Yes! Spent two days lying on the beach at Agva and I am only a little bit sunburnt! Go me! Also I won a heck of a lot of Boggle, much to Yasmin's annoyance. That picture is from back in May when there was no-one there and a lot of frogs on the river. This time the town end of the beach looked more like Benidorm but if you walked down a decent way things were a lot more spread out, thus no problems. Dozed a lot. Paddled. Collected seashells, that sort of thing. Ate heaps of mezes at the hotel on Thursday night, and got up in the morning to go swimming (the swimming pool had a big notice on saying it wasn't open until nine o'clock, but it's amazing how limited my Turkish can be in times like that! No-one was around to check anyway.)

J&L arrived very, very late on Wednesday night and are lots of fun, very nice people. There was a lot of furniture removal going on, and a bit of gossiping, and not much sleep. Anyhow, they have brought half a library with them and they're vegetarian too so I suspect we're going to get on just fine!

I have just been bubbling around school today and we had a fun class - as fun as countable/uncountable quantifiers can get (interdispersed with Arzu's engagement photos and one of my fillings falling out - don't ask). I did the pollution/problems lesson and wound up with Tom Lehrer. They thought it was a scream. Go them!

* posted by nat 3:47 PM

Wednesday, August 27, 2003

I always say never again but then it's only never again until the next time. Yes.

So. (Which I must stop saying because I use it as the start to everything and the ele lads go off into hysterics half the time I use it...)

Went to Fıçı, drank a couple of beers, so far so good. I think we left about one o'clock (very drunk Kevin, very drunk Yasmin, newly-arrived and really rather tipsy Mustafa) got followed up the road by some idiots so jumped into a taxi and back to our place whereupon Kevin produced a bottle of rak&305;, Yasmin came for a look around and dropped her cigarette ash on the nice new lino so now there is a hole in the lino (grumble), and so we drank the rakı and then at some point later Yasmin and Mustafa stumbled off, at which point Kevin and I had this really surreal conversation which didn't really take place in complete sentences and mostly revolved around how utterly strange I was and then I think at some point foot massage was involved - which was nice - and then I fell asleep on the sofa.

Came round just before 5 am and wandered down the hallway to my room, for some reason Kevin was fast asleep in the bathroom at that point.

At twenty to six an alarm clock went off and after 3 minutes of hitting both my alarm clock and my mobile repeatedly I finally worked out that it wasn't my alarm clock; it was Kevin's. Put pillow over head, attempted to ignore.

Just before six o'clock I'd had enough and went and tried to wake Kevin up (back in bedroom at this point). The conversation went something like this:

"Huh? Whassatwhatdoing?"
"You have a boat to catch."
"Mrgferionsrtjogndeofed?"
"Go home! Fly! Plane! Whee!"
--ten minutes later--
"I don't get it. Why didn't my alarm clock go off?"
"AAAAAAARGH!"

Anyway, finally got Kevin out the door and off to the airport at 6:30 and then I decided I might as well get up and shower and put some laundry on (so I expect the neighbours hate me by now...). Making breakfast was incredibly complicated - just getting cereal into the bowl, it takes precision and effort.

Staggered into school and was greeted by all the boys looking half-dead. Told them what I thought of their inability to get up in the morning. I think I was still drunk. Anyway we played Jeopardy and I confused them all with adverbs.

Hurrah for strawberry juice...

And the new flatpeople arrive tonight at some point after midnight which is good because it will give me time to attack the bathroom when I get home, hopefully, if I am still vaguely functioning by that point.

Cannot cope. Off to Agva tomorrow.

* posted by nat 12:34 PM

Tuesday, August 26, 2003

Oh! I was just telling everyone about my Sunday afternoon where we just had the four men at the end and we had just finished grappling with the participles of doom and settled down to a bit of free practice and we got on to maths.

And they were off - and actually started talking to each other and ignoring me (which is great because I was half dead until I realised what was going on) - and did not stop for half an hour. Not one word of Turkish. Lots of listening to each other and reacting to what each other had to say. And they're only mid-pre-int-ish. YES!!!!

