Anna Merriman

Once again I’m combining a few posts into one, as they are on similar themes, and don’t really need to push the older posts off the front page so quickly.
This first post are of a couple of videos we shot whilst waiting for our flight in Astana airport

Ira’s Dad decided it was time for us all to go and check in, though we wanted to wait for Anna to finish her breakfast first. Anna saw him walking away and ripped her bib off, which sort of made our decision for us!

Oh, I realise that this isn’t really an “Eating Out” sort of post, but it gives you a quick glimpse of the cafe located on the second floor of Astana airport.

Shot and uploaded three spoon Anna yesterday, it didn’t get shared beyond qik.com automatically for some reason. http://qik.ly/rvJAx35UhjuqCqDx266QW9

The 11th of March saw us visiting my Dad over in Evesham, and later some friends in Cheltenham. Apparently Anna had already had enough of being held that day, and she seemed to want to thoroughly investigate her Grandad’s house – she was barely a couple of months old when last there, so we can’t blame her for her curiosity. Anyway, we have about four videos left of Anna in Britain I think, and about fourteen more photo posts left to publish. I’ll try and complete another four or five pic/vid posts today.

Still in Evehsam at Dad’s place (the same evening (12th March 2010) as the duck feeding video), Nick came over to say hello. He had a job interview in Cheltenham, so we decided to all converge at Dad’s at the same time. Roz couldn’t make it as she was very close to giving birth to Anna’s cousin at the time. Nick bought up all the Christmas and Birthday presents that we hadn’t been able to receive whilst in Kazakhstan, and Anna seemed to enjoy another paper ripping ceremony . I look forward to using mine in earnest when Winter once more hits Astana, and Anna still plays with hers regularly. The Big Hungry Caterpillar is also a big hit with Anna, and I’m very glad Nick and Roz got it, as it seems to be a “proper” childrens’ book to me The hand puppets and toys also get played with often, and Anna seemed to lose interest in the wrapping paper and sellotape very quickly…
Obviously since the clip was taken, we now know that the baby was a beautiful boy (Jack), but Nick and Roz didn’t know that at the time. PS Nick, it has been a good 15 years or so since I studied French, but I’m pretty sure they have male and female endings to words, and it is German that has neutral as well? ;-P The last of the three clips shows me trying on all my Christmas presents at the same time. It wasn’t cold in the house

Copying the activities from a week before, here we are in Evesham (I’m reliabily informed by Wikipedia that some locals refer to their hometown as Asum??) feeding the ducks once more. The river Avon winds it’s way through a lot of Britain, and you can get to the area shown in the video by walking through the old Abbey grounds.
There are some tables near there, so if we ever visit Britain in the summer, we could probably take a picnic down there, and really give the ducks something to quack about with the breadcrumbs However, the 12th of March isn’t really sun bathing season, so we fed the ducks and moved on.
BTW, I didn’t plan on putting Anna’s dummy in a pile of bird seed, the idea was for Anna to take a handful to feed the ducks, however Irina had just asked her to hand the dummy over, and when Anna saw a palm in front of her, just followed the request (ignoring the Mamma part).
Obviously we cleaned up the dummy at home before returning it into general circulation. Anna normally only has the dummy in as she falls asleep, but we take it when there will be long trips in the pushchair, as it works well as a temporary pacifier. Which is why the Americans call it that I suppose?
Also, I was hovering around Anna as 1) She was very close to the river bank and 2) I vividly remember a goose snapping at my fingers as a child and so, along with bees & wasps, I am convinced that they’ll attack Anna if I’m not there to protect her Though Anna should probably know that once she is capable of running well, and flapping her arms in the air like Daddy does when he sees something black and yellow buzzing around, she might be best to assume I’ll stop pretending that I’m anything other than a big girl when it comes to bees and wasps. I’ll jump in front of a raging bull/speeding car/other dangerous thing I can’t think of right now, but once Anna learns to run, and wants to run away from bees/wasps, she may find her Dad joining her

These two videos were actually recorded yesterday, but rather than stream them live, I recorded them without using Qik at all. (This was I can double the resolution used). However I forgot to then upload them, hence the 24 hour delay in getting them on the blog.

Irina, Anna and I went for a walk through Astana park, to take a look at all the equipment before it was disassembled. The castle walls, yurts, stone carvings (painted expanded polystyrene) and Kazakh warrior statues were put up for Astana Day/the President’s birthday, and are being removed. There were quite a few workmen wandering around without shirts, and from all the heavy lifting, it looked like they did ab workouts all day long. Sorry for the women (and few men) reading this post, but I don’t think we actually see any/many of these workers on video.

I hadn’t realised how windy it would sound through the phone’s microphone at the entrance to the park, sorry.

Small break in recording as I needed to use the phone for other things…

Mum and John currently were spending a lot of time at a camping site, as it is a lot closer to Mum’s work, and the scenery was beautiful. Before they took the caravan there, they wanted to check a few sites in the locality, so John, Irina, Anna and I went to check out different locations, and at one of them there was a big lake with ducks and geese. The video was shot on the 4th of March. Since then they’ve had cows invade the area, as local chavs were breaking down fences so they could ride their mopeds and other hair dryer impersonating two-wheeled transport around the lake.

The 2nd Of March, one day after Saint David’s Day (Dydd Gwyl Dewi Sant in Welsh) was when this video clip was taken. Anna is dressed in traditional Welsh costume. Mum is dressed in a traditional dressing gown Hmm, listening to the video again, Irina says it was actually St David’s day when the video was shot, so maybe it was just the camera being set to Astana time (+6 GMT) that has thrown me off?

Yep, confirmed looking at the dates and times embedded in the pictures from two different cameras, and the date and time from the original videos (MPGs), these were shot on the 1st of March.

Just shot this clip (#qik) http://qik.ly/BZ6BL

On the same day (22nd of February) as Anna having a little drink, we headed down to Swansea beach again. It was good for Anna (and us (Ira, Seb and me)) to grab some fresh sea air, and Gwen seemed to enjoy the opportunity to be allowed off the leash and have a run around. Other dog owners often come to the beach with the same idea in mind (dogs are only restricted to being on a leash in Summer months, when more tourists visit), which means that Gwen can socialize freely. This often means run towards another dog, then running away as soon as they show some interest.
Anyway, other than Anna taking some temporary interest in an old soup can in the sand, there isn’t a lot going on in these videos, but it is interesting for us to see how Anna’s walking has changed these last few months, if nothing else…

A quick compilation of clips shots today in Chubary. Featuring Anna, Assel, Walton, Irina and Ira’s Mum.
Guest starring Anna’s new play area and house in the garden…

irina (1)

Back to Anna’s photos and videos once more. Once the blog has caught up with the UK clips and pictures, I’ll try and make sure those taken in Kazakhstan are posted quickly, and hopefully get close to real time publishing once more.

This one is very short, taken on the 22nd of February 2010. In the UK, there is a safe limit advised by the government, when it comes to how much alcohol you can drink a day. One can of normal strength beer isn’t a problem, however the size of the can might just have some sway in the decision making process, normally…

Three videos shot earlier tonight, embedded into one post, instead of the three that were originally taking up too much space. We went over to Astana Park so Anna could have some fresh air, and I realised coming down the stairs that I’d not shown what the walk over to the park looked like. I’m still hoping to find a better quality replacement for semi-living streaming from my phone, but for now, you’ll just have to either put up with it, or not click play

Just shot this clip (#qik) http://qik.ly/BNEnI

Just shot this clip (#qik) http://qik.ly/BNEsV