Bishkek bursts into spring

Spring may have been hestitant to get underway here but once it did everything burst into blossom and leaf in a rush.

Cherry blossom.

One of the two tulips that flowered from the bulbs I planted.

Bye bye boxes: see you in Salobrena Last Friday the shippers picked up the 212 kilos of baggage we are sending to Spain. Fingers crossed that it arrives safely. Our much travelled boxes. Some started out in Malaysia so they're rather battered. There they go. That's it! Eighteen packages. Bon voyage! See you in Salobrena!

Hunger strikers protest against the President in Bishkek Our office is closed until further notice. Hunger strikers in Aloo Ata Square, just a block from the office, are demanding President Bakiyev's resignation. The protestors accuse Baliyev of cronyism and corruption. The police and the army are out in force. We are keeping a low profile. Some stores are closed, their windows shuttered or screened-the furniture store on the ground floor of our building has black plastic taped up inside all the windows-and roadside stalls abandoned for the duration. It's hard to know what will happen. The previous demonstration in November last year brought ahout a promise by Bakiyev for changes but he has since reneged on these. So, a quiet few days at home perhaps for us, sitting in the garden in the sun under the cherry blossom.

Happy Easter Easter is not a holiday in Kyrgyzstan so Good Friday and today, Easter Monday, are working days. But Rodney made hot cross buns and the sun shone. On Easter Sunday we sat in the garden enjoying the daffodils and almond blossom.

Packing is underway for our departure at the end of the month and the pile for the jumble sale is growing. We won't have a lot to ship this time round thank goodness.

The latest news about the University of Central Asia, just brought from headquarters, is that the three campuses in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan will now be completed at the earliest by 2015. Then the graduate and undergraduate programmes will begin and the first students will complete their studies nearly 20 years after the university was established in 2000. It's quite a different philosophy to the Emirates where the educational programme in the colleges started immediately and only when these were established were permanent facilities built.

Signs of spring

First the crocuses, then the snowdrops and violets pushed their way through the snow. Now daffodils and almond blossom bloom in our garden. The grass seed we sowed in November has come up and promises to make a reasonable lawn. Spring seems more tentative here, creeping up slowly rather than bursting upon us. Forsythia bushes splash yellow here and there along the streets. But the Celestial Mountains glimpsed through the clouds are still heavy with snow and cold winds make us reluctant to abandon our thermals just yet. The rare sunny days are welcome and have us sitting out in our sheltered garden for coffee and bring the people of Bishkek out to the streets and parks.

Bordailo cortijo I haven't posted for a while but there have been exciting happenings in our life! First, we found a cortijo, and second, we've finalised a date for leaving Bishkek and heading to Spain. High in the Alpujarras, at 1,200 metres with spectacular views to the Mediterranean, this is our cortijo. It's about an hour's drive from the apartment in Salobrena. Half an hour up the motorway to Granada, turning off to the spa town of Lanjarron, then about another half hour up a mountain road. The lights are powered by a solar panel on the roof. Water comes from an azecia and the fridge, cooker and hot water run on bottled gas. A septic tank deals with waste water. Chestnut, almond, cherry trees and vines grow on the terraces above and below the cortijo. The land runs to about a quarter of a hectare in all. I spent January in Spain at the apartment cortijo-hunting. Rodney joined me at the end of the month to view short-listed properties. Before returning to Bishkek at the end of January we signed the purchase agreement and will finalise the purchase - all being well - at the end of June. We're heading for Spain 30 April, and counting the days. Sprucing up the apartment will keep us busy for a while, then we'll start on the cortijo. Right now we're researching solar and wind power options.