I didn’t know this but there are nomads just west of Mersin. The Yoruks go to the Mediteranean districts of Silifke, Gulnar and Aydincik in autumn and back to the plateaus of Karaman and Konya in spring. The numbers of nomads are dwindling as more succumb to the pressures of modern life and settle.

See article.

Investigating further, the range of the Yoruk people extends all the to Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Greece in the the Balkans.

Trivia: Yoruk is a brand of yoghurt here.

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This afternoon Orhan (‘Demir’), Levent and I escaped the newly-arrived summer heat for a few hours at the Rollhouse ten pin bowling centre.

Some days are diamonds and others are stones. Today was a big fat diamond. It all started with my first frame of the first game – I knocked down 8 pins but the system recorded it as a strike! That game I bowled 163, a new personal best (PB).

For 4 of the first 5 frames of the second game I scored strikes. My run went downhill from then on until the final frame, frame 10. Strike, strike, strike! My first ever turkey and a new PB score of 166. It may be a while before I hit 7 strikes in a single frame again. For scoring the turkey the bowling centre rewarded me with a free beer.

my final game was not as good as the previous two although I did make a strike in the first frame, making it 4 strikes in a row. I still scored 138, giving me a 3 game total of 467 and an average score of 155&2/3, higher than my old single game PB

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A very clever example of political protest by a computer programmer who doesn’t agree with the current Turkish government: link.

First, the website looks a somewhat normal photo of Abdullah Gul and Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Move your mouse around and the picture changes dramatically.

Thanks Aylin for the link!

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Mersin University’s 13th Culture and Sport Festival (Kultur ve Spor Senligi) began on Monday and will continue until Friday. The festival consists of exhibitions, seminars, workshops and other events. On the Ciftlikkoy campus field there are food stalls, rides, a beer garden and other attractions.

The focal point of each festival day is always a concert in the evening on the athletics field. At last year’s festival I saw Kirac in concert on Natraj’s last night in Mersin. This year, Ozlem Tekin, Yasar, Hande Yener, Emre Aydin and Funda Arar, all big names in Turkish pop/rock, were performing. Concert entry this year is 4 YTL for students and a massive 7 YTL for non-students.

Monday night Orhan and I caught a bus to Mersin University’s Ciflikkoy Campus to see Ozlem Tekin live in concert. Ozlem Tekin is a American-born Turkish rock singer. Prior to the concert I didn’t recall hearing any of her music although I’m sure I had.

Beforehand there was the usual festival opening and fireworks display. Once that was over, Ozlem and her backing band, including string section, took to the stage.

Ozlem put on a great concert and looked a natural performer. The music rocked and the crowd got into it like a bunch of Turkish students can. Overall, the night was fun and Ozlem is a great live artist.

The following video is of the second song she performed. Can anyone help me with the title?

In the distance, guarding over the concert scene from a university building, were the following flags. I do not know if they were there because of the ‘situation‘ or for the festival in general as I didn’t see them last year.

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How’s the style?

The nights are now mild enough for me to wear my ‘shalwar qamiz‘ as pyjamas. I bought them in Lahore at the end of last year. What reaction would I receive if I wore them on the Turkish street?

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Last night I walked to Peter’s place to watch Australia play Sri Lanka in the Cricket World Cup final live from Bridgetown, Barbados. Also watching, and learning the sport’s rules at the same time, was Darryl from Canada, another expat resident of Mersin.

Despite a delayed start due to rain, the game made good watching, with Adam Gilchrist smashing the cricket ball all around the place and the Sri Lankans giving the run chase their best shot. I left once the Aussies were close to victory. This meant I missed the farcical finish.

Peter loves his meat pies so last night wife Cansin made the closest Turkish equivalent, a delicious “kiymali borek” (mince meat pastry).

The traditional accompaniment to an Australian meat pie is tomato sauce/ketchup. Peter didn’t just squirt the ketchup on top but carefully crafted a work of art:

Note for Turkish readers: the “OZ” on the artwork above is short for Australia and not the Turkish word of similar spelling.

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Following are the SMS messages I’ve saved on my mobile phone for various reasons. Note: I’ve kept the spelling and formatting exactly as typed in the SMS except for the bolding.

2002-11-04:

YO BROKE MY HEART JOE..WHY DID YOU GIVE UP SENDING E-MAIL ME?WHEN ARE YO GOING TO GOING BACK YOUR COUNTRY?DON’T FORGET THIS:YOU BROLE MY HEART..

– from a girl at a Mersin school I visited for work. I must have been one of her first ever secret crushes – I certainly didn’t know about it. Ah, the innocence…

2003-11-01:

Hi¿o€!while i was thinking smth ,i thought that u are very kind-hearthed suddenly it occured to my mind when i was tried to sleep,i wanted say it;>

– from another girl whose school I visited around the same time as the previous one. Warms the cockles of one’s heart…

2004-04-23:

” A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words ” i just wanna share it,I lowe this words

– from a third former Mersin high school girl and a friend of the previous SMS sender.

2004-09-15:

YES!YES!YES!!!IT’S TRADITIONAL 2 B UNHAPPY ON TURKISH WEDDINGS!! >:-(( (I have 2 find something with australian boys>:-) do u like the oil?

– A newly wedded Turkish friend sometime after I had explained to her that, by tradition, a Turkish bride should be sad on her wedding day as she is being taken away from her family to join her husband’s.

2006-07-21:

You should be a journalist!

– so wrote the Age’s Europe correspondent James Button when he was in Mersin for the Lebanese refugee crisis.

Is anyone else willing to share their SMS’s?

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I’m surprised and gladdened to read that loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) are now nesting on Mezitli beach, just a short distance down the coast from Mersin.

I would have thought Mezitli was too polluted by the untreated sewage flow that blights Mersin’s bay. Indeed, when I used to live at Mezitli, few people swam there because of the pollution.

When I next go to Mezitli I will keep my eyes peeled for the turtles. Besides birds, there is very little evidence of wildlife around Mersin.

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