I have modified the blog template in order to improve the blog. The sidebar is thinner and there are added lines to both the sidebar and in between posts.

I have also added a Bloglet subscription. On the right hand side, under the photo you can add your email address to the box and press the subscribe button. Every day I post you will automatically receive an email with the first line or two of the story and a link. Thank you to Turkish Torque for the idea.

PS: Joe’s Ramblings is best viewed with a Mozilla browser and a 1024×768 or larger screen. Some of the formatting in Internet Explorer browsers and smaller screens is less than optimal.

A few minutes ago I heard a sound similar to a baby hip and shouldering the office glass. I walked over to see the following squashed against the front door:

Some like it kinky…

Whilst in London I had to buy the following:

Thorntons is my late English Great, Great Aunt’s favourite brand of chocolate. The “Turkish Delight” in Australia and the UK is very different to the real stuff and is normally coated in chocolate.

I first met Jeff when he was a trainee teaching English at the Turkish American Association in Adana during the summer of 20012. He is a prolific commentator on Joe’s Ramblings and has now started his own blog at http://jjcary.blogspot.com/ in preparation for his time in the Syria and Jordan this summer. I look forward to reading about his adventures in the upcoming months.

This summer Turkey is hosting possibly its two largest ever “sports” events for the first time ever: soccer’s European Champions League final featuring Liverpool and AC Milan on 25 May and a round of the Formula 1 Grand Prix on 21 August. Both will be held in Istanbul.

I write “sports” in quotation marks because it is very difficult to classify Formula 1 as a sport. Money, politics, cigarette advertising and business seem far more important than competing on a level track. The same could be said for the Champions League, particularly since a club does not need to be a champion to enter (see: Liverpool :-)) and it can favour the losers of the larger leagues more than the champions of the smaller leagues, but that is another story.

I used to take an interest in the grand prix, particularly when a round was formerly held in my old city of Adelaide, Australia. My first year of university, 1995, was also the final year of the Adelaide Grand Prix. The roar of the cars could be heard from the exam room. Rumour has it, “Free As A Bird” the Beatles song was played in public for the first time ever when George Harrison asked a nightclub DJ to play it whilst George was in town for the 1995 grand prix.

The Adelaide Grand Prix was voted the best grand prix of the year several times. Generally, when a venue is the absolute best at an event, it normally keeps that event. However, politics and money got in the way and from 1996 onwards, the grand prix has been held in Melbourne. Not that I give a damn anymore.

As an interesting aside to the Champions League final, the venue, Ataturk Olympic Stadium’s website has links to the following information leaflets:

Pick the odd one out

–

–

–

If you guessed the leaflet to the right, you are correct!

AC Milan (from Milan, Italy) is playing in the final and “Informazioni per il pubblico” is in Italian, so why is the third leaflet “Spanish”?

Despite the politics I hope the grand prix round and Champions League final are both successful and bring great happiness to many Turkish and other people. My tip for the soccer final?

May the best, most entertaining team who dives in the penalty box the least win 🙂

Last Sunday, 1 May, I caught the train to Adana to visit my work’s other office and say hi to Buket along with Liviu, Victor, Thomas and Rifeh at the trainee house.

In the space opposite the train station, a rally was taking place. I recognised DEHAP (the main Kurdish party) banners. A portable police fence surrounded the area. At the back (towards the east) were two groups of riot police, a trailer full of police dogs and several police tanks (yes, just like in the army). I would like to have photographed the different police vehicles and officers to put on the blog, but I did not want to face the risk of interrogation or other fun.

Thankfully, full use of the resources were not required that day.

1) I can understand the lyrics better!

Mix FM, the local DJ-less foreign (non-Turkish) music station is playing a few songs that would never make it on daytime radio in the English-speaking world. Most of the music is is the same 30 or 40 songs rotated, often similar beat house and pop music. A few songs stick out:

a) One song, the title I’m not aware of, at various stages contains the spoken words “f%$k you” repeated over and over again.

b) Another song Jose Nunez’s Bilingual contains the (again) spoken word phrase “You f%$king me makes me bilingual” repeated four times in a row, twice.

As the radio at work is usually used for background music, I am likely the only person who understands the lyrics. I enjoy having a laugh and only wish my workmates could understand (or maybe I don’t :-).

I wonder what would happen if the equivalent Turkish phrases were on the radio?

I must go now and listen to the music…

Ayse, a Turkish university student friend wrote an email to me in response to my blog, generally, and this post, particularly. She asked if I could put her email on my blog and I have gladly done so:

I am sorry but I can not understand why you are in need of comparing Mersin/Turkey with other cities /countries of the world.That you are not satisfied with the situation you are in ,doesnt mean that you can show it to everybody on your ramblings.About 10.000 people will believe what they see,and in fact what they see may not reflect the reality.

You wrote that there were advertisement of shoes showing some naked models near a mosque in Mersin and said that:Only in Turkey ! Now,I want to say that Joe,is it normal for you tobe in a pub and to drink bear opposite of a cathedral?is not it ironic?

As you see in every areas of the world such kind of things may happen ok.I just want you to be more carefull while writing about Turkey.I thought that you love Turkey but I dont think like that as ı see your complains,if you really dont like you dont have to stay there.

Do you know that two weeks ago I watched a documentary about aborigines ,and then there were some Australian people walking there and they didnt want to let cameraman to take photos of aborigines.And the reason why they didnt want to show them to the world is that Australians feel ashamed of them though Australians made them to live in bad situations.