I'm off to find dinner. It's looking chocolaty. Mmm.

* posted by nat 4:50 PM

I loathe cleaning. Also not quite sure when I am going to get round to doing the bathroom before tomorrow evening. I am halfway through the kitchen (it will never, ever be done. Woe!)

Also, today I am an illegal worker! Go me! I will be legal again tomorrow, though, so it's not exactly exciting. Engin demanded my passport this morning so I told him it was at home so he asked if he could send Tayfun round to get it and I said no, because I wasn't too sure where my passport actually was.

I know damn well where it is. It is under two towels and a magazine at the bottom of a box in a cupboard, along with all my credit cards, the outline of two novels, fanfic notes, twenty quid and my spare tavla dice. Obviously I am most worried about losing my Tavla dice.

So they will have to sort out my work permit tomorrow.

Kevin leaves tomorrow, so Fıçı tonight!

* posted by nat 1:46 PM

Sunday, August 24, 2003

Pink wine good. Also, my minor panic is over, because I have discovered where Buffy has gone. Moved to sunday nights. So I can live.

Right, I have 6 hours of teaching to do, starting in 20 minutes. Hmmm.

Hmmmmm. I really want to be at home reading salamander which is an incredibly amazing and utterly gorgeous book but do I have time? No.

I shall go and break the photocopier. I feel adjectival participles coming on.

*off to raid the games shelf*

* posted by nat 7:50 AM

Saturday, August 23, 2003

On Wednesday I got down from my lesson and there was a big note on my door saying COME TO THE PUB. Yasmin's back in town, can anyone tell?

We have spent the last couple of days having the same conversations over and over, spending far too much time in Carrefour and having a very good time in Bauhaus - I bought a humungous cushion and a soap dispenser (it has little frogs in it, I couldn't resist...) - Yasmin bought vast amounts of furniture, including one little wooden table that was priced 33 million but somehow the barcode on it when she got to the till came up at 6 million, so she paid, and we left, fast.

Last night Kevin and I went over to Yasmin's, and guess who walked off the kerb when crossing Tonozlu Sok. without looking down? Guess who stepped in a bit of a ditch? Guess who went sprawling all over the road? Guess who has messed up her ankle AGAIN?! Guess who is an idiot? Kevin just looked at me and went "But it's not Friday the 13th!" I was hopping up and down and going "Ow!Ow!OW!DoyouthinkIcareaaarghthisbloodystreet?!"

Still it is only hobbling pain and not dreadfully unable to walk pain, so that's something.

And Pride and Prejudice via text message is almost as powerful as the real thing.

* posted by nat 3:28 PM

Wednesday, August 20, 2003

There was a film on TV last night. It had Alan Rickman in. I'd already had a good day, but that kind of thing just caps it.

The little late ele group in the evening is total class. They practically glow when you say "Wow, that was good!" I never want to go in as there's only 2 or 3 of them but they try so hard it's just fab. Also, they totally empathise with my clothes situation. Very important!

The eles this morning by comparison are totally batty. Anyone who comes up with "Zebra hunting" in an A-Z of sports is just trying too hard to win! (Actually, at first they wrote "Zebra haunting" - the mind boggles!)

... and then people like what I write. Which is always good.

So I didn't mind so much that for some reason all my fruit in the fridge has frozen. But semi-thawed fruit salad is pretty fantastic anyway, so it's not much to be bothered about.

I think I want another chocolate bar. Hmm.

Edit: I was right. I did.

* posted by nat 2:25 PM

Tuesday, August 19, 2003

On the other hand, flirting with my classful of 20-23-year-old boys in the morning is perfectly all right!

Kevin arrived home last night at half-past-ten and scared me half to death. I have not admitted to the fridge-clearing out yet...

I also unpacked last night. Last night I thought I had an absolutely obscene amount of clothes. This morning I woke up and found I had nothing to wear.

