November 2012
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An Apology
I have failed.
That sucks to write, but it’s true. Since my last post I have neglected to blog about this little journey, due to the excesses of work and exercise. I can no longer say, with evidence, that I have been experiencing something new every single day. Maybe I should play the fact that i’ve done more than one new thing on some days and just count them as separate days -...
September 2012
8 posts
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DAY 245: Renaissance Swimming Pool / Get a thank...
What I love about being woken up at 7:30am by the warehouse guy at Tengiz after I only got to bed 4 hours before following a Dominican rum fuelled night is…. Well, i don’t really love it at all. He has actually already called me 3 times seeing that his shift starts at 6am which is when the problem down there first presented itself.
“Wakey-wakey Paul!” he says to me, I can hear the smile on his...
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DAY 240: Flowserve Factory
I went, with work today, to see a factory which was setup two years ago, purely to do valve repair for a major project here in Kazakhstan. Due to massive delays with this project they haven’t been able to repair one valve so this huge facility with 2 year old equipment which is still in brand new condition are just sitting here waiting. It was quite a stark example of the issues with some of the...
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DAY 232: Kazakh Mozzarella
Yup, that was pretty disgusting.
NUMBER SCREW UP!
Hey all y’all.
It has come to my attention that I have screwed up some numbers here and need to do some tumblr jiggery-pokery. All the day numbers are one behind. Will input the missing day and update the numbers soon and start to upload the last few days experiences. 2/3 of the year over, can’t quite believe it.
Much love
Paul
August 2012
37 posts
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DAY 235: Denholm Valvecare
Potential customer visit with Nigel to a company who have their site down right outside of the edge of the ‘Permitted Blast Zone’ for a major new oil project over here in Kazakhstan. Which was fun.
Also attended with a representative from another company who was looking at striking a deal. He wasn’t too good at remembering the names of people and places out here, it being his...
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DAY 234: Armada Beer Garden
Turns out the Steak House on the edge of town also has a huge beer garden. We went there last night for a friend’s workmate’s birthday. And in Kazakh tradition they pay for the meal for everyone. Must remember to make sure I am out of the country at the start of December.
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DAY 233: The Most Annoying Website in the World →
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DAY 230: Vodka Tonic night out
As part of my new fitness and health regime I really shouldn’t drink, and to be fair I have so far managed to limit myself to one night a week and stuck to clear spirits rather than beers or rums. So, last night I managed to stick to Vodka Tonic, a drink I’ve never had before, for the whole night. It was pretty disgusting and I would have killed for a rum and coke.
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DAY 229: The Renaissance Hotel Rooms
One of my back-to-back’s friends has come out to Kazakhstan for the first time to do some business, so we went to go see him and make sure he arrived okay. He is staying the Renaissance, where I go to the gym, and to get to the guest floors you need to have a room key as the lift will only go to certain floors after a card has been read. It’s all very mission impossible and gives the place an air...
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DAY 228: Create a machine program using excel
Now this is going to be pretty geeky I warn you. If you know anything about Excel and G-Code machine programming you might find this a bit cool. For those who don’t know G-Code is a set of lines of code which tell manufacturing machines what to do, usually by giving orders which start with the letter G. So, G01 tells the machine to move in a straight line and you then give X and Y co-ordinates and...
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DAY 226: Offered to play at a corporate function
I’ve played a few gigs in my time but it’s always really been because there was an open mic night or an organised event I had applied for. After my weekly set at the riverside I was on my way home when I receive a text from a number I don’t recognise asking me if I wanted to attend a team building exercise day Chevron was putting on for their suppliers. In fact one of the suppliers mentioned is...
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DAY 224: Altaca Residence
A leaving do of a couple of people at Chevron out here at their local apartments was the new experience for today. We were outside the block in the compounds grounds. I say compound as they have erected some barbed wire fencing on top of the normal border after one of the Chevron’s guys had his bike stolen. In fact it was the man who the leaving party was for. Though, due to his reputation as a...
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DAY 223: Kazakh Limo Ride
It’s a friends birthday night out and to celebrate a limo has been rented to take her (Altynay), Sam, Aigul and myself to the restaurant; which was full of Vodka, as I was to find out later. The Limo picks us up from Sam’s house and then we go to pick up Altynay.
Now, the Kazakh summers are known for being as hot as their winters are cold. It had got to the high 30’s during the day and it...
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DAY 222: Rig a Pub Quiz
It might be worth looking at Day 152 (http://365newexperiences.tumblr.com/post/24495306942/day152) to see about a previous Pub Quiz I attended at O’Neil’s. I didn’t do very well.
