This third lockdown has been tough. In the previous two last years I was able to learn and feel the chill without looking into production. Perhaps it was the building blocks to the year 2021 and what is due to emerge. This lockdown has been very different from the very beginning – the feeling was downbeat and sombre. It feels lonelier and quieter now, even though the quiet streets in the beginning were quite disheartening early on.

The kids are in, the food is pouring and the eating out experience is not taking place. There is neither meeting up with a friend of a cup of coffee nor going to the cinemas with a close one or two. Everything came to a standstill. Lots of not happening in the expernal world but a lot is happening inside. There are turbulations, there are harricanes and the tsumamis. There are the earth-quakes and the snow-overs. This had to come out. So the month of February started as a double wammie of two amazing courses happening as we speak – one in Introduction to the Documentary making, and one in Podcasting. The first one had been arranged by the Masterskaya Kino-Novell (masterskaya-mkn.kz) and lead by Katya Suvorova (Film Director based in Almaty and an author/codirector of Tomorrow Sea and Facing the music). There I am meeting the interested in life individuals expressing themselves through the experience of the film storytelling. I have to say that the reference to the reading and watching materials – there is enough inspiration for the coming couple of years at least to fully digest the knowledge.

The podcasting course is also deserving of a separate mention. I had never realised that in one course people can come in and walk out with a ready to launch their experiments/ experience and it is so thrilling to see the launch in action. It feels like am witnessing the launch of some satelites/ rockets and the stars are filling the eyes with . LOL. This wonderful course has been offered by the American_corner_Oskemen and lead by founder of findyourb.com, batyr named Kairzhan, the superstar podcaster of the Kazakh podcast space.

This combination of courses is an awkward one as sometimes it involves sitting at both courses at the same time but it has been fun and promising of shooting this person into the creative life and living that is only possible in the digital age.

I hope you are also keeping yourself nourished and inspired well to meet the 2021 and the following decades in good health and high spirits. x

EY

February, 2021

London