Argh! I've turned into a GIRL. *despairs*

* posted by nat 12:57 PM

Monday, August 18, 2003

Having spent the last four days staring at an empty box and going *what the heck should I write about Thursday night?* I have decided it would be better to wait until *next* Thursday night and see what happens then.

Until that point, I am in the situation of that I don't think it was a date, but I have more than a sneaking suspicion that he thought it was a date, and as it involved a very long and rather nice back massage on a bench on Bahariye high street (me and high streets.... what is it with me and high streets?!?!) and then me falling asleep on him in the loudest bar ever... and then going "Sure, let's go out to Taksim next Thursday!!!"... I wasn't exactly being friendly-but-off-putting, was I?!

And he's 21. (Or about that, I can't remember from class.) Am a cradle snatcher. Whoops.

Shall never ever go out again after working 10 days straight including doing 60 hours in 6 days flat. And one of those days was a half day.

More exciting news: they came and painted my hall yellow and put down nice new lino and then they went away again!!! (edits out pained screaming!). On Saturday I defrosted the freezer and threw all of Kevin's food away, la-di-da; on Sunday Heather and I had a 3 hour Carrefour fest, and my house is happy and foodful again. This morning I woke up at the benighted hour of half past five and I was so bored I washed the insides of all the cupboards in my room before eight o'clock. Tonight I am going to unpack my clothes - finally.

Unless Yasmin wants to go for a drink. Hmm. I wonder if they are back from the airport yet...

* posted by nat 3:52 PM

Wednesday, August 13, 2003

I possibly should not have just eaten an entire bar of Milka chocolate.

Then again, maybe I should. What the hell. Hurrah for chocolate!

Pointless posts are fantastic things.

* posted by nat 4:06 PM

Note to self's brain (if it is there?): 5am is NOT the right time to wake up. This is getting silly.

So tomorrow I have a day off. Yes, yes, yesssssss! BUT: tomorrow they are coming round to start the painting. Fantastic. Don't even get a lie-in on my day off. Grrr. Someone is plotting against me. But still, I killed quite a few evil cockroaches last night, while watching Blackadder. A can of Raid is a wonderful thing. I have also discovered l'eau d'Off which is keeping the mosquitoes reasonably at bay. Which is something.

Also, there now seem to be 16 people in the morning Ele class. No-one is very happy about this. And they want to put someone else in?! Where?

* posted by nat 1:36 PM

Tuesday, August 12, 2003

So the washing machine takes about two hundred hours to go round. That's the last time I ever put laundry on at 9pm! Ate crisps and wrote badfic in lieu of sleep.

Galip has just called to ask me how to work the washing machine. I said close the door and turn it on, but apparently this doesn't work. Perhaps it is broken and I will have to have a new washing machine that works faster! Let's hope so! Also I have jumped up and down at Engin every day and said "New Carpets! New Carpets! Whole flat needs new carpets!" I think he might be giving in! After all, he has already agreed that as it has been a Boy Flat for two years it deperately needs a wholesale clean and paint job, (though the fact it got flooded a month ago really helped with that one) so we will see...

Maybe will chance luck and ask for new bed as well, though obviously do not want to push things *too* far.

And the rent is only going up 10%. Rah.

*loves Yahoo Messenger* *loves flerdle, too*

* posted by nat 3:08 PM

Monday, August 11, 2003

Got to work at 4pm.

Hurrah!

Half an hour of meetings, one hour of unproductive planning, half an hour of chatting and one hour of messing around on the internet achieving very little.

Shall go home now, feeling fulfilled.

* posted by nat 5:05 PM

Sunday, August 10, 2003

Grockle grockle gnrff nrgh arrrrrrgh!

I survived Saturday! They're a fun bunch of people and they're getting the hang of how I teach! Straight down to the pub afterwards, though, to meet Heather and Kevin, and then we decided as it was Kevin's birthday / unbirthday / deathday / first-day-of-his-holidays-day / totally-random-day we'd go out to dinner. Taksim.

