Hey Dune!

Hey Dune, made of sand.
You take sand and make it hummm.
Remember to let us climb your slopes,
Then we can start to make you humm.

This dune in Altyn-Yemyel national park is known to 'sing'.

Hey Dune, don't be afraid.
You were made to sing a great song.
The minute we cause an avalanche,
Then you begin to hum along.

Chris makes progress up the dune

And anytime you feel the pain, hey Dune, refrain,
Don't carry your sand to Kyrgyzstan.
For well you know that it's a fool who plays it cool
By taking his world to, say, Uzbekistan.

The top is rewarding, but the way down is the highlight.

Hey Dune, let us slide down,
Your beautiful wind swept sides.
Remember to let us climb up your slopes,
Then you and I can start to elide.

Dune, where's my car?

So let it out and let it in, hey Dune, begin,
You're waiting for someone to perform with.
And don't you know that it's just you, hey Dune, you'll do,
The movement you need is on your sand slopes.

Aaaaaaaaaaa si wennnnnnnnnyaaaaaaaaaa

Hey Dune, made of sand.
You take sand and make it better.
Remember to let us climb up your slopes,
Then we'll begin to make it
Better better better better better better, oh.

If you dig your elbows in, it humms magnificently. Remarkable.

Then you can start to make it better.

Me, posing for my mum;
and Chris the redeemer in the background.

Na na na na na, na na na, hey Dune...

National park bench

Human endeavour at its best.

At the entrance to the Altyn-Emel national park, a few hours' ride from Almaty, lies this wonderful exhibition of human endeavour. And in front of it, for those in need of a rest, is a bench.

As we waited for the gate keepers to finish lunch, we were allowed plenty of time to admire this fine endeavour. So inspiring. The three headed wolves obviously symbolise, well, something. The arm from nowhere grabbing the central wolf's upper jaw represents, uh, I dunno. 

And the goat atop this fine piece of showmanship? I also don't know. But we're not here to talk about art, we're here to talk about one of life's more important elements - the public bench. And here is a simple yet elegant innovation - a blue backless, armless, binless bench with slatted seat, arranged at a slightly acute angle giving the sense of an arrow - the arrow of time; the arrow of progress, the blue arrow. Incredible.

Bench facilitates detailed view of human endeavour

KA-ZAKH-STAN

    Kazakhstan 1
    Ireland    2
Sports correspondent PBJ.

KA-ZAKH-STAN. FIFA. GOOOAL.

This was a world cup qualifying game between Kazakhstan (in blue), Ireland (in their alternative white strip) and FIFA (in their usual yellow colour). FIFA only had three players, two of whom stayed on the edge of the pitch the whole time, and the other did a lot of running but was very hands-off. If he had got the ball I don't know which goal he would have shot at.

Left: vaguely famous; Right: FIFA

Anyway Ireland looked strong at the beginning. Kazakhstan grew in confidence but were still the underdogs when they snuck in a header near the end of the first half. The crowd went predictably wild and chants became louder. Such as GOAL GOAL GOAL, and KA-ZAKH-STAN. My favourite was dum dum d-d-dum d-d-d-dum KZH-STAN. I even heard a bit of OLE, OLE-OLE-OLE.

The crowd switched ends at half time and all was a bit boring as the K-dogs defended their lead and the Greens got frustrated. FIFA continued to underwhelm. 

Cultural exchange. There was a good atmosphere. GOAL GOAL GOAL!

After a goal mouth scrap, the ball being shakily scouped away, the referee ordered a penalty to Ireland and gave a yellow card to a man in blue. There are no replays in real life, so it remains a mystery what happened - maybe a handball or a foul, but surely that would be a red card? Any way Robbie Keane cooly put it away to level the scores with a few minutes to go. Suddenly there was some dynamism and, tragically for the blues, Ireland put one away near the end. Kazakhstan were tired and desperate at the end, surely regretting their earlier time-wasting antics. 

Stadiums. I love stadiums. This is a nice one.

On the way out there was an impressive sea of busses to take all the fans back to the other side of town - where real people live - while I was lucky enough to take a short walk home.

FIFA!