After 19 months of working remotely in Canada…I am back
working in Kazakhstan! While the return was bittersweet – leaving the family
behind after everyone had become quite comfortable with this “new normal” we
have all been facing – it was inevitable!
I debated pushing out a post or two this last year as an
update following my rush back to Canada in March 2020 (see For Your Self Quarantine Entertainment) but
unfortunately…they would have been an extremely boring read. Upon return, I
began the process of figuring out how to work remotely within a company that
was very much an “ass-in-the-seat” operation…but like everyone else, things quickly
fell into line, and we were off to the races, with the entire company moving to
remote operations. For me, it meant starting my workday at 9:00 pm in Canada,
working until about 2:00 am – 3:00 am to catch the Kazakh morning, sleeping for
a few hours, then getting back up to work about 9:00 am or 10:00 am until 12:00
pm Saskatoon time for the north american morning. And that’s how life was lived from March 14, 2020, until
October 2, 2021.
I tried to work in our unfinished basement for the first while,
but taking conference calls and talking loudly to investors through the wee
hours of the morning (while the family tried to sleep a couple of floors above)
quickly became untenable...so I tried working outside on some summer nights (apologies to Steve and Kristi next door if your window was open while I was on call...)
In the end, that didn't last long either, resulting in a move to the garage (thankfully heated
through the Canadian winter) to create my Kazakhstan-in-Canada office! So the "sweet" part of that initial "bittersweet return to Kz" comment above was having an office again, and working during daylight hours!
Lots of highlights while I was home though, thing that I would have otherwise
been absent for – a personal silver lining during the whole pandemic thing:
- Son’s 16th birthday and a driver’s
license!
- Did some tree removal and yard landscaping - Spending time isolated at the lake in summer
2020 and in summer 2021
- Christmas 2020
- Finishing the basement- Like many in COVID, time within a 2 family “bubble”,
enjoying a wide, wide (wide) variety of drink obsession phases (Sloe gin…then
martinis...Palomas…a period involving smoked Moscow Mules…)
- 2x Pfizer vaccines
- Start of a hockey season (finally)Looking back at the past 1.5 years’ photos…hard to believe it
has been that long and so many things have happened. In the meantime, most of
my belongings and 95% of my clothes collected dust in a flat 9,000 km away. Thankfully,
a good friend back in Kazakhstan kept tabs and even emptied a fridge of stuff
that was likely ready to get up and walk away on its own – he even had the
cleaner bring it back to livable condition for my arrival at midnight on October
7, 2021!
With COVID-19 cases trending in the right direction in
Kazakhstan, I am back just in time for winter weather. Time to figure out their
“Ashyk Vaccine Passport” system that is required to do everything…where Pfizer
isn’t yet an “approved” vaccine. Separate “boots-on-the-ground” update to come!Nur-Sultan out my office window when I left...
And now...a few new buildings...
