Archive for March, 2008

Film And Video: Don’t Be Afraid Of Life . . .

Saturday, March 1st, 2008

Ceren Soylu Relaxes With Turkish Coffee And A Cheroot Yesterday I shared my first Nikon digital image with you. It has been about six months since I made the photograph but Emre Tavman only gave it to me last weekend when I met with him and some of his childhood friends. Amongst these is Ceren [...]

Geopolitics: Ebru: Reflections of Cultural Diversity in Turkey by Attila Durak

Sunday, March 2nd, 2008

This lady represents just one of the cultures to be found today in Turkey When yesterday I wrote of the film ‘Don’t Be Afraid of Life‘, a story about three innocent men forced to encounter todays commercial world I thought about ‘Ebru’ the book reflecting on Turkish Culture by Attila Durak. This book of Durak’s [...]

Family Therapy: Two More Foundation Groups Completed

Monday, March 3rd, 2008

You Are Looking At Some Very Highly Qualified Medics Amongst The Members Of This Group For over ten months I’ve been sneaking off from paradise to train some prominent and up-coming clinicians in family therapy. Not only have these students been counsellors and pedagogues they also include two professors of psychiatry and a number of [...]

Family Therapy: Is Becoming A Doctor Genetic?

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

Irem Looking Over Family Therapy Resource Notes In Our Hotel Room Irem was just looking at some papers she had prepared for our Family Therapy students on Sunday when I heard her make a huge belly laugh. When I asked the source of her mirth she read me this quotation from the book Jay Haley [...]

Family Therapy: Getting The Picture Right!

Wednesday, March 5th, 2008

Some Family Therapy Training Clinic Participants Those readers who visit here because of my entries on photography won’t be surprised to learn that I wasn’t over-pleased with the technical quality of the group photographs of my Family Therapy Training Course participants made this past weekend. This group image is of those who come to learn [...]

Marmaris: The Conspiracy To Destroy The Tourist Industry, or A Potential Sex Bomb?

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

www.marmaristemadenhayir.com Blue Flag awards that are handed out every year by the Environmental Education Foundation of Turkey (TÜRÇEV) depending on cleanliness of the water, environmental concerns, security, safety and services at beaches and marinas, were given to 47 beaches, marinas and coastlines in Muğla this year. Bodrum was awarded 29 Blue Flags and Antalya received [...]

Amos: The Simple Life

Friday, March 7th, 2008

Wild Daisies Are To Be Found Everywhere On the Estate Like most country dwellers the city plays havoc with my mind. I remember whenever I returned to practice psychotherapy after a spell in the country I would wonder why people were telling me their woes, and foibles, as I listened to their stories. But the [...]

Amos Restaurant: A Study In Black And White

Saturday, March 8th, 2008

The Beach At Amos Is, Thankfully, Free Of People In March Visitors to our beach in the summer would be amazed to see just how violent the storms are here during the winter. After Mehmet and Cemeli carefully mothballed the restaurant last November the strong winds ripped through their efforts. Amos Restaurant, Turunç, Nr. Marmaris [...]

Amos: A Study In Monochrome

Sunday, March 9th, 2008

Not Photogenic At All! Pardon me for these camera enthusiast style image. I was at Amos Beach yesterday and got carried away, (camera club style). How can I have thought a pile of wood photogenic? What made me waste my time on it? As if that weren’t enough I then attempted to capture a shot [...]

Photography: PicLens, A Truly Impressive Experience

Monday, March 10th, 2008

If you have a moment go to PicLens.com and download the PicLens plug-in for your browser. PicLens is a 3d browser that creates a wall of photographs on your screen. It’s an indescribable experience. You appear to be floating between images! When you’ve installed PicLens navigate to Google image search and type in pebblesfromparadise.com. Click [...]

Family Business, Family Therapy, What’s In A Name?

Tuesday, March 11th, 2008

The front page features Amos, and my Chick-a-Dees, of course! When we were in Istanbul last month Irem and I saw this programme on BBC World. It was really rather sad for it showed a skilled businessman, (and one far more experienced in commerce than I), fail to make any impact upon a family with [...]

