cheap ticket to paradise...

Sunday afternoon in the Fertile Crescent

A perfect gloomy day to traipse around the neighborhood and eat a superb Sunday brunch- incomplete, of course, because of the absence of mimosas. Of course, I'm all about finding solutions to problems these days... I'm resourceful. My day has morphed into a 'clean the apartment' afternoon. Whenever I get ready to go on an odyssey I like to start with a clean house upon return.

So I found myself a tailor! Tailor Mehmet downtown near the kale. Awesome man. Somehow we managed to communicate that I want a pencil skirt made from an exact pattern that I have.  We went to the fabric store yesterday afternoon (fabric PORN I swear!). What a wonderland fabric stores here in Turkey. It was pure ecstasy. I wanted to savor the experience. Nothing like touching every bolt of fabric of the right weight, color & texture.  AWESOME!!!

Can't describe anymore to you all without becoming obscene how much I enjoyed the experience.  Check that one off the list now- personal tailor in Turkey.  After the pencil skirt, I plan on taking a few more trousers to him as well... I can see this will become a new addiction for me. Surprisingly cheap as well.  Perhaps by next year I will have myself my own sewing machine so I can do it myself.  I miss my sewing machine.  I hope Katie-girl is having a good time with it.

It seems this post is going to be filled with the most mundane of things, but I figure that for all you guys reading back home, it might be terribly fascinating.  Honestly, just going to the grocery store still holds fascination for myself down here. Folding laundry even holds more intrigue for me than it did back in Amerika...

One thing that does not fascinate me with the mundane, though, is the state of my houseplants.  I've never had to deal with caring for (house)plants.  In Hawaii they just flourish, unless they are a rare breed of orchid that takes some more non-commital commitment. Seriously though, orchids are THE MOST tempramental of plants to attempt to shower with love.  You basically have to ignore them for them to flourish. All the sudden one day you look in the dark corner where you stuck the orchid plant to recover in ICU and BOOM it's blooming!!! When did that happen?  So yea, my houseplants are fussy right now.  Not enough sunlight? Too cold? Not enough water? Inside? Outside today? WTF DO YOU WANT FROM ME??? Arghhhhhhhh. But I persist in trying to diagnose their problems. I'm looking at them right now- all frumpy and giving me this passive-aggressive 'vibe'.

I was inspired yesterday to make Apple Cobbler- based on a recipe that I barely remember assisting with for New Year's... I had to put myself back in that state of mind I was in at the time to sort it all out... Turns out I was able to successfully achieve that state and reproduce a decent quality homemade munchies snack.. Drank the remainder of Malibu Rum in the process as well. 

Loads of laundry this weekend AND I'm even cold-water soaking all my wool and cashmere sweaters! I know, can't get more titillating than explaining this folks (*yawn*). There is a zen art that I have discovered when hanging clothes to dry on the clothes-horse thingy. I get absolute pleasure from this experience.  It really derives out of necessity: how to hang clothes to dry just so perfect that one doesn't have to iron them afterwards... This is end goal here.

In other news, I cleaned off my kitchen counter complete with anti-bacterial medicines... Even had to burn some Nag Champa incense to cover up the medicinal explosion. I suppose I won't discuss the loo cleaning this morning, but I did that too.

For entertainment talk-story I will divulge that I am currently absorbed in watching all the original "Pink Panther" series that Blake Edwards directed with such movie-star greats as David Niven, Elke Sommer, Peter Sellers, etc... I never thought anything about Robert Wagner before, but he sure was hot when he was young... Stupid funny stuff that seems enchanting while experiencing a mildly cold Southeastern Turkish winter.  I also watched the first episode of "Little Mosque on the Prairie"- which is hilarious and I highly suggest it to all friends back home.

I'm looking for some interesting books to buy in Portugal so if any of you have any titles of stuff you think I should read, let me know. As well, any apps I should know about.

Weather Ping Pong here this winter. Where is all the bloody snow? I have this increased fascination with winter clothing and enjoy amassing this type of garb. I can't figure it out- especially as I should be in a warmer place living... I can't help but think that in the back of my mind I'll need winter wear if I move to Cappadocia... Well, where to live next in Turkey is another consideration I'm considering. I mean, if I'm going to live in a cold area, I need to be snowboarding. This is ridiculous right now. So close, yet so far... And why is it so damn expensive to snowboard here? Okay, who reading this post knows someone with a ski resort here in Turkey. Hook a girl up... What about Kayseri? Must be some damn good skiing on Erciyes, no? What about cross-country skiing? Do peeps do that here? Where do you get the equipment? Snowshoes? Nothing like a good snowshoe expedition through the forest.

