For the past hour the same 4 seconds of a dodgy dance song have been looping on Mix FM, Mersin’s automated, foreign music, dj-free radio station.

I wonder when either the CD will become unstuck or the producer will make an emergency visit to the radio station and fix it. If I don’t get up soon and turn the radio off, something or someone will become the victim of a crazed Australian 🙂

PS: In the morning a short guitar strumming piece was played over and over again on the same station for at least 30 minutes.

I’ve just made a few modifications to the website.

*In two days’ time I’ll have a digital camera. With the convenience of digital I’ll upload many more photos. In anticipation of this, I have removed the ‘Photo Of The Moment’ and replaced it with a smaller photo of myself, helping put a face to the words.

*The blog and website links are better organised. There are now new categories: “Other Australian Expat Blogs” and “Australian Blogs” and I have added new links. Blogs not updated in the past 3 months have a line through them. These lined links still work, though (well they should!).

*To make the blog easier to read I want to restrict the width of the blog posts to 600. However, whatever html I adjust, does not seem to perform the function. Could someone more knowledgeable please look at the page source and suggest something? I would be most grateful.

ADDENDUM: I forgot to mention I added a “Commerce” category under the website links. If you ever want to buy a poster or anything from Amazon.com you can help me by purchasing via my links.

I don’t know how credible this story is as it is poorly written and I have not heard it from any other source. If true, it is a sad indictment on Mersin society.

National athlete froze to death at street

Turkish National athlete Cihan Kesici, who had represented Turkey in various contest for many times, could not bear freezing weather with his blanket at street, and passed away in the hospital he taken.

Cihan Kesici striking the agenda of Turkey last month with DIHA’s story entitled ” The national athlete who has presented Turkey in 60 international competitions” has been living at street” lost his life in Mersin. Although his strong body had been able to struggle in 60 contests, he could not bear freezing the cold weather living homeless underneath a blanket. Being about to freeze to death, he was taken to Mersin State Hospital with aids of shopkeepers nearby, but could not saved from death in spite of medical interventions. His funeral ceremony to which none of his relatives attend was held by his a few friends in Guneykent City Graveyard, Mersin.

Striking claim

The shopkeepers helping Kesici taken to hospital have kept the officials accountable for national athlete’s death said “It has been rainy for many days and Kesici escaped from freezing danger times and times. We called an ambulance last Sunday. The officials in the vehicle did not accept to take him into the vehicle because he was ‘very dirty’, so they left him ill with his bad situation. Is human life so cheap?”

Link

I work directly across the river 100 metres from the stadium where the main Mersin soccer team, Mersin Idman Yurdu, play in.

Today, via a new article on the web, I found out an Australian soccer player was playing for Mersin Idman Yurdu until last week when he returned to Australia and signed with Sydney FC.

How did I not know?

Admittedly, Ufuk Talay is of Turkish origin so he would have been treated as a local here. If he was an Australian of non-Turkish origin I’m sure every local would have told me of his existence 10 times over.

See the Sydney Morning Herald (subscription) and SBS for their versions on the story.

On a side note: it is funny how many Australian websites write “Mersin Idman Yurdu” as “Mersin Ydman Yurdu”. This is because the capital Turkish capital dotted I (“İ”) often appears as a “Y” on non-Turkish enabled computers.

Believe it or not, in the recent past there was a website called Mersin Love Fest On-Line located at MersinLoveFest.net. The website does not exist any more but is cached at Google.

Swingers or groupies in Mersin? Never heard of it before but anything is possible…

As mentioned earlier, my boss is in Saudi Arabia for Hajj.

Whilst there, he is taking advantage to look at the digital cameras and their lower than Turkish prices. This time next week I should have a Sony DSC-P73 in my hands.

Yeah, baby!

Back in October last year I wrote about the Winter Throwing Cup, not sure exactly what it was about.

a few days ago I came across the official website at Mersin2005.org:

The 5th edition of the European Winter Throwing Cup will be held in the City of Mersin, one of the most ancient settlements in the Mediterrenaen (sic) region, but one of the newest cities in Turkey. With its history dating back to the Neolithic period, the region boasts of rich and historical and cultural treasures.

The European Winter Throwing Cup will be the first EAA event to be welcomed in Mersin, but the City is well experienced in throwing events. National Winter Championships are staged every year in Mersin and the City hosts annual national and international training camps for throwers.

Judging by the pictures on the website, the Winter Throwing Cup consists of javelin, shot put, discus and the hammer throw.

The website is poorly written/designed for such a ‘major’ event. One has to click on the Programme link on the left to find out the event dates (12 & 13 March) and what it exactly consists of. The dates should be on the front page.

If I am around then I definitely intend on attending at least one day and reporting back. Should I sign up for a media pass? 😉

The other day I received a card in the mail from my niece, Eilish.

The cover:

The letter:

The word for word translation based on my lower-intermediate knowledge of child-language:

To Joseph, I know you are in Turkey ’cause no you. I miss in you I. Love Eilish

The reply: