These economic times

In these economic times, everyone is trying to win a vote.


The Government recently announced a crisis package that involves the reduction in some taxes for a period of three months. Most people are speculating that these reductions may continue for much longer than 3 months.


The reductions include:

• The 1.5 percent title deed fee charged during the sale of second-hand buildings and offices is reduced to 0.5 percent.


• Value Added Tax (VAT) charged during the sale of buildings is reduced from 18 to 8 percent.


• VAT on home and office furniture is reduced from 18 to 8 percent.


• VAT on computers, IT technology and office technology is also reduced to 8 percent.
  Small and medium-sized businesses can make use of the same VAT reduction (from 18 to 8 percent) when purchasing certain industrial and work machines.

The Government announced recently the reduction in the amount of Special Consumption Tax (ÖTV) for automobile sales which can make up almost half the cost of a car in some cases. ÖTV tax rates start at 37% and go up to 84%.

The media reported last week that most car retailers orders and incoming shipments as well as stocks in storage were all but sold out since the announcement of the ÖTV reduction.

In turn, this had many people questioning how affected people are in Turkey by the economic crisis.

The humour of politics

Turks love politics and elections. I just feel like we recovered from the last elections and now I have to live through another one.

Politics sells loads of newspapers and pushes up television ratings to the likes of many media moguls.

Every news channel and paper is crammed with stories and opportunistic pictures of each candidate giving their speeches to the masses, rallying votes and crowds, and of course, waving a flag.

You wouldn't be in Turkey unless you have a flag of some sort. My neighbourhood is littered with flags from the many parties that hope to gain seats in parliament in this election as well as the front runners. I'm sure no one has bothered to consider the environmental impact all these flags as rubbish will cause. Clearly, care of the environment is not on the top of the list of most of these candidates.

One newspaper even reported the following on the issue:

The Ministry of Environment and Forestry and governors from a number of cities have on various occasions called on political parties to run eco-friendly elections campaigns for the upcoming local elections. These requests, however, seem to fall on deaf ears, given the litter parties leave in the streets from the materials they use to promote their candidates for the elections.

On the weekend as I pottered around home, I experienced another form of pollution; noise. I was surprised to hear loud music blaring from some poor quality loud speakers of one of the many campaign buses that is decked out purely to pollute the air with loud campaign music that most of us can't even understand. Surely they don't think that's really going to make me vote for them? Are they serious?

In recent times especially when my husband has the news on, I have had to leave the room while each leader is shown giving his most recent speech. Speeches here are given more like commands from the military with the candidate usually waving his hands in the air, ranting and raving, and screaming at the crowd. The candidates usually looks more crazed or angry than hopeful or triumphant.

I can never imagine Kevin Rudd or the opposition giving a speech to his voters or the general public waving his hands and shouting in this fashion. Or, as in the picture below, some guy stealing the show at Erdoğan's rally!

Roll on 29 March please. I have had more than enough politics for one year.

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....

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!

On the countdown!

We are heading home in one week to have our 'second' wedding in Melbourne and to catch up with family and friends over a long needed break in the sunshine.

During the summer here in August I was in Melbourne, so I unfortunately missed out on a warm summer holiday. So this is my chance to feel the sun on my skin (with SPF 30+ of course!), enjoy some time with family and friends and relax and take in the time away from Istanbul and the winter!

We will have two days in Singapore on the way back. It's my first time staying there and I'm not too sure what I should put on the Top 10 List of things to do and see. So if you have any suggestions, please drop me a line and let me know. Husband has been there before, but he's done it all before, and given I'm a keen shopper and up for a bargain, some tips from those who have been before would be helpful!

Visit from my sister

Recently my sister was here with me from Melbourne, spending the week in between in London and Scotland. It was whirlwind trip, but while her husband was at home and with the kids, it was the best time to get away and it was so nice to have her with me.

We walked the streets of Çukurcuma, Taksim and Beyoğlu. We visited Istanbul Modern and shopped at Istinye Park. We had some dinners and breakfasts out but the highlight I think was the photographic day trip we had with the deputy editor of National Geographic Turkey. My sister came across him in the credits of Alex Webb's book, Istanbul: City of a Hundred Names. She got in touch with Kemal and found that he offers photographic tours of Istanbul.

So we went with him to see and feel the city. It was such an eye opener. Not only did I explore places I have not yet been to, after living here for a year and a half, but I was filled up with knowledge and information about Istanbul, photography, people and culture. We walked the streets of Dolapdere where the Sunday market or "pazar" takes place, which led onto a gypsy market close to a Greek Orthodox church.

Later we walked the streets of Fener and visited the church of the Patriarch of Istanbul as well as the Bulgarian Church. We lunched at a lovely fish restaurant in Fener which served up some of the most amazing starters ("meze") I have had. From there we took a ferry from Eminönü to Kadıköy and walked the streets while my sister snapped pictures of the sellers and street market.

My photography is in it's early stages, but here are some of my pictures from the day.

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!

Happy in 2009

I missed the opportunity to say Happy New Year at the right time, so I guess it's a case of better late than never!

Happy 2009 to all my friends, readers and fellow bloggers.