Allegedly, today is Australia Day. I say allegedly because I did not realise this until I checked a favourite website of mine http://www.themusic.com.au and it was not updated – even after refreshing the page!

I then checked the date and thought, of course, it is Australia Day!

I don’t have anything planned for today. I am much more interested in Kurban Bayrami, beginning on the weekend. I will explain more about this later.

Happy Australia Day to anybody who cares!

On Thursday it rained continuously until the early evening. In the afternoon I drove Serkan around the city to help him with his duties. Several times it seemed like we were almost aquaplaning. The car (Renault Toros) would not operate properly on LPG so I had to swap it over to petrol.

On Tuesday night I went with Sevil to the Hilton for a ‘cocktail’ reception with the Canadian Ambassador, Mr. Michael Leir. Accompanying the Ambassador was Mr. Francois Lasalle, the Second Secretary (Commercial). They had come from Ankara to promote Canada and Canadian business. The others in attendance were businessmen, the 3 main mayoral candidates in the upcoming election and 3 or 4 Canadian teachers and partners from the Tarsus American College, Tarsus. One of the partners, Barry, had followed his wife from Qatar where he was working in materials management for a liquid natural gas (LNG) company. I enjoyed chatting with other native English speakers for a change.

Some thoughts I brought from the night:

-How many people do Ambassadors have to sincerely meet and greet each year, even though he/she will never meet almost all of them ever again?

-When will the Australian Ambassador (or any Australian Diplomat) come? I guess I have to ask to find out.

Christmas is but a memory, but I could not resist posting this photo of Vici and Tristan, the children of Mirjam and Sascha, my German friends. Aren’t they absolutely gorgeous?

The local authorities are currently installing a large (80 cm diameter?) concrete pipeline across from work. They started from an outlet at the river and have continued northwards. To facilitate installation, any cars in the way were unlocked with a hook and towed beyond harm’s reach. I do not know the purpose of the pipeline and hope it is for a positive reason.

The previous Friday night (16th) I caught the train to Adana to meet the trainees at the same pub as NYE. As well as meet Ali, Magda and Maria again I saw Fabs and Isa (German trainees) for the first time. I was also lucky enough to see Ebru and Kubilay and receive their wedding invitation for the 21st of February! Of course I accepted. I am excited!

On Saturday morning after a few hours not enough sleep at Ali’s I caught the train back to Mersin. Since NYE the single adult train ticket between Mersin and Adana has risen from 1,900,000 TL to 2,250,000 TL. Do they issue new tickets? No, just stamp or write the new prices on the old tickets! See below.

…I am busier at work. Yesterday I either made or received telephone calls from 6 countries and 4 continents. This is a most likely a personal record.

I recently got in touch again with my English cousin, Adrian. He is living in Atlanta, USA with his American wife, Therese, and their two young children, Olivia and Matthew. In 1999 I stayed with them (not Matthew – he wasn’t in existence then) at their previous abode in Bishop Stortford, north of London. I find out now that he is a cutting-edge high school chemistry teacher with a multi award winning website: http://www.westminster.net/faculty/dingle/. Go Adrian!

I have now added his website and also my muso Auntie Ronnie’s page to the links on the side ->