Cukurbagli's Blog   My life in Turkey

A bit of catching up to do here, been distracted by a few things recently including power cuts and storms that dampen the enthusiasm a bit. One of the things I like about the weather here is that it will rain like hell for a few days then clear up and be sunny and warm(ish). Today started well but it looks as though some rain is going to arrive before long.

A while ago I got a little Sony Vaio computer, a bit like a net book but not, if you see what I mean. Well now I have my Samsung smart phone I can get emails and access the internet anywhere there is a mobile phone signal so I was wondering what to do with the Vaio. Then I had an idea and hooked it up to my guitar amplifier and accessed BBC Radio 2, now I am sitting here having the delight of listening to Terry Wogan. Some may not be as delighted as me.

Three weeks ago I harvested the olives, I have two trees but only one had olives in it, the other one is too small yet. I got 1.6kg off it and asked Suleyman’s wife Hatice how to prepare them to be edible. I tried one once straight off the tree and nearly made myself sick. So they are now marinading in salt and with another couple of changes of salt to come they should be ready in another six weeks or so. That’ll save me buying any this year.

My New Year’s resolution this year is to take more photographs so I had a drive down to Buyuk Çakıl (Big Pebble)  beach to take a few. It looks quite inviting but the water was pretty cold, a couple of the bars/restaurants were open though. Afterwards I went over to the other side of the town to the theatre.

I’ve been told that I shouldn’t call it an amphitheatre because they are completely round and the semi-circular type are correctly called theatres, I didn’t know that. Well ours has had some restoration work done on it since I last saw it, a few people were very upset and disappointed to see concrete in the restoration and let the world know about it too. Personally I don’t think it looks that bad, at least they used white concrete which fits in with the rest of the colour and at least it’s safe from falling down and hurting someone. Actually I doubt many people would even realise it was concrete.

Yesterday I made a couple of cakes, banana and yoghurt. The flour looked a bit unusual and upon inspection it turns out that I should pay more attention when I pick up things in shops because it wasn’t ordinary flour but wholemeal. Both cakes turned out well although with a bit more of a texture than they would normally have. Actually I think I like it more but I need an independent tester to check them out for me before I rewrite the recipe, any volunteers?