So we piled into Yasmin's car (Heather's driving it around at the moment) and promply got stuck in a huge traffic jam; it took two hours to get over there and needless to say we were starving! We tried the Georgian restaurant but it wasn't open, so instead we went up to Pano and stuffed our faces and drank a lot of wine and generally had a very good time - eventually I had to give up and run away and dolmus home.

And could I sleep? Oh no! Dragged myself out of bed once it got light and collapsed in front of the TV, eventually got myself ready for school and was just about to leave when there was a huge clap of thunder and the heavens opened.

So then I had to go and try and find my umbrella, which was halfway down my backpack (I've been living at school; no time to unpack yet) - and that took ages to find, so by the time I got out of the front door the rain had all but stopped! Cue much wailing and gnashing of teeth!

So it's left the day all horribly muggy and no-one feels much like doing anything - least of all me! But only three more hours to go and I can go home and I DO NOT HAVE TO GET UP TOMORROW MORNING FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A WEEK! YES! (Unless Engin's got the workmen coming into the flat tomorrow, but I think I might just double lock the door from the inside and leave the keys in, because I do not intend to move for anything.)

And I finally discovered what Semizotu is. Apparently it's Purslane. Which leaves me absolutely none the wiser, but it's still gorgeous anyway, mixed up with a little bit of yoghurt and garlic.

Ramble ramble ramble thud.

* posted by nat 11:27 AM

Friday, August 08, 2003

I managed to get the dolmus to stop in the right place - it feels a little weird not jumping out in the old spot any more - wandered home and was hit by the smell of garlic, otherwise known as Kevin cooking. At which point I was told off for contemplating eating salad and was given a whole plateful of food and more than half a bottle of wine instead.

I could get used to this! Pity he's moving out in a few days...

* posted by nat 12:08 PM

Thursday, August 07, 2003

I didn't scan this in straight but it looks even sillier like this! The temple at Assos. The Eles I covered this morning (some of my old students among them) almost died laughing. In fact, we spent about three hours giggling. I taught them 'Shopaholic' and one of them took off and ran with it - "You're a t-shirtaholic!" "She's a swimaholic!" and other fairly insane stuff.

Other pictures in the directory, I will sort them... in twenty years or something like that. But a nice one of the Place des Vosges in Paris which almost did what I wanted it to... And I totally forgot to upload any of the ones from Spain. Probably a good thing, too, there's about twenty butterflies and twohundred shots of the roof of the Casa Mila...

I'm in Kadıköy enjoying my half-a-day off this week (bleh) - I adore this place, it's so much fun wandering round all the little back streets, especailly in the summer when all the street stalls are out and it's busy-bubbly.

* posted by nat 6:11 PM

Wednesday, August 06, 2003

*makes discovery*

Yahoo Messenger seems to work on the school computers. AIM won't, HIM won't, the Chatroom won't - but Yahoo is fine. Hmmm. Whatever. YM me!

The mosquitoes have obviously missed me. I have been thoroughly chewed.

Bagdat. What can I say about this street?
As I've only been up and down from Suadiye to Saskinbakkal which is probably about 3/4km I naively assumed that just because two lanes of the road (out of four - and its all one-way, unless there's an odd bus-stop) are totally dug up, and half the pavement on the coastwards side, that was pretty much about the extent of its limits, and someone somewhere was just trying to make sure that I broke my leg at some point this year, or got gassed to death in the side streets from all the queus of traffic trying to turn across the - well, frankly missing road.

But no. It's apparently dug up all the way from Bostancı to Kadıköy (!!!) and it's going to be like this for most of the next year, as they've finally realised they need to put in a decent water supply system, electricity, etc, etc, etc. And apparently also this isn't the only place in Istanbul they've suddenly decided to work, as my students who rolled in last night, straight from work, turning up half an hour late, told me.

I think I am going to have to learn the Minibusyol route to Kadıköy - with the evil blue minibuses of death. Noooo, nooo, noooo!

* posted by nat 3:26 PM

Tuesday, August 05, 2003

I can remember how to teach! Yes!

You know it's summer when there's only one person in the class older than you are - and you get a marriage proposal twenty-five minutes into the first lesson!

