Pebbles From Paradise

The extent to which people dance in Turkey differs from region to region, and place to place. Traditional dancing is popular throughout most areas of Turkey though.

In some cultures, particularly Medieval Europe, the possession of a dovecote was a symbol of status and power and was consequently regulated by law. Only nobles had this special privilege known as droit de colombier.

Traffic jams occur regularly on the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge and Bosphorus Bridges linking Europe to Asia in Istanbul, Turkey.

The Turkish Government proposes to issue licences for forty, or so, strip mining sites for the excavation of manganese ore from the forests above Turunc. This is what they have in mind.

The Turkish school year consists of two semesters. The end of the first coincides with the very worst weather the country experiences and as a result many travel under dangerous, even fatal, conditions to stay in touch with their extended families.

This water fountain sits on a quiet road high above Turunc.There are many such points throughout Turkey where anyone may obtain free drinking water from natural springs. It’s common for a benefactor to either commission a tap, or trough, or perhaps for their family to create such a point as a memorial.

There’s more to photographing a wedding than ‘formal groups’. Reportage style images make great records of the special day.

Plastic bags, empty water bottles, beer and coke cans all may be found discarded in the Turkish countryside.

I’m unsure when this 1950s Mercedes last ran, but I am told she is nearly 100% original!

In Turkey many mosques, including this one, broadcast prayers, and accompanying roger beeps, on over-amplified, inferior public address equipment, thus obscuring the diction and creating a kind of pastiche of what might otherwise be a beautiful spiritual experience.

Cappadocia, once an important staging post on the Silk Road now has many abandoned cave houses such as the one in this photograph taken by Jeremy Maxwell, Fine Art Photographer, Turkey.

Making Turkish Mantı is as much an opportunity for conversation as preparing food for supper.

I snapped this with the E-3 fitted with the 25mm Panasonic Leica Summilux, which is undoubtedly my heaviest but best lens.

There is much to see here for those who have eyes for the simple and miraculous. For example the light on these rocks caught my attention this morning as I walked to Kumlubuk.

Evening Fireworks This year I didn’t make it to the morning celebrations when the dignitaries, and schoolchildren parade at the Statue of Atatürk on the quay at Turunç. But I did get to this evening’s forework display. On The Quay

Ceren Soylu: Actress and Dancer I am not writing every day because I’m involved in a major overhaul of my files. It precedes my creating a new web gallery to display my wares. My images are in demand. I have one appearing in an exhibition in Birmingham next month, and two more in a book [...]

The Gates of Dolmabahçe Palace, Istanbul. Probably ‘job’s worth‘ is more apt as the subject of this post rather than popinjay but popinjay will do and makes for nice alliteration! You see, gentle reader, whilst it’s possible to photograph the official guard at Dolmabahçe Palace, as you can see in the image above, when you [...]

Normally the nearest thing to a mall that I get to is Umranye Carefour but today Amazon’s older relatives are in our charge and they have brought us to Cevahir Shopping Mall. These young scamps seem to have a purpose! Where are they taking us? Fortunately Granny is the treasurer At last all is revealed [...]

After playing in a park, (see yesterday’s entry), Amazon suddenly became hungry so we retired to a basement cafe and pool hall. It was suprisingly civilized and the barman made Amazon the largest ‘tost’ I have thus far seen. The lighting was very subdued so all this series was shot using Image Stabilization and apertures [...]

Just as I became used to carrying the E-400 with the Panasonic/Leica Summilux D 25mm attached so have I become accustomed to the extra weight and bulk of the Olympus E-3 and the Summilux. Indeed the E-3/Summilux combination feels far more balanced when slung from the shoulder. I’ve not attempted any street photography with the [...]

Compaq Presario F 500 Irem’s computer went off for repairs about a week ago, we sent it by Kargo to Izmir including all the documentation required under the warrantee. They haven’t started to repair it though, because before anyone will look at it they require written consent to delete all the data on the hard [...]

Well, to be fair, it’s not Google per se but rather Google Groups. If you go to the Google homepage and click on the link that says: ‘More’, scroll down and hit the tab for groups instead of hitting the Google site you will find yourself with an anonymous looking 404 not found page. Google [...]

