Still ill. Love Lemsip. One and a half hours until chocolate time (have given up chocolate, at school, during daylight hours. It's harder than it sounds!)

So. By sleeping most of Wednesday I missed the 3.5km long ribbon. And the SUBMARINE. Grr.

* posted by nat 1:49 PM

Tuesday, October 28, 2003

Oh, and on Wednesday I have the day off. Which is totally unfair, because I normally have the day off, but this time everyone has the day off, but anyway, there's going to be a parade and we'll all wave flags:

Happy 80th Birthday Turkey!!

* posted by nat 7:30 PM

The heating is on. It keeps raining. The man in the corner shop has suddenly ungergone a personality transplant and started talking to me all friendly-like! (I bought eggs, it seemed to precipitate a conversation. I always buy eggs from the corner shop; I just haven't had any, hardly, since I got back in August).

Everyone keeps telling me I should be drinking ihlamur çay; the doctors amongst the students keep asking to see the Lemsip and then nodding and saying "Good." So I'm glad that's approved. Despite taking Saturday and Sunday afternoons off - Jeremy taught the kids and enjoyed it, so that was all right - I think I've now caught something else on top of the cold that became the flu that became a new and exciting different variety of cold; I now seem to be angling up for tonsilitis, so after that it will all be over; it usually is. Half of the students can't understand me anyway because my nose is completely blocked up and I seem to be speaking from behind a hanky most of the time.

On Monday morning I also got woken up at 4:30am by the Ramazan drummer. Grr argh. However, I have obviously adjusted as this morning I slept right through, so that's something. Dragged myself to work and enthused (for about five minutes of lemsip-fuelled-lucidity) about Buffy-the-musical which was on TV last night (yes, we're that far behind) only to discover that NO-ONE but no-one had seen it. *sulk*

* posted by nat 6:50 PM

Monday, October 27, 2003

Dying flu argh argh argh snot snivel urgh and it's Ramazan, too.

*dies on table*

* posted by nat 1:21 PM

Thursday, October 23, 2003

Despite the lovely warm weather (although it's a good deal colder today and I am freezing and wrapped up in about ten layers, although some people are sill walking round in t-shirts, and I think it's about 20C) I seem to have acquired the flu. It really is a good thing that packets of tissues come in packs of twelve, as I have been through three packs already and it is only 4 o'clock. Woe.

However, as I'm teaching future probability tonight we can have lots of fun with it. 'I might feel worse tomorrow' - 'I probably won't come to work tomorrow' - 'I'll probably run out of tissues tomorrow'. (This morning we had 'feel' lexis and I would have taught them 'I feel lousy' but we got a bit stuck on 'I feel like a coffee'...)

* posted by nat 1:58 PM

Tuesday, October 21, 2003

Today it was really quite warm. Twenty-five or so. I celebrated this by washing my bath towels, cleaning half the flat - mostly because I wanted to start my jigsaw and needed to clear a table to do it, which entailed much use of Cif, dusters, the vacuum cleaner and wiping down the mirrors. Don't ask me why. And all before midday, too, which is entirely wrong considering I got home from the pub (with Yasmin and Mustafa, of course) at 01:30. There is something about all night drinking that apparently compels me to get up the next day and clean. I have noticed it is starting to become a habit.

Obviously this means I should drink more at the pub. If I can still manage to be very drunk the next morning perhaps I can clean and not realise I've done it?

Oh, and I started the jigsaw after all that. And watched a DVD. And basically loafed. I also found 20 million I didn't know I had, which is always nice.

Tomorrow, mad cooking session looms - lentils and chickpeas ahoj! - and DVD run to Besiktas. So I hope the weather's good. Yasmin and I were going to do something but because for some reason the teacher with a broken wrist apparently has 10 days off (and who will be getting A Piece Of My Mind when he gets back, aka 99 Ways To Teach English Lessons Without Needing To Write On The Board, You Lazy Skiving Twerp), she has to go in and teach. (I said I'd stubbed my toe and could I have a day off too?)

Also, I have decided that Seymen, the high school student with the slightly unfortuante name in my class, is really extremely cute. I have been accused of being a cradle snatcher, what with Oguz as well. Who I have not seen for a while, but who has been sending me some incredibly useful text messages. I am now learning Turkish txtspeak. Also, they are great fun to hand round in the pub and for people to go go 'aw' or 'gag', as appropriate. I really am incredibly cruel.

I also tried to call Mark last night but he was on the internet, which is at least cheaper than getting the answerphone as I only have 40 units left on my mobile at the moment, and no money. Athough my English bank account has a lot of money, which is quite exciting, and I would take my credit card internet shopping were it not for the fact that I still have at least 3 items of mail that I know of posted to me in the last month that have not made it to me. So if anyone fancies sending me experimental postcards, my postcode is now 34740. (It changed about a year ago, but no-one seems to be too fussed about which one you use, although the post office has now put up annoyed signs saying 'use the new codes, people'. So use them!)


..... ha! Mark just called. And I hadn't even posted this! *pootles off to chat*

* posted by nat 7:19 PM

Monday, October 20, 2003

Was going to write entry, but children now on break so am off to say 'Hiiiiiii' to little Gökhan. Yay!

PS. At least sun is out.

* posted by nat 1:43 PM

Sunday, October 19, 2003

On Saturday, one child who is a pain in the neck was evil. After repeated attempts I got annoyed and threw him in the corner. He didn't stop. I threw him out. I let him back in five minutes later and he showed absolutely no remorse whatsoever.

I complained to reception. Reception complained to his family. This morning the director phoned up his mother. His mother showed no remorse whatsoever. She was told that he couldn't come back.

OLAY!

Today two more of my children broke one of the blind rods during breaktime. I came back into the classroom to find that they had piled all the broken bits of plastic on my table as a kind of offering.

ARGH!

We learnt the games "Point at the small bit of plastic on the floor so teacher can tidy it up" and "Listen through the wall at the teacher next door yelling at his kids" and "How to have fun during breaktime WITHOUT swinging on the blind"...

Going home now for celebratory beer. Rah!

* posted by nat 3:04 PM

Thursday, October 16, 2003

The weather is back to its normal self today, dull and grey and evil, but Tuesday and Wednesday had some of the best weather I think I've had while I've been here. A tad on the cold side, but wonderful weather for sitting on boats, as it was gloriously clear.

Tuesday we went to Büyükada - via all the other islands, we ge got to see all the lovely little houses - not that many of them are actually little - up close, and then we wandered around a little and then had kalamar and chips and beer and ice-cream, then we went to look at mansions and I made friends with lots of cats. Yes.

On Tuesday night we went to Emmim and totally overate.

On Wednesday we went to Beyazit, and on the ferry over it was tremendously clear, you could see the other side very sharply in focus, the sea was a dark blue and the greens and the greys of the buildings stood out very well, and they looked far closer than normal. Aya Sofya looked pink even from far away; it was gorgeous.

We had dinner on Nevizade - fish and rakı of course - and then wandered up Istiklal and did a bit of shopping. Hurrah. I have a very expensive long-sleeved shirt from Mavi which I've been convincing myself I didn't need. But after two glasses of rakı it's a lot easier to part with the money!

* posted by nat 2:13 PM

Monday, October 13, 2003

My mother is here. I know my mother is here because my purse is empty.

On the other hand, the weather has improved, it's sunnier if not warmer!

* posted by nat 2:46 PM

Sunday, October 12, 2003

Yesterday I practiced numbers with the kids. "What number's Mihat? - What's number's Tungay?" And "What's the final score going to be?" And "Who's going to score first and in what minute?"

Of course, today we'll have to cope with the fact that ALL of them got that wrong!

My big achievement of last night was managing to tune the TV into TRT1 (Go me!) After much mass panicking, texting and phone calls. I called up Fife and Heather and talked to Ercan - who of course said, "No, I don't know, I think you' can't do it..." Put the phone down and screamed. Ten seconds later Heather phoned back "Just push all the buttons till you get VHF and then it'll hopefully come up." So I did, and it did, and I drank a lot of beer. Hurrah!

The people upstairs were terribly over excited and you could hear the chairs going over and everyone jumping up and down every time Turkey got near the goal. I just drank beer.

* posted by nat 11:34 AM

Friday, October 10, 2003

It is raining. Yuk. Time to go home and achieve even less than I have achieved all day. *waves little flag of underachievement* My head hurts. I blame the Kitkats.

Definitely a rakı type evening.

* posted by nat 4:37 PM

The traffic is bad, the weather is lousy, the match isn't until Saturday and I'm sick of it already. Hopefully England will lose, but I don't think they need much help on that score, they're screwing themselves up all by themselves.

More upsetting is the fact that we can't get any rugby on any channel. fife is distraught. (but she did wave her little flag this morning).

Right, off to plan for the next two weeks.

* posted by nat 12:57 PM

Thursday, October 09, 2003

So this morning I woke up to discover a huge storm going on outside, rain coming in through the window in torrents and no electricity. This wasn't too much of a problem, however, as the lightning was busy chasing its own tail round the sky and so finding the candles wasn't a problem, lighting them was a little more difficult as I'd chosen to knock the matches into the sink last week but eventually I got a candle lit and put it in the candle holder and stuck the glass top on so I could walk around with it and wandered off to the bathroom on the grounds that I was awake. So I got all set up in there with a couple more candles and then discovered that the water was off, too.

There would have been much wailing and gnashing of teeth but as I am not capable of even a semi-coherent anything in the morning until I have dunked my head into some cold water I just went 'Gnhnk' instead.

So back to the kitchen I went and decided against putting the kettle on to boil and just went for cold water out of the large bottles and meandered back into the bathroom again just in time to miss the glass top on the candle exploding because I'd forgotten to take it off again and the candle was too tall. At which point I thought about giving up, and then the electricity came back on and thus so did the water so I jumped in the shower whilst I still could (best not to count on these things lasting.)