Favourite written quote of the lesson (post-dictation): Sunday lunch is a special male.

Sounds good to me!

* posted by nat 12:19 PM

Monday, August 04, 2003

I have had this exact same dialogue about seventy-two times today:

Random Turkish Person Who I Know (student, school staff, person in local shop): Aiiiiiii, hos geldin! (sort of means: Welcome/greetings!)
Me: Hos bulduk! (Sort of means: Good to be here!)
RTP: How were your holidays? Good?
Me: Fantastic!
RTP: Good, good.... and you've put on weight, haven't you?
Me: Wah! I blame my mother's cooking!

... which they all accepted even though they know I was travelling a lot and was hardly at home. However, I am doing a lot better now I am back in Turkey: bread, cheese and coban salata all the way*! Hmmm, on second thoughts should maybe just stick to the salad. However, I have to lose weight as Fetih said "Oh now your waistline's expanding I can definitely call you "Aunty".

Fetih is under no illusions that if he does that again he is going to be either locked in the freezer or boiled in the jacket potato oven. It's amazing how quickly my Turkish is coming back! Language of abuse: fluent.

I watched 3 hours solid of 24 last night. I am obviously a sad, sad TV addict - who did not get into work until after midday. Oh well!

*also nice packet of chips, as I spent the whole of the flight back thinking: must get them. But I am eating them very slowly, so they don't count.

* posted by nat 2:42 PM

Sunday, August 03, 2003

Back in Istanbul...

I got through arrivals, had a small altercation with a cash machine and a bank official, finally retrieved some money - and by then it was after midnight. I phoned Mehmet. The conversation went something like this:
Me: I've arrived!
Mehmet: Me too!
Me: Where are you?
Mehmet: At the airport!
Me: Me too! Where at the airport?
Mehmet: Ic hatlari.
Me: WHERE?
Mehmet: Ic hatlari, at arrivals.
Me: But I'm at arrivals.
Mehmet: No, it's empty.
Me: You mean you're at the other terminal?
Mehmet: There's a covered walkway.
Me: Oh ok then.

I then had a minor tussle with security trying to get back into the airport as they didn't like the fact there was a penknife in my rucksack. I then went through the whole of the same thing again getting into the other terminal, and then Mehmet phoned again.

Mehmet: Where are you?
Me: I need HEEEEEEEELP!
Mehmet: Ok. Don't go anywhere!
Me: Not bloody likely.

Eventually was found and rally-drivered home. Obviously the heat makes Turkish drivers even more insane than normal.

I got up into the flat - the lift in Dicle plays evil muzak, so I won't be going in there again... totally failed to open the door, and eventually came nose to nose with Kevin, who got me through the door and sat me down with a beer. Thank goodness.

Lovely Istanbul. Lovely lovely lovely. I'm going to escape from work now and go shopping.

* posted by nat 1:49 PM

Saturday, August 02, 2003

I am nowhere near packed. However, I did have great night out with El last night, which consisted of careful perusal of the Pizza Express Menu before giving up and both ordering Fiorentinas, a whole bottle of chianti, then bouncing home down the main road going "Argh, argh, argh," slagging off the local wildlife and trying and failing to walk slower. Then we went back to El's and drank more vodka and cranberry whilst boogieing round the kitchen to Ella FitzGerald and degenerating happily into babble.

Then I came home and spent most of the night on the internet. Argh. Argh. Argh. I seem to have acquired half a new wardrobe in the last six weeks and cannot get anything into my rucksack. Also, I seem to have purchased about two dozen books which I haven't had time to read yet.

Shall go and sit on rucksack a few more times and see if that helps.

* posted by nat 11:49 AM

Friday, August 01, 2003

This has been brewing (given the amount of obsessing I have been doing over the last day or two); I might as well get it out.
The thing about falling for fictional characters.
Where to start? They�re consistent (well, until the author does a volte-face and commits character assassination � but enough of that), you always know where to find them, you can pick whichever one suits your mood, bad habits are more or less excised, as are the horrors of reality and them not paying attention to you - except they are, in the pages between (or before, or after) the novel that were simply left unwritten.

