Wednesday 10 March 2010

What? No Sightseeing?

Nampaknya ISP kami disini  menyekat hubungan ke Blogger pada waktu siang. Malamnya pula laju bukan main. Tapi tea-lady ini tak sabar nak tunggu malam, tambahan pula angin di luar menderu-deru merenjiskan salji, tak bernafsu pula rasanya nak keluar merayau-rayau. So, tea-lady ni ubah setting internet ikut jalan lencongan melalui DNS lain yang lebih terbuka dan..... jengjengjeng, I AM IN!

This is most probably my last update from Kazakhstan as I will be flying home on Friday. Frankly I have not seen much of Kazakhstan at all, except for the views from the airplane window. It really has been too cold to venture outside Astana Central, and aside from our chilly adventure near the Baiterek, the most we had done was to walk to the eateries and the supermarket round the corner from the hotel when we were putting up there. Now that we have moved into the villa, we regularly do 30-minute walks to the Mega Centre and back, for food and groceries.



Much of my time is spent indoors, helping out wherever I can with whatever remeh-temeh matters that arise. Yes it has not been a holiday as such, but I am enjoying it nonetheless. The walks do provide some exercise though not quite like the drenchy sweaty exertion I enjoyed at home. But the villa being three-storeys high with stairs so steep you need first-class knees, I guess they (stairs and knees) help keep the old hamstrings toned. Plus the stationary bike at the top of the stairs outside our bedroom gives us no excuse to prove again the theory of inertia.

The stairway leading down to the office


The stairs leading to the third storey


The stationary bike


Madam Kulyash the landlady loves plants and the house is filled with them, all thriving. She'd come and check on them every now and again, feeling the soil for wetness. Yes, watering the plants is one of my duties here but I think they are pining for the loving care of the Madam.


Lucky for me I'm not also the cleaning-lady; the company uses a cleaning service for the general cleaning of the office area five times a week, and the living quarters twice a week, plus once a month they do a major cleaning job from top to bottom.

Madam Dhana (waving) with her permanent crew Ghul
and a part-timer

I think Ghul will have an easy time cleaning the second level - the boss's SoHo.

Bare-footed but work goes on

The general office area is still not fully equipped and cluttered with boxes and wrappings.Can't show that yet, but maybe on my next inspection trip haha... 

And I'd have to inspect the bricquettes in the indoor sauna as well, who knows someone might have used them for a summertime barbecue instead.


Anyways, that's it - no sightseeing this time, but who knows I might get called up for a another tour of "duty".

Till then, До свидания (dasveedanya) Kazakhstan.



11 comments:

mamasita said...

You're coming home on Friday..yahooo!!

Capt's Longhouse said...

Zendra,

,,,leaving the poor hubby behind ?..hihi green eyes !!

Zendra-Maria said...

mamasita YESSS!

Zendra-Maria said...

Capt, aiyer so bad one you.... hehe. I'll bet he'll be back sooner than I can blink :)

Tommy Yewfigure said...

Ahh tea-lady, yes sure brought back some memories on me first job; Glennis the tea-lady would go round at morning tea with her trolley with coffee/tea & Arnott's bikees in plastic wrappers. Ya lor should bring 'em back!

Have a safe flight back!(Aeroflot???..hehehe)

Cheers,
Tommy

P/S - Hey RA, u sure or not got ketuanan Kazakh there?? Maybe russian mafia lah :)))

Red Alfa said...

Yea Tommy

I am into looking at what is and why some like ketuanan Finn, Jepun and Kazakh are winning and why WE seem not!

In Kazakh's, the 6 million bumis had reclaimed their land in 1991 from the Russian BEAR (Chechnya has to die many times to claim a small countryside)! Kazakhstan is bigger than Australia and slightly smaller than India with the mineral riches of both countries.. and Russia has to pay rent for using Baikunor Cosmodrome to launch their space rockets, to boot! It has a high income economy ... will it be soon Malaysian engineers and maids will be lining up to work in Kazakhstan?!

Tommy Yewfigure said...

Hehehe so u & wifey r the first pioneers lah. The good thing about high income society is everyone does a good job. Like my gardener, plumber, electrician & all other tradesmen get paid more than us white collar workers but they still addressed us as Tuan(i.e. Sir, Mr Yew)..hahaha..tak bolih tahan, but gotta be nice to them else they show u the fingers & tak nak datang lagi :))

U Stay healthy.

Tommy

P/S - So r u one of those fly-in/fly-out specialist. One month on / one week off arrangement?

Capt's Longhouse said...

RA & Zendra,

,,,well done, both of you are flying our Malaysian flag there.
,,,indeed, go to places that you've never been, see all the people that you've never seen, do all the things that you do in your dreams and both of you will find it's a wonderful life for living.
,,,proud of both of you, yes indeed.

Zendra-Maria said...

Tommy, RA & Co are not the first Malaysians here, and hopefully not the last too.

Capt, it's certainly NOT a walk in the park.... and thanks for the encouragement :)

Fadhil said...

Zen,

Berapa kali try indoor sauna tu.. :-)

Zendra-Maria said...

Oldstock - tak pernah try langsung. I get claustrophobic just thinking about it!