Non-sweaty things I'd rather be doing

So its at least 35 degrees out and sunny and humid. I've just been home for lunchtime baby-feeding. It was hot; sweaty mummy, sweaty Arwen, sweaty sweaty sweaty euwch! She didn't seem phased by the sweating at all, having a great time almost walking, circumnavigating almost the whole house -still holding on for now :) Happy to see her mummy which is ALWAYS nice :). But as I left to come back to work and sweatily waited for a taxi and then had a sweaty non-airconned taxi ride, I was thinking of stuff I'd rather be doing instead of going back to office (even tho it is air-conned) in no particular order....... such as:

(yes many of them do revolve around water: pool, beach, sea, river...)

Swimming in the blue blue sea at Büyük Çakıl Plaj,

Kaş and then having yummy fried kalamari, homemade chips and salad at Che's next to the beach.

Lying in the Pool at the Divan Kuruçeşme overlooking the Bosphorous or at Park Orman (haven't done either of these for years since now prohibitively expensive, but did once spend many a summer day here and there when I was a free-wheeling teacher-type!)

Swimming at the beach in Wildwood, NJ, kind of a cheesy place, but many a cool refreshing swim/ boogie-board was had there in-between shifts...

Swimming off a gulet on the meditteranean coast near Fethiye and then having a yummy lunch on the boat.

Sitting in the House Cafe in Ortaköy with a huge iced coffee and the best brownie everrrrr. (I'll put a few like this in so they don't seem to ALL be about swimming!)

Looking down on all the fabulous pools all down the cliffs from a breezy cafe at the top of the Caldera in Santorini while having a delicious Greek salad and some delicious pork döner (mmmm)... and then, er, going for a swim in one of them. Or at Perissa Beach; black sand beach on the other side of the island.

Having a swim at the rooftop pool in Changi airport Singapore between flights on the way to NEW ZEALAND!!! :)

Swimming at Kaiteri Beach or Breaker Bay in NZ or some nice clean river over that way....

SWIMMING at Waikiki Beach (or ANY beach really in Hawaii) or Ilıca Beach in Çeşme, or the beach on the Isla Mujeres in Mexico, or Kaputaş beach near Kaş, or the Lemonakia Beach on Samos

or or or ....

......just anywhere really!

GET THE PICTURE??! :)

As you can see, I'm not very good at putting the pictures in, but you get the point :)

Nazar Boncuk....

...is the Little Magic Stone that protects one from the *Evil Eye* This is a typical item, a specialty of this region everyone takes home as a souvenir. It's called the Boncuk (pronounced "bon-jook"),the little magic eye-shaped stone that protects one from the *Evil Eye* . You will see this blue glass accessory everywhere in Turkey. But what is behind this superstition? Apparently.... (edited from somewhere on internet can't remember where!)

Once upon a time (yes, it starts like in a fairy tale) there was a rock by the sea that, even with the force of a hundred men and a lot of dynamite, couldn't be moved or cracked. There was also a man in this town by the sea, who was known to carry the evil eye (Nazar). After much effort and endeavor, the town people brought the man to the rock, and the man, upon looking at the rock said, "My! What a big rock this is." The instant he said this, there was a rip and roar and crack and instantly the immense and impossible rock was found to be cracked in two.

The force of the evil eye (or Nazar) is a widely accepted and feared random element in Turkish daily life. The word *Nazar* denotes seeing or looking and is often used in literally translated phrases such as "Nazar touched her," in reference to a beautiful young woman, for example, who mysteriously goes blind.

Another typical scenario: A woman gives birth to a healthy child with pink cheeks, all the neighbors come and see the baby. They shower the baby with compliments, commenting especially on how healthy and chubby the baby is. After getting so much attention a week later the baby gets ill. No explanation can be found and it is ascribed to Nazar. (Although it may also have been any one of the following: sweating, drinking cold water or sitting in a draught between an open door AND window, sleeping with the window open, not wearing slippers or eating yoghurt and fish together) Compliments made to a specific body part can result in Nazar. That's why nearly every Turkish mother fixes with a safety pin a small Boncuk on the child's clothes. Once a Boncuk is found cracked, it means it has done his job and immediately a new one has to replace it.

