June 14-17
Hello everyone!
Our school has a favourable connection with the British Embassy. This owes in part to the fact that there aren’t many other Brits around to converse with, but we have made friends with many of them over the past year. They held a party to celebrate an anniversary related to a figure the vast majority of people from the United Kingdom love and cherish. Long live the Queen!
Kazakh fun fact: Kazakhstan – United Kingdom relations were formally established on 19 January
1992, with the UK opening an embassy in Almaty in October that year.
We were invited to the Radisson Hotel to celebrate the Diamond
Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. This month she marked 60 years on the throne
and, even though we were thousands of miles away, we rejoiced in typical
British style – with Pimms, curry and fish & chips. Delightful.
It was a busy week socially once again due to football
commitments. Even though Euro2012 is in countries which are closer to us than
other European nations, the timing of kick-offs is linked to Central European
Time. This results in the late matches starting at 12.45am in Astana. Committed,
die-hard England fans will watch their team at whatever time they can, and I
joined a group of them here to watch a thrilling comeback to defeat Sweden.
This was on a Friday night. Normally we could have had the
next day to recover, but Saturday was in fact our final day of school for the
year. Finishing school on June 16 – can’t complain. Consequently that lack of
sleep after the football was exacerbated in what turned out to be a mildly
emotional Speech Day and Prizegiving ceremony in the school. A couple of my
children hugged me and refused to let go of me as I won’t be their main teacher
next year. Ego boost…
We signed off formally with a Summer Ball. Smart dress,
great food, copious amounts of wine and champagne, a wonderful band and a night
that ended with my playing DJ on the school stage – a fantastic way to sign
off. And a bad head the next day.
It is now time to rest, recover and recharge for the next
ten weeks or so before returning for chapter two of the Astana adventure. It’s
also a great opportunity to travel, much like the Queen does. Much is happening
in the world…particularly in my next destination…
Love you all
Matt
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