Garlic, Feta Cheese, Olive Oil & Brinjel (Book) http://www.Writing.Com/main/books.php/item_id/952766-Garlic-Feta-Cheese-Olive-Oil--Brinjel Today's entry will not fit in this blog, which has now reached it's limit. Obviously I'm too verbose for my own good! Thank you for all your support, for the wonderful comments and the friendships. You have made this journey one of the best I've ever taken. I just wish I could find a better way to conclude this blog. This weekend...[Read Full Post] Thu, 18 Jan 2007 14:58:01 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/482009 Christmas morning was bright and sunny, quite a change from the hailstorm that hammered Bulawayo a few days earlier. The hailstones were so large they killed all the Koi fish in Mum’s fishpond, and stripped the trees and plants of their leaves. November to April is the rainy season in Zimbabwe, and while the drought-prone Matabeleland province we...[Read Full Post] Wed, 17 Jan 2007 14:39:24 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/481784 After completing immigration formalities we collected our baggage and passed through customs, scanning the crowds of people waiting to greet passengers from the flight. Five minutes later our intense scrutiny revealed not one familiar face in the collection lounge. Husband phoned his sister Heather, who’d already arrived in Harare from Malawi sev...[Read Full Post] Mon, 15 Jan 2007 14:48:31 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/481550 There was an element of relief when we finally arrived at the check-in desk of Izmir’s international airport on December 22. It was the culmination of ten rather unnerving days, which began with Turkey’s immigration officials arriving at his office to investigate a report advising them Husband was working illegally in the country. Naturally...[Read Full Post] Sun, 14 Jan 2007 15:26:10 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/481284 That's a Matabele word for "hello". I finally got back to Izmir a few hours ago. I have not been near a computer for three weeks, partly because of the appalling state of the telephone lines in Zimbabwe (30 minutes to load a webpage!) and mainly because I've had a very hectic time since flying out from Izmir on 23 December. I've got a lot ...[Read Full Post] Sat, 13 Jan 2007 16:15:50 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/481091 It feels strange that this is probably the last entry I shall make this year. Today I did my last minute shopping, and finished packing. The biggest problem is the lack of suitable clothing, because almost all our summer clothes are packed in storage in Greece. This has made a few trips to the Turkish branches of Marks and Spencer a must… it&#8...[Read Full Post] Thu, 21 Dec 2006 16:26:49 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/476478 Husband walked in the door this afternoon at 15.46 pm. I was relieved, because for the past two days I’ve been in a bit of a sad state. The reason? I forgot to pack his heart tablets before he left for Geneva on Monday afternoon. My husband’s heart only works at 30 percent of its capacity. He has to take 13,5 ml of Dilatrend every mo...[Read Full Post] Wed, 20 Dec 2006 15:52:54 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/476275 A quick note about yesterday’s entry – the “paper tissue” to place over the pot when the rice holes begin to appear is simply the tissue paper one uses to wipe up mess in the kitchen – disposable tissue paper might be a better way of describing it! It’s like toilet paper, only bigger. I just cannot think of the correct name right now – sorry! It’s that time of year again… no, not THAT time! Fast forward one week to 31 December, and that’s the date I’m talking about – New Year’s Eve. It’s usually a time for celebration when vast quantities of liquor are guzzled and food is gobbled ...[Read Full Post] Tue, 19 Dec 2006 17:26:57 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/476021 Two very generous writers have gifted me some lovely Christmas signatures. I’ve put them in the blog intro, and they are my Christmas decorations this year. My regular decorations are resting in storage in Greece. Thank you [Link To User desertstar] and [Link To User chino29] for your thoughtful, lovely signatures. On Saturday husband an...[Read Full Post] Tue, 19 Dec 2006 02:09:25 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/475868 I haven’t blogged about Zimbabwe for some time, because quite honestly the news is really dreadful. This morning I read on the BBC News website that President Mugabe has been endorsed to continue as president of the country until 2010. My heart sank, although I guess deep down we were expecting this. Checking my preferred website for news about Zimbabwe (www.zimbabwesituation.com) I found that this hasn’t actually happened ye...[Read Full Post] Sun, 17 Dec 2006 16:18:31 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/475712 We went for a drive today to see the route for the kennels which will be housing the dogs from Friday morning. Unfortunately we didn’t take the right exit, and instead carried on along the highway for another half hour – that’s how long it took for the next exit to come up. The sign also had a name written in brown lettering, but I didn’t see it bec...[Read Full Post] Sat, 16 Dec 2006 11:34:19 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/475455 Yesterday I left a comment in [Link To User partyof5dj] ’s blog about the sad fate suffered by a camel in Istanbul. Quite honestly I have to wonder how on earth this horrible incident happened, and as an animal lover it turned my stomach. Istanbul is the capital of Turkey, and has a population of almost 12 million! The airport is very busy,...[Read Full Post] Fri, 15 Dec 2006 16:57:34 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/475324 I don’t know when I’m ever going to catch up with blogs, reviews, emails etc on WDC – this limited access to the Internet is very distressing. Trying to prepare a newsletter as well as select stories to highlight is not easy, because I have to download the stories onto the memory stick, and read them through before adding them to the newsletter. Same with reviewing – it’s easy to download and read the content of a story, but I also like to know a bit about the writer before writing the review. Never realised how muc...