Turkey Travel: Hot Chocolate In Muğla

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

Hot Chocolate Is A Pleasant Salve For Her Cold Poor Amazon is under the weather. She’s caught a cold at school and now is being dragged all around Muğla. We’re here for a few days because the car is being fitted with a new ‘brain’ for the gearbox. We have waited for over a year [...]

Turkey Travel: Muğla Municipal Offices

Thursday, March 13th, 2008

Not Brick, But Very Similar In Style To County Hall, Dorchester . . . The last time we were here in Muğla I wrote about the similarities or architecture between County Hall, Dorchester and the Municipal Headquarters for Muğla. Stupidly though I didn’t take any images of Muğla’s County Hall. Today I rectified that omission. [...]

Marketing: Seth Says It All

Sunday, March 16th, 2008

An Opportunity Of A Lifetime!  The incredible Mr. Seth Godin strikes a helpful and optimistic note in his recent blog, titled: ‘Opportunity Of A Lifetime.’ I follow Seth because his writing always reflects both innovation and integrity. Indeed I probably have learned more from following his writing, much of which he gives away for free, [...]

Internet: YouTube Ban Remains In Force

Thursday, March 20th, 2008

According to Greg Sandoval, of The New York Times, when protests break out in some nation around the globe one of the first things a media-shy government does–just after sending in riot police–is pull the plug on YouTube. The latest example is China’s handling of protests in Tibet. The Chinese government has blocked access to [...]

Internet: Why Two Domains May Be Better Than One

Friday, March 21st, 2008

Plain Sailing At The Family Business School, Despite Suffering With The Flu! Despite suffering with flu, and also buried in the chaos following the redecoration of the house, and replanting of the garden, I’ve slowly been working on The Family Business School web site. The desktop computer is out of action, but the laptops are [...]

Blogging: Seth’s Unfortunate Experience

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008

Mr Seth Godin, like your hero, is not one to be trifled with. When a restaurant puts him in a ‘bum’ table and refuses to give him a better one he blogs about it. Quite right too . . . . . . and gentleman, as he is, Seth does not name names, or establishments, [...]

Internet: Giving Human Gifts On Facebook

Sunday, March 23rd, 2008

It all started a few days ago. Polish Peter of ‘Classic Rock Magazine‘ bought me using ‘Lunch Money’ on a Facebook application. Sevenc, the owner of Marmaris’ Hawaii II Hotel had bought me previously but, rather snobbishly, I had considered being bought rather demeaning and not installed the ‘Owned‘ application. Anyway before I knew it [...]

Internet: What I Learned From The Beta Fish Man

Monday, March 24th, 2008

A couple of days ago I promised to let you know all about what I’d discovered about the Internet through the study of Betta, (or Beta), Fish. Of course it’s not the Betta Fish that have educated me, but rather the author of a manual all about keeping Betta Fish called Mike Worthington. Yawn . [...]

Internet: Facebook ‘Owned’ Update

Thursday, March 27th, 2008

I have been so busily playing ‘Owned‘ on Facebook recently that I’ve forgotten to blog! Owned is a truly addictive application, which is only likely to be surpassed by the new virtual business game that is shortly to be installed at The Family Business School as part of the continuing build of the web site [...]

Internet: The Return Of YouTube

Friday, March 28th, 2008

No more, at least for You Tube! Yes, ladies and gentlepersons it’s true. When Alper Hoca sent me ‘blessings’ on Facebook this morning the page had a footer featuring a YouTube video. I checked YouTube and it seems that Turkey has lifted its ban on the powerful organ of free speak, well free viz and [...]

Turkish Culture: How I Saved A Tree!

Monday, March 31st, 2008

I’ve been planting trees, apparently! A special delivery van recently wended its way to Amos to bring me an A3 sized certificate, printed on recycled paper. What had I done to deserve this honour, I wondered? Nothing more, dear reader, more than having money in the bank. Apparently by investing in this way my bank [...]

September's Featured Photographer
is David Bailey