A Wonderful Book For A Lad! As a small boy I knew nothing of language reform, I just knew that I couldn’t spell, that adults told me that this was a bad thing, and I discovered at school that sometimes my inability could be painful. Imagine my surprise one Christmas when my eldest brother Nick [...]

It’s National Children’s Day In Turkey and the children of Turunc started in fine form with the annual tableaux of sketches, skits, and dancing at the Ataturk Memorial. Amazon took part this year for the first time. She is the youngest in her school, do you see her in this picture?

The Best Receptacle For Written Verbiage!  One of the problems of being a health-care professional is that one’s home fills up with confidential medical papers, affidavits, supervisors reports and the like. This stuff is largely verbiage and opinion, rarely born out by future events but which may significantly impact upon the lives of people in [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

The Turkish Association For Child Guidance And Mental Health Amazon, Irem and I are still on the outskirts of Istanbul, and yes, for once I’ve been attempting, rather unsuccessfully, to think about all the Family Therapist training that the Turkish Association For Child Guidance and Mental Health want me to provide in the future. Next [...]

Yesterday when I was writing about ‘Ebru’: Reflections of Cultural Diversity in Turkey by Attila Durak I was a little surprised that I couldn’t find a listing for the volume at Amazon.com? Okay, you retort, it’s a Turkish book so why would anyone in the USA, or UK be interested in it? Well, although it’s [...]

Inkilâp Bookshop Window, Before I Bought One Of The Volumes The last time I was at Ümraniye Carrefour I happed past the Inkilâp Bookshop’s window and was seduced by a wonderful image of a Tibetan girl as photographed by Steve McCurry. The dimensions of McCurry’s volume, although nowhere near rivalling Helmut Newton’s Sumo, are by [...]

An English Country Walk?  If you are ever tempted to venture from the beach at Kumlubük and walk up this track you are in for a delight. In the winter it has the potential for a Sunday, (or any other day), trek to delight your family and you. A Red-Setter, Labrador, or similar and the [...]

Turkish, (and English with a little Canadian), Folk In Our Front Room. Damla’s daughter Ayşim is here with her guitar so we asked Mahmut and Çoskun to come over and jam with their saz and her. Unfortunately Mahmut dropped out at the last minute but Çoskun came and played late into the night . . [...]

The Smallest House On Amos Estate O.K. so Jack didn’t build this house. Indeed it was built by a team of artisans from Eastern Turkey some thirty years ago and it was intended to serve as the site office. It is an unusual design being exactly half of the size, and half of the original [...]

Fatma Teyze Takes ‘Time Out’ Every other evening, or so, we’ve taken to visiting Fatma Teyze and her grandson Yunus. She is caring for Yunus at the moment whilst his father and mother are away in Istanbul. Poor Yunus dropped hot çay on his leg and is off school due to the scald. He also [...]

Kahve At The Cafe Of Illusion If, like me, you thought yesterday’s images surreal then take a look at this one. It’s a shot I wouldn’t have attempted has I not been attempting to use up a slow film in an old Olympus OM-1. The OM-1 is an entirely mechanical camera, although it does have [...]

The Statue of Atatürk, Turunç It’s that time of year agin. More precisely it’s already that special day for all Turks. Cumhuriet Day when we celebrate the birth of the Republic and thank Atatürk, and our grandparents for his initiative. That is if we are Turkish, of course? In Turunç we meet under Atatürk’s statue [...]

First we drop the gunge into the saucer If you come to stay in Turkey it’s quite likely that you will be offered Turkish coffee. This is prepared using freshly ground coffee boiled in a small sauceman and then poured into the coffee cup. There are three grades of Turkish coffee. Şekerli which is sweet; [...]

Amazon waits by her school transport When I returned to Amos from Istanbul I learned that Amazon had insisted that we buy her the school uniform for her infant class. Although still only three, four next month, she has for some time liked to visit her friends in school. Last week the infant’s class teacher [...]