[Read Full Post] Fri, 15 Dec 2006 16:32:26 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/475109 There’s an issue of National Geographic magazine floating around the Taj Mahal. I found it the day after we completed our move to Izmir. I was immediately drawn to the beautiful cover photograph – a giant panda called Jiao Jiao (means Double Charm ), one of the last 1,200 of her species living in the wild. She’s holding her ten day ...[Read Full Post] Mon, 11 Dec 2006 15:02:41 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/474473 I had a blog ready for today. All it needs is a bit of proof reading. But I got distracted... and if you have a weak stomach stop reading now. A knock at the door. I opened it, and the driver handed me a huge black plastic bag full of bones for my dogs. Delightedly I thanked him, took the bag to the kitchen and opened it. So many bones... my dogs will be delighted! I gave the salivating dogs one each, put them out, and opened the bag to start packing the bones into batches of four. I packed three batches, and reached into the bag for the first bone of the fourth batch... I pulled out a bone, with three cigarette butt sticking to it, plus whatever ash was obviously in the ashtray the *&%...[Read Full Post] Fri, 08 Dec 2006 16:43:55 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/473867 Yesterday I mentioned going to Kipa to buy a couple of humidifiers. I’d seen a Philips’ humidifier advertised in an electrical shop opposite the very first Kipa I went too. First I priced them in Kipa, but all that were left were some alarming looking objects that looked as though they’d dissolve the second they were filled with water...[Read Full Post] Thu, 07 Dec 2006 16:25:25 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/473650 I’m delving into religious beliefs today, so this is an early warning because this can be a contentious subject. Something happened to me today that made me feel good. And positive. But the first paragraphs will be a personal rant… don’t say I didn’t warn you! A report on Sky News this morning claims that three out of four ...[Read Full Post] Wed, 06 Dec 2006 15:31:22 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/473458 I want to send a letter to George Clooney today, but I’d have to get Husband to do it, since I have no printer and no idea where a post office is situated, much less what it looks like. I also don’t know his address, but I guess my “thoughts” are… adequate? Gorgeous George is mourning the passing of his 19 year old pot bellied pig, Max. Max, weighing in at an extremely comfortable 300 pounds died last Friday from natural causes. I don’t know the longevity of a pot bellied pig, but Max was quite a character. He lived happily with George, sometimes sleeping in George’s bed… lucky Max! Last year another of my favourite actors, John Travolta, took Max and George on a flight in his private jet. George said Max loved the ...[Read Full Post] Tue, 05 Dec 2006 16:10:55 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/473254 [Image #1186344] Look at this cute signature designed by [Link To User undocked22] and gifted by [Link To User kelly1202] . I love penguins, so this will be a prominent feature of mine on the site this month. Thank you both! Before I go to bed I normally put the dogs outside so they can take care of any “business” before we...[Read Full Post] Mon, 04 Dec 2006 15:06:21 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/473043 This afternoon I had a couple of hours of peace and quiet. Husband had to go and meet people from the Greek, Bulgarian and Macedonian offices as well as the big bosses from Geneva. There’s a big presentation this week to the company’s biggest client, a US-based tobacco company. I downloaded the stories I want to feature in this week&#8217...[Read Full Post] Sun, 03 Dec 2006 16:24:36 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/472818 Cell phones are an expensive item in Turkey – I haven’t seen one for under €150.00! The reason for this is that the phones are quite heavily taxed by the government, so they’re an important source of revenue. As with Zimbabwe cell phone service providers do not offer contract clients the actual phone; subscribers supply the instrument ...[Read Full Post] Fri, 01 Dec 2006 15:01:17 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/472408 There’s an amazing shopping centre in Bornova that opened a couple of weeks before my first visit to Izmir. Called the Bornova Park, it’s a wonderful open air complex with lots of rather expensive designer stores interspersed with a few “regular” shops, lots of restaurants and cinemas. I’ve been there twice, and I’m ...[Read Full Post] Thu, 30 Nov 2006 15:44:08 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/472202 After the success of my first excursion down to the Kipa supermarket I wasn’t too concerned about driving down on Friday morning to do some weekend shopping. I also had to draw some money from the ATM to pay the people installing the LNB and cables for the satellite dish. They were scheduled to arrive at the house at 09.30, so I figured leaving the house at 08.15 would ensure I’d be back in good time to open the house ...[Read Full Post] Tue, 28 Nov 2006 13:50:54 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/471759 There’s something really sad about packing up a house. I was spared that feeling when I left Zimbabwe, because most of the stuff we had was sold or taken to the cluster home my MIL occupies. Our furniture was wrapped in sheets of brown paper, before being taped down with thick cello tape. Each “parcel” was then given some form of identity &#821...[Read Full Post] Sat, 25 Nov 2006 10:57:02 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/471096 Before the meat of today’s blog I must tell you of a great film we watched last week. Because the laptop plays DVDs we were able to watch Woody Allen’s “Match Point”. Husband has a yen for Scarlett Johansson, so I got him the DVD. She’s a fine actress – hard to believe she was the little girl in “The Horse Whisperer”. Anyway, the film was excellent. I’m not really a Woody Allen fan, and it has nothing to do with his rather unusual personal life. Perhaps I was a bit young to understand the films he produced in his heyday – I do remember watching one called “Sleeper” when I was young, because my dad was a big fan of Woody’s. ...[Read Full Post] Sun, 19 Nov 2006 12:29:56 EST http://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/469922