The past week has involved a surfeit of ice cream and wonderful boat trips. I even got up the energy today to climb up the rocks by the beach.

I then had to sit at the top a long time before I could work up to climbing down!

Anyhow, I have an hour to work out how to get my money and cards out of the safe, because the bus to Istanbul leaves in an hour!

I think I shall use my phone Ibrahim and panic card!

* posted by nat 4:49 PM

Saturday, June 25, 2005

This morning Rabia and I played with the crayfish, who were a little worse the wear from having been in a crate all night. We adopted one, a little more lively than the others, and Rabia named it Yusuf. We took him for a walk and discovered he had a hurt pincer. Not a lot we could do about that. We introduced him to the guests and then popped him back in his crate, whereupon the other crayfish, obviously madly jealous, tried to pinch his legs off, which we thought was terribly unfair.

"Naturally they are jealous," said Mustafa, arriving from a good sulk out on the boat - high winds, no fishing today, "Two nice girls like yourself taking out a young lobster like that." And he put the olive-oil can on the stove to heat up ready for kerevit-cooking.

"Do you have a last wish?" I inquired of Yusuf.

"Give me a kiss!" squeaked Mustafa.

I declined.

We all waved goodbye to Yusuf and then he went in the pot with the rest of them. I am reliably informed he tasted very good, but after a small trial a few days ago I now am very sure that crayfish taste disgusting.

"I've been eating these for twenty years," Mustafa said, by way of trying to persuade me I did like them really.

"And still you haven't grown antennae!" I said, resolving to stick to salad.

Later I tried cooking Victoria sponge for Rabia, who wanted to know what an English cake tasted like. Like all Victorias cooked for some kind of special reason, it collapsed in the middle and stubbornly refused to look good. However it disappeared in record time, despite tasting nothing like it ought to. I doused it in strawberry jam and yoghurt and it worked fine.

* posted by nat 6:21 PM

Friday, June 24, 2005

Yesterday I made cherry cookies with fresh cherries. They actually worked; despite me paying very little attention to the so-called recipe and basically throwing in whatever I could find in the kitchen, and then overcooking them, they all disappeared at the speed of light.

Mustafa has chosen this moment to light up the nargile; I am slightly worried as I am not wearing much in the way of protective clothing. Still, with a Mustafa around to protect me I should be safe. Or something. But whatever: Melon nargile. Yum!

One of the guests asked me last night what I actually find to do with myself all day. I replied I hadn't sat down much in the past twelve hours, but I had spent two hours at market, half an hour swimming in the lake, half an hour sunbathing (ok, in the shade under a tree), a few hours in the kitchen cooking up green beans as well as the aforementioned cookies, played several games of chess, chinese chequers etc, and still had time to feed several tourists interminable cups of apple tea and answer questions such as "Where is the bank?" "Where did you learn English?" "Do you know if there is a bus from Pınara to Fethiye?" "Where can I buy a teapot?" "How do I get to the airport in Istanbul?" "The lake looks lovely and clean - do they pump sewerage into it?" "Do you know if they have a cat neutering program in Turkey?" and "What on earth do you find to do here all the time?"

* posted by nat 2:16 PM

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Tuesday evening was exciting, in two not-particularly-good ways.

The first was when I went up to the terrace and discovered Arslan sitting there (a man of the "you're so beautiful - sleep with me!" *pawpawpaw* school of Turks, who I ran away from last year in Selçuk). I promptly held a council of whispering out in the kitchen with everyone, and draped myself all over Tarık for a bit.

The second was when the charcoal atop the nargile decided it would rather be on the table, so it leapt down, showering a load of sparks everywhere. For some reason mostly over me. So my trousers now have nice ventilation holes in for summer, and I have a couple of small burns on my hand. Still. Could have been worse, and the holes look like a lace pricking - might come in useful!

I called Mustafa and said "Help! Kadın av¸ısı in the building, come and sleep in front of my door, save me!" He stomped in at about midnight with a large bag of fishing nets and said "You know, this door does have a lock on it!"