Another View Of Kumlubük After several days of monochrome I was aiming at some true National Geographic style colour saturation in this reportage on Kumlubük. The picture above shows some of the homes built into the hill and probably not even noticed by people approaching Kumlubük using the boat service from Marmaris. It’s possible that [...]

It’s Ramazan here but as a child, and part yabanci, she isn’t expected to conform. Dondurmas as usual at Amos Restaurant. My friend Sir Michael Carr-Jones loves ice-cream pictures pictures, so these are dedicated to him, and Lynne. I’ve eaten the ice cream what’s to do now? There’s more there, if I suck . . [...]

Power Retouch Simulation Of A Paladium Print Amazon, Irem and I are in Istanbul and on the rounds of the family icons. Ismet Hala is Irem’s aunt, and the oldest member of the family on her father’s side. She is a wonderfully cheerful and sanguine character whom I always enjoy seeing. Today was no exception [...]

Çapa Hospital at Dusk It’s just amazing how much can change in an hour. Here, above, is a photograph of Çapa Hospital taken from Dr. Behiye’s pied à terre on the opposite side of the road. Behiye is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Psychiatry at Istanbul University and is based at Çapa Hospital. [...]

One of the things I enjoy about Turkish Cities is the juxtaposition between the cultures that subsist within them. Here I am drinking Turk Kahve at a relatively smart cafe when in the distance I spy two traditionally dressed women sitting under a tree. All around them appears to be litter, blown or dumped, in [...]

Why has Amazon a bemused and appealing look on her face? This Is What She Wanted! Ooops, All The Tasty Dondurma Has Gone I Can’t Believe I Ate It That Quickly!    

Haute Cuisine Maybe? I was cleaning out some files on the computer today when I came upon this ‘still life’ image. What can this meal be, you may ask? In fact it’s no meal at all, it’s a joke! Earlier this year, when my mother-in-law was staying with us, I attempted to explain to her [...]

Parents and pupils watch the end of term sketches. It is the end of the school year in Turkey and on Saturday evening the children of Turunç Village School celebrated by putting on a celebratory pageant near the statue of Atatürk. There was some patriotic flag waving and the National Anthem was sung before the [...]

Who founded Irem’s Favourite Magazine! Tatlı is a Turkish word denoting sweetening, or sweet. (The) Tatler, however, is a venerable English magazine dating from the early eighteenth century. The original Tatler was founded in 1709 by Richard Steele, who used a nom de plume of “Isaac Bickerstaff, Esquire”, the first such consistently adopted journalistic persona, [...]

I’m Helping My Bank Thrive, Maybe? Damla came to have lunch with us today. She has a bad back, and a computer that won’t play the visual part of her new ‘Law Of Attraction‘ DVDs. For some reason whenever she comes here she insists on speaking solely Turkish, which in effect excludes me from the [...]

The Party On The Patio Yesterday I was bemoaning the loss of my old home town. Today I am rejoicing in the acquisition of a new one. We’ve lived here full-time for around three years now and are getting to know far more people. Due, in no small measure, to this journal we also find [...]

Your Hero, His Wife and Her Grandfather at Ankara Opera House. When Europeans think of Ankara they tend to think of a sterile place somewhere in the Gobi Desert, probably created by Stalin and carved out of solid concrete. Nothing could be further from the truth! Ankara is a European cosmopolitan city in central Turkey [...]

“I’m bored here”, says Gloria. Ten years ago Uncle Tezer promised to take me to see Ankara Zoo. He apparently makes this promise to all visitors below the age of sixty years. I am nearly past the sell by date, if still young at heart. In the event the visit proved to be a sad [...]

People In Ankara Love To Meet In The Parks People may be classified into all kinds of shapes and sizes. There are for instance people like me, who carry hip-flasks when travelling, and those like my friend Polish Pete who carry sweet digestive biscuits. Although I did not grow up in a family where the [...]

Does your passport have a page like this? Here is a page from my new biometric passport. Our counter intelligence surveillance correspondent informs me that the loop is an aerial, and the black dot is a microchip receiver. Intelligence services may send a pulse to the chip from a satellite and activate it, whereupon it [...]