Its a very interesting tradition and an attractive accessory and needless to say, Arwen has many a little boncuk; on her stroller, to pin on clothes, in her room...
(A with travel-boncuk pinned on.....)

I only have one thing to say and that's that repeatedly hearing 'Nazar touched her' when I'm trying to understand why she is crying, er, doesn't really help. Luckily she doesn't cry that much (Maşallah Maşallah a thousand times Maşallah!- I should also say that after saying something like that to further protect her from the Nazar! AAAARGGHHH :O) )

Everything in our house is dangerous

I didn't know there could be so many potentially dangerous things in a house for a baby. Of course there is the obvious stuff like cleaning fluids under the sink, sharp objects, loose buttons. Arwen has just dicovered that she can open cupboard doors and drawers, and this has opened up a whole new world of dangerous stuff. She had been content with banging her head on the floor/ door/ wall/ metal radiator but now there's more...

For example before we were being careful to put our shoes away in the hall cupboard so that she wouldn't get hold of them for a wee taste-and-chew, but now she can open that....

She could already seek out the remote control from wherever we had hidden it (meaning we usually can't find it ourselves and watch a lot more babytv than we would like). Now she finds it, pulls the back off and bashes it on the floor till the batteries fall out. You can guess what happens after that...

She always wants whatever is just out of reach, especially plates of food, cups of tea and glasses of water, telephones, anything she shouldn't have really...

Currently sporting a bit of a brusied cheek from an encounter with a chair and a drawer (at same time!) :O(

According to a website I found, these are some of the things we should be doing:

1. Take a new look at your house from your baby’s level and clear all surfaces at or below your chest. There's a LOT of stuff at that level...


2. Install rubber stoppers for the top of doors, so they only close a bit and baby’s little fingers won't get pinched but remove the rubber tips so baby doesn't choke on them. Lucky we can't get these here then, sounds like it's more dangerous than the door! I think we'll go for number 9 on the list instead.


3. Use plug covers that look like an outlet, but have to be twisted to work. Duct tape?


4. Install magnetic cabinet and drawer locks, which are trickier for little ones to learn to open. Duct tape?


5. Use a mesh gate because baby is less likely to get hurt and it works well for large doorways. Sounds like a good idea... where can I get one of these?


6. Doorknob covers stop your toddler from being able to open the door and run out.


7. Install a deadbolt or chain at the top of exterior doors, so your toddler doesn't open the door and run out. This seems to be a popular activity this opening the door and running out!


8. Use a toilet lid lock. Enough said! I think we'll just be keeping the bathroom door closed fullstop- there's a whole lot of danger-stuff in there...


9. Drape a cloth diaper over the door top to keep baby from getting hurt, shutting the door.


10. Install cover guards for sharp table corners. Luckily we have a soft edged leather-covered coffee table thing or there would be a whole lot more bruises by now...


11. Use a TV guard to stop TV play. It covers all the controls. mmmmm


12. Visually inspect the floor for small objects every time you enter a room. I do, there are a lot...


13. Remember, if they aren't meant to have it, they'll want it, so move it! Why is this?? She has a lot of lovely toys that should be 100 times more interesting than some skanky old computer cable/ dustbunny from behind couch/ any piece of paper-magazine-newspaper/ radiator knob with flaky paint...


14. And, on a less serious note: Eat all the chocolate that comes into the house. It's not good for your baby’s health. I liked this idea by far the best! :) I am implementing regularly...

My Mother-in-Law says Allah protects all babies- Inşallah! :O) Hope someone is!!!

its noisy out...