I was at the pub quiz again with a new team and we are doing okay. The other teams ahead of us have many more people in their team so points to people we are doing pretty damn well. A question about an American...
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DAY 221: Get called a 'Feckin Eejit'
I got called a Feckin Eejit by an irishman tonight. I just thought that was something they said on Father Ted. The man was refering to my insistance on drinking water at a friends birthday party. I’m proud of the self control I’m having so far in keeping to this new diet.
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DAY 220: Chicken Pizziola
Needed something healthy to eat as part of my new fitness regime. So I picked something new on a menu in Guns and Roses and it promised a Pizza sauce on my grilled chicken breast. It was basically just the sauce they use for the Pizza’s I guess.
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DAY 218: Grenki
Stayed the night at Sams after we ended up watching a bunch of episodes of misfits after the swim and sauna session. Woke up late to find Sam and his wife Aigul already downstairs starting the day off well. Aigul offered to cook Grenki which caused Sam’s face to light right up. Turns out Grenki is basically French Toast in that it is bread soaked in egg and milk. But I wasn’t in...
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DAY 217: Swimming Machine
The treadmill of the water, the swimming machine is basically a big ass waterpump that pushes a jet of liquid at you as resistance. My friend Sam has one in his swimming pool and we were using it today in a relaxing swimming and sauna session at his place. I say using it, we were more putting up to full power and trying to hold onto the bars infront of it so it was hitting us in the stomache. It...
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DAY 216: Olympic Weightlifting
As I’ve said before, I am a huge fan of the Olympics and always get sucked into some of the strangest sports. Tonight, after a post-work gym session I was sat in Champions having a meal. I had my Olympics app open and switching over to the BBC live text coverage every 30 seconds. The TVs in the bar had the full range of sports channels on to give a range of olympic disciplines to choose...
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DAY 215: Baby Albie
Went to see my Russian teacher, Dana, as a few weeks ago she gave birth to her first child. His name is Albert, or Albie for short. Even though it’s the same number of syllables. The father is joking that he might give Albie the middle name ‘Bach’. He is a right little cutie of a baby, with a wisp of blonde hair.
I’ve now been told quite a few stories about the birth and...
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DAY 212: Sancak Restaurant
First day back in Kazakhstan and me and Nige went for a meal at a restaurant in town I’ve not tried before. He told me about it when I first came out here but I never really made the opportunity to go. They do great food there and had this strange Turkish ballon bread thing, it tasted as good as it was hard to understand how they made it.
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DAY 210: M&S Bacon Rasher Crisps
I’m packing for leaving Kazakhstan again so didn’t have much time to find something new to experience, so I grabbed the first thing I could when mooching round marks and sparks.
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DAY 207: Where's My Perry?
Decided to treat myself to a new game on my iPad. It’s good fun.
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DAY 206: Compensation from an Airline
YES! YES! YES!
YES!
BOOM!
YES!
In your FACE, Transaero!
After the debacle that was my luggage going on it’s own little holiday to Frankfurt whilst I was in Israel I have now finally been sent a reimbursement for the clothes I had to buy in the country. I though about trying to claim for the shorts I puked on but that wasn’t really their fault.
This is a definite win for the...
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DAY 204: Stew and Oyster
Last night went for some sunday ciders with my pal Jez and ended up drinking a little too much. Feeling pretty ropey at work today. We went to a bar in Leeds I’ve not been to before which was right on the canal front, it was called the Stew and Oyster. I think it was the last place we went to, but I can’t be certain.
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July 2012
28 posts
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DAY 201: Some Pork Thai dish I can't remember the...
It definitely had pork in it. Went out for a meal with my old boss to the restaurant opposite my flat. Great food there. Shame I forgot the name.
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DAY 200: Buy a +£250 watch
Until about 8 months ago the idea of a watch was alien to me. I’m part of generation Y which means that I come after generation X and am more ‘tech savvy’. I guess the next generation will be generation Z and they will see the iPad device I write this on as being no more technologically advanced than the stone tablets the ten commandments were supposedly blasted onto. I will be...
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DAY 198: 2nd Passport
My back pressed as close to the wall as I could make it, my body flat against it to try and shield myself from sight. The corner was over my right shoulder and it was to the hallway holding the room where I needed to get to. This had gone on long enough, too many people affected and misled. Too many dead. I had to put a stop to it.
I pulled the gun up in both hands to my chest, feeling the...
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DAY 199: Mayo with a hint of Lemon
Hellermans, you’ve bloody gone and done it again.