Tonight he is threatening to feed me crayfish. Scary.

* posted by nat 3:20 PM

Sunday, June 19, 2005

I have been skinny-dipping in Egirdir Lake! Hurrah! Take that, o conservative central Turkey!



And today I have spent a considerable amount of time spitting cherry stones out of the window. My life is beautifully pointless at present.

So I have pinched this meme from missmeliss, because words are fun, always:

10 words you like in your own language:
whoosh, fulfil, onomatopoeia, flummox, hug, tangible, vivacity, waffle, lentil, altruistic.

9 words you like in other languages:
pravepodobne, tkanicka; ahududu, kurbaga; shabash!; Umgebung; rebaixes; spanakopita; andiamo!

[Meaning probably, shoelace (Czech); raspberry, frog (Turkish); bravo! (Punjabi); surroundings (German); sales (Catalan); spinach pie (Greek); Let's go! (Italian)]

8 city names that are fun to say:
Székesfehérvár, Slavonice, Reykjavik, Fukuoka, Firenze, Aquae Sulis, Ayval#305;k, Ougadougou.

7 words that make you uncomfortable:
paralysis, dependence, irreversible, unable, rape, psychopathic, suicide.

6 words that relate to your job:
patience, time, clarity, variety, frustration, bureaucracy.

5 words that describe someone you love greatly:
hot-headed, stubborn, comforting, cuddlable, impetuous.

4 words you would use to describe yourself:
unique, worrier, daydreamer, stubborn.

3 words that describe your pet:
polished, static, decorative.

2 words that describe your higher power:
watching, listening.

1 word to end with:
liquorice.

* posted by nat 1:33 PM

Friday, June 17, 2005

Last night I learnt to play poker. I still don't understand the concept of bluffing, but perhaps that was because I kept getting dealt flushes and full houses and straights and thus never had to really resort to any bluffing in order to clean everyone else out. (And I am owed LOTS of points, for I very nicely leant all my points to people just so I could clean them out again. Should come in handy next time we play!)

I slept on the terrace last night, consequently I was up before the dawn and escaped to the fishing boat at six am. We went over the lake to the bank opposite the island; Mustafa hauled in the nets, Suleyman detangled the fish, and I took some photos. There was the occasional piece of excitement with criss-crossing nets - we had to haul a large part of someone else's net up and over the whole boat so Mustafa could get the rest of his net out.

Anyhow, 2 or 3km of net later, much weed, two crabs and 40kg of various fish (mostly sazan, but some levrek and kadife etc.), I fell asleep on the bow on the way back. Off on a boat trip now to cook and eat very fresh fish. Yum!

* posted by nat 9:28 AM

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Even the Internet is giving me hints now...

You Belong in London A little old fashioned, and a little modern. A little traditional, and a little bit punk rock. A unique woman like you needs a city that offers everything. No wonder you and London will get along so well. What City Do You Belong in? Take This Quiz :-) Find the Love of Your Life (and More Love Quizzes) at Your New Romance.

In other news, I have been looking for cheap flights home. The closest I can find at the moment is to Amsterdam for 100 Euros. So now I'm trawling for something dirt-cheap from Amsterdam. There must be something!

* posted by nat 4:20 PM

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

The lake is open for fishing! Happy fisherman! Mustafa, just to be contrary, started fishing on the 13th innstead of the 15th, and complained that there were not many fish about.

"Naturally," I said. "They take one look at the net and go 'forbidden forbidden' and swim off in the other direction!"

So we shall see what turns up in the nets tomorrow. So far I have not managed to get out of bed at 4:30 in the morning to go along; I have been all exhausted-out these past few days and have mostly been asleep. Mustafa has been bringing me meals: tahinli simit for breakfast, bags of cherries and erik for lunch, and sticky-sweet ice-cream with ice magic on top for a late night snack. Last night he bought me a chocolate eclair 'because you haven't been feeling good'. I decided, under the circumstances, not to explain that eating it would probably make me worse, and got on and ate it - it was very good.