When I got to the Bakery they still had all the candles out on top of the counter between the pocaga plates, and it has been freezing all day.

On Tuesday night in Karga there were two adorable little kittens, one of whom came to make friends with our bags and then succumbed to being cuddled and generally made a fuss of. The attention was a bit overwhelming, however, as it then crashed out in increasingly uncomfortable-looking positions on various laps for most of the rest of the evening. We called it Ash on the grounds we weren't sure if it was a girl or a boy, and Ash would do for both. It then got translated into Turkish and became Kul. Sometime after midnight it started chasing leftover nuts (the hard ones in the mixed bag that no-one ever eats) around the bar floor and skidding into a lot of things, and I had a full-blown allergy attack and went through two packets of tissues.

And on Wednesday I found a shop that sells movie posters. So I have acquired the poster for Return of the King, which is a huge picture of Aragorn looking very dark and brooding and generally edible. And all that for 6 million.

I've strategically placed him on the wall above my bed, so when the door is open he can be seen scowling majestically all the way down at the other end of the appartment.

Scrumptious.

* posted by nat 3:35 PM

Tuesday, October 07, 2003

Jeremy pops into the office, just. "It's your birthday it's your birthday!"
Yasmin: "..."
Jeremy: (still singing) Gonna have a celebraaaaaat-
Yasmin: What are you doing here?! What's with all these people who are here today who aren't supposed to be here but they're here and I'm here and I'm working and I don't want to be and...
Jeremy: (looking over her shoulder) You're playing Tetris.
Yasmin: So?! I'm waiting for a call!

I am not here. I am invisible. I am going now.

* posted by nat 1:46 PM

Sunday night involved much beer, a Sorting Hat, a jigsaw puzzle, a free cocktail from the bar - and a pretty little bracelet - and the piece de resistance in the form of Mustafa's present: Night Dress Sandy who has two combs, a green hand bag, really awful dress sense, removal boots and no underwear. And Jeremy pulled her leg off, but we managed to fix it again, and I spent a while twisting plastic plant-type ties into coathangers for her.

We staggered home via pide, it was good. Yesterday was Danny's birthday and today is Yasmin's (have to go sort out present in a minute) so all in all it is a busy week.

Also yesterday Burgazada, one of the Princes Islands, went up in a LOT of smoke. We watched most of it on TV, but if we looked out from the school balcony we could see all the smoke over the sea. (This is theIslands webpage, Yangın Resimları is the pictures.) Heat and wind doesn't help, but no-one here thinks for a moment that it was an accident...

* posted by nat 1:26 PM

Sunday, October 05, 2003

The Early Eles bought me a cake! They're so cool!

I also have fezligan from Fife and Heather, and virtual vegetarian haggis from Watty, and a class of kids to teach in a few minutes so I'd better get sorted...

Fıçı at five, oh yes.

* posted by nat 11:32 AM

Saturday, October 04, 2003

Nice bunch of kids (only one who I want to murder, and I think half the rest of them feel the same way!)

We played silly games for three hours and I still can't tell which twin is Can and which is Tan (what kind of parent DOES this idiotic name thing? To TWINS?!) - unless they pick up a pen, they look very similar but they insist on sitting on opposite sides of the classroom so I'm not sure if they're really identical, and one is left handed and one is right handed.

The hit of the day was the blu-tack. Gasps of awe went round when I started sticking stuff on the walls. Although one of them did wonder out loud if I was using magnetic paper... (got to love 9 year olds).

We also sang that updated children's song "One man and his dog went to eat a pizza." We might have to do that again tomorrow.

Mert came in to see me, he's in a class with a lot of older kids now and looks scared to bits. He was quite relieved to see me!

Off now, nargile calls...

* posted by nat 3:15 PM

Friday, October 03, 2003

I did the whole, entire, Guardian cryptic crossword this morning. Which is the first time I've ever finished it. Woo! Boogie!

* posted by nat 10:23 AM

Thursday, October 02, 2003

MOTHER - my email isn't working. There's a ferry at 4pm, gets into Bostancı at 4:45; I finish teaching at 4:45 (allegedly), if you hang around for 15 (more like 25) minutes I can be there, or you can brave a taxi and we can repair straight to the pub!
Have left list at home, will try again tomorrow.

* posted by nat 2:56 PM

Inanmıyorum yaaaaaaaaaa!

Also, I loathe mosquitoes. Grrr. Ow.

But on the other hand I have discovered the best veggie burger recipe in the entire world. Which is a jolly good thing, considering that the recipe said "makes 6" but really makes more like 60, and I am thus going to be eating them for some time to come. Stupid American recipe books.

Loni also makes damn fine banana pancakes. Yay for American housemates!

And I have bought a nice red rug which brightens my room up a bit.

And there are Kitkats upstairs in the cafe. Mmm, Kitkats. Kitkats solve problems.

* posted by nat 2:22 PM