Okay I'm tiring of this. I'm thinking of doing a reconnaissance survey of my closet and check out all the luscious clothes of mine that I have here that I can't wear here. This includes shoes/boots as well.

looking for my own little paradise on this side of the planet...

testing 1, 2, 3. testing

With the recent first snowfall of the season, I’ve started to preoccupy myself with thoughts of snow. Logical. Now, I don’t have much experience in snow or living in places where it snows so I’m a bit of a neophyte. What I do enjoy about it is how the ordinary landscape scenery morphs into some kind of wonderland. I mean, even Gaziantep appears ‘mystical’ when viewed with snow-cover…

Gaziantep also appears ‘mystical’ to me when I think of its ancient history, but that is another matter entirely.  Gaziantep mostly just appears… ordinary to me. Ordinary in the sense that, let’s be honest, it’s not a really pretty area. It’s not the mountains and it’s not the beach. The landscape is just ordinary. What is extraordinary to me, when I’m in my office at work looking out the window to the south from the 5^th floor is the view- unimpeded rolling hills straight to Syria, which is involved in a shitstorm of human rights violations right now.

But I digress. This is supposed to be a happy blog post where I keep to the weather report, as well as my esoteria thoughts which some of you get and perhaps many of you can’t even begin to piece my abstract thoughts together into a logical puzzle.  Anyhow… uhm yea. The weather. So, all this snow has put me in the mood for 2 things: a semi-deserted beach (populated with my own storyville characters that I have exquisitely brewed up in my alternate reality world complete with names and even pet names) OR going snowboarding. I feel I should make use of all this snow that is surely to continue to fall, right? 

Even though I am a snow-neophyte, I have been able to spend quality time in some of the best snow resorts in the world.  Most precious on this list includes snowboarding in the Andes of both Argentina and Chile.  Vancouver also ranks on the list (a bit slushy, but what views from mountain to ocean. As does the Snowy Mountains in Australia (well, you can’t see the ocean from that vantage point, but it was still lovely). As does Alaska. What a great ego-booster mountain to snowboard Alyeska is!  As is various parts of Amerika. I will even include that silly little Hunter Mountain just outside of New York City a few hours.

I’d like to add Turkey to this list. This year seems like the likely year. It’s unfortunate that I have 2 sets of board gear in 2 separate states in a country far, far away… Anyway, if any of you phantom readers (that refuse to identify yourselves properly by officially following my blog…) are from Turkey and have knowledge of snow parks here, let me know your opinions.

 Erzerum is high on my list. I suppose just for the novelty.  The place (city?) seems enshourded in mystery.  It is like an ice-city perhaps in the wintertime as it seems the coldest temperatures come from there.  I know there is a quaint little ski resort there. Yes, this sounds sweet. Sweet meaning that you don’t have to wait 20 minutes in the chairlift line to get back up the mountain like you have to do in many places.

Kayseri holds some intrigue as well.  Perhaps mainly because it is so close to Göreme- which I love, and have spotted some seriously handsome men residing in… So there is that. I assume that there are a few ski areas there and nearby. 

What is odd, though, is that nobody talks about these places. They exist. Do locals go there? Do ex-pats go there? Who skis/snowboards in this country? I don’t recall anyone at work talking about going skiing. I don’t recall any of my Istanbul friends talking about going boarding. So, here lies the mystery of who is populating these mountains of fun. Speaking of fun, I do hope there are powder days at these places. Nothing better than wiping out in feather-light fluff!

So, I will conduct some investigations and create an action-research plan accordingly complete with a reconnaissance survey. Implementing a data recovery plan would be the icing on the cake… Perhaps in Cappadocia? 

Something that goes well with snow is apres snowboard session cocktails at the lodge.  Sitting amongst other ‘pleasantly exhausted from tearing up the slopes friends’ is just plain awesome. Everybody is exhausted, exhilirated, telling tall tales of epic adventures of snow-surfing down near-vertical faces of untracked mountains. In reality this means I successfully didn’t fall while warily traversing a ‘Blue Diamond’ labeled run…

People watching is always a thrill while partaking in adult libations at said lodge. Seriously, who can frown after a day on the mountain. Everybody looks shiny and beautiful and glowing from an inner knowledge that hanging out in nature and exercising ROCKS. Anyway, I’ll stop here before this becomes x-rated…

But of course, there is also the tales of the ‘infamous hottub party’ apres ski as well. You know, you see the picture all the time in rated R B-grade Hollywood movies that center around colleges and frathouses, etc. Well, it happens in the real world as well. With very similar results too- usually, or not… Again, I’m trying to keep this rated R so I stop here.

In conclusion,  the ‘big day’ is coming in a little over 48 hours.  Yes, I’m talking THE Mayan prophecy.  What does this mean, I ask myself. I’d like to think that the only thing erased from the face of this Planet Earth is my graduate student loan debt. Yea. I said it. I’m actually fantacizing about it.  Well, actually racists can disappear too. And gun-totting cray-crays. And shitty politicians. And shitty dictators. And all the fast food joints. And dis-ease. Blah blah blah. You get the picture.

Well, it’s not snowing at the moment.  All the rain has made for a slushy mush. Cold, wet slushy mush. You know what goes really well with cold, wet slushy mush? Peppermint Schnapps Hot Chocolate, that’s what.  Do I have any? No. You know what went well with snowfall last night? Tequila. That’s right folks, tequila. Just 1 shot mind you. Girlfriends, cats, tequila and snowfall. That was my quad-fecta last night. I just thought I’d mention that…