Turkish people tend to get really enthusiastic about things, which is really nice actually, it shows they have a pulse :)
However, now we have a small baby who actually likes sleeping (at several times throughout the day and (most of the) night and its hot so we have the windows open, I realise how this often manifests itself in a lot of NOISE.
Added to this, we live right next to a park very popular of a warm summer evening and at the top of a valley that collects and amplifies all the Ezan (calls to prayer) from many a Mosque below.... And of course Istanbul is a huge city with many many people living in apartments, so there's bound to be more noisy than er, smaller less crowded places....
So I'm currently inspired to write this blog entry by last night's particular noise:
They've set up an open-air cinema in the park below our house. I don't know what they are playing, since I can't actually leave the house in the evening, but it was a noisy, explosiony action thing, it finished late (after we'd already been woken by the evening Ezan) and when it finished everyone went (loudly) to play in the park and (loudly) home.... There was a lot of waking up.

Some other popular noise-making opportunities include:

• Weddings (driving round continuously beeping car horn, sometimes firing gun)
• Someone going to military service (see above)
• Almost any football match club or international (again see above and add some loud shouting, 'singing' and cheering) During the recent European cup games being in our house with the windows open was like being in a giant stadium. Good for Murat because he didn't feel so alone watching the match by himself but bad for baby... I went to bed, but I know they didn't win just because we didn't wake up again (there's no noise at all when there's no goal).
• Pretty much any traffic situation. You know, the light is red- or JUST turned green, you can see that the person in front is getting out of the taxi (with baby/ bag/ stroller) but you should beep anyway, it might make them hurry up- or NOT

Things I really like about living here, and some I really don't like...

Istanbul (and Turkey) is a place of extremes, and I'm not just talking about the weather, although that can be pretty extreme too!
Sometimes I encounter something that I really don't like and I have to stop and think of all the things I do like to remember why I am still here! I generally decide that the +s outweigh the -s... Here are a few of each:

I love....
The early morning; anywhere in the city (or out of it). Everything seems fresher, cooler, there is hardly anyone around. There is a certain (good) smell of early morning in all big cities... You can walk without banging into people, there's no traffic on the roads...
Shopping; You can get just about anything, at just about any time of day. None of this shops close at 17.30 kind of thing. There are a lot of malls, I have to confess that I like a good mall. There used to be a lot of good markets too but many (including my favourite Ulus Pazarı) have been closed down by the mean old city council unfortunately :(
Breakfast; I like breakfast pretty much anywhere, but Turkish breakfast is gooood, some things an aquired taste. Only really get the full breakfast on the weekend or when on holiday, but it should have these things: wrinkly but juicy black olives in olive oil with oregano and chilli pepper, fresh sourdough-like bread and simit (sesame-covered bread ring), honey and kaymak (the cream from the top of the yoghurt (mmmmm), CHEESE- white cheese, yellow chees, Tulum cheese, halloumi cheese, stringy cheese..., cucumber and tomato slices, homemade jam (cherry) and many many glasses of black tea. And then after you have eaten all that, an orta-şekerli (medium sweet) Turkish coffee...
Gezmek; If you ask Turkish people what they like doing in their spare time the chances are they will include 'gezmek' (along with 'read a book' ha ha :)); if you look in the dictionary, I think it translates as travelling, but that's not really what they mean. What they mean is they like to wander around with friends, look in the shops, drink some tea, eat some cake, wander some more, people-watch, drink some more tea.... you get the idea. So kind of walking/ shopping/ socializing/ eating/ drinking all rolled into one word!
A good soap opera; and they certainly have a lot of them! Over the last 2 or 3 years especially there seems to have been an explosion on the Turkish soap opera front. Some really are rubbish, but if you find a good one, of which there are plenty, then they are highly addictive and great for practicing Turkish. My favourites have just gone on summer hiatus and we won't be seeing them again till September.... I will write about them in a later blog.
Summer in the south; aaah Kaş, Bodrum, Fethiye, Antalya, Kemer, Ayvalık, Çeşme, Samos (actually Greek but hey). Oh that I could not work at all and just flit from one summer house to the next...!
Ordering in; You can order just about anything you want to your house by phone. I don't just mean pizza... Almost any kind of food, including just a loaf of bread or a watermelon if that's what you're after. Also, water, newspaper, simits, gas, a taxi. Now if I could just get the Kahve Dünyası on the corner to deliver...

