Turkish Banking

Today I was pushed over the edge.

Two weeks ago my work set up another Turkish Lira account for tax and social security ('SSK')payment purposes. Fine with me. But when I checked the accounts, the smaller amount for the SSK was deposited into my current account the the larger balance of my salary was deposited into the new account. Sounds like nothing. But when I went to the ATM the new account has not been linked to the ATM or anything so I can't access it.

I remembered that the old account has next to nothing in it so I need funds from the other account and in order to do that I need to link the two accounts so I can see them at the hole in the wall. Going to the bank here at lunch time is a painful process that I cannot take part in.

So, I thought to go online and transfer the balance from the old account into the new account; but I wasn't sure if it would move over in a day. So, I type in my account details and hit 'go' but nothing happens. I repeat this process over and over; shut down the internet browsers and then try again but still nothing.

I pick up the phone and dial the bank and select '9' for English. There I wait. And I wait. Listening to the voice saying "all our representatives are busy now, please stay on the line". Yeah right. Busy eating breakfast and sipping tea.

A few minutes later I am connected. I explain my problem and the woman on the end of the phone asks for my account ID. I provide it, to which she replies "there is no customer number like this". To which I offer "I'll give you my card number then". I read out the number and the she asks for my full name. I give it. Then she asks for my date of birth. I give it. Then she asks for my fathers name. I give it. Then she asks for my mothers maiden name. I give it. Then she asks for my passport number. I give it. Thinking surely this was more than enough info to verify that I am in fact me, she goes on to ask my home address in Turkey. I tell her the address and I stop after saying the area name. Then she asks "Mrs. M, what district please". WTF.

Surely, by now I have given more than enough personal identification information for security purposes to not warrant anymore questions. This was bordering upon ridiculous, stupid and insulting. Then she asks me "do you have a mobile number". I think to myself, well, daaahh, you can see it on your frickin' screen in front of you can't you???? So I repeat the number to her and she says she will now call my mobile phone. "Hmm, what? Excuse me? For what", I say? "For security procedure Mrs. M". I laughed and said to her "Goodness, don't you think you have enough information already"?

So my mobes rings and I pick up. She asks me "Mrs M who are you speaking on the other telephone? "Finansbank", I say. "About what matter are you talking Mrs. M", she says.."INTERNET BANKINGGGG" I say.

So she hangs up from my mobile and then we talk on the other line. She sorts out the problem with the internet customer number and I set up a PIN number again. (However, still now the internet account access doesn't work!) She then asks me if she can help me with something else, to which I request help from her to link the two accounts I have. "Certainly Mrs. M, I can assist you". With that, the line goes dead and the screen on my phone shows me that the call ended.

To say the least. My blood was boiling and my temperature was rising with frustration and aggravation. How the frick can the call just be cut off?

I picked up the phone and dialled the same number. Was told the same message "all our representatives are busy now, please stay on the line"......and waited.

A man answered the phone this time around. I told him that I had been speaking to someone and had been disconnected. I explained that I wanted to link my two accounts and he said "Certainly, I can help you". I gave him my card number and he was checking my account. Then. The line went dead. Cut off. Finished. Hung up. WTF? AGAIN?

Maybe on my account the previous customer service idiot put up a 'bitch flag' so the next customer service person could hang up on me also.

So I slammed the phone down and screeched something like "these people are so damn incompetent" and fled to the bathroom in tears. I think my boss heard me. But I don't care.

I just can't handle this incompetent and difficult service I seem to get with them. This is not the first time the line has been 'disconnected' when I have been needing help. I hate to go to the bank as no one speaks English, although their website claims they are so expat friendly and have English speaking customer service agents blah, blah, blah....

What is it about this place that some things just become so damn hard to do that you almost don't want to participate in it. I would be more than happy to take all my cash from the bank and keep it at home and never have to deal with a bank, ever.

Türkçe?

I finally started Turkish classes two weekends ago. The course runs for 12 weeks, on weekends only, on both Saturday and Sunday from 1pm to 4pm. It was never going to be easy; after working a full week usually 10-11 hours per day and then finding some brain capacity to take in a whole new language is a big task. But I have no excuse. I have been here one year and really can't string a proper sentence together.

I am one of 7 in the class and funnily enough, there is no other Australian there; French, Korean, Columbian, Pakistani, American, Dutch. Two people dropped off after the first week and the Columbian joined us last week. Everyone is nice and all learning the language for different reasons.

The views from the area, Gumüşsuyu; not far from Taksim, are so lovely. The area sits high up and from the streets you can see the Bosphorous. It's also situated close to the Beşiktaş Football stadium so there is always a stream of fans from some team or other strolling the streets on Saturdays cheering and distracting us. There is a nice little Turkish style bakery right next door where I grab tea and poğaca from before class.

So, lets see how these next 10 weeks pan out. I think it will get harder as the weather gets nicer....ho hum...

Package in the mail!

I love getting packages in the mail. Today I received my special thank you cards I purchased on Etsy. They are so beautiful and I'm so happy with the pesonalised ones. I bought them from a lovely seller, storybymia. Mia is from New York City and everything is made and designed by her in her studio.

Now you all know how I will occupy myself this long weekend! It's way overdue though, so I'm looking forward to getting them out.

Garlic anyone?

That's right. This truck was making it's way from Anatolia to Europe laden with garlic. It's hard to see, but it really was full to the brim with garlic. We were on the Asian side today and I spotted this truck going by. What a sight!

Unexpected guest

Tonight while shopping at Istinye Park, Ken's phone rang. It was his brother asking where we were as he was at our house. Needless to say, Ken was not happy but we stopped our shopping and headed home.