Models Of Times Past And Present We have started learning about family trees on the Family Therapy Training Course today. These make the structures and histories of families easier to analyse, but at a risk of reducing real people who are living, or once lived, to graphic abstractions. People were, of course, just as much [...]

The vet explains why we should be kind to animals. Turnunç Women’s Group a recently accredited local government organization today presented their first major community initiative. This was an animal welfare awareness raising afternoon at Turunç Primary School. Lee Butt, who created the Turunç Street Cat Neuter Scheme introduced the afternoon and its guest speaker [...]

The Atatürk Monument, Turunç Every year children throughout Turkey celebrate their special day. There are also special days for youth and women. On children’s Day the children with their teachers march in procession from the school to the sea-front at Turunç where the statue of Mustafa Kemal keeps watch over the sea, and an ear [...]

H.M.S. Dreadnought (1906 – 1922) It seems at least a week ago that I was predicting that diplomacy would win the day, and that the British service personnel seized in disputed waters in the Persian Gulf would be released. In fact it was just two days ago. Indeed my statement that their release should be [...]

Despite delays, retractions, accusation and counter accusation, it seems as if diplomacy will prevail and the eleven British hostages held against reason will surely be released, if not today, then one day fairly soon. But when they are released, what should Britain’s response be? According to a recent poll nearly 70% of Britons would be [...]

You never know who’s looking over your shoulder! It’s been a pretty wet day today and so I’ve not ventured out, except to bring in some logs for the wood-burner, and also keep the drains clear of mud. The trouble is that a wet day leaves too much time for reflection, and it’s not been [...]

Damla’s Doll from the Turko-Syrian Border. We’ve just returned from supper at Damla’s. A fine malt and half a bottle of Turkish Red later I find myself in a mellow chord this evening. Damla has just returned from Syria where she was detained for six hours by Syrian customs officials for questioning. It was not [...]

Here is a photograph of a mother and child. It just happens to be Amazon and Irem. It could equally be your child and you, or even Granny and Grandad. The fact is that it’s a common enough scene, which although unposed is similar to the kinds of family portrait that many people snap as [...]

Time for a phone call!  This photograph of Irem and Amazon may seem like a sign of the times? Truly we live in the age of stress where electronic devices intrude upon us at every inconvenient moment. Of course in Irem’s case the stress is self-induced. She could if she wished simply ask the caller [...]

Life Is Stranger Than Fiction Great Scott – just when I thought things couldn’t get much worse for my favourite airline BA have taken three short haul Boeing 767s out of service. They are apparently radio-active, (even if only slightly so). At least one aircraft is believed to have flown on a Heathrow/Istanbul service. Details [...]

Vehbi Koç Vehbi Koç deplored waste so he arranged for his refrigerator to be transported between his summer and winter residence. One day however he arrived at his summer house to find a new fridge installed upon the instructions of one of his managers. Koç telephoned the manager in something approaching ill-humour, but the manager [...]

Two of our English neighbours will be interested to read this entry. They bought an Arçelik washing machine any have had a dreadful time with it. The problem hasn’t been simply that the machine didn’t work but that the service department in Marmaris were so unreliable in coming to fix it. They would miss appointments, [...]

Suna Kiraç is according to Forbes Magazine, the World’s 645th Richest Person Irem is reading the autobiography of Suna Kiraç who is the daughter of the late Vehbi Koç the founder of Koç Holding. According to Wikipedia the free on-line encyclopedia: Koç Holding A.S. is the top industrial conglomerate in Turkey. The Koç family, Turkey’s [...]

Irem at Şelale Falls Today Amazon, Irem and I went walking in the woods at Şelale Falls. A few hundred yards up the trail we found a sign pointing to an historic water mill. There was no sign of the Mill’s machinery and much of the building looked fairly new, rather than medieval except the [...]

When a company advertises for a graduate or professional in Turkey up to 4000 individuals may apply. Understandably this creates a niche for others to develop Human Resource businesses that exist to filter applicants using a range of personality assessment tools. Filling in the answers correctly to such tests becomes a useful skill to acquire. [...]

