Category: Uncategorized

I wrote before about where I find inspiration for my articles. One of my favourite features recently was on the threat posed to Romania’s historic industrial architecture. The idea for the story entered my head when I set off south from Piata Unirii to the annual expat fair at The Ark exhibition centre. I never…

In need of a break from decorating my new home, I made plans to go to Brasov, a town in Transylvania about a two hour train journey from Bucharest. The trip was mostly a fail though I’m happy I got to see this beautiful town and a different side to Romania.  Brasov is the beginning…

I flew from the Kazakh winter (it was below zero when I left Astana) into the Romanian spring. When we touched down in Bucharest I could see trees in blossom beyond the runway. Much of the road into the city was lined with parks, where the trees were already green with new leaves, and the…

I was sitting at my desk trying to work while feeding a hangover when a note came through from one of my analyst contacts saying there had been a massive devaluation of the Kazakh currency.  Over the last few months there had been growing speculation that the government would allow the tenge to devalue. Now,…

With most people in big Kazakh cities living in flats, balconies are the only piece of outdoor — or at least semi-outdoor — space their residents have.   A lot of the balconies in Kazakhstan at least in modern buildings, including mine, are enclosed, which means they have a wall to waist height then the…

I’ll admit it, I’m addicted to coffee. Not just physically addicted — though I do get a crushing headache if I don’t get a cup by 11am — but also mentally. I always give a little sign of satisfaction when I take that first hot, creamy sip first thing in the morning. But getting coffee…

If you go outside of the main towns and cities in Central Asia, and visit anywhere that’s not a soviet-built or post-independence building you will encounter the pit toilet — and it probably won’t be pleasant.  And on Kazakhstan’s immense expanse of steppe, usually even these smelly, fly ridden outhouses are in short supply.  The…

Winters are tough when you’re living in Astana, one of the three coldest capitals in the world (the others are Ulanbataar and Ottawa). This is my experience of how to survive winter in Astana, when the temperatures can fall as low as -50C. As November moves into December, the days and nights get steadily colder.…

We drove in a motorcade from Kyzlyorda to the Baikonur Cosmodrome, forcing the few cars we passed onto the verge. Eventually amid some hilly land to the right of the road I saw the mushroom domes of Baikonur in the distance.  We were still some way from the Baikonur Cosmodrome when we were told to…

On day in early November I set off for Kyzylorda, a city hadn’t visited since my trip to Zhezkazgan for two and a half years earlier.  Kyzlyorda airport was one of the big square buildings jokingly known as “chicken sheds”. We were disgorged straight onto the tarmac outside the terminal. Inside, despite the largeness of…