No, I am not talking about the legendary Queen album or classic Marx Brothers movie.

On Friday night, at the local Mersin culture hall, I attended my first ever night of opera!

4 young (in their 20’s to early 30’s I guess) opera singers took it in turns to belt out their pieces, accompanied by an Azerbaijani (but Mersin-based) pianist. The pianist is my boss’s daughter, Nur’s private piano teacher. There were 2 sets, the second one with a violinist and double-bassist. The final, famous piece was the only instrumental. So famous, I can’t remember it’s name. My main impression was the projection in the singer’s voices – able to compete with the might of the grand piano.

I have returned from a wonderful Christmas lunch at Janette and Marino’s. More about lunch later. Here is a rundown of my ‘Christmas experience 2003’:

Christmas Eve

For dinner I cooked stir-fry vegetables and chicken with rice.

The ingredients included: garlic, ginger, carrot, spring onion, cabbage, red cabbage, leek, broccoli, chilli flakes, light green capsicum, spinach, whole peppercorns, 3 eggs in an omelette, chicken breast, roasted peanuts, soy sauce and rice.

I overcooked the meal, per usual, but it still tasted great, although not as great as the 8 Tim Tams!

After a wonderful bath, I opened my present from Annie and David – I received a packet of Tim Tams, some silver tinsel and a Christmas tree wall hanging. The wall hanging and tree are now decorating the entrance ‘hall’ and the Tim Tams are finished – mainly by slurping coffee through the centre in the traditional way – the Tim Tam Slam. Thank you very much Annie and David!

My former flatmate, Umut, rang from Istanbul late last night and we chatted for almost half an hour. Earlier in the month he became engaged to long-term girlfriend, Beysun, in her hometown Usak. Congratulations Umut!

Christmas Day

I woke up around 8 (a sleep-in!). The sun was shining and it looked a beautiful day. As an infidel I was given the day off work. For breakfast something healthy was required to recover from the Tim Tams and prepare for lunch. I ate my final persimmon, 2 mandarins and an apple accompanied by a cup of tea.

I then remembered I had 4 Tim Tams remaining. Boom! In a moment, none were left and the health wish was delayed for a day. Hey, it is Christmas, and one day of overeating in Turkey is far healthier than one month in Australia!

After breakfast I wrote several postcards before getting dressed and heading to work at 11 or so on this great morning. In my boss’s office I called the family via an Internet phone system work was testing. The telephone call was incredibly cheap at about 100,000 TL per minute but the quality was poor. I chatted to Mum, Dad, Liam, Anna, Shannon, Marga and Poppop in the house I grew up in, Price Street, Thevenard. They were finishing the prawns and pudding for dinner after earlier eating roast pork and other goodies. I don’t remember the other foods as thoughts about roast pork took priority…. I was on the phone for 40 minutes – about $4 Aussie worth! Unfortunately, the quality of the phone call is not enough to justify work keeping the Internet phone service.

Lunch

After 12:30 it was time to catch the bus to the Marina apartment complex and grab some wine and cola for Christmas lunch at Marino and Janette’s. At this lunch were another Aussie, Katarina – the Hilton Manager, Central Americans, Ukrainians – Natalie and her son, Italians – including Bruno, the local Catholic priest, and others. It truly was expatriate central. The menu was potato salad with prawns, sliced meats, two types of lamb, roast pumpkin, potato fritters, zucchini, wines, some fantastic sweets from the Hilton and topped off with expresso coffee. Some great discussions about living in Mersin versus Istanbul, philosophy and other topics were aired. Afterwards, Natalie kindly dropped me off back in Camlibel.

Thank you Marino, Janette and all others who prepared the special Christmas meal of 2003.

So, that was Christmas 2003.

Bring on 2004!!!!

Yesterday afternoon work received a surprise when one of our former clients walked into the office. In 2002 we sent Hamdi to the US on an internship in the hospitality field. His program in Georgia lasted 18 months and he arrived back in Turkey last week. Hamdi, from Gaziantep, now has a couple of subjects left to complete his degree at Mersin University. I chatted with him about his experience in the US and, like most such occasions, returning back to Turkey is just as much a challenge as moving to the US.

After work Hamdi and I played pool and billiards at my local place, 10 minutes walk from work. He used to play billiards a lot during high school. Although the pool games went either way, billiards was one-sided and I became student, learning tricks and techniques from Hamdi the teacher.

Certain songs, artists or albums bring back memories of past times, locations and situations. I don’t know why, but Friday night, in bed early with my new hot water bottle for company, I started writing down the music that reminded me of past times. Perhaps I was feeling particularly reminiscent that night.

Seminal Music and Memories.htm

As predicted on 17 December, the black-out that day was not the last this winter.

Work was rudely interrupted two or three times on both Thursday and Friday afternoons. Almost all of my work involves some use of electricity – normally via computer so when the power stops – most of my work options also end. Depending upon the excitement factor and urgency of the work at hand, some breaks are appreciated whilst others are not.

Mersin and Al Qaeda

“Bin Laden, during his meeting with Aktas and Kus, first suggested an attack against Incirlik Air Base, a sprawling facility used by U.S. troops or U.S. or Israeli ships using the Mediterranean port of Mersin, according to the police description of Yitiz’ interrogation.

But security at the air base and the Mersin harbor made the attack too difficult. Coast guard cutters protect the harbor and Turkish forces patrol the base’s perimeters. A high wall also was erected around the base before the Iraq war.”

If the security around Mersin’s port or Incirlik Airbase (70 km away) was not strong enough, Osama Bin Laden’s Turkish followers would have bombed these places instead of the synagogues, bank and British Consulate-General in Istanbul. Apparently, according to the article, Osama did not authorise the strikes in Istanbul and was angry that Turks/Muslims died. As if Osama cares about people dying.

Life in Mersin would have been far more interesting if an Israeli or American ship or two was blown up.

I think I prefer the currently unexciting Mersin than the alternative. Sometimes boring is better…

After the rain came the wind. The iron sheeting on the ‘balcony’, where the smokers smoke, was making a fierce noise. Even the front door had to be locked to stop the wind from opening it.

After the wind came the rain with the wind. The electricity went in the early afternoon and did not return until the evening, well after work closed. Most of the afternoon I sat completing the little non-electric-based work I could whilst the office grew darker and darker as the sun went down. By 5:30 pm the candles took full effect.

This was the first black-out for the winter. Most likely it is not the last.

At the moment the sun is shining. However, the last 3 days have been cold and wet. This morning the rain was very heavy. The last few days remind me a little of the late 2001 floods, except then it was 3 weeks on non-stop rain. Thankfully, that is unlikely to happen again soon.