Michael Mallows was a recent presenter at this year’s NLP Conference Our, (not so very), old buddy Michael Mallows has relaunched ‘New learning patterns’ as a Yahoo Group. In a private e-mail to Irem and I he says: Hello, I’ve added you to my NewLearningPatterns group at Yahoo! Groups, a free, easy-to-use service. Yahoo! Groups [...]

A number of my small business clients suffer with lack of customers. What can I do to increase sales, they ask? I already have an advertisement in Yellow Pages. Now it must be said that I happen to like Yellow Pages because for many businesses and advertisement in them works like a credential. People think [...]

O.K. I admit it. It’s nice to be in London. My dear ol’ Papa, Gawd rest his Soul was a Londoner he lived as a boy in Camberwell, and it was in Camberwell that I first met Irem and started my rehabilitation from therapist to regular guy. I’m still not cured but I’m lots better [...]

Exmouth Market London WC1 There are two ways to travel the world: by foot, plane, train, ship or bus, or by boat or car! If you travel by foot, plane, train, ship, or bus you will meet real people living in an apparently real world. You can ‘experiment’ with being sociable, hear new stories, imagine [...]

Please Act Now Before You, Or Your Children Become Infertile, Or Worse! I’ve just received a most disturbing e-mail from Liz Wilcock of Sulis and Stone Stable~ it’s self explantory. Dear All, If you want to keep this country, [England, separate consultations are taking place for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland], GM free it is [...]

If you troubled to read yesterday’s entry, which was about Summer Festivals rather than Past Life Regression, you may have formed the impression that the last Summer Festival that I ever attended was in England during the late 1980s. But this is not so. For a number of years there used to be a regular [...]

This Fine Pide Shop Was Closed To Make Way For Another Ambulance Station, But Do We Need More Ambulances, Or More Wood Cooked Pide? A couple of years ago Irem and I were having dinner with friends in Istanbul when we heard the loud crash of breaking glass outside followed by the sound of a [...]

Britain’s Most Popular ‘Fake’ Handgun  Begum Kartal a 23 year old university undergraduate was eagerly anticipating her marriage on the 1st September when she was killed by a bullet fired by revelers at her pre-wedding party. As a result a nationwide campaign has been launched to stop the practice of firing guns into the air [...]

Michael Carr-Jones telephoned this morning from Spain to find out if someone had blown us all up. He had heard on the news about an attempt at mass murder in Marmaris. Since his call our phone hasn’t stopped ringing. Eric my brother, Pat my sister-in-law, Irem’s aunt and a host of others too numerous to [...]

Fatma Teyze This morning has been devoted to Holiday Magazine Turkiye. I went to photograph Fatma Teyze whom I quote in a forthcoming article about education in Turkey. According to July’s Economist Magazine only one in three girls in Turkey attend school and sadly one of my neighbours children seems to miss far too many [...]

Guy Bourdin: Pizza, (note the masterful sloping horizon in this top photographer’s shot). I found this image by Guy Bourdin on one of his fan sites. Here are two powerful-looking women eating Pizza in front of a tropical seascape. Could we do something like this for The Amos Beach Club, I wonder? There’s nothing overtly [...]

When Guy Bourdin or Helmut Newton were commissioned to photograph fashion, or even make pictures of cars or other machinery, they always managed to inject a sense of the macabre into their work. Of course they’re both dead now which is pretty macabre too! But when I get summoned to take a photograph of the [...]

Turkish culture is very rich dating back to the days when nomads from Mongolia were united under the Genghis Khan, and later his son Khubilai Khan captured most of the ‘known world’, from Vienna to Peking. In order to administer this vast empire the Turkic speaking people employed and adopted Arab scholars, who in turn [...]

A New Home For Yusuf, Perhaps? According to Rich Schefren the reason retailers install security devices isn’t to prevent people from shop lifting in their stores. Rather it is to persuade them that it’s far easier to steal from the shop next door. The United Kingdom possesses more CCTV cameras per square mile than any [...]

