Cukurbagli's Blog   My life in Turkey

John, a friend of mine, asked me if I’d have a look at his Kindle because the screen had frozen and he couldn’t read anything. He had a search on the internet and had taken remedial action as recommended in a number of websites but all to no avail. John said that if I couldn’t fix it I might as well chuck it in the bin because he had bought another one. I spent a couple of days digging around in Google for information and came up with something he hadn’t found but that didn’t work either so I took the Kindle apart to see if there was anything physically wrong with it.

Specifically I wanted to have a look at the screen because I had found that a number of people who posted on the internet said that a cracked screen turned out to be the problem in a lot of cases. The screens on these things are a lot more fragile than computer or tablet screens, they are only 1.1mm thick and very easily broken, in fact the company that I bought the new screen from offers a service to replace them and they admit that they sometimes break a new one when fitting it.

In the picture below you can see what the old screen looked like, and whatever I did the screen showed the same picture.

Well after I had stripped it down and extracted the screen that was what I found too, a tiny crack hidden under the connector cable strip. I asked John if I replaced the screen and it worked could I have the Kindle? He said yes.

As I was shortly going to be in U.K. for a week I ordered a screen online to be delivered to my brother’s jewellery shop, I didn’t want to risk it being sent to Turkey because they are very fragile, I would pick it up from the shop to bring back to Turkey. When I got back here I fitted the new screen, a very fiddly job involving fine double sided tape and medical swabs, and ‘Lo and Behold’ it worked. John also gave me a nice leather case for it because it didn’t fit his new one so I have a nice Kindle to read my books on, and with this screen I can read it outside in the sun too!

Thank you very much John.

Feeling the need for a dose of history, as if just living amongst it here isn’t enough, I made another visit to the ancient city of Arykanda on Sunday. It’s quite a curious place, evidence suggests that it was initially built in the 5th Century B.C. by the Lycians then some parts had to be rebuilt by the Greeks and then again by the Romans and was used up to the 11th Century A.D. when the settlement moved down by what became the old main road.

We always seem to have marked periods of our history by wars and invasions, at least that’s how it seems to me and I always find it sad that we needed to protect ourselves from from attackers and invaders by building fortified places to live. It’s a great shame that we couldn’t live peaceably but an even greater shame that we usually obliterated the civilisation and history of a people that we attacked and defeated. If we had kept and preserved the knowledge and discoveries of conquered peoples how much more rich would our lives be now?

Imagine how tough life must have been, not only was it hard enough to farm and grow enough to sustain ourselves but there was the constant worry of whether a marauding band of ne’er do wells bent on death, destruction, rape and pillage was just over the horizon heading straight for your village. No surprise that folk chose to build places that could be better defended and of course to begin with they chose the most inaccessible place available, and that brings me to Arykanda. It is situated on a very steep slope right under a huge vertical cliff, just to wander around it’s different levels requires the agility and lungs of a mountain goat (of which there are plenty but you can’t get near them), indeed the slope is so steep that there wasn’t room for a complete stadium so they had to build a half stadium with seats only on one side, a steep drop fifty feet down to the theatre being on the other side. Still the gladiators could throw each other off the edge if the crowd gave the thumbs down, I don’t suppose they had many lions or other wild animals there though, what with one side of the stadium being completely open.

Only a few rows of stone seats in the half stadium

Another thing that I wondered about while getting my breath back was the lack of ordinary peoples’ houses. The pamphlet that accompanies the receipt for your entry fee mentions an area that is thought to have been the original residential area of the city, there are a couple of other areas where there are a few houses but these were stone built and would not have housed everybody.

Decoration marking steps on the half stadium seats, the theatre steps have the same decoration, could they have been painted white to make the steps more obvious?

