On Saturday, with Helin and Kerem, I went to the Metro Cinema to watch S.W.A.T., starring Australian boy Colin Farrell and Pulp Fiction maestro Samuel L Jackson. S.W.A.T. is an acronym for ‘Special Weapons and Tactics’ and this movie was centred upon the Los Angeles Police Force S.W.A.T. Team. In a summary, the movie was a good fun action movie of a higher complexity and standard than the average Stallone, Scwarzenegger stuff.

Movies often reflect some aspects of society.

Without giving the plot away, S.W.A.T. is about the good guys, the S.W.A.T. team, winning against the bad guys, a Mafia guy and his associates. What was most interesting for me was that the mafia guy was French and not the traditional Italian, Russian or Chinese. In my opinion, this is a reflection of American society’s recent disliking of the French over the war in Iraq. No coincidence, I say.

On the topic of Iraq, I am gladdened to hear of Sadamn’s capture. I hope it means the end of a terrible era in Iraq. I also hope it does not mean the re-elections of government in the US, UK and Australia.

Sadamn, show us where the weapons of mass destruction are! They must be somewhere; after all, the Australian Government put Australian soldiers’ lives in danger on the other side of the world because of the threat of WMDs.

Court rejects application for under-age marriage

In the 21st century, how can a 16 or 17 year old person make the decision to choose their partner for the rest of their life? It sure beats me.

Turkish Economy Grows 4.9 Percent In Third Quarter Of 2003

“Gross National Product figure for the third quarter of 2003 is 108 quadrillion 383 trillion 823 billion Turkish liras (TL) in current prices and it is 39 trillion 329 billion TL in real terms.”

Great to see the economy is moving.

My neighbourhood is a mix of people, both poor and okay financially. In one section is a bunch of children around 10 years old. During weekends and school holidays they hang around the block between home and work not doing much. Sometimes they are fun and entertaining. Other times they are rude and downright offensive. Almost always when they see me they yell out my name and enthusiastically run towards me. I encounter them most often on the way to or from work. The kids often find my name hard to pronounce and on many occasions I am called ‘George’. Virtually the only English phrases I hear them say are the universal “What is your name?” “Where are you from?” and “How old are you?” The novelty for them of me as a foreigner will take a long way to wear off.

After Liam (my brother) visited Mersin the children kept asking “Aliam nerede?” (Where is Aliam?). They also ask for the photos he took of them. Even now, more than 3 months (wow, is it that long?) since Liam left, I still get the occasional question concerning his whereabouts. The kids would have little to no concept of Australia, a country so far away.

The children are undisciplined and behave erratically. One of the boys has a habit of repeatedly saying “I f**k you” towards me. On the outside I pretend to ignore or not understand. Inside, it irritates but I just have to stay calm. The other day a few alternate boys were mimicking him even though they couldn’t even pronounce the words properly, let alone understand their meaning. One time a kid threw a soccer ball at my back. I picked up the ball and threatened to throw it into the river. In a flash one of the girls had a stone in her hand ready to let it go in my direction. Several times the kids come outside work and create a racket, attempting to get my attention until they are shooed away. They are normally just bored.

Once the feelings of annoyance or happiness go away, my strongest feeling towards the children is of pity. If only they could be brought up in a disciplined matter. I doubt that has/is/will happen as their parents are likely to be either uneducated and/or working long hours and lack the knowledge or time to look after their children properly. Maybe I am judging too much into the situation and the children are only displaying the naiveté and freedom of childhood and will develop into well-mannered adults. Perhaps. After all, I was much older than 10 when my childish habits wore off.

Some more goodies received in the mail this week. Thank you Mum and Dad for the 2004 Australian Bird calender. Thank you also Annie and David for the Christmas present. It will not be opened until Christmas!

Today I ate roast chicken and vegetables for Sunday lunch.

Salih Usta roasted my meal of chicken portions surrounded and covered by whole onions, garlic cloves, chunks of potato, capsicum, tomato, broccoli stork and carrot, spiced with blck peppercorns and salt with fresh coconut shavings for flair. This was the first time I have made my own roast since I came back to Turkey and it was delicious!

My flat, like many, if not, most, Turkish homes, does not have an oven.

If I require anything cooked in an oven, I have to go Salih Usta (“Salih Master”) across the street. Cooking my meal today cost 500,000 TL, less than 50 cents Australian. Salih operates a wood-fired oven. On Sunday afternoons During Ramadan his business was obscenely busy. All the Turkish families were preparing their Iftar (fast-breaking meal) and many required Salih’s services.

Military Service

On Friday night friends Toygun and Kerem visited.

This week Toygun will be entering the military service, something compulsory for all Turkish males. There is no choice for community service or any other alternative. As Toygun (a university graduate) will be an Officer, his service is for a year. University graduates normally have military service for 6 or 7 months. Non-graduates, longer. He does not know where he will be posted and will find out in his first few days.

I had not seen Kerem for at least a year and it was a great surprise to see him. In 2002-2003 he had undertaken his military service as a translator and editor (his English is excellent). For about 3 months Kerem served in Afghanistan. He told some stories bout how he hated his first month there and that Kabul airport had loads of wrecked aircraft and other stuff. I look forward to viewing his photos.

This morning Serkan checked the mail at post office (PTT) and brought it to work.

Amongst the usual education brochures and posters were:

a) A birthday card from Annie and David – thank you very much. The card with 2 earthworms looking at a can of spaghetti with the quote “Ooh Look Steve – An Orgy” received many laughs!

b) A Christmas card and Haighs chocolates from Mum and Dad – Cok Tesekur Ederim! I have not touched the chocolates yet and don’t plan to until Christmas….you know what they do with plans…

c) Pearl Jam’s new rarities double CD “Lost Dogs” and double DVD “Live at the Garden” a live concert from Madison Square Garden earlier this year.

I was going to buy them from my local newsagent/bookstore/music retailer, Kitapsan. When I went there the products weren’t there and would come a week later. That is not why I did not buy them from Kitapsan. Foreign music double CDs at Kitapsan normally cost 40 million! From pearljamstore.com, a band-affiliated website based in the US I could buy CD and DVD, including $7 postage and handling, for USD 31.98. This amount is about 46 million TL, only 6 million more than just the CD and about 30% less than both the CD and DVD at my local shop!

On Monday I received a birthday card from Nanna and Grandpop – thank you very much!

As with custom, in the card were 2x$1 Australian scratch and win tickets.

Guess what? On one of the tickets I won $2!

It is extremely unlikely (to put it mildly) that my winning ticket will be valid in Turkey so I will send it back to Australia.

For a thank you, I will send Nanna and Grandpop a Turkish scratchie. Let’s hope they win many millions, if not billions of Turkish lira!