Frustration

I've been feeling frustrated this week.

The holiday is more than over and it's time to get back to life. Sometimes I find it hard to get my head around things and to accept them as a natural, normal part of life living in Turkey. And this week has been full of those kinds of thoughts.

I could rant and rave about all the hopeless things like dangerous ankle-breaking footpaths, half made roads and no street drains to drain the last four days of continual rain so that when a car goes past you don't get soaked, but I won't bore you with that.

I went out for dinner last night with a great group of mostly expat girls. It was a last minute hook up and we headed to Banyan in Nişantaşı for a "Thai" dinner. Now, I know Thai food, and I can easily say that this was more of an Asian mix as opposed to straight Thai, but certainly a nice change all the same.

It was six girls, some of whom are working in the same sector as myself, and another as a teacher. We shared the usual stories of the"lost in translation" communications we have with people, the general chaos that we struggle to get used to and the one question we seemed to all get asked: why are you here?

I must say, I get this question more often than not. The girls say they also get the question from people (Turks) who simply cannot understand why anyone would want to come and live here.

I guess my reason is most valid, being married to a Turk and all, along with one other girl, but for the others who are foreigners or Turks who have lived abroad for their whole lives and returned in the last year or two, Turkish people cannot understand why they would want to leave their great lands to come and live here.

We find the question strange. Because people ask us why we are here and not in our own countries, but they themselves who ask the question, ask it like they wish they weren't here either.

Do Turks get as fed up as the foreigners? Do they feel the same frustrations as us about the day-to-day challenges?

If you never lived anywhere else in the world, how would you know that your country is worse than mine if you have nothing to compare your own country to?

One of the girls reported that she was finding it hard to meet a decent man here. She said that every time she met one and they realised she was in fact Turkish, given her very strong American accent, they would ask if she has American and/or dual citizenship. She said that without fail this question was asked by all men.

So, the question is: Is it that Turks want to be elsewhere than here, or is it that they wished that we just stayed in our own countries?

Struggling

I'm struggling this week with being back in Istanbul. My time at home went to fast and I wish we were still there. The weather here is cold and gloomy. Melbourne is warm and summery.

With that in mind though, I should be thankful for my health, holidays, family and belongings.

Many of my fellow Victorians have lost their lives and their everything - homes, children, possessions and livelihoods - in the worst natural disaster in Australian history.

Bush fires have ravaged and destroyed parts of Victoria this week which has left the country in shock and disbelief.

It seems that the world is also watching and many countries, including our less wealthy Asian neighbours have donated millions of dollars to help those affected. Corporate Australia has agreed to donate in excess of $12 million and a telethon raised in excess of $60 million. President Obama offered his help in whatever way possible and has offered to send a team of experts from the US to assist. The PM has taken calls of support from other global leaders, including Turkish PM Erdoğan.

I saw this today in The Age online, Honour your Valentine with a bushfire donation. I think it is a perfect way to support those in need at this time and to also be thankful for all we have.

Around the world and back

Well, almost. But going to Australia sometimes feels like you are going around the world!!

We headed off on our trip home for our second wedding and a bit of r&r. We survived long flights, old 747's, a second wedding, the hottest weather in 100 years, bush fires and sharks (well, not really, but it sounded good and they were out and about on the beaches!).

For the first time, I felt the drain of the long journey, but felt rested when we finally got there. Husband is not a keen air traveller and travels most of the way with white knuckle fever. I, on the other hand, find it very easy to sleep and relax which drives him mad. The trip is long though, and can really drain you at the end. It took him several days to work out when to be awake and when to sleep.

It was such a great time to be in Melbourne. The tennis was on, we arrived on Australia Day eve, the weather was balmy and light still until 9pm, however, we experienced some of the hottest weather I have ever felt in my home town in my whole life. Consecutive days of over 40 degrees was a lot to handle when we had come from cold and snowing in early January.

Our first day saw us celebrate Australia Day in pure Australian style with a barbeque of steak and sausages and beers, followed by the one and only; homemade pavlova.

On 31 January we celebrated our Melbourne wedding with family and friends which was amazing and so special to be able to do for a second time. We had a fantastic night which passed so quickly and it was such a treat to have friends come from far and wide to help us celebrate.

We had some great nights with friends and with family having barbeque's of seafood and steak, yummy Italian at old time favourite spots and catching up with my girls who were in town from QLD.

On the way back to we enjoyed a couple of days in Singapore were we shopped and relaxed. Luckily for us there were some great sales on due to Chinese New Year. We ate great food in Arab Street and enjoyed the cheap and tasty Malaysian and bowls of noodles on offer in Orchard Road. I love Singapore. It is so civilised, clean, and orderly. I loved the older architecture of the shophouses in the Arab area along with its nargile cafes, with patrons seated on carpets on the floors and trendy shops of home decor and designer handmade jewellery. The service is always good, everyone speaks English and you can find a real mix of Asian food culture, from Chinese to Malaysian, for whatever price you wish to pay. We didn't really venture out of our immediate location due to exhaustion and the want to shop and then eat and relax. I hope to visit Singapore again and get outside the city and stay somewhere nice for a couple of days. Thanks for all your Singapore tips, my dear readers. They will come in handy for the next trip!