“Now I am released from MNG Kargo’s clutches, I feel as lucky, free and bouncy as a ladybird should be!” Regular readers to this column will by now be wondering what has happened to Amazon’s toy, which MNG Kargo sent back to Ankara twice from Marmaris because they couldn’t be bothered to deliver it here [...]

Hatici Enjoys Herself Hatici has been living in Baz’s apartment since he departed on Monday. Last night she invited us to eat spaghetti with her. Spaghetti was the only dish on the menu because weevils had started to emerge in the rice. We also drank a bottle of white wine that would have been over [...]

A Simpler Childhood, Maybe? Just a couple of days ago Phillip and I were making light over the excessive cardboard packing used in the mail order business. We suggested that maybe people could live in cardboard cartons, or even eat cardboard. It is salutary to have recently acquired a copy of Restless Spirit: The Life [...]

Not So Happy As It May Seem! Tansaş Supermarket in Marmaris have changed their rules. It has always been the case that you may park in the multi-story car park above their store for up to two hours, free of charge if you buy from the store. But that’s all changed . . . Today [...]

Click The Image To See The Campaign Today I’m astounded to find that I’m in agreement with George W. Bush. He once expressed support for regulating CO2 emissions, but now favours voluntary steps to reduce them. Legislation, he argues, would cause unemployment and raise costs. The fact is that George has probably been informed of [...]

The Adventurous Ten Pound Note In Turkey this ten pound note is worth about thirty new lira. But that’s not what’s remarkable about it, for the note, to my knowledge has never left the shores of Great Britain. It was however meticulously tracked for a week by Steven Bogan a journalist of The, [former Manchester], [...]

Have You Seen This Man On Your Telly? An ex-flatmate Bryan, who is an American of Iranian stock and the possessor of an Irish pasport, the founder of the the United Kingdom’s Saucy Shakespeare Company, writes: Hello there lovely Stephen and Irem, Ages since we’ve been in touch…. I’m still hoping to come see you [...]

Chopped Willys On Demand! Customer focussed communication was one of the buzz-concepts of late twentieth century management. I even wrote an ebook about it! But that’s not entirely what I want to write about. For today I’ve been experiencing that peculiar kind of melancholy that frequently precedes change, although the change may be as long [...]

At Siegfried’s coming of age he accepts the gift of a sword from his tutor Wolfgang Marmaris are currently staging their 3rd National Ballet Days. The Turkish National Ballet is performing between the 14th and 28th June. We went to see Swan Lake performed by the Izmir Ballet Company. It was a thoroughly professional performance [...]

The Somerset and Dorset Light Railway was known as the ‘Slow and Dirty’ Today, in 1956, third class rail travel was abolished by British Railways. This was a catastrophe, not arguably because with the demise of the third class ticket Her Majesty’s third class subjects could no longer travel by train, thus giving Dr. Beeching [...]

“Damla is not a kleptomaniac”, I retorted. Indeed it must be stated here FOR THE RECORD, Kindly note: Damla is no kind of maniac, and certainly not a dipsomaniac.

“Your picture might fail because it looks more like this one, than that one”, said the Hon. Consul indicating a chart of mug shots marked with green ticks and red crosses.

The Children’s Park ~ Turunç 2006 seems a very strange year for Turunç. Last year when we were renovating our house, which is situated in a quiet backwater at Amos, we were told that we must finish our works by April 1st. This date was duly extended until April 15th but our home was complete [...]

Domestic Nudes, Turkish Style The Hon. Helmut Newton wrote that his ‘Domestic Nudes’ series began by his wanting to photograph the rooms of the Chateau Marmont, Hollywood, where he spent his winters for the last twenty-six years of his life . . . . . “but who would look at my pictures of empty rooms? [...]

A Month’s Worth Of Loving Restoration. Every day for a month on our walks in Kumlubük we’ve watched the renovation of this water taxi, which is part of the Turunç Co-Operative. There’s usually several men sitting around drinking tea whilst an army of women, and young women, [they're children really; school is out by the [...]