These cities always have the bath houses, temples and markets etc. and even the small theatres are usually built to seat an audience of at least six thousand, that seems to be the standard entry level theatre size, but where did all these people live? Nowhere have I seen any housing, or the remains of it, for the workers, the poor guys cutting all this rock and lugging it up vertiginous slopes to make a nice bath complex for the rich people to luxuriate in, for example. It seems to me to be very likely that the lower status housing would have been simply and cheaply constructed of wood and mud, materials that degraded and were absorbed back into the land due to the weather. Anyway it was a nice day out, we took the very pleasant back road from Çukurbağ through Kasaba, Dirgenler and Çamlıbel and had a pleasant lunch at the main road watering hole afterwards.

The theatre is below the open side of the half stadium.

At home the cats are now thoroughly acquainted with the garden and have been bringing various small furry creatures, some dead some not, in through their cat-flap. I caught Defne practising her climbing, the photograph does not how much she and the tree were wobbling and she did well not to fall off.

Wobbling like mad but Defne didn’t fall.

The usual knocking sounds of courting tortoises have been heard amongst the bushes, this pair didn’t seem in the least embarrassed.

There’ll be a few babies coming along later.

January dragged itself slowly along with all its rain, cold, electricity cuts and muddy cats and dogs then February flew past in the twinkle of an eye. March is here with its promises of warm days to come. The days are longer, the sun stronger and the sunset later. Suddenly you notice the birds have started singing, the garden weeds have become tall enough to cut, people down in Kaş are preparing their shops and restaurants for the tourists and up here in the village the almond blossom has opened fully. Nature’s preparations and promises are enjoyed and anticipated by every living creature.

Bahar geldi! Spring has come! Exclaim friends and neighbours enjoying the sunshine. Cleaning and lighting the stove to warm the house becomes less necessary every evening and sitting in the sun with a glass or two of wine for an afternoon conjuring thoughts of alfresco cooking with friends is a pleasure to revel in.

The weather this month has been a bit mixed, only to be expected for this time of year though. We suffered some heavy rain storms which did damage locally but we also had some beautiful sunshine which warmed up the place and brought back the smiles to faces around town.

A visit to the Greek island of Meis is a pleasure not to be missed at this time, primarily to get a couple of bottles of duty free booze for Christmas. I’m including this in the December heading although the visit was actually on November 29th. This was my first visit to the eastern bay and it certainly won’t be my last. I was surprised at how peaceful it is, as if the harbour in the western bay isn’t peaceful! This view of the east bay also shows the town of Kaş in the background and illustrates just how close the island is to the Turkish mainland. Quite why I have never ventured over to this side before I can’t explain, seeing it has increased the charm of the island many times for me.

Whilst having lunch in Meis I noticed the owner of the restaurant cleaning some fish that had been delivered to him. The local cats had noticed it too and were hovering around waiting for a lunch time tidbit. The bigger bits he threw in the harbour for the turtles, there were three cruising around in competition for the scraps.

Another visit of the month was to Kalkan. This town has grown a lot over the last fifteen years but the harbour area still retains a charm of it’s own. We had lunch and a wander around to look at the result of a fire that had completely gutted a few of the bars and restaurants by the harbour. They will probably have some temporary facilities ready for the opening of the 2015 season.

Elswhere around the harbour most of the gulets had been taken out of the water for winter repairs and upgrades.

The Coastguard were still operational too.

A walk with the dogs along the beach at Demre was on for Christmas Day morning. Another of the beautiful days in December. No-one else on the beach at all although work on the new marina was continuing just past the southern end near the hotel.

The gulets are out of the water on the sand of the beach front of Demre too.

Back at home afterwards mince pies, sausage rolls and brandy coffee were a welcome snack.

Hope you all had a nice time yourselves and a Happy New Year to you all.

The two kittens are growing up quickly and finding their feet and position in the wide world of my house and garden. Stanley, my ginger tom who has been here since November ’05 is still none too pleased about having to share the food and water bowls and the rest of the inside of the house with two eager mini cats. He still gives them a growl or hiss if they get too close but I have caught him watching them with interest on a number of occasions while they hurtle around the settee and chair backs in the evenings, he looks away guiltily and puts on his “I wasn’t paying them any attention and I don’t give a rat’s ass anyway” attitude but his cover has been well and truly blown.