(So then, having an excuse, I went to check on Kabir�s last name � Durrani � and ended up flicking through it again, because I know where all the bits are, the parts I can unerringly go to time and time again even without a bookmark, and just wail, and convince myself that the whole book�s a literary construct anyway, so it doesn�t matter, but still�)

It all started in the dim and murky past with a Roman named Justin, who wasn�t quite as exciting as Marcus or Aquila, who were in the other books, but was still far and away my favourite for no reason I could ever quite fathom at the time. Then there was a Greek boy called Alexis, who was busy writing plays and getting himself into trouble and was hopelessly addictive. And then, when I was 11, I got hold of an anthology of excerpts, read one in particular and knew only that I had to get hold of this book and read more about this boy. (I�d already been through Jane Eyre, Lord of the Rings, and quite a few other such books, and adored them, but this was not about the book, this was about the character.) His name was Will Stanton.

I have very rarely had that set of books out of my sight, I spent the better part of two years borrowing them almost continually from the school library. It was that bad. I still have them, in the omnibus addition, and I still love them as much as I ever did. It doesn�t do much good to compare anyone real to Will, because they invariably lose � check the following: dependable, reliable, comforting, easy-going, adventurous, has a damn-nice-smile, - and of course, immortal, not to mention not bounded by constraints of time, the universe, or any dull little things like that. There really isn�t any substitute.

Now that said, the other really useful thing about falling for fictional characters is, if you feel like having a week or a year away from them, they don�t really complain, and they�ll be right there waiting for you as, if and when you decide to come back. They won�t even mind if you don�t get them the first time around, as I didn�t with Ash (first time round it was ooh � adventure, a few years later it was � ooh � for quite different reasons), or Mr Knightley. And even if you are sharing them with half of the rest of the world, such as with Mr Darcy, it doesn�t matter either, because that�s your copy of the book and that makes just a little bit of them utterly yours.

That said, there�s a danger to be falling for someone too quick, too soon. You either end up screaming at the book �What the heck do you want with her, she�s an idiot!� � such as with Kabir � who I fell for from about the first line he turned up in: (in a bookshop, too, it was inevitable). Or you end up feeling very, very badly hurt and upset (usually at the author), such as over Frederick Garland. Then there�s those you go for against your better judgement, such as Salamander, and those you look back on with a mix of nostalgia, such as Caspian, or horror that you ever did something so teenagerish and idiotic � Dhugal MacArdry, case in point.

But you can balance it out by falling for others very slowly, and you can spend a lot of time sitting there going �Why, why, why?� such as with Lymond, before you figure it out (and then to have it never happen, perhaps thankfully, with Niccolo at all), or you can sit there and go �Gosh, you�re nice,� such as with Remus Lupin, and not have to make your mind up until the end of the book, and then float around for a bit, feeling entirely silly about yourself, and not caring at all.

It�s probably not all that much different from reality. It�s just I think books are a far more preferable reality. And the characters tend to last a lot longer than the people in real life do.

Character and book references (the not too obscure people on the list):
Justin � The Silver Branch � Rosemary Sutcliff
Alexis � The Crown of Violet � Geoffrey Trease
Will Stanton � The Dark is Rising Sequence � Susan Cooper
Ash � The Far Pavilions � M M Kaye
Mr Knightley, Mr Darcy � Emma/Pride and Prejudice � Jane Austen
Kabir � A Suitable Boy � Vikram Seth
Frederick Garland � The Ruby in the Smoke etc. � Philip Pullman
Salamander � various Deverry novels � Katharine Kerr
Dhugal � various Deryni novels � Katharine Kurtz
Caspian � Voyage of the Dawn Treader � C S Lewis
Lymond � The Lymond chronicles � Dorothy Dunnett
Remus Lupin � Prisoner of Azkaban, Order of the Phoenix � J K Rowling

* posted by nat 7:06 PM