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....