Catching Turkey

Turkey

So much to say and so little time!

Great to see green countryside and eat fresh fruit!

People loved Matija - old women and fishermen would pinch her cheeks, slap her knees and give her a big kiss.

Istanbul

We saw the Aya Sofia, The Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, Whirling Dervishes, went for a boat trip up the Bosphorus, walked around old suburbs where fruit sellers pushed handcarts and the modern new city with a huge walking thoroughfare, designer shops and trams rattling by. We visited the Grand Bazaar where thousands of tiny shops huddled under kilometres of covered walkway and the spice market with mounds of spices, cheeses, fruits, meat, nuts, fish, tea and coffee. We tasted fresh fish on a wharf with a purse seiner dragging it's nets in less than 500m from the restaurant, ate at a three storey kofta restaurant where they didn't serve anything else and had hundreds of diners eating at one time. We tasted amazing baklava (pastry sweets) tried stuffed eggplants, ate fresh sesame bread rings from street vendors and fell in love with sweet, strong Turkish tea and coffee.

Cappadocia

Istanbul had been cold and wet and busy with touts trying to drag you into their shops and restaurants. Cappadocia was more like Central Otago in Autumn. We stayed in caves at the tiny village of Goreme, we could walk around the slightly shabby town, pick up cheap pide (Turkish pizzas) and see dozens of old timers perched around tables drinking tea and playing card games. We took a spectacular hot air balloon ride through the pinnacles and valleys studded with ancient caves then hired four-wheel motorbikes that night and checked out most of the valleys on the ground. Matija even got a wee sleep in while riding on the motorbike in front of me. There were hundreds of ancient cave dwellings and churches and we visited underground cities where Christians had taken refuge over 1000 years ago. We made friends with the hotel owner and his mate who managed another hotel, drank tea with them, got shown the sights and left a couple of new friends behind.

The Lake District

We'd hired a car to drive back to Istanbul and we stopped in the dark at Lake Egidir, waking up in a slightly grotty hostel with amazing views over a lake with mountains in the background and a tiny fishing village in front. We walked around a little holiday island where an older lady who ran a cafe saw Matija on a swing and had to come over and pinch her cheeks, knees and shoulders before hugging her soundly. We went in for coffee and sat watching the view while Matija played with balloons and her husband relished his fresh bread, cheese, eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers and olives for breakfast, all washed down with strong, sweet turkish tea.

Ruins

We drove through countryside the was like Eastern Europe with old men and women riding on tractors and painted trailers from their villages to the fields, it was hard open country like the Maniototo, with a similar climate. We stopped at Pammukale to visit amazing travertine terraces (like the pink and white terraces at Rotorua) and bathed in an ancient Roman hot spring at Hierapolis complete with columns that had fallen in during an earthquake hundreds of years ago. There was a storm raging around us and we were the only ones game to take a swim!

We saw a huge market in a rural town and stopped to buy nuts, oranges and biscuits then sat eating Kofte sandwiches with tea that French speaking kofte vendor shouted us.

We drove to the amazing ruins at Ephesus where the houses of the nobility were being restored, complete with domed ceilings, plumbing, mosaic floors and walls completely lined in fine-grained marble. Just over the hill was where the house of Mary (Jesus mother) lived in her later years.

Ayvalik

We stopped at an amazing little fishing village with tiny streets leading like a maze up the hill and the odd marble pillared temple resting on a side street. We ended up being the only guests at a very special seafood restaurant where the owner prepared fresh salted anchovy then fired up the charcoal grill and cooked us amazing red mullet and deep sea bass that were so fresh they were sweet. It was followed by figs stuffed with local cheese and dribbled with honey. One of the best meals ever!

Gallipoli

It wasn't something we were desperate to see, but we crossed the Dardanelles and toured the sites on the Gallipoli peninsular. We are both extremely glad we went. We'd seen a film the night before that outlined the campaign and it was amazing to see the rugged piece of territory where so many of our people died and were buried. The thing that really struck home was how much that struggle led to the Turks national identity, as well as our own and the Australians. It was a beautiful thing to see Matija making daisy chains on the field where part of that struggle occurred. It seemed appropriate somehow.

Tekirdag

Our last stop before returning to Istanbul was a town on the Marmara that specialised in Kofte and raki. We took the coastal route and found that the wobbly green line on the map was a tiny gravel road, studded with rocks that climbed over a mountain before dropping through the coal smoke to Tekirdag. Matija had dropped off by the time we arrived so we put her to bed and sat rugged up on a little balcony, looking across the square to the Marmara, drinking red wine from Cappadocia and eating Kofte sandwiches. The army was just accepting the intake for compulsory military service and the chosen boys were celebrating by holding shoulders and dancing in a circle while a small band played a Turkish tune and their friends and family stood around clapping and congratulating them. It seemed an appropriate end to our trip to Turkey.

In da Desert

Hi guys,

settling into the New Year here in Doha, although as we didn't have Christmas holidays it still feels like the same year!

Matija has settled back to kindy and has made plenty of friends, she's also been to one of the kids birthday parties so we're getting to know the team - there's Emma, currently best friend who is about the same age, family from Prague (dad is a theatre writer who is doing copywriting for Vodafone), William is an out-there American ginga whose mum works at the kindy, Tomaso (called Tomato) is from somewhere in the Middle East we suspect, Jayden has American and English parents, Sara had the birthday, her Dad is an English lawyer and they live in a compound, Paige has South African parents who live at the Pearl (flash new development) and Ares has a Greek mum and has the odd ear problem (same as Matija).

