Special Edition: Recent Turkish Trip: Expensive Glossy Colour Supplement ... For Free ...

Ever wondered why we take off to Turkey at every opportunity?

Well, whether you ever wondered or not ...

Ta-dah!!

Thanks to the wonders of we silver surfers' world wide web, our new fangled digital cameras AND the famous, fantastic "Flickr", today we can show you just a few reasons why.



Ha! Are we becoming the new David Bailey or what, eh?














Okay, okay, so you're getting bored. But just have a look at these last two, so we can leave you with a smile on your face.



And, hey! Never mind David bloomin' Bailey - how about this hunk?



Go on then ... have the last laugh.

(Cross posted at 'appletree')

"Merhaba" from Fethiye, Mugla, Southern Turkey ... (aka Paradise).

"Merhaba" from fantastic Fethiye, Southern Turkey.

Depending upon how you look at this sort of thing, here's the good -OR - bad news.

We'll be back home in the UK at the weekend.

Since we've not had reliable Internet access as often as we'd have liked and since we said at the outset that we intended taking a genuine 'break' from putting the world to rights, we've not even been keeping up with reading the blog, let alone writing for it.

What we are well aware of though, is how much we're indebted to Gordo from Appletree for keeping things ticking over.

Thanks, Gordo. We owe you.

We should eventually have some nice photos and stories to post once we're back home, but in the meantime here's something (including a few lovely picture galleries) about the the beautiful Mugla (Mediterranean) region of Turkey.... where we've been enjoying ourselves for the past five weeks or so.

Be back in business soon.

'Bye for now.

21st Century Turkey: An Extra Step In The Right Religious Direction ...

*

Expected to expire in 24/48 hours.



(The sickness certificate -- not us!)

In the meantime, we strongly suggest seeing this brand new, moderate modern Muslim message.

Turkey in radical revision of Islamic texts.

It seems to us that so many fundy/faux/counterfeit Christian countries (such as the US), could learn a hell of a lot from this super-sensible story, fresh from (secular)Turkey.

*

Iran, Nukes, America, Petrol & Bush:The True Tale Of The Wise Old Turkish Water Taxi Ticket Tout ...

The time:
Far off in the mists of a fortnight ago.

The Place:
'Land of Lights', ferry boat & water-taxi terminous, Fethiye quayside, Fethiye Bay, Mugla, Turkey, Asia Minor -- to mention but a few.

"Sod this," sez we, standing sizzling & sweating under the searing scorching sun.
"Let's ask if we can sit on that spare seat in the shade of the (open fronted), wooden shack of the old ticket seller while we wait for the ferry."

Then ... thereby hung this tale.

"English?" the elderly easterner enquired.

We told him we were.

"No problem. You very welcome."

He beamed as he beckoned and bade us sit beside him.

"Look," he said, and pointed to the old portable TV he was watching.

"American. Here. Ankara. Capital. Now. Today."

In spite of the pretty pathetic picture quality and seemingly, similarly sick sound system, we were soon able to see and hear that what he'd said was so.

It was one of Bush's blatant big fibber flunkies (we've forgotten already which one, but wtf anyway), doing what his arrogant awful ilk do best.

Talking a lying load of tripe-twaddle through his white plastic looking teeth. Oh, yeah, and the great goof of a goon had 'good hair' too. But being what and whohe was, he would have, wouldn't he? Well, don't they all;besides John Bolton?

Heh.

"Iran," the old fellow announced. "Nuclear, nuclear, nuclear. Bush crazy man want more war. Says Iran nukes, nukes, nukes. Iran, no nukes. No, sir.

Iran, petrol! Iran, petrol, petrol, petrol!"

"Exactly, " we exclaimed in agreement, and at this point were beaming as broadly as the super-sun-tanned, old Turkish ticket tout/seller himself.

He went on. "Bush lies, lies, lies. Ha! Yes! Every peoples knows. All the peoples everywhere knows. NOT Americans. American peoples believes George Bush."

Can you imagine it? Finding such an unexpected (foreign), kindred spirit? And so far away from home? Someone else who hadn't drunk the cool aid? Another old man who knew better? Somebody else with some sense?

Then the smiling ticket seller suddenly switched to smirk mode.

"Iran, not Iraq," he said. "Iran, big space. Iran, 160 million peoples. Iran, big military. Iran, stronger Iraq. Iran, no scared Bush. Russia help Iran."

The more the man said the more he made our day. Even all the way over there in Asia Minor we weren't alone. We weren't the only ones. We weren't simply a single small voice in the wilderness.

The old Turk continued.

"Me Turkish. We Turkey. We near Iran. We no problem, Iran. Me no problem, Iran. Me no scared, Iran.

America not near Iran. Bush, not near Iran. Bush, problem Iran. Bush want petrol, petrol, petrol. Iran, no nukes. Iran, petrol, petrol, petrol.

Big, big problem -- all peoples problems. World's peoples problems. Because, Bush crazy man."

Then, the ferry finally turned up.

We shook hands. He smiled again. He slapped our backs.

"Maybe meet again. Tomorrow. Enjoy holiday. Enjoy Turkey."

We thanked him. We called him 'old friend'.

Then we stepped aboard the tiny ferry boat and set sail for Calis beach -- on the far side of the breathtakingly beautiful Fethiye bay.



** We didn't see the old ticket seller the next day, by the way. But we did see, smile and speak with our newly found 'Old Turk' friend several more times during our stay. And the most genuine marvelously memorable times they turned out to be, too.