Mobilya Dekorsyon

The street view

The side view

Cam picked me up at the house Saturday afternoon with the intention of checking a lease and then going into Gelibolu for groceries. We drove through the town of Bolayir as we have done many times, but we stopped long enough to snap a few photos of a local shop. Mobilya means furniture and Dekorasyon is of course decoration in English. We were actually inside this place in the spring.  It's as rundown inside as it is out, but it is a fully operational woodworking shop - open for business as the big sign indicates.

We are often surprised by local working conditions and workmanship. Supposedly experienced, trained workers must be closely supervised to complete jobs they are hired to do. Cam oversaw installation of some air conditioning units this fall. The electricians hired to do the work didn't understand the basics of installing these common place units. We hired a local woodworking shop to built us a bookcase.  We were pleased with the construction of the first one so went back and arranged to buy four more - these were very poorly constructed by comparison. We had plumbing work done in the house last spring.  When the plumbers/masons left they promised to return and complete the repairs.  We haven't seen them since and the owner of our house hasn't been around to ensure that the repairs he paid for were even completed!

Cam built a work bench, from found materials, at one of the locations this year. He had some projects to do and wouldn't work on the ground the way the employees of the Turkish subcontractor were doing. The workers loved the bench and immediately put it to use doing mechanical repairs and welding projects. It was a real improvement from working on the ground, but no one took the initiative to do it themselves.

Turkey is an amazing place in so many ways. However, we are continually reminded that we simply don't think the same way Turks do.

Sam Finds Baby Jesus

Every year, I take the little people and animals that make up our little nativity and hide them around the house.  Christmas Eve, after everything has been found, I hide baby Jesus. Before we open stockings or presents, Christmas morning, one of the kids must find baby Jesus.  This gives parents time to brew the coffee, steep the tea or wipe the sleep from their eyes.  This year with baby Jesus and Mary still missing we opened stockings and presents so Cam could head off to work. Baby Jesus finally made an appearance later in the day.  Sam found him.  Mary however stayed hidden until today.

Since Sam found baby Jesus, he gets to keep "Lambkins" for the year. 

Christmas 2012

Our celebration of Christmas was a bit different this year. For the first time in 26 years of marriage, Cam had to work the 24th, 25th & 26th. (We expect he'll continue to work every day until rain prevents it.)  This year, Cam set his alarm so we all got up between 6 and 6:30 a.m.  We opened stockings and presents before he left for work at 7:30 a.m. and then gathered to eat our Christmas meal (roast "Lego Lamb") at 6:30 p.m. when he got home.  

A table - full of presents (Christmas Eve)

The poking begins (Christmas Eve)

Socks in my stocking ... hmm

Ben 10

Socks in my stocking ...

Angry Bird feet

Sweater

The best book ever (it has a fancy latch)

The surfboard!

OK - not a surfboard but exactly what I wanted.

Puppets! (silicone oven mitts)

Dad's pile o' loot

Nicole has an idea er um a light bulb for her lamp.

Clock, Car, Cow. Christmas has been brought to you by the letter C!

lots o' loot

Well this will keep me busy!

Debris!

Happy 2016th Birthday Jesus

Turkey Video by Johanna

A video I made of Turkey photos to a song called 'Fire Nation' by Two Steps from Hell.

What Paradise looks like in December

It's difficult to convey with two photographs just how cold, rainy and windy it is today. Winter and the rainy season have certainly arrived; turning our beautiful blue Saros view to grey. We saw "lumpy" rainy on our way to Kesan today and on the way home the roads were icy.

 

Turkey is north of the equator.  When it's 25 degrees C in the house and 30 plus degrees outside, at the end of June, that's sometimes difficult to remember.

 

 

 

Friend, Partner, Defender, Dog

Jake

"Cam's Best Buddy Jake"

CKC Registered Yellow Labrador Retriever

March 13, 2000 to November 29, 2012

R.I.P.

 

"He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog.

You are his life, his love, his leader.

He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart.

You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion."

Unknown

 

I'm not sure we were ever worthy of his devotion. Jake made sure he was part of every activity and every project.  He supervised the children on land and in the water until his back injury in 2011 prevented it. He protected me against door to door salesman and the acreage against coyotes and foxes.We left him at home when we moved to Turkey. He was in good hands with our house sitter, my brother. He was lucky to have such a kind friend in his last year.
He will certainly be missed.

 

The blacksmith's dog.

In the newly built chicken coop.

Jake supervises the painting crew.

Gun dog.

 

Do You Know Brains?

Around 11:30 or 12:00, while we were in Ankara this past Monday, we stopped for lunch at a pretty typical Turkish restaurant.
After we ordered our main courses the proprietor, the waiter and a minion (see our post on minions from earlier this year) came over with the customary large tray of salads. If you're eating in a sit down restaurant In Turkey expect to have at least one course before your entree arrives. As usual in broken English the waiter and proprietor told us what each of the salads was; beans, peppers and yogurt, just the usual. But one salad caught us all unawares, the proprietor picked up one dish and said "You know brains?" and sure enough on that plate was two or three pieces of what was probably sheep brain and some greens. Yes, we know brains alright. We elected not to have them for lunch though. 

Oh those Hittites!

The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations

 

Although much of the museum is currently under renovation what we did see was amazing.  We were offered English audio guides for 5 tl a piece. These are usually very informative but take away from our ability to share the wonder of our discoveries.  So we skipped them.  I think all of the signs were in both Turkish and English, so we never felt like we were missing anything.

All of the artifacts we saw were from the Hittite, Phrygian and Early Bronze peoples living in Turkey; with the exception of one display case with a few pieces of jewelry from Troy.

Early Bronze 3000 - 1950 BC   Hittite 1750-1200 BC     Phrygian 1200-700 BC

Lots of bulls

This is a replica of a statue of one God standing on another God

Ancient history is soooo funny!

Lots of headless statues outside.

My favourite bas relief. Lion hunting from a chariot!

Here kitty kitty kitty.  There were actually two of these little guys.

I love this pot. The stand has cloven feet.  Wouldn't it be perfect for hobo soup or beef stew?

Book in its case.  The barely visible squiggles are actually some sort of ancient script.

Johanna

Johanna and Nicole

Nicole and Johanna

There were a few of these pots with animal heads.

Lots of these antlered creatures on display.

Super model?

Warrior

Sam - still smiling!

The caption says "God in a temple" - but honestly it looked like model for the "new" bathroom design.

Stand like a Hittite.

And we're done!