Today I made lunch for the team here, I went and bought the flatbread (Lipioshki), the eggs, sausage and cheese, the fresh tomatoes and non uniform bumpy (and sometimes curved) cucumbers. There was nothing extraordinary in that aside, from the fact it felt so normal! The shop assistants were the same, the year I had been away a mere blip compared with their long years of service. The perilous crossing still a game of ‘dodge the car’.

In Almaty, the mountains were as beautiful as ever, snow capped and authoritative as if commanding their city from on high. The public transport is still cheap at 12pence a trip on the bus. The summer fruit and veg is still as tasty, teeming with flavour having never seen a sellophane wrapper.

But some things have changed it’s true. There is a bit new shopping centre with an ice rink. The mayor’s office have began beautifying the city with flowerbeds. To my surprise the city authorities had also installed a few pedestrian traffic lights. But when I tried to cross on the ‘green man‘, I almost got run over by an impatient driver who sped up from 20 metres away into my path. Change may not happen overnight!

It seems strange to me that I have been away.