What's up in Tashkent ?

Today is going to be a little different from me, no treating C-grade celebrities with contempt or ruminating over the powers of stimulation that caffeine offers, today is all about What's up in Tashkent ! Now, aside from the standard facts that I'll be pulling from everyone's favourite search engine, I'll also be indiscriminantly contacting the lovely people of this Uzbeki city by phone and e-mail to ask them my question for the day - What's up in Tashkent !?. As you may have now also hypothesized, this blog update will probably run for the full day depending upon our responsive our Uzbeki cousins are. So stay tuned for all the exciting gossip and crazy shinnanigans of a town built upon a Silk Road intersections.

Just before we start to hit these fine citizens for their commentary and perceptions of what the day may hold, here's a few bits of information that guide us on our journey of discovery.

The local time in Tashkent is 2:02:12 AM, Tuesday the 24th of January.

It's also surrounded by a few groovy 'stan' countries who's name I will never remember to spell accurately for as long as I live.



At 3pm yesterday the temperature in the capital hit a high of 1 degree celsius - which I believe isn't too bad for Central Asia in the dead of Winter.

Population of Tashkent - approx 2.1 million

So now we hit the streets. My goal is to get the vibe of the town and see what interesting insights these crazy Uzbeki's can provide me on a non-descript day. I'm going to kick things off with an e-mail to my main man Sardor who's a student at a technical uni in the town.

Here's a copy of the brief e-mail I've sent,

From: Henry Elisher Sent: Tuesday, 24 January 2006 8:25 a.m.To: 'sardor100@yandex.ru'Subject: What's up in Tashkent ?


Hi Sardor,

I'm a guy from Australia and I was just wanting to know, What's up in Tashkent ?

Thanks,
Henry

Now, I think Sardor might be asleep unless he's pulling a few critic

****Soft Uzbekistan, very very soft. Approximately 24 hours after sending e-mails to many, I assume, contactable people (why otherwise would their e-mails be available), I've received nothing. Not even an Uzbeki version of "What the ?". I mean I contacted 0.00001 of Tashkent, that's a fair hit rate from my little Sydney outpost but for what ? For noise on the line ? Now, I can understand that English may be a problem but I don't care, not even Sardor stepped up for the challenge. I think at this stage I'll give them a few more days to perhaps digest the question, maybe even ask for assistance but if nothing is forthcoming then unfortunately I'm ditching all of Uzbekistan from future contact !! Yeah, take that !!al hours for exams. I will be back however with a few more e-mails and direct contacts.