Amazon and Irem take a constitutional walk between courses Abbas, [aka The Count of Monte Christo], barely managed to escape from an undisclosed Island near Marmaris following a mix up over his accommodation. His client a well know Middle European company had taken over the island as a training venue for its prospective managers. Trainees [...]

Improvements to the pavement surfaces leave the walkways temporarily blocked. Ali Fuat Fidan the Mayor of Turunç looks like a worried man. The building season officially finished here on April 1st but everywhere there’s rubble and signs of last minute construction. It’s not just the odd bit of painting and decorating either ~ there are [...]

A Cornucopia Of Common Sense! There are times when I think I may be becoming an old fart, what with pontificating about the preservation of railway stations, and the like. But just when I’m feeling at my fartiest a reprieve arrives from unexpected sources. Yesterday I was particularly fortunate, since I had two reprieves. The [...]

Do You Really Need This? The Internet is one of my remaining links to the ‘real’ world. And what a sad world it’s becoming. I read that plans are afoot to decouple the Haydarpaşa railway terminal from the main network and build on some of the rail track monstrous skyscrapers 350 metres tall. A similar [...]

Although its design resembles a fortress, at least the colour of the late Ayhan Sahenk’s palace blends in to the natural scenery. If only others would follow his example and paint their houses in suitable tones!

Click Here For An Oaty Surprise When Irem removed a cereal packet that Amazon had fetched to the breakfast table this morning she asked her daughter: “Do you mind if I take this back to the kitchen, it clutters the table and is unaesthetic. Aesthetics are very important, you know!” I was amazed at her [...]

Turkish culture tends toward overfeeding, and over indulgence. Small wonder then that after ten years of being married into a Turkish family I find myself overweight, especially when judged from medical standards. This year however I’ve slowly been reducing my waistline, and my weight and the good news is that I’ve gone from the category [...]

Not content with tending the wounded dog Boncuk, today we rescued a tiny tortoise.

A Holiday Snap For All You Whinging Winnies! We try to avoid going to Marmaris any more than strictly necessary, but at the moment I’m stripping the paint from some cast aluminum garden furniture in anticipation of the summer months. Unfortunately I rather underestimated the amount of paint stripper needed for the task so today [...]

“…get off the wheel for a moment, discover where you are, and make a conscious wakeful decision about whether you want to get back on that wheel or not. Using our awareness, we can process the events that are happening to us. Otherwise, we are passive, unconscious witnesses of our fates.” Dr Arnold Mindell, Founder [...]

A Traditonal Turkish Feminist! I count myself as very fortunate that I belong to at least two cultures. Firstly of course I am English, and the product of a Sixties education, if not a progressive one. Secondly I am married to a Turk and live in Turkey which has it’s own customs and traditions, and [...]

It is of course the Eighties generation that now hold positions of power, for whilst the Sixties Generation still dress, and behave with abandon, and continue to have the money to do so, they are also slowly collecting their pensions albeit by electronic transfer.

In Turkey trousers are always bought with their length unfinished. A tailor then fits them to you.

This morning I awoke to the sound of a distant rooster. It was the celebration call of an endangered species. But what else may be under threat?

Flowers here continue to thrive throughout the year due to the mildness of the winter.

One Moslem remarked that had they known that December 25th was ‘my festival’, then they would have celebrated it with me.

Despite several messages announcing that our mobile phones are illegal no money seems to have changed hands.

Eventually there must be 500 people all dancing in this brightly lit pristine white studio, that’s 2000 arms and legs, when grouped together. And the man is still chanting, and the camera is still spinning, and the dancers are still dancing and I’m wondering what the hell it’s all for . . . and then?

Unforgeable I think not. The www.turquality.com web site is still under construction at the date of posting this entry.

100 screaming women, and not a tea towel in sight!

In this tale of modern Turkey stereo TV assumes a new meaning.

Isn’t Turkey a Moslem Country, I hear the ‘little grey cells’ as they rub together in feverish perturbation in your skull at the thought that St. Nicholas might just bring Rudolph this far South!

Imperial costumes from Ottoman Turkey are currently on display at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. We celebrate with a photo montage.

