awarded a Michelin Star! Supposedly, nothing good and unique there...bastards.

And finally - Spicy Korean lunch. I wouldn't have thought to put smoked brisket in my ichiban...but I will in the future!

Aaaaand Corona.

(Kazakh Corona)

The year will end with a week in Prague at an investor conference in December (Christmas season in Prague should be interesting), then a very much needed few weeks with the family back in Saskatoon for Christmas and the new year!