The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and have just updated their travel advice for Turkey. They did not heed my suggestion to warn against thinking about Petek Dincoz when crossing the road 🙂
Currently, this webpage is number 1 out of 123,739 MSN Search results for the words “petek dincoz photos“.
This is displayed on the screenshot below (click on the image for a larger version).
Petek Dincoz is a Turkish singer, but she is not just any singer.
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With the boss away, catching up to do from the just gone holiday, and several time-intensive student files, I am very busy at work this week. Reflecting this, I have yet to write up the Syria trip on the blog and the number of emails to deal with in my personal email account has snuck passed 40.
Oh yeah, happy Australia/Invasion Day!
From the Turkish Daily News, a story with potential political implications:
There were also gory scenes in and around Aleppo’s souk on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I will write about this with the rest of the Syrian write-up.
From Thursday to Sunday is a four day holiday called “Kurban Bayrami” (in Turkish: Sacrifice Holiday) or Eid-ul-Adha. Throughout the Islamic world millions of sheep, goats, cattle and other animals will be killed and the meat eaten and distributed to the poor. Tonight I am off to see Toygun in Adana on the way to Aleppo (again) via Antakya.
This time of the Islamic calender (it varies slightly for each Gregorian year) is also the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudia Arabia. Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam that every Muslim who can afford to, should do at least once in their life.
This year, along with two million others, my boss is taking his parents-in-law on Hajj. They are on a three week trip arranged by the official Turkish Hajj agency. If my boss had his way he would have chosen a 10 day trip through a private agency. In Turkey (and probably in other Muslim countries), people who have been on Hajj are traditionally called “Haci” (pronounced: Haji).
The BBC News website has several informative links:
As is said in Turkish: Kurban Bayraminiz Kutlu Olsun!
There were no persimmons in all but one of the neighbourhood fruit and vegetable shops I passed. The season for this year is as good as over. To satisfy my hunger for this gorgeous fruit, I bought the remaining 4 kg from the one shop with any persimmons left.
1 kg has already entered my mouth either straight or in a yoghurt smoothy. One cannot get enough!
From Our Own Correspondent is one of my favourite programmes on BBC World Service radio. From Our Own Correspondent consists of stories written and presented by BBC correspondents from all around the world.
A recent story contained very interesting views on future trends. A couple of futurists argue the Internet will massively disrupt life.
I can relate personally to almost all of the predictions made including the prominence of the Internet, reduced reliance on cars and increased inner-city living.
Here are a few quotes:
Most of the time the future is just like the present, but a little bent.
That, say William and Julie Draves, is dead wrong.
and
We parents do not understand our children, say these educationalists, for good reason. They understand the future and we do not.
Read the whole article.
My boss just came back from Izmit this morning. With her, she brought some delicious Turkish chocolates. The chocolate and caramel covered hazelnuts are addictive. They come in white and normal chocolate varieties. The chocolates are of the “Bolci” brand, made by “Deniz Pastahanesi” from Bolu, a city midway between Ankara and Istanbul. Delicious!