When I have been up, I have been hanging out with Rabia in the kitchen or by the washing line, both of us complaining about stupid Turkish society and stupid boys, and comparing the odd recipe. Life is slow, life is good.

* posted by nat 6:34 PM

Sunday, June 12, 2005

Of course I got nothing done yesterday, save eating a lot of börek and mercimek köfte, and translating bits out of 'On Horseback across Asia Minor' into Turkish for Mustafa, mainly because it's hysterical, and also because I was trying to bore him into finishing the game of tavla that stalled at 4-4, but no such luck.

About eleven o'clock I got bored of being on the terrace, so we went down and promptly fell asleep in the boat to the lullaby of croaking frogs. Mustafa then woke me up at two to ask me if I was cold, which I was a little, so we came back to the terrace which wasn't much different, apart from being minus the frogs. On balance I prefer the boat; next time I shall remember to steal a blanket.

Today there is a massive meat barbecue going on in the harbour, what joy. However a few people also want to go boat-tripping, so hopefully I can escape it. I shall detail Mustafa to steal some Yirmik Helvasi for me, however.

* posted by nat 7:05 AM

Saturday, June 11, 2005

Perhaps today I shall hide in a corner (the pension is full to bursting, so it shall be a small corner, under bags and suchlike), and get my diary up to date. Because I am two weeks behind now, and I know from past experience that once I get over two weeks behind I never catch up.

Or perhaps I could go and sit under my tree on the causeway - it is not my tree, but I like sitting there - if this grey cloud goes and hovers somewhere else.

* posted by nat 10:54 AM

The fishermen have just slaughtered a bull down in the harbour, in order to have good luck for the new fishing season which starts next week.

How killing a bull and letting it bleed into the water (the ducks are swimming in it, ugh) makes for a successful fishing season is beyond me, but my view out of the window is totally spoiled for the day, as is any chance of me going near a boat.

I might go swimming in the other side of the lake instead.

* posted by nat 9:34 AM

Thursday, June 09, 2005

I am back once more in Egirdir, after a quick detour to rainy Antalya (it always rains when I am there, at least), then trailing up through the hills to Termessos-in-the-forest; simply gorgeous. After that it was through the mountains to Fethiye and talking myself into the hotel - I have never seen grapes growing around roses before, it was beautiful - thence to spend the rest of the week in a haze of chocolate milkshakes, saksuka, Sudoku, mini dengesiz tortoises that like to nibble on peoples' toes, resisiting buying up jewellery but not resisting the lure of a beautiful kilim, which is now mine and perfect and achieved at siftar-name-your-price.

There were geckos on the roof; bright blue dragonflies at Pınara; detours through the tomato greenhouses to the Letoön (the first place I've ever got the whole family in at Turkish prices); floating around in the sea just outside Fethiye in a little cove entirely frequented by Turks, which after the full-on English presence in Fethiye was very nice indeed; and then there was bananana daquiri, and choose-your-own-fish-dinner.

Then I took the overnight minibus to Kusadasi, spent a couple of hours snoozing by the sea with drunk Turks wandering by at six in the morning yelling "Hey Natasha!", and escaped to Samos, where the ice-coffees are strong and without sugar, ouzo comes free with a mineral water, and every time I said "Iassos" I invited a flood of overexcited Greek, not a word of which I understood.

I decided another night bus was out of the question, so I went over to the pension in Selçuk and surprised Oya and Laura, and Birgit was there was well, and Osman (so nearly everyone, hurrah!) and we sat up on the roof with a couple of Americans drinking wine and having a conversation about things in the world that were fucked up, then we went downstairs and Dervis came and lit up the nargile, and there was more wine, and I went to bed about two.

I got back to Egirdir late afternoon yesterday, to be kidnapped into the tea-room and force-fed multiple cups of strong tea, but I still fell asleep about seven.

This morning it is hot, and very very blue, and I have Rooibosch tea, and the market has everything summery. Hurrah!

* posted by nat 9:32 AM