Recently I have left the cat flap unlocked during the day so that they can come and go as they please, and they do please, very much. Both of them fly at the plastic flap and knock it out of the way with a loud clatter. Occasionally this wanton disregard for hinges has caused them to land right next to Aslan while he’s waiting for his dinner, or even while he’s eating it. He doesn’t seem to mind too much, apart from being a bit startled he takes it all in his stride.

Both Defne the little female and Deniz, the black and white tom have been practising hunting but so far Deniz is the only one that I’ve seen catch anything. He got a gecko that was on a wall in the house a few days ago and then yesterday caught a lizard by the back of the woodshed. Well, to be strictly accurate he first caught the lizards tail which it had shed because of its defence mechanism and left wriggling while it made its escape. That kept Deniz amused for a few minutes but he was soon back lying in wait and caught the lizard at the second attempt. I took the gecko off him and let it go which he was not happy about so when I made a move to save the life of the lizard he dodged under a table and wouldn’t let me near him.

My new patio at the south end of the house has been very nice in early mornings and evenings but for most of the day in summer it is unbearably hot. The sun’s rays reflect up from the stone too so apart from the odd half hour sunbathing now and then it is unusable. In an effort to make it a more useful place I made a pergola and intend to put movable shading on it that I can open or close as necessary.

I wanted the construction to look fairly rustic, in keeping with the rest of the house and surrounds, so I had some cedar logs delivered and then spent some time thinking how I was going to construct it. I thought the best way to do it by myself was to assemble it all upside down first on the flat car park area and then take it apart, transfer it piece by piece and put it back together right side up on the patio because of the limited space.

Here it is before the transfer. I got a bit paranoid about preventing the uprights from falling while I worked, each piece is about forty kilos and would have severely injured anyone if it fell on them. I had quite a struggle moving things around and relied a lot on levers and struts. Anyone who has read previous blogs of mine will know that I have a predilection for over-engineering things sometimes and this was no exception.

And here it is assembled on the patio.

I had a helping hand with the dismantling and re-assembly so thanks to John and I hope the leg is better soon.

It suits the place and I’m now planning to decorate it with suitably Turkish lighting for the evenings. A previous commenter (Javaid) had mentioned putting up shading and I had said that I didn’t want it then, well he was right, shading is definitely a requirement but it does need to be removable or adjustable because it is not needed all the time and also has to be put away for the winter.

Anyway it is another of my big projects that has been completed and will make a big difference here.

Had lunch aboard a friend’s gulet (traditional wooden cruising boat) in the harbour at Üçağız/Kekova a couple of weeks ago. Very nice relaxing time, his paying guests were all out on a trip and it gave him time for a little socialising. It is a six cabin gulet, very comfortable inside.

Took the dogs for a run along the beach at Andriake and caught these ducks swimming over the sunken wreck of a fishing boat in the estuary.

This Ladybird Spider (Eresus cinnaberinus) came marching across the patio. Nice colouring and regarded as endangered in UK it only exists in a secret location in Dorset apparently, plenty of them in Mediterranean coasts though.

The kittens are thoroughly at home now and running riot all over the house when they are awake. They suddenly run out of energy though and just fall asleep in seconds for an hour or so before going mad all over again. They have discovered that with their claws they can climb so have been up all over everything including humans and the scars are there to prove it.

Lovable little things though they are Stanley likes to keep an eye on them from the privacy of the top of a kitchen cupboard.

After a couple of busy weeks I was looking forward to a restful day yesterday. I picked up a cold virus last weekend and although it hadn’t developed into much I’d had a sore throat, cough and was now left feeling not quite 100%. I hadn’t got anything planned and expected to just cruise through the day as the mood took me. As everybody who lives here knows, that is a very dangerous frame of mind to be in because things tend to happen that you weren’t expecting, a bit like the old sayings that nature abhors a vacuum and stuff expands to fill empty spaces.

