Congratulations to:

1) former workmate Serkan (Kaya) and Pinar on their upcoming wedding this Saturday. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it as I will be here that night.

2) former uni friend Tom (now based in London) and his fiancee Polly on their recent engagement.

Cheers to both couples!

Today I cooked stir fried chicken and vegetables with noodles. Last night I walked half way across town to find baby corn, eventually finding it in Cetinkaya. Unfortunately I couldn’t find bamboo shoots (not that I expected to!)

The ingredients:
sunflower oil (did not have sesame oil)
chicken breast
soy sauce
cashews
garlic
ginger
Shiraz mixed spice (similar to a curry powder; optional)
red capsicum
green chillies
carrot
spring onions
zucchini
mushrooms
baby corn
Chinese egg noodles
eggs

The method:
a) prepare ingredients by cutting chicken and vegetables into thin strips and finely chopping garlic and ginger
a) Heat oil in wok at very high heat
b) Add chicken and cook rapidly, adding Shiraz spices, ginger, garlic, soy sauce and cashews
c) Once chicken is almost cooked add the vegetables, longest cooking ones first, stirring continuously and adding soy sauce to taste when necessary
d) Add the egg noodles into a saucepan of boiling water, adding salt and oil to taste. The noodles should only take 4 or 5 minutes to cook
e) In a frypan heat oil, add eggs and cook omelette
f) Once vegetables and noodles are both ready, add the noodles to the wok and mix
g) Immediately serve onto plates, adding the omelette as a garnish on the top

Tips:
– prepare all ingredients before starting cooking
– the vegetables should remain crisp and not be overcooked
– sweet chilli sauce can also be used to flavour the dish

The result:

The stir fry was not perfect but still very good. The soy sauce, ginger, cashews, corn and noodles gave the dish flavours not usually associated with Turkish food. Despite that, all 3 Turkish guests enjoyed the meal. I give it 8/10.

On Friday Mersin Festival 2006 began with a dinner at the Macit Ozcan Sporting Complex (named after Mersin’s current mayor) and a Mustafa Sandal concert. This was the 5th(?) Mersin Festival. I have attended previous festivals.

Representatives from virtually all Mersin organisations were invited to the dinner. In total, approximately 1,500 guests attended the pork barrelling evening, including Deniz Baykal, CHP’s national president. Deniz also spoke at a political rally with Macit Ozcan earlier on the 8th.

Over the next week of the festival there will be free public concerts from famous Turkish music stars Yavuz Bingol (tonight), Kenan Dogulu (12th), Candan Ercetin (14th) and Haluk Levent (16th). Candan Ercetin must not hold fears as her previous Mersin Festival concert went off with a bang.

I wouldn’t mind seeing Haluk Levent in concert but I won’t be able to as that night I’m attending Pearl Jam’s concert at the Verona Arena. Yeah baby!

On Tuesday I received this email:

From: “awad al jaz”
To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2006 1:25 PM
Subject: OFFICIAL AND CONFIDENTIAL LETTER

Dear Sir,

To your kind attention for perusal.

Your faithfully,

Dr Awad Al Jaz

Attached was the following letter on a “Sudan Embassy In South Africa” letterhead:

I could tell the letter was fake because of several reasons:

a) The email address in the letter is 1 character different to the email address the email was sent from and they are both hotmail addresses. The reason the email address in the letter is different to the sent from address is because the sent from address will be banned.

b) The email address in the ‘To:’ column was not my email address. In other words, the email was sent to more than one recipient.

c) The letter is not personalised.

d) The letter is unsolicited.

e) The IP address in the email header is not from Sudan or South Africa but Nigeria.

I wonder what the real Awad al-Jaz thinks of this…

The email is an example of Advance fee fraud. If you receive an email like this, do not reply, just delete it. However, if you want to have some fun with the scammers, you could follow some of the examples at 419 Eater 🙂

Summer rain doesn’t often come to Mersin – generally only every month or so. Last night a storm hit. The storm, combined with Mersin’s poor power infrastructure caused the electricity to cut out. The back-up solution: candles.