Blog - First Day in Kazakhstan (2008-02-13)
|
|
Blog - First Day in Kazakhstan (2008-02-13) |
|
  Other feeds |
What's New |
Previous blog Next blog Archive
Category: Diary. Posted: 2008-02-16 15:24:16 GMT. Updated: 2008-02-27 23:52:10 GMT.
I got woken up about every half-hour by what must have been the fan in next door's bathroom. What were they doing? I was also worried that I was sweating lots whenever I woke up. This wasn't a good sign! My alarm went off, and I jumped in the shower. There was a pull-switch in there. I thought it probably turned on the fan, but, thinking back to my night in a private hospital after going to Egypt in 2003, I decided not to pull the cord, in case it sounded an alarm. It took me ages to find the soap in the bathroom - I could find every from a dental hygiene box to a shower cap, but it took ages to find soap. I eventually found it next to the b-day (sorry, I have no idea how to spell b-day) bidet.
I went down to breakfast, and sat down at an empty table. I then realised that, not being in the UK, I had to worry about smoking and non-smoking areas. There wasn't an empty table in the non-smoking area, so joined a bloke who was already sitting at a table. It turned out that he worked for the same company that I was visiting, and that he was walking across the river. However, he was leaving earlier than I needed to, but did say that it was only a 10-minute walk. It seemed silly to expect a lift for such a short walk, but thought I'd get a lift on the first day. He also said that he'd had a few too many in the hotel bar last night - strange, but the bar had seemed empty when I walked through it last night. Anyway, I had breakfast - the choice of tea was pretty poor, the toasting machine didn't toast, and the bacon wasn't brilliant. Apart from that, it did the job.
I was expected in the offices at 9AM, so I called the Engineering Manager at about 08:10, and asked whether I would be collected, or whether I should make my own way there. He said somebody would be with me in 15-20 minutes. I unpacked my bag, and then waited in reception. A driver turned up, spoke to a woman at reception, and then walked out again. She tried calling somebody, but got no answer. When she put the phone down, I went up to reception. She immediately said, "Yes, he's for you". We got stuck in really bad traffic crossing the bridge, and it took about 30 minutes to get to the offices. On the way over the bridge, I noticed a 4x4 driving along the river!
The driver dropped me off, and I walked into the offices. I assumed that the bloke on the front desk would speak English, but I was wrong. He quickly found somebody who did, and I started to explain who I was visiting. By this time, the driver had parked, and escorted me to somebody who could help me. This person told him to take me to reception. I signed in, trying hard not to perve at the top totty on reception. Soon afterwards, the Engineering Manager turned up, welcomed me, and explained what was expected of me. We got a drink from the coffee machine (I had to drink coffee, because the only tea available was lemon tea).
I've run plenty of training courses before, one for foreigners who spoke English, but this is the first one I've run through an interpretor. I was amazed how well it went - she was fantastic. The only problem was, I kept thinking about the Coupling sketch with the translator. Fortunately, I didn't just shout "Norks, norks, I love norks"! There was an Indian bloke on the course who spoke English, but no Russian. He offered to take me to lunch, and we went to the hotel that I should have been staying at. Not having been to an ATM, I didn't have any cash. I said I'd pay by credit card, but he kindly said he'd pay. I got a text message from Charlie, asking whether I was going to fly out today! I'll have to reply later, but still no text message from Sarah.
The afternoon went just as well, and, while chatting to the translator, I mentioned that she was doing a amazing job. She said that no other translators liked doing training courses, but she coped OK. She also said that she doesn't enjoy it when Geordies or Scots run training courses, but that I had "perfect diction". The only problem I found with the training course was that whenever I turned around to face the attendees, I stared straight into the OHP. This gave me a headache by the end of the day. It was either this, or the lack of tea.
Chatting to the Engineering Manager, he said he'd sort out a lift back. I said that I'd be happy to walk back across the river. "You can", he said, "but I wouldn't recommend it. You'll come across someone who'll want your money". He also explained that "The Renco" is the new name for the "River Palace Hotel". He couldn't arrange anything by phone, so we walked downstairs to speak to the Transport Manager, who was the same bloke who'd sorted me out in the morning. He found a driver, and said that I would be collected the next day at 08:30. He then started to tell me the make of the car that would collect me, so I asked him to write it down! I do remember that he said it would be white.
Back at the hotel, I was really getting jip from my headache, and there were no tea-making facilities to rectify my lack of tea. I just lay down on the bed, and put my arm over my head. I drifted in and out of sleep, but the headache didn't go. I'd had two missed calls during the course, and had a third call while I was feeling sorry for myself. It was some twat trying to sell me something. It's a good job it was on the work phone! There's something wrong with Vodafone's service in Kazakhstan - not only could I not make outgoing calls, but the number displayed for incoming calls seemed totally random. I eventually decided that water might help my headache, so I drank a few glasses from the bathroom tap, because there was no bottled water in the room. After lying down for a bit longer, I felt better. As I got up, I realised that it was the heater that had been making all the noise last night, and the thermostat was set at 30°C. No wonder I woke up sweating, and had a headache. I soon switched the temperature down to a more reasonable 20°C! I watched BBC World for a bit (the English is terrible on BBC World, but the weather reporter is TOP totty).
I then went downstairs to the restaurant. Having learnt from this morning, I just sat down at an empty table, and started reading the menu. This is obviously the way they do things over here, because the waitress totty came over soon after, took my order, brought me a bottle of water, and then went to get me an Amstel. The food wasn't the best in the world, and the portions weren't the biggest, but it did the job. Although there were some empty tables, it didn't seem to be the done thing to spend too long at the dinner table, so I went downstairs to the bar. It turned out that what I thought was the bar was actually an extension to the pizza restaurant, and the bar was next door. I went into the bar - it seemed a bit smoky, but all the smokers drug addicts were sitting at tables, so I propped up the bar. This let me drink my Amstel, update my blog, perve at the barmaid totty, and avoid the drug addicts, all at the same time.
I was going to order another Amstel, but some drug addicts came in, and stood near me at the bar. I hadn't realised how used I had become to not having to breathe in cigarette smoke, so finished my drink, paid the bill, and then went up to my room. Despite the totty, and the excellent '80s music, the smokers drove me out.
Back it my room, I watched a bit more BBC World, and, after turning the thermostat down again (to 15°C - the minimum it could be set to!), I went to sleep.
Please feel free to post comments about my blog here, but please keep to these rules:
When you click on the Next button below, your comment will be displayed, so that you can check you're happy with it, but it won't actually be entered. You will then need to click on the Submit Comment button, before your comment is actually submitted.
Previous blog Next blog Archive
Bookmark with:
|
|
Created on: 15 Jun 2006. Modified on: 15 Jun 2006. | Valid HTML 4.01 Valid CSS |