On the ski slopes

Skiing and snowboarding are much cheaper here than they would be in Australia and the kids love these winter pursuits, so I've hit the slopes a couple of times in the interests of bonding. I enjoy it but would be loathe to spend money on it just for its own sake. Photos are of me on a chair lift, the mountains (a big plus, actually - beautiful!) and some kids and me. We were supposed to be doing a Russian style photo, all serious faces and no smiles. As you can see, a couple of the boys failed to keep straight faces. =p

You've heard of wedding cars...

...but have you ever seen a wedding bus?

Winter playground

Imagine sliding down onto that sheet of ice...

Winter road

We've been having a fair bit of snow lately, which has cloaked everything with a beautiful white. On the other hand, yesterday's high was -8 degrees Celsius, and the snow eventually packs down or thaws and refreezes into ice, as this treacherous road demonstrates. (On the temperature note, friends I was with yesterday said 'It's not below zero degrees', by which they meant that it was not below zero degrees in Fahrenheit - it was about -12 degrees Celsius!)

Winter in Bishkek

I realise I haven't posted for a while. Oops. Well, here are some pictures of a Bishkek winter. This first one looks like Santa Claus, but is actually Father Frost. It was in a Narodni (a supermarket chain) here, and I managed to take it before a worker reprimanded me. Apparently photos are not allowed in Narodni stores - I'm not sure why.