So… at around ten in the morning when the dogs started barking to signal someone coming up the drive I should not have been as surprised as I was. One glance out of the window told me all I needed to know. The new windows that I had ordered some time ago were going to be fitted this morning.

Two guys, (L-R) Arif and Osman, leapt from their truck and, as full of bonhomie and enthusiasm as only young, capable, optimistic working men can be, started ripping out the old windows. I was pleased that they had come to do the job of course, you could see the sky through the gaps between the old windows and the frame and I didn’t like the breeze on my face when I was in bed during windy weather.

The reticence I have when craftsmen come to do things here is caused by the fact that all their tools and equipment are chosen for working on houses made of stone, concrete and brick, consequently they have large hammer-drills, blunt chisels, big hammers and masonry drills. Well these things tend to be too rough on woodwork and getting out the old window frames is a very noisy and splintering kind of task. Anyway I left them to it, made a coffee and tried not to get too  stressed at hearing my house being physically abused.

The work took nearly all day, they didn’t leave till after four in the afternoon. They worked well and the finished job looks fine. This summer I’ll be able to have the windows open at night and allow the fitted screens to keep out the mosquitoes. The breeze coming through the gaps in the bedroom windows has been eliminated. I had two windows done previously and there are a further four to have replaced and probably two doors as well so I’ll look forward to that with bated breath. I’ll wait for a while until the weather is warmer and may even take the remaining windows out myself so that I don’t get so wound up next time.

I was having a look around the Taşlıca peninsula just to the west of Marmaris last weekend with a friend and came across some delightful little bays and villages that are very unspoilt. At this time of year the only things going on there are repairs and maintenance to boats, houses and tourist equipment like sunbeds and small jetties, most places seem practically deserted. These places are so small that there can’t be too much of a crowd in the height of summer and some places are not accessible by car, only by boat which makes them very special in my opinion. I’ve always been drawn to boats, boatyards and harbours. I first learnt to sail in Cyprus in 1980 during my RAF days then had a boat of my own that I sailed around the Poole area of the south coast of UK with. The places and coast we found last weekend would be wonderful to wander around in a small sailing boat, no rush to hurry anywhere, plenty of sheltered anchorages and welcoming locals to swap stories with.

And here’s a picture of my two dogs, Molly (on the floor), Minnie (on the sofa) and the little white one is a friend’s dog, Lucky who I was looking after for a weekend a few months ago.

Aslan has been coming every day to get some food, I hide his tablets in the tinned meat that I put on top of the dried food, he wolfs it down so fast that I’m sure it doesn’t even touch the sides on it’s way down to his stomach. He’s in for a surprise tomorrow, I’ll be clipping his claws, what fun!

For the last seven or eight years I have tried, off and on, to make my own bread. I’ve succeeded with various flat breads and even made a passable pizza dough occasionally but a properly shaped country style loaf has eluded me. Many of them have turned out like small bricks and nearly as heavy. My lack of a decent bread tin to bake a loaf in has been one of the problems, all I had was a rectangular cake tin with not enough height in the sides but while in Marmaris ten days ago I was taken to a shop selling professional kitchen supplies and equipment. In there I found a small serving tin of the type used in a heated servery in a canteen or self service restaurant. Stainless steel and about ten inches long, five wide and deep. Once I got back home I tried it out, the first was a disaster as the dough was too soft and rose so far it spilled over the sides and had to be cut out of the tin. A little less yeast on the next attempt and it was perfect.

This is not to say that there is something wrong with the bread produced in Turkey. A wide variety is available here and usually very nice it is too but in winter when the rain is lashing down and I don’t even want to venture out to the next village (where the baker is) the ability, knowledge and desire to make my own is something that I value. The dogs like to get the end crusts too. Another plus is that I can make a good bacon and egg sandwich, most of the Turkish bread is not the right shape for a proper sandwich so I’m winning in more than one way. Now the only thing I have to do is adjust the recipe a little so that I can use the flour ground from the locally grown wheat and I’ll be really happy.