Daily Archives: September 4, 2011

Oilman’s Day

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Today we celebrated Oilman’s Day at TCO – they had a concert at one of the domes (if I go I will provide a review later).  Oilman’s Day is always the first Sunday in September, at least in Kazakhstan.  Via a google search I learned that this “holiday” was officially established by an order of the Supreme Soviet Presidium in 1980.  After the USSR broke up in 1991 Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukrain continue to celebrate this holiday (per the Kazakh Lead Engineer who works in my group).

There are other holidays here that celebrate the worker.  For Oilman’s Day it appears it is more a celebration of the oil and gas industry that provides lot of jobs and brings in lots of revenue to the Kazakh government, then a celebration of the worker.  But it is still a celebration (but no fireworks as far as I can tell).

Stray Cats ….. at TCOV

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On my walk to work I see several stray cats – they live underneath an old building (no longer in use) in the TCOV area where I work.  This building is located near the canteen and I see different people leaving leftovers out for the cats around lunch time (the only time the TCOV canteen is open).  The last two days I walked to work very early in the morning, and therefore there were few people out at the same time.  One of the cats came up to me, thinking that I would give it food.  It was one of the kittens – there are five, look to be about 4 months now – let me touch him (or her).  He followed me a bit, and darted around my legs.  Made me think of our cat – I would enjoy having a pet here but who takes care of it while you are on rotation (even if this was allowed)?  When I get a chance maybe I will take and post some pictures.   Anyway, I enjoy the stray cats – look for them to and from work (shows how desperate I am for entertainment) every day.  Is this interesting Claudia?

Friendly Stray Cat

You can pet me