Fellow hashers, I am pleased to announce that our ex-GM (and hash Flash and Hash Scribe and Hash Web...) has answered one of the (oh so many) questions I have been asking myself ever since I started trying to keep up with his good job with the site.

Which means that you will have pictures again on the homepage! Enjoy the August 22 and 29 pictures!

Unfortunately the trick about clicking on a picture to see the complete gallery is still a mistery, but one which will no doubt unveil itself later on as well...
ON-ON!

You had all been waiting for them, they are at last available, the first pictures uploaded by me!!!

The incredibly numerous pack met this last time at Dublin pub (remember: starting Aug. 29 it will be at Stalker). Hares Ainash and Aida took us to Sayran, beautiful in this time of year. Sucker Fish commented he had never seen the reservoir with so much water in it, and it does make a huge difference, now it resembles a lake with beaches around it.

We first had to walk downhill (nice improvement since last week... Note to hares: if you started at the beginning, the trail would be longer!) to the starting circle, then runners and walkers went their separate way. Only the trail very cleverly managed to allow all hashers to cross paths from time to time, thanks to the marvelous technique of an On-Back for runners. There was some shortcutting at some point, for which the hares were given a down-down later: is it not obvious that we cannot walk on water?

After the first checkpoint, where everything went well, the walkers had a little trouble finding the correct path, and trust in our hare became almost inexistent when we actually had to walk away from a checkpoint! We decided it was meant for us to be creative. Pedfac, her pedagogical skills acute as ever, seized the occasion to remind our brave hare of a few tricks to remember when setting a trail.

All in all, the trail seemed a bit on the short side (although we may have missed part of it due to creative marking) but it was a good workout to start the running season after the summertime. The circle convened, Sucker Fish lead the run-and-walk discussion, infractions were duly punished, returners were duly greeted, and announcements were made. Once more, pictures were taken but you will have to wait a little before they are published on our website because I do not have a digital camera (this will change once Temir Dick comes back in September).

Then the pack went to Cafe Lyudmila, on Tole Bi, for some delicious and very cheap shashlik. Next week, the trail is to be set by Sucker Fish and Blow Fish.

The Tien Shan Hash House Harriers now meets at the STALKER (internet) cafe, Tole Bi #20, between Dostyk and Zenkova.

The fee is now of:
400T for locals and 600T for foreigners.
200T for locals who are driving, 300T for foreigners who are driving - they won't drink beer anyway.
Free for hares as usual.
400T for PeaceCorps volunteers or VSOs.

Well fellow hashers, what is to say of recent events? I shall leave the discussion about the future of the Hash to another space, and will just say here how happy I am to be back, despite the unusual circumstances in our group, and that there was a hash run this Sunday … and for all the absent, you missed a wonderful one !

The pack (humbly composed by six hashers, hares Pavel and Nurjan included) met in front of Dublin pub, which will remain our meeting point until further notice. To avoid the worst nightmare ever for a Hash (= no beer!) a case had been bought by the acting hash cash and hash hops, and despite major recrimination at first, one case turned out to be more than enough for the day.

The hash was set in the hills turning right from the road that leads to Alma Arassan, unfortunately the cars dropped us near the final circle … Little did we know that we had to walk sort of uphill more than one kilometer before even getting to the starting circle ! This, you can imagine, translated into a down-down later for the hares. Anxiousness rose when we realized that we would be starting the hash already tired, but then the top of the hill wasn not so far away, and we had plenty of time to rest while meandering in the grass trying to find the first marks. This is a feature that applies to the whole trail: whenever you got too tired, you could catch your breath again while pretending to be admiring the landscape, which was easy because it was breathtakingly gorgeous!

A few pictures were taken by the acting hash flash, but being an old-fashion type of photographer, you will have to wait until I finish the roll, develop it, and scan it before you can see them on the internet, so please be patient!

Three checkpoints were perfect as a tutorial for virgin Samal, who despite her non-athletic-at-all shoes kept walking and searching for marks, never losing her smile. We must admit that some of the marks were almost invisible, due to rain -- claim the hares, but also due to not enough flour. Then again, had the Hash ever made us feel like detectives? There is always a first time.