Evening all!

Hello! I'm alive, and my reptile brain is sluggish after a particularly large meal just now at a Turkish restaurant just off the main street of Bishkek, so expect no linguistic pyrotechnics. I'm alive, somewhat tattered after Uzbekistan, but now in Kyrgyzstan, and it's sublime up here. Rose-coloured starlings in huge flocks, and mountains of sufficient beauty to make your heart hurt and your eyes blur. I have officially fallen in love with the sound of Tupolev engines and with the wide city streets here, lined with elms and fat-leaved oaks with black trunks. I shall take loads of pictures and get back to you all ... speak soon fretmarketeers!