Turkey is in turmoil, entering a third week of protests against a backdrop of tear gas, rubber bullets and excessive police repression – this is not a happy country right now! It’s hard to know what to do, especially as a foreign resident without a vote. We have a voice via the internet but if [...]
~ read more ~
Turks fascinate me! The way they network and the way they ‘keep it in the family’. Take my dentist for example. Kadriye is the best diş hekimi (tooth doctor) I’ve ever had in my life. Now her daughter has qualified and they operate side by side out of their state-of-the-art surgery. Across the road are [...]
~ read more ~
‘Hobbits!’ I thought as J and I tucked into our second breakfast of the morning – Hobbits, you see, have second everything and breakfast at our hotel was now being followed a couple of hours later by a veritable feast. We were being hosted by a couple of ranking bureaucrats (no names to protect the [...]
~ read more ~
Sixty years ago, in the middle of my newt, slow-worm and birds’ nesting period, I was ‘introduced’ to two amazing images that left indelible impressions and a passion that has lasted to this day. The first was of the classic view of the Lion Courtyard at la Alhambra and the second was of Arabic calligraphy. The [...]
~ read more ~
My mother, who joined the last Norwegian Blue in pining for the fjords many years ago, had a number of apposite sayings relating to dogs. The country was always ‘going to the dogs!’ and I always looked like a ‘dog’s dinner tied up in the middle!’, a comment on my sartorial inelegance. If the reference to ‘Norwegian [...]
~ read more ~
After two bleak years with Ducati the greatest motorcycle racer in the history of the sport is back. Back with Yamaha, back in the groove and back on the hunt for an eighth World Championship. Valentino Rossi – the Greatest Motorcycle Racer of All Time Alan Fenn, Seventh Heaven
~ read more ~
J and I had a glorious ramble up and down the mountain that constitutes our ‘back garden’ today. We’ve learned (after 15 years) that the local distribution range of the Armenian Tulip is much larger than the two little pockets we’d previously found. We’ve added yet another species of orchid to Okçular’s tally – it [...]
~ read more ~
Our corner of SW Turkey has slipped gently and warmly into spring. Insects are buzzing and joining intimate bits of their anatomy. Birds are buzzing and busily stuffing bits and bobs into nest boxes and other suitable orifices in between joining intimate bits of their anatomy, albeit fleetingly. Bumper Cars Even tortoises are buzzing, rushing [...]
~ read more ~
One-man projects are my thing. I don’t like people in my workshop and I don’t handle advice about ‘how to’ as well as I should – it’s a trait, like much else, that I blame on my mother rather than do too much uncomfortable self-analysis! This is why the latest project here at ‘Chez Nous’ [...]
~ read more ~
From Each According To Ability, To Each According To Need (Karl Marx in his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Program) J and I believe fervently in a more equal society. A society where needs are met regardless of ethnic origins, intelligence or gender; a society where money counts for nothing because it is obsolete; a society [...]
~ read more ~
Pure Line theme by Theme4Press • Powered by WordPress archers of okçular 'burası Türkiye!' - 'this is Turkey!' - living, loving and travelling Turkey
recent comments