Some more goodies received in the mail this week. Thank you Mum and Dad for the 2004 Australian Bird calender. Thank you also Annie and David for the Christmas present. It will not be opened until Christmas!

Today I ate roast chicken and vegetables for Sunday lunch.

Salih Usta roasted my meal of chicken portions surrounded and covered by whole onions, garlic cloves, chunks of potato, capsicum, tomato, broccoli stork and carrot, spiced with blck peppercorns and salt with fresh coconut shavings for flair. This was the first time I have made my own roast since I came back to Turkey and it was delicious!

My flat, like many, if not, most, Turkish homes, does not have an oven.

If I require anything cooked in an oven, I have to go Salih Usta (“Salih Master”) across the street. Cooking my meal today cost 500,000 TL, less than 50 cents Australian. Salih operates a wood-fired oven. On Sunday afternoons During Ramadan his business was obscenely busy. All the Turkish families were preparing their Iftar (fast-breaking meal) and many required Salih’s services.

Military Service

On Friday night friends Toygun and Kerem visited.

This week Toygun will be entering the military service, something compulsory for all Turkish males. There is no choice for community service or any other alternative. As Toygun (a university graduate) will be an Officer, his service is for a year. University graduates normally have military service for 6 or 7 months. Non-graduates, longer. He does not know where he will be posted and will find out in his first few days.

I had not seen Kerem for at least a year and it was a great surprise to see him. In 2002-2003 he had undertaken his military service as a translator and editor (his English is excellent). For about 3 months Kerem served in Afghanistan. He told some stories bout how he hated his first month there and that Kabul airport had loads of wrecked aircraft and other stuff. I look forward to viewing his photos.

This morning Serkan checked the mail at post office (PTT) and brought it to work.

Amongst the usual education brochures and posters were:

a) A birthday card from Annie and David – thank you very much. The card with 2 earthworms looking at a can of spaghetti with the quote “Ooh Look Steve – An Orgy” received many laughs!

b) A Christmas card and Haighs chocolates from Mum and Dad – Cok Tesekur Ederim! I have not touched the chocolates yet and don’t plan to until Christmas….you know what they do with plans…

c) Pearl Jam’s new rarities double CD “Lost Dogs” and double DVD “Live at the Garden” a live concert from Madison Square Garden earlier this year.

I was going to buy them from my local newsagent/bookstore/music retailer, Kitapsan. When I went there the products weren’t there and would come a week later. That is not why I did not buy them from Kitapsan. Foreign music double CDs at Kitapsan normally cost 40 million! From pearljamstore.com, a band-affiliated website based in the US I could buy CD and DVD, including $7 postage and handling, for USD 31.98. This amount is about 46 million TL, only 6 million more than just the CD and about 30% less than both the CD and DVD at my local shop!

On Monday I received a birthday card from Nanna and Grandpop – thank you very much!

As with custom, in the card were 2x$1 Australian scratch and win tickets.

Guess what? On one of the tickets I won $2!

It is extremely unlikely (to put it mildly) that my winning ticket will be valid in Turkey so I will send it back to Australia.

For a thank you, I will send Nanna and Grandpop a Turkish scratchie. Let’s hope they win many millions, if not billions of Turkish lira!

This morning at work the big story is the ‘fare’ (mouse in English) that entered the front door at work chased by a cat. The ladies were not very calm and collected. Serkan and I chased it out of the office using broomsticks. I then did what any good country-grown Aussie would have done and ensured the mouse did not see any more of its current life. The other workers were not impressed but I was happy to see the end of the ‘fare’. The air freshener has already had a spray.

I hardly see any mice in Turkey. I can’t recall observing a mouse previously. There are many stray cats so the mice don’t usually have a chance. Here, Rats outnumber the mice.

I have started a second blog on the Australians Abroad website at: http://coolabah.com/ausblog/turkey

As the name suggests, this website is aimed at Australians who live away from Australia. My 2nd blog will have different content to this one.

In the 3rd episode of the Grasshopper I thought he had left my apartment environs for good.

One day last week I rediscovered the grasshopper!

He was hiding on a work shirt of mine in the wardrobe!

The shirt is now hanging back on the clothes line and the grasshopper has hardly moved since. I believe the only possible reason for this situation is the grasshopper is hibernating. This thought had crossed my mind previously however I did not take it seriously as hibernating in sunny, mild weather did not make sense.