It's been a long time....

I know, I know, it's been ages since I blogged. I think the last time was in November and I got caught up with my travel plans and excitement which took me off course from blogging. But the holiday is now over, so I should get back to blogging and report a bit about my time away.

I headed home to Melbourne on 12 December with a suitcase full of warm weather clothes, only to need to borrow my mum's flannel's and mocco's. It was certainly not warm times downunder. But it warmed up in the week leading up to Christmas and we had a few hot days here and there to warm the bones.

I had some great catch ups with friends and family. I took a couple of day trips to visit friends down the coast in Dromana and Phillip Island and stuck my feet in the sand. I don't think I've had that many bbq's in a very long time. There is nothing like a barbie at home cooked by your dad on his old skool barbie, i.e. not gas. It's oh so tasty.

Man I missed the food back home. I miss the massive variety and options when shopping and dining out. The quality of the produce is so fresh and easy to find. From Italian and gelato in Lygon St to Vietnamese in Victoria St to Sydney Road for middle eastern, nothing beats it.

We had a delish meal at Gingerboy for my sister's birthday which was asian food like I have never tasted and oh so yummy.

After Melbourne, I was off to Singapore for three days with my sister. Singapore is always great. It never lets me down. Great shopping, great service, amazing food and so easy to get around and do things. We ventured out to the best shop, Daiso. We went to the largest Daiso in Singapore, with something like 30,000 sq feet of everything for $2 a piece! Love it! They have absolutely everything you can imagine from stationary to storage containers, chop sticks to deodorant, chinese tea sets to table cloths, and asian food items to cleaning products! I walked out with two big bags full of stuff for less than $100 Singapore dollars. Love a bargain. So now I am writing letters on my stationary, eating lunch from my new lunch box and eating that lunch with my gorgeous chop stix!

So now here I find myself back in Istanbul, holiday over, winter and snow well and truly set in and dreaming of the warmth of far away places like Hawaii and Thailand. I really was not built for this weather. I find the cold so difficult to deal with, especially at temperatures around -4 which it has been this week. Although, it is still such a novelty to me to see snow falling as I never saw it fall before I came here in 2007. The landscape totally changes once a blanket of snow cover Istanbul. The trees look beautfiul and you can really see and understand where the hill in Istanbul are, especially from the 14th floor of my office building. Unfortunately, with the snow comes dangerous raods (and drivers!) black-outs, gas-outs (yes, our gas went off for hours on the coldest day!), slush and mud.

Soap operas

I miss my usual television soaps. Neighbours, Home & Away, Sex and the City, Desperate Housewives and not to mention the crimes shows I love CSI, Law & Order and Cops.

When I lived in the UK I found it hard to find something I really could get into. Then one lazy Sunday morning I stumbled across Hollyoaks. I really got into the series and would watch it each and every Sunday morning while I feasted on my Sunday breakfast cook up and a cuppa.

When I came to Turkey it was a whole new experience. There are many television channels and everyone has Digiturk, which is much like Foxtel to us Australians. As far as I can tell there are no free to air channels like channels ABC, 2, 7, 9 and 10 in Australia. You have to have the digi box in order to see anything.

It took me a while to get used to the channels and wade through the endless news, current affairs, sports and Turkish soap channels.

Not long after moving into our place I was thrilled to find Hollyoaks on e2 (channel 50) weeknights from 8-9. The series is behind the UK series, but none the less, I have found something that I enjoy watching, that is in English and so trashy and crass but I always get into the story and find myself getting angry and frustrated at particular characters and their behaviour!

I have found that there are so many of my old favourites shows on telly like Desperate Housewives and Sex and the City. Recently we upgraded our Digiturk package and now have all channels which means I can tap into crime shows like CSI Miami/NY/Las Vegas and Without a Trace and not to mention the Crime and Investigation channel. Yes, weird, I know.

Having familiar television, I think, is definitely a comfort thing. It makes me feel connected to a place and reminds me of the place I came from. Crime shows in particular remind me of when I lived at home with mum and dad and we would sit down to a program at 8.30pm with a cuppa and try and work out who the killer was.

Another set of shows I have grown to love are cooking shows. I love Martha Stewart, Rachel Ray, Yemekteyiz (Turkish show), Jamie Oliver, Nigella and Top Chef. Top Chef is a great show, kind of like Gordon Ramsey's Hell's Kitchen. I can watch all these and more here in Turkey.

Having familiar things around me has helped me to create my home here and feel "at" home in a foreign country and I guess, in a weird way, television shows are just another one of those things....

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!

The best job in the world...

I spotted this is article entitled "Island Caretaker job offer: Get paid $150,000 to swim, snorkel" in The Age online.

This is what the article says:

Queensland's latest tourism campaign is giving job seekers the chance to get paid $150,000 to live six months rent-free on the Great Barrier Reef.

As their Christmas holidays fade and the credit crunch begins to bite, office workers dreaming of a fresh start are being tempted to apply for "the best job in the world".

Tourism Queensland is looking for applicants willing to walk white sandy beaches, sit under palm trees and swim with turtles as they soak up the sun.

The successful candidate will be asked to keep a blog and photo diary in exchange for six months rent-free on Hamilton Island as part of a $150,000 salary package that includes return airfares and travel insurance.

Australians and overseas applicants must be willing to "swim, snorkel, make friends with locals and generally enjoy the tropical Queensland climate and lifestyle".

My husband thinks he is well suited for the job and wants me to help him apply. Ha.

Not before my own application!

Things I miss.....

Being far away from the Motherland makes me realise all the things we take for granted in what is described as the lucky country. It goes without saying that I miss family and friends the most, but I wanted to list those small things that I miss most on a day to day level that we don't really think about until we don't have them, and of course, some of my favourites things that I long for.

So here is my top 20 list of things I miss.

1. Silence. Melbourne, or it's suburbs, is far more quiet than Istanbul.

2. Lack of traffic. There is no such thing as a traffic jam in Melbourne. If you think there is, you haven't been here yet.

3. Easy to find organic produce and health food and a huge range of organic/free range foods and products. I could create a list within this list.

4. Proper coffee. Italian lattes, with soy milk.

5. Cruising in my own wheels with the music up.

6. Being able to park your car in your own driveway and not have to drive around in the late hours to find a space next to a bus shelter 50 metres from your front door.

7. The ease at which you can move around the city; by car, tram, train, bus, by bike in a specified bicycle lane, or on foot without risking braking your ankle on the poorly constructed footpath.

8. Minimal overcrowding in most places.

9. People know how to form a queue and stay in it. Here, people don't hesitate to jump a line no matter who or where you are and think nothing of it.

10. Lack of red tape/bureaucracy/corruption in day to day living.

11. The air.

12. The cost of a membership to a gym being so affordable and not considered a luxury.

13. Political stability and a fairly stable dollar (ok, maybe not right now).

14. Multiculturalism and diversity.

15. Respect for the environment.

16. The Tofu shop.

17. Little Collins Street.

18. The price of petrol.

19. Recycling everything.

20. BBQ's in your own backyard.