....and the less desirables...
Taxi drivers; yes they are locals, and yes they may have been driving for the last 20, 30, 40 years, but inconceivable to them as it is, SOMETIMES the yabancı (foreign) girl in the back DOES know where she is going and which is the better way to go. Yes, really. I have a lot to say about taxi drivers so I may save it for a later date...
Shop Assistants; in all but very few places they feel they have to follow you around, very closely, the whole time you are in the shop as if you are about to steal something. I know they probably think they are being helpful, but it is nothing but annoying. Sometimes I just walk round and round the same stand till they get dizzy and give up. Interestingly if you actually DO want any assistance, they are suddenly nowhere to be seen. They also have an annoying habit of looking on the rack/ shelf for something you've asked for (when you have asked for it because it wasn't on the rack/shelf and you want them to actually go look in the storeroom)...
Waiters; Actually in general they are ok, and they love kids, which is a good thing. BUT, when you go and sit down in a cafe or restaurant and they come and ask you what you would like and you have to say A MENU please, that is just kind of time-wasty...
Uneven footpaths; Actually this is something I have only recently noticed. But there are LOT of them, and it makes pushing a baby stroller into a cross-training activity...

That's all for now...

Ana Haber (not literally) Evening News

When I came to Turkey in 2000 I was surprised by many things; the strange, the familiar, the wonderful, the downright weird and not so often but every now and then the bang-your-head-against-the-wall annoying.

Overall, what I found was somewhere I wanted to stay and make my home for the next I don’t know how long. These days when I watch the ‘Ana Haber’ with my husband Murat, I must make a lot of comments (now I understand it all)... because he said one day, why don’t you write a book? Was he being cheeky about the fact that I am always right? (I am, but I can’t help it!) I don’t know, but I do know he has started to see Turkey through different eyes since we met.

On arrival I was met at the airport by a friendly white-haired, moustachioed driver from my school-to-be, who spoke no English. So far not so surprising, all as expected. He drove me and another teacher to what seemed like the absolute other side of the huge and (in late August) dusty and hot city. I later realised it was only about half as far as we could have gone before getting to the real other side.
He dropped the other teacher off first and we continued on to the flat that was to be my ‘lojman’ for the next 12 months. He helped me with my bag (the pack I had been travelling with and living out of for the best of the previous 4 years), gave me the key, waved and drove off.
There was noone there, but Phil one of the flatmates had kindly left me a welcome note and some cash in case I hadn’t been able to change any yet.

I knew Turkey was quite different to other more conservative countries on this side of Europe, but as it was my first time in a Muslim country, I thought it best to be on the safe side, and although it was over 30 degrees outside I put on my long-sleeved shirt and headed out for a walk. After about 5 minutes I found my way to Akmerkez ...

In the last 2 years a multitude of shopping centres each better than the last have sprung up around the Levent area, but at that time Akmerkez was definitely the queen of shopping centres in Istanbul. Wonderfully air-conditioned for a start, Suzies and the places they love to shop, drink coffee and pose pose pose, and the others who watch the posers.

I was most definitely the frumpiest, most over-dressed person in the place, but I liked it and started to think that I was going to like it here. I couldn’t even ask for water in Turkish but managed to get myself some and a pide döner and it was all good....

Since then I have learned Turkish to the point I can understand almost everything and make myself understood in any situation, I have gotten to know the city better than many taxi drivers, been to the hairdresser more than in the rest of my entire life combined, come to the top of a career I thought I’d never do, tried one I absolutely hated, and had to stop saying sentences starting with ‘You would think....’ because here, many things are not done as you would think.... and most tourists and even many ex-pats experience only a very small fraction of Real Life In Turkey.

Now I have a half-Turkish daughter, I wonder what on earth she will grow up thinking :)

First Blog!

This is my entry into the world of the blog! I'm slightly techno-challenged but think I have succeeded in setting it up properly, let's see....
I've been inspired by others (see my fave links for Tinyhappy and Istanbuls Stranger). I hope anyone reading will enjoy and find it interesting :)

Wish me luck