It was some years ago that I first saw a boy dressed in a white suit, sequined like some Pearly King and wearing a turban.

Is The Bank Locator a true British patriot?

The whole day deteriorates into do-it-yourself without power-tools!

Flatulant musings on a distinctly Anglo-American commodity!

Whilst England prepares to honour her war dead, Turkey commemorates the deat of Its founder.

A traditional Sunday Roast follows the Bayram

As children and from a very early age we were all expected to do all manner of chores that would have gainfully employed a whole squad of navvies.

Coincidentally this year the Sugar Festival also falls on Amazon’s birthday. She is two years old.

Put out more flags. It’s Independence Day in Turkey

Just call me on my mobile . . .

Street cries may be gone in London, but are electronically enhanced in Istanbul

When your mother is born on Trafalgar Day even the greatest of states celebrate the event.

Years ago Mustafa Kemal’s government decreed that the head scarf was reserved as the apparel of prostitutes.Today this distinction is no longer is applied.

Ramada, known in Turkey as Ramazan, begins.

John Lennon claimed that ‘Love Is The Answer’, and Turkey’s Mahir agrees. His site may currently lack the popularity of The Million Dollar Hompeage, but it has stood the test of time.

Mahir is Turkey’s first Internet personality. Can his message of love once more rise in the ratings?

Tarkan was in the same unit as my friend Suleman who is married to a gorgeous blonde American named Claire. When she came to the passing out parade the sentries asked if she was coming to see Tarkan?

The foot Hills of the Himalaya’s were the origins of the Turkish People who Travelled Here in 340 A.D.

If you ask for instant coffee in a cafe, or on a bus, you’ll be met with a blank face!

Deapıte thunder, rain, and hail, the band played on at the weddıng of Ali Abi and Meltem

When Stephen finds himself in a conversation that could have been penned by P.G. Wodehouse he finds that he must decamp to Istanbul.

What is Stephen’s fascination with weddings? What is it like to marry into a Turkish family?

Last week Nobuko Nishida’s design was described as a ‘silly but irresistible item’, today it’s a terrorist super weapon . . .

Pernickety Peter Port noticed that the Vin Rouge wasn’t as ‘rouge’ as the article recommended, so Stephen rouges it up . . a bit!

If you want to sell your product you must make the customer an offer that they cannot refuse.

Official Report: It’s not a heffalump, but a piglet. Whilst the baby pig decimates the garden, mother pig keeps watch on the other side of the fence.

When Stephen is visited by the nocturnal ‘Heffalump’ he realizes that Disney is, after all, to be commended for Pooh’s Heffalump Movie!

Parcel delivery is not straighforward if you live in Turkey. You might just as well use the PTT.

A French noun describes a Welsh Settle in Turkey. But a few days after its arrival Stephen may be turning into ‘Uncle’ Apthorpe.

Ülker the manufacturer of Cola Turka are running a special promotion. There’s also a link to the second of the brilliant Chevy Chase Turka Cola adverts.

The British designed Anadol motor car was manufactured in Turkey for over 20 years. Rumours that it is made of straw are unfounded.

This advertisement for a Turkish Cola may have seemed uncontroversial had it not been for the Gulf War.

Birth is invariably a tortuous business, and best discussed over a glass of champagne with a qualified midwife. This entry contrasts the English and Turkish maternity systems.

Thoughts of espionage are misplaced in the kitchen.

In the latest issue of the online journal Nurturing Potential Joe Sinclair criticises the media obsession of belittling others, and reveals that the number of languages in the world is steadily shrinking.

An Official Report shows the Turkish Diet to be amongst the healthiest in the World. Yet an Englishman without Black Pudding is like a Scot without Haggis and blood may count when it comes to breakfast satisfaction.

The modern Turkish alphabet has 29 letters so care must be taken when surfing the Internet.

When Stephen attempted to renew his anti-virus software he discovers that making purchases via the Internet is not straightforward if you’re English and live in Turkey.

Is your corkscrew a suitable instrument?

When bootleggers distributed lethal Raki as the No: 1 brand, they destroyed an icon.