Monday, August 18, 2008

cravings...


So now I'm not pregnant anymore, I shouldn't be having cravings-? Not that I really had them when I was pregnant, but you're supposed to right? It was a good excuse to just have things that you like all the time anyway....

So now that there is a tiny bit of a summer lull at work, my Assistant DoS and Bad Influence Number One MAO and I have been craving the donut. and the cupcake.

I don't thing she's pregnant either, we're just a little bored of profiterol and bisküvi and want what we can't have (easily), that is DELICIOUS donuts and cupcakes. Now MAO lives conveniently near a Dunkin Donuts, about the best you can do in the land of Baklava (also nice in its own way, but so AVAILABLE), so she's been scoffing donuts and real coffee all weekend and is now taunting me with tales of that and the apparently Fabulous Tim Hortons (Donut Mecca of Canada), which she also can't go to at the moment but would like to.

So Dunkin Donuts are a bit few and far between here in Istanbul (probably for the best really), and I do like a good Turkish desert- Ekmek Kadayıfı with Kaymak (bread absolutely soaked in gooey syrup served with clotted cream.... mmmmm

But sometimes you just want one of these.....

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Steph's tül perde nightmare (net curtains)

So I've been quite busy lately hence no insights or ranting. However, for one reason or another I have been looking at flats on the internet (we kindof sortof thinking about buying/ renting a cheaper place/ also helping new teachers look for places etc) and would like to share a few of my findings and thoughts on the matter.

There's a website that's very popular here for buying, selling and renting all sorts of things from cars to pet cages to houses and its called http://www.sahibinden.com/ , which means 'from the owner', although the majority of things are not actually from the owner. Its only in Turkish, so most readers won't be able to look at it, but with a bit of a search you can find good places (we found our old Rümeli Hısar flat on there) and you can also see some of the scariest 'decor' you can imagine (and beyond). I wish I'd saved some of the photos I have come across in the last few months because there have been some UNBELIEVABLY tasteless items; of course now that I'm looking for some horrendous examples to attach to my blog, I can only find lüks (luxury), sıfırlanmış (completely redecorated) and Çok Şık (er, very chic- that is definitely debatable though!). I did manage to find a few gems though that I will include for your entertainment. Anyone say MuMu?? Is that what they are called??!
There are a couple of things that seem to be either absolutely STANDART (say STUN-DART- you MUST have these otherwise your place will be totally uninhabitable); these include the çelik kapı (steel door, very important for security), parke (parquet floor) laminate or otherwise, pimapen (white metal window frames, there are many companies that make these (pakpen, adopen, winpen, whateverpen) but they are all the same and unless you want your house to be 'not modern', you'd better get some, saten boya (glossy paint (!!), and of course a Kombi (thermostat heater control thing which puts you in charge of when you have heat)....

Then there are other er, desirables, for example a portmanto (enormous cupboard thing by the front door to put all your shoes, your slippers, guest slippers and jackets in), a 'Hilton' lavabo/duş kabini (I think this is one of those things that has taken the brand name of the most popular manufacturer, but it basically means a new- and STANDART- toilet/ shower stall), some panjur (metal blind things that you can roll down over your windows so your house is like a bunker), and it should be kartonpiyerli; as far as I can tell, this is the kind of white plaster pelmet thing that cover the curtain tracks....

As far as I'm concerned, you'd also definitely also want to have an asansör (elevator), a balkon (balcony), not be on the bodrum or zemin katlar (basement or ground floor), have or be near an oyun parkı (playground) and to be tertemiz (spotlessly clean).

Now of course after you rent/buy the place, you MUST have it repainted (by a painter at excessive cost, not by yourself) and get some new NET CURTAINS; The title of this blog actually in honour of my Mother-in-law. She is kind of obsessed by net curtains, although from the evidence I've seen, this certainly isn't specific to her. She has been hoping, hinting and occasionally directly asking that we get net curtains for the past 6 years. She is quite persistent because she hasn't given up yet, but she does not yet know the depths of either my stubbornness, or my aversion to net curtains. I hate net curtains. Especially ones like this that go up in the middle:
Now I can see why you wouldn't want your very close neighbours in the next apartment looking straight into your salon (living room) and luckily I have avoided the problem by only living in flats so far with noone directly across from said salon. I've kept (normal) curtains or cane blinds closed in the bedroom and I don't really care if someone quite far away can kind-of see into the kitchen. However, there must be a better option than the standart white often frilly variety- some kind of organza-type folding blind maybe??
I thought this subject would come to a head when Arwen was born and my Mother-in-law started spending 4 days a week staying with us, but luckily our current house looks out on a park and is not overlooked by anyone, except in the kitchen where the panjur can be kept down. Of course it was not going to be acceptable that Arwen's room had no tül perde as, you know, the DUST (read: the DEVIL) would get in, and so (rightly assuming that I was not planning to get any) my sister-in-law (also afflicted by the love of net cutains) made some, came over and hung them herself :) They're actually quite nice for a little girl's room as they have butterflies and flowers on them and coordinating normal curtains in pink so I didn't protest.... and its been all quiet on the curtain front for a while now... until last night!

We were looking at a house for sale in a site (housing complex) and it happened to be the garden floor flat. It looked really quite nice (all the above mentioned requirements + security and a swimming pool). Mother -in-law liked it too and said that it was lovely and all we would need to do is get it painted (it was a brand new building) and er, get some tül perde..... as you would......

I'm kind-of worried that I might wake up one day and all the windows might be covered in drapey, frilly tül perde!!!

So, here are a few other scary (and scarily common) things I found for your entertainment...