Perspective on a Scene – Everyday or Exotic?

Ebru dragged the shopping trolley over the paving stones and through the entrance into the market. Spring was just around the corner judging by the fruit tree saplings. She walked through the crowds, looking left and right at the piles of fruit and vegetables on low trestles on either side of the passage. Spring had not arrived to the stalls yet judging by the predominance of spinach and cabbage. Winding a path through the market she stopped in front of Click for more

An Uncomfortable Truth

This post transported me back to the early days after moving to this town. When it was all new and foreign and different. We wanted out. We were not going to have children here, not going to buy a house here, definitely not going to send the kids to school here. Twelve years later here we are. Still here. The town has changed in some ways; it’s a little prettier, has sprawled and is more crowded. There are signs of community at Click for more

Global Friends

A few months ago I participated in a six-week workshop called SUM-it UP run by Global Niche. I’ve known Anastasia and Tara, founders of Global Niche, for many years. We have something in common as wives who followed Turkish men home. The course itself looked deceptively simple. Six weeks of working through visions and goals, to what online platforms you want to present these on, to creating and action plan and implementing it. Easy. But somewhere along the line it Click for more

Changing My Viewpoint

A while back I realised that I had an attitude problem. It wasn’t immediately noticeable to everyone, in fact for the most part, nobody knew. But I knew and it was eating me up inside. This attitude was one that is probably not uncommon in expats. It’s a negative view of the country you live in, a pessimism that colours your view of everyone and everything. For a short-term expat this leads to a lot of comparisons with how things Click for more

Disconnected

We wait… But We have three 19 litre bottles under the stairs, Another 8 litres inside the house. Drinking water is delivered. Wipes can be used for grubby hands and faces, The kettles are all full. We can cope till the water returns.   We wait… But Our heating is an enclosed fireplace, logs stacked since June. The hob works with gas, the spare canister’s full. Torches and radios are tested and working, Phones are charged and spare batteries stockpiled, Click for more

Censorship

There are lots of things about Turkey and censorship that deserve attention. We could talk about the internet filters that not only catch porn but also some Darwinian websites. We could talk about journalists who write books about shadowy organisations, only to then be arrested on suspicion of being in said shadowy organisation. We could talk about journalists being arrested for not-entirely-clear reasons but possibly to do with their ethnic background. We could talk about the “mahalle baskisi”, the local Click for more

A Most Distinguished Visitor

I sat applying nail polish with exaggerated care. The care was exaggerated on two counts; first, I don’t wear it often and paint fingers as well as nails, and second, we were on a ferry. It wasn’t moving and it should have been; the second coat of polish was to distract me from that fact. Ten minutes after it should have and ten minutes before we were due to be at the far side of the far peninsula we finally Click for more