1st Day Bayram - New Years Eve (Day)

Visitor Demographics

OK, the Google executives can relax, the imminent threat of me stealing all of their advertising revenue has diminished upon the release of these figures. Here you can see where people are visiting from for the month of December - thanks for your visiting guys - keep coming back and please leave your comments :)

Christmas / New Year / Bayram

Living in Istanbul, a catholic could be forgiven for completely forgetting about Christmas. If it weren't for emails from friends and family reminding us of the festive season back in our native countries, Christmas would come and go in a blink.

In lieu of Christmas we have the Bayram holiday, some of you familiar with my blog will remember my Bayram from last year in Olympos, Southern Turkey (see: Turkish Bayram) Bayram actually means 'Sacrafice' and if you follow my link I provided here, I prepared a sacrafice last year with some villagers, but spared you the images of the whole process. I won't push the topic too much, but I feel that Bayram should in fact translate to 'Butchering', i'm currently in discussions with several translation dictionary suppliers to have this misprint ammended :)

So, no pun intened, let's cut to the chase. Birnur and I are heading to Sharm El Sheik in southern Egypt on 3rd January for 5 days. We're planning on taking some dives in the world famous Red Sea. Keep this page bookmarked, we will be beaming images of our adventure right into your lounge rooms and into the darkest dens around the world as soon as we return.

For the geographically challenged (including myself), you can find a map of our proposed visit site just below. I wish everybody a fantastic Christmas and New Year and I hope that we can all catch up very soon.

Türkçe Dersler

Benim Türkçe Öğretmenim, Atanur, ve ben, Boğazaçi Üniversitesinde beraber ders yapıyorız

(My Turkish language teacher, Atanur, and I, having a lesson together at Boğazici University)

Turkish Aliases

Believe it or not, the name 'Mat' is not a user-friendly name for the Turkish people, it doesn't conform to the vowel harmony required in the language. Therefore, I have unwillingly assumed several aliases:

Ahmet: Generally when somebody takes me by surprise and asks me in Turkish for my name, 'adiniz ne?', after a brief hesitation I reply, ' ahhhh, Mat!' to which they interpret as 'Ahmet'.

Mert: On a daily basis people mistake my name for Mert, perhaps they just look at me and think i'm a Turk! (After all, the name 'Mert' conforms to the required vowel harmony.)

Bloguma Hoşgeldiniz

Yazmak için, Türkçem şimdiye kadar yetersizdi, oysa, çok çaliştıktan sonra yazmaya hazır kendimi hissediyorum.

Türkiye'de, yeni evime ve yeni hayatıma yavaş yavaş alışıyorum, her gün daha rahat oluyorum. Söylemeliyimki Türkiye'yi çok seviyorum, fakat, Avustralya'da daima evim olacak.

Bu sayfalar hem ailemle hem arkadaşlarımla iletişim için dir. Buraya ziyaret ettiniz çok teşükker ederim, lütfen tekrar geri döneceksiniz.

Friends Afar

Adnan (balls of steel) Khan reporting from deep inside Pakistan on the next generation of Islamic militants being indoctrinated, and other assorted childrens bedtime stories.

Red Tape - Ne yapabiliriz?

What is red tape? I simply define this as an obstacle to achieving one's goals. In my opinion, for every country, there are differing degrees of red tape. In respect of Turkey, one could be forgiven for mistaking the country as a veritable jungle of red tape. Let me illustrate this for you...

One could assume happiness by being granted a residence visa in the country where he or she lives, but unfortunately I can not testify that this is the case in Turkey. You ask why! Well, let me explain:

Firstly, the only tangible benefit to obtaining the residence permit is a feeble palm sized book that has your picture pasted in. The privileges granted to one for being the proud holder of this new status are "somewhat limited". So, what can one do with one's new found status? One can remain for an extended period in Turkey, in relation to myself, it is 14 months, as this is the line that I drew between my perception of a ludicrous price for a permit and outright theft.

So, now that I have the permit I don't have to leave and re-enter the borders every three months (USD$30 each entry), yes it's more convenient. What else can I do? I can also open a local bank account here and establish accounts with service providers. So, although I am married to a Turkish citizen and can contribute to the economy with funds from outside the country, they don't deem it necessary for a foreigner in this situation to legally work here. Of course, why would one want to work here when one's life is here? A rhetorical question for the said foreigner, yet a perplexing question for the powers to be!

If you're still not persuaded that my feelings and tones of this message are justified, perhaps the fact that one will pay 630 lira for this 14 month privilege may sway your opinion.

What is the relationship of this rambling to the definition of red tape you ask? Well, in a society where subtle discrimination originates at the top level and filters down to street level, one's goals and ambitions that are normally achievable suddenly slip out of reach.

As the Turks would say, "Ne yapabiliriz?", or, What can we do?