Yasin will stay until Tuesday and I do like having him to stay. He is an easy guest and great cook. He helps out in the kitchen and tonight made by hand my fave dish of çiğ köfte. It is extremely labour intensive. Served with fresh mint, lettuce and herbs and ayran (yoghurt drink). Followed by fresh fruits and nuts. So tasty.

Freedom from Guantanamo

On Friday 2 May I was so happy to read that Al Jazeera cameraman, Sami al Hajj, had been freed from Guantanamo Bay where he has been held for more than six years without charge.

Late last year I came across the below banner on the Al Jazeera web site. If you clicked on the picture it took you to a website dedicated to Al Jazeera's campaign to free him where people had posted prayers and messages of support.

Sami al Hajj was arrested in Pakistan while he was travelling near the Afghan border in 2001. At that time, he was employed with Al Jazeera as a cameraman and was on assignment with them and had with him the the relevant visas.

I guess I wanted to write this post because of the extreme injustice that is Guantanamo Bay. Sami was never charged with any crime and faced no court while in Guantanamo. Still today 275 people remain there. His American captors alleged that he had run a website that supported terrorism, and that he was somehow involved in terrorism because he worked for Al Jazeera and America believed that Al Jazeera was a front for al Qaeda.

Regardless of that and any other claims made against him, he was never charged with any offence in nearly six and a half years. To think that six and a half years of this mans life was needlessly wasted absolutely shocks me. He has not seen his son since he was a small toddler and his wife had no idea where he was until she received a letter from him telling her he was in Cuba. He now suffers from severe medical ailments; depression and the like and the throat cancer that was in remission in 1999 has returned due to him not having access to the drugs he was to take daily for the rest of his life.

I am sure I don't need to mention the abuses that have taken place against him either. Not only the physical, sexual and mental abuse, but abuses of his human rights in every form.

Clearly the six years in detention has taken a toll on him as the 38 year old is described as looking like someone of 80 years of age.

The horrible truth is that Guantanamo Bay is and will remain one of the worst products of the war on terror.

Nobody deserves this fate.

Happy memories

I was flicking through all my photos and found some nice snaps of when my family and friends were here and thought I would pop them on my blog as a happy reminder of a great time!

Lazy weekend breakfasts

I love breakfast with Kenny on the weekends. It's always quite the spread and we take it in turns to prepare it while one of us trudges up the hill to the newspaper stand and bakal to collect papers and bread and on the way back grabs a few simit from the simit cart parked outside the real estate agents office.

Usually breakfast is a mix of olives; green and black, an assortment of cheese; including blue and standard kaşar cheese similar to Australian everyday cheddar, tomatoes and cucumbers, green peppers chargrilled over open flame on the stove top, fresh boiling çay; salam or pastirma and some vegemite in a tube to squeeze all over the fresh white bread or simit. This weekend he made his famous egg salad with red chilli flakes, parsely and a bit of olive oil- very tasty.

There we read our weekend installment of news and gossip; Ken reads Hurriyet, Sabah or Vatan and I read my favourite Today's Zaman or Sunday's Zaman; always the expat column first!

It is such a nice peaceful start to the day. Also this weekend we had our new 40 something inch flat screen LCD HD 25 billion contrast something-or-rather installed plus Digiturk HD box. Needless to say, Ken was a happy man!

Hubwear

I was browsing something the other day and came across the above site, Hubwear, that make specialty t-shirts for those regular travellers who spend time in airports or for those who live between cities. The t-shirt displays two airport codes on the front and back of them, for example MEL (Melbourne) JFK (John F. Kennedy NY)on the front and the reverse on the back, JFK MEL.

This is the creator's story which I think is so cool.

My fascination with airports started when I was little. My family went to London Heathrow all the time. But we never actually flew anywhere – we’d just go to Terminal 3, and then come home again.

I was born in Burma and moved to England when I was young. Every year we had lots of Burmese visitors. Each one meant a trip to an airport, without ever getting on a plane.

For me, this was just unfair. I grew up being teased by Heathrow Terminal 3, excited at the possibilities of travel to foreign countries, always so tantalizingly close.

These days I live in Chicago, and travel often. My work has taken me around the world and back again. So now, airports have a new meaning. It’s good to leave, but it’s good to come home.

My route is ORD-LHR.

—George

Giving my two homes, I was thinking to get MEL-IST/ IST-MEL on a t-shirt. I thought it was a really cool and creative idea.

Günaydin for Lunch

We went to Günaydin which in Turkish means 'Good morning'. But Günaydin is good for lunch and dinner and I must say I had the most amazing lunch there, some of the best Turkish food I have eaten to date.

We started off meze of with mini findik lahmacun (small Turkish style pizza with nuts), Erzincan Tulum Peyniri (flakey style cheese served with fresh walnuts),patlıcan salata (eggplant salad), antep patlıcan dolma (stuffed eggplant) and gavurdağ salata (chopped salad served with nuts and pomegranite juice). The following dish, antep peynir, was a cheese specialty dish that was served in a clay pot and the cheese was hot; almost like hot mozzeralla balls. Then we had the main which consisted of kebab- all types; chicken, adana kebab, lamb chops and köfte.

Dessert followed (of course!) by which time I was splitting at the sides, but of course, there is always the 'dessert stomach'. We indulged in a large shared portion of Gaziantep Katmer tatlısı. It is a pastry dish filled with chopped nuts from Gaziantep area of Turkey (South east) and served with dondurma (ice cream).

Turkish coffe followed with tiny cubes of Turkish delight just to really send the calorie intake overboard. Hence, I did not eat dinner and once back at the office needed a kip under the desk. We left totally stuffed but so very satisfied.