We went to one of the Friday brunches a couple of weeks ago, just to try it out. There was everything from Thai to Mexican and Indian food as well as a huge seafood buffet, beef, heaps of desserts. I was on the dry menu (driving) while Ande had bubbles with hers. There was face painting and videos for the kids as well as more food for them. Interesting day out, it wasn't cheap, but good for a oncer.

Ande has a few weeks off from presenting at the moment and is planning more programmes. There has been restructuring here and the guy she works with has taken on some more leadership work so it could mean more work for her. They're looking at getting someone else, but Ande needs that NOW rather than later. Still loving the work though and is doing more work with 4 Qatari co-presenters as part of their development, which has been great.

Had a great trip out in the desert on a peninsular to the north yesterday. It is a kind of national park. Three of Ande's colleagues had 4WD vehicles and we went touring and stopped for a picnic at a lovely beach up there. It started a little cool so we didn't take togs, although Matija stripped off and had a great time swimming. In most of the best spots the local Qataris set up camp over winter and head out for the weekends. They put a deposit in and GPS co-ordinates and are allowed to leave the camp there for 3 months. They have portable toilets, generators, spotlights, fridges, boats etc. Some have tv's and satellite dishes. When they pack up they have to take everything, if there is rubbish left behind they lose their deposit, about $3000. Pretty cool I thought.

Anyway the driving was mostly over rocky or hard-packed terrain, you didn't really need 4WD but good ground clearance was essential. In many places there were 3 or 4 options of tracks across open ground so you just went with the one that was least bumpy. The landscape was amazing and it was great to get out of Doha. The circular buildings you see could have been ancient fortifications but they were actually made for a film set, Transformers or something. There was also a fort made in the old style for a film. We pulled up and I leaped over the wall to have a look, someone who had been there before was trying to warn me, but when I walked around I spied a caretaker making a cup of tea. I silently sneaked back over the wall and went in through the gate like everyone else. It was kind of cool, way out in the desert, we would have taken more pics but the battery of the camera ran out.

Anyway we went to a nice gentle sandy beach at the top of the peninsular and had a lovely picnic and a swim for Matija between two local campsites. We also saw some pink flamingos which Matija managed to frighten off by yelling excitedly.

On the way back we passed quite a few salt flats. You have to stick to the tracks here because there is a crust of o.5 to 1 metre over the salty water and if you break through you may never get your vehicle out again!

The peninsular starts about 50mins north of us and there is a town there (around a gas plant) where you can get a coffee and some groceries. There's also a beach which would make a nice day trip. After that trip we're quite keen to upgrade the car to a 4wd so we can get out of town. It would also give us the chance to get to the Inland Sea over the sand dunes, something I'm very keen to do on the weekends.

In other news (sounds like a newsreader here) Matija has started doing gymnastics. They do stretches and running and forward and backward rolls, handstands, bar work and even start learning flickflacks at 3years old. All the other kids seem to be Middle Eastern (Egypt, Lebanon etc) and the instruction is in English and Arabic. A couple of young guys take it, they're quite strict but that won't do Matija any harm and she was really enjoying it and improving every time (although they keep having to tell her to keep her legs together!). It's also just down the road from our gym, so on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday Matija can go to gymnastics for an hour while Ande and I go to the gym and do our workouts.

We've also been up for a rooftop barbecue at one of the other apartments. There were prawns, beers, snarlers etc. It was also the coldest night yet so we were rugged up against the elements. Amazing to hear the call to prayer from the mosque towers at the same level as us!

All the best to everyone - hope you're all well and happy.

ps. Making good progress on the next book and the last one (Jonty and Choc) is due for release any time now. I'm waiting for a copy but delivery takes forever over here.

Food - very important

Hey everyone

Food in Doha

the good thing about Doha is that there are people here from all over the place and they've brought their food with them. The other good/bad thing is that there is a lot of cheap labour meaning they want cheap food, and it is cheap to prepare. A quick summary of some foods around here:

Cheap

- Shwarma - little wraps of chicken, tomato, onion, lettuce and garlic dressing in flatbread. Available at small Lebanese restaurants, Turkish places and occasionally on the street. Anywhere from about $2 to$5. The meat is done on those upright Turkish spits and is very tasty. NZ needs more of these!

- Chicken - (pretty common) there's an Indian place on the corner from us called Badriya Chicken. The chickens are smaller and less fatty than you get at home and they seem to be a bit healthier to eat. They have whole rotisserie chicken for $5 or spicy barbecue chicken (done over charcoal) for about $7. That covers the chicken, rice or bread and a little bag of salad (the salad is a little dodgy looking). There is a man in the front of the shop that shapes and bakes flatbreads in an oven, very skilled, tasty bread and neat to watch. You can buy the bread straight off him through a little window onto the street.

- Indian vegetarian - these places do a variety of things:

- marsala dhosa - a bread wrap with vege curry inside.

- pilau - rice and veges,

- spicy falafel with cumin etc on the outside

- chapatti

If you get any of these they are served on a plate with three sauces, a coconut one, a green curry type one and vege curry. They come around with pans of these sauces and if you've finished yours they top them up again. These are around $3- $4 for a main. Heaps of single Indian workers go to these places and families, particularly Western ones, are unusual. We get plenty of interest when we go there with Matija. A lot of the guys want to touch her cheek or shake her hand. These places generally don't have utensils, you eat with your right hand (left one is for hygiene).

All of these things are good and cheap and we haven't had any crook tummies yet.

Middle range

This covers a whole lot of food in Doha.

Middle Eastern restaurants generally start with meze. These are dishes like hummus (chick pea paste), tabouleh (parsley, mint, bulgar wheat and lemon), baba ganoush (