On the right of the page, under “Where are you in the world?”, there is a button to click on. Please click on this and add your post and message to the world map. I want to see little smiling humans and read messages from all over the world so get cracking!

I recently heard some very juicy election-related gossip. It involved significant $$ and some important political figures in both Mersin and Turkey nationally. I can’t disclose as I do wish to live. If this particular story gets out there I will write about it here.

For months I have wondered why certain text messages sent with my telephone took 2 or 3 messages (sets of credit) to send whilst other messages of the same character length only required one lot of credit. I theorised about what caused this difference.

Was it:

a) the time of the day/night I sent the messages?

b) the service provider, Telsim’s settings?

c) how soon after buying credits I made the messages (a special offer for new purchases perhaps)?

d) the mobile service provider of the message recipient (messages to other providers cost more)?

e) another random reason?

I soon discounted all but e. However, a few days ago even e was proven wrong.

The actual explanation:

A standard 2-credit message on my pre-paid Telsim account can be up to 160 characters in length. After 160 characters a second lot of 2 credits is required. However, for messages that use certain non-English characters, including the Turkish letters ı (un-dotted i) and ç, the message can only be 67 characters long before incurring a second lot of credits. If I don’t use these non-English credits I will always obtain 160 characters in value for each message. I don’t know why this is the case. I could understand if these non-English letters ‘used’ 2 or 3 character spaces per letter, but not why the single message size reduces by 93 characters!

Could any tech or telco person explain this?

After work Thursday I caught the bus to the suburb of Pozcu. There I ate dinner with Efkan, Devrim and Aslı. Devrim and Aslı are Turkish sisters who grew up with their family in West Berlin. The family moved back to Turkey over 10 years ago. Dinner was spaghetti, salad and fried chicken with pudding for desert. Accompanying this feast was home-baked German-style bread. This bread was far heavier than Turkish bread and the first thing I thought when I tasted it was how good ‘kaymak’ (fresh cream) would taste with it. The next day I bought some cream…mmmm…lovely.

From Pozcu I walked home along the coast. At home I prepared some notes for my approaching interview and snoozed for a short while in the lounge room before readying myself in the bedroom. I was excited but not nervous. Several years ago I would have been extremely nervous for such an occasion.

As expected, at 11:20 pm (5:50 am Adelaide time) Mick the producer called me on my mobile phone. The line was very poor so I moved back to the lounge room and Mick called me again – better this time. I spoke to a lady and was put onto the Bald Brothers. I can’t remember which Brother I spoke to.

The news of the morning was Alexander Downer, Australia’s Foreign Minister, recommending Australians to avoid visiting Gallipoli on ANZAC Day. This was the main subject of the interview. After the interview, I pondered saying ‘I would rather believe Mr. Downer’s credibility with fishnet stockings than foreign policy’. Alexander is infamous for the photo of him in fishnet stockings (read the story here). Other subjects mentioned included Turkey’s hyper-inflationary past and my job.

I won’t go into much detail as everybody can listen to the interview themselves at http://www.abc.net.au/adelaide/stories/s1079648.htm. I have not listened to it myself but I plan to soon. I would have liked to speak for much longer as the interview time went so fast. I wanted to speak on more topics and plug AIESEC, Australians Abroad, this website and other stuff but didn’t have time. At the end I managed to say hello to Eilish and Breandan, my niece and nephew.

Following the interview I listened to the classic ABC news introduction tune over the phone before saying bye to Mick. After hanging up I found it very difficult to go to sleep as my body was experiencing a mild high.

Over at Australians Abroad I have followed up the 2004 Turkish Local Government Special.

Friday morning at 5:50 am (11:20 pm Turkish time) South Australian time I will be interviewed live by the Bald Brothers on ABC radio in Adelaide. My interview will be put up afterwards on the following page http://www.abc.net.au/adelaide/expats/.

I look forward to speaking on the radio and talking about my time in Turkey.

The Bald Brothers are looking for more expatriate Adelaideans to interview, so if you are from Adelaide and living overseas, write to them.