For Your Self-Quarantine Entertainment...

What a time to be working internationally...it's been an interesting couple of weeks, so we'll go chronologically...

February
The last trip home was great - who knew it would change so much in a month! I managed to catch the last bit of the cancelled hockey season...

...and take a few runs down the now-shuttered Table Mountain.

 ...and met up with Haylee's new friend (WTF, when did this happen...I was only gone for a year...)

But I guess they're getting a little older, and she's now behind the wheel and able to do grocery runs, DQ deserts runs, be a designated driver...fun stuff!

After the trip home, it was off to Florida for an investor conference,

...and then back to Nur-Sultan. While COVID had not really developed much outside of Wuhan and Italy at the time...there were signs that travel was starting to thin out. The ride back started on an A380 that wasn't nearly full (first time I happened to be on an A380, sitting in row "55", but bottom deck, so only 4 rows back from the cockpit). Impressive and massive machine that now appears to be on its way to a phase-out as a result of the growing global airline woes.

(3 live cameras on the seat back TV's) 

The second leg back was Munich to Frankfurt to Nur-Sultan...and Frankfurt to Nur-Sultan was a little "light" on passengers. Air Astana has Business class, Sleeper economy, and economy. In sleeper, they give you all three economy seats with the armrests up, and put a seat-fitted mattress across them with blankets out for you (better than their business, which doesn't lie flat). It's never all that crowded, but in this case, I was the only one in the cabin...

March
Here's where things started to get interesting, albeit not right away. During the first couple weeks of March - despite bordering China - movement of the pandemic and restrictions in Kazakhstan were only starting to take hold (like most of the world). Officially, no cases in Kaz until mid-March. Kazatomprom released annual results and had a conference call, held the usual investor and communications activities...and a local "Astana Exchange investor day" (all Russian...so my team had to run it).

Kazatomprom IR team on Women's Day!

And the CEO made a decision: let's arrange video and conference calls instead of following up the annual results in person, like we normally would, and cancel the investor trip to London, New York and Boston. Good call Mr. CEO. Since we were remaining in Nur-Sultan, I decided to do some Canadian(ish) baking for Kazakh colleagues. The challenge: finding ingredients and...measuring cups.

First up was Nanaimo Bars (I had to bring graham wafer crumbs and custard powder back from Canada). Challenge - no vanilla, so had to make it from scratch with vodka and some vanilla beans. Next challenge - despite week after week of searching, I could not find measuring cups, so the single and double shot glass had to take on a baking role.

 

Next up, chocolate chip and then peanut butter cookies, but no chocolate chips, so had to make those.

 

And not planning ahead that well, I neglected to identify the need for a cookie sheet. Had to make due with the oven's built-in pans.

 

Future baking will be a little more accurate, having finally found some scoops at the Magnum grocery store (the only place I've found that's the equivalent of a Superstore).

During the second week of March, again before the crisis ramped up, I caught the last couple of cultural events I could, including some Russian KHL league playoff action

Intermission kids activities included live arrows on the mezzanine level - once again, not something you'd see in North America.

Then a celebration of Chinese New Year with a favorite...Peking Duck!

...and several random office birthdays, where the individual having a birthday brings lunch for friends and colleagues, and usually invites the floor.

I've been watching for a good opportunity to attend something at the Astana Opera House, so next up, I went to the Italian opera "The Barber of Seville". No idea what happened, nor will I ever become an Opera connoisseur, but a very impressive venue.

March 8th was the standard International Women's day celebrations - similar to last year and over the top.

So with spring in the air, I decided to get the "blood" flowing in the bikes.

Second half of March

Then, it started to change. As I've said before, by the time I get to my office in the morning, I've shaken a hundred hands...but thankfully, even in this hand-shaking culture, the need to reduce contact started to take hold, and signs started to go up (but a hard habit to break).

Office

Office at night (looks like Vegas) 

Time to run

I had my first half of the year's Kazakhstan-Canada flights scheduled with nested flights (round trips overlapping and within round trips to get the best prices). Not a great year for me to have undertaken advanced planning - my woes started when Kazakhstan decided to ban flights from Germany. Suddenly, the first leg of my Wednesday March 18 flight home was cancelled. When I woke up Thursday March 12 to news that Mr. Trump was closing the USA border, and the first cases of COVID-19 were announced in Kazakhstan March 13, I decided it was time to seek an exit - doors were closing around me. I got permission to work remotely from Canada, and booked a quick 38-hour flight home via Warsaw on Saturday March 14. I was up first thing to drain my bank account and hit the road-air...

On the 5 hours from Nur-Sultan to Warsaw, Poland, rather than typical in-flight services, flight attendants went up and down the aisles taking temperatures multiple times and filling out forms. 

Upon landing, military boarded the LOT plane for 45 mins of continued temperature taking, then on to a bus to the terminal (no jet ways were operating). There were three rows where someone tested higher than 38C...so those rows, with two rows in front and behind it, were hauled away by the Polish military. That could have been it for me...stuck in Poland...but luck of the draw, nobody around me tested higher.

I had been focusing on the ability for me to get out of Kazakhstan based on Kazakh restrictions, but I had not thought ahead about connecting countries: Russia was restricted though open, Germany had closed, but it turned out that I was on a 5 pm flight out of Warsaw that would be the last before Poland closed their borders to international travel at midnight that night as well.

And 9 hours later - Toronto, Canada! Safely back to home soil with a quick overnight before heading on to Saskatoon! Eerily empty at Pearson that day - with chaos supposedly starting 24-48 hours later, when Canada closed borders and enforced a 14-day quarantine for international travellers!

Upon arrival, the family opted to stay protected...

and I settled in for what started as a 2-week self-quarantine, working remote at home in Canada (which now morphed into "indefinite" with it being unknown when I can make it back to work). Meanwhile, all Kazakh colleagues have had similar lock-downs put in place,  so it worked out very well - I would have been working alone from a flat in Kazakhstan for god knows how long. At least here, I can get cooking...

Pork tenderloin...brisket...chicken Katsu Curry...

 

 

And then Haylee took on some baking - with a Chocolate Corona cake, and a failed attempt at Angel food for my birthday (second attempt was better).

 

Forty was supposed to be a little more exciting: Mexico trip April 17th? Nope. Vegas? Not anytime soon. Guess it's one to remember - and a high value Birthday gift from my parents...

So I'm now in Canada, indoors and isolated like everyone else, until I am able to get back - though I'm working Kazakh hours (9 pm - 2 am, 7 am - 11 am Saskatoon time).

So hopefully everyone is staying healthy and sticking to themselves - and hopefully the weather warms up and the snow melts so those of us stuck in winter conditions can escape our homes a little and get outdoors. In Kazakhstan, nobody will be happier to see things warm up than the "Street dogs" that will be able to screw without complications. Here was the view on the elliptical in the gym in my building a few weeks ago:

A pack of dogs and puppies ran by in the -20C or colder conditions outside. A few mins later:

It took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on - they stood stuck together like that for 20 mins, and were still there when I left. So yeah, life could be worse.