I was going to write about bomb-free news but I just read a Kurdish group thought to be linked to the PKK claimed responsibility for the bombing in Mersin on Sunday night.

-My favourite footy team, Port Adelaide, have made their first AFL grand final to be played on Saturday. Today I discovered the game will be shown live on Fox Sports Middle East which covers Turkey. Is there anyone in Mersin with Fox Sports who doesn’t mind me arriving early on Saturday morning (coverage begins 7am)?

-On Friday night I walked to Republic Square (Cumhuriyet Meydani – the same location as the bombing) for the end of Petek Dincoz’s concert. I saw the final song and the impressive fireworks display. Petek Dincoz probably would not be signed to a record company if she did not look like a model.

……….what was I writing about?

-This week I received my first UniSA (the University of South Australia – my former university) Newsletter in Turkey. Although the newsletter content could be seen as less relevant for someone living in Turkey versus living in Adelaide, I actually found the articles more interesting than I have previously.

-The postcards I sent from Tehran arrived in Mersin 10 days later! Australia will probably take a month or two at this rate…

-Saturday night (18 September or 18/9) first division lotto was worth 8 trillion little ones, equivalent to almost 8 million big Aussie ones and a huge amount more than normal. On 18/9 the numbers were 9, 18, 33, 34, 35 and 36 – an unusual sequence. 14 ticketholders became lucky – I didn’t.

-The weather these evenings is stunning – early 20’s and calm. Weather to be enjoyed before the onset of rain and cool days in November.

-On Sunday afternoon I travelled to Adana to meet some trainees I had never met before. Well, I thought I hadn’t…about half way through the visit I realised I had met Barbara, the Polish trainee, in 2002 when she was a CEEDer (a kind of trainee but working for AIESEC instead of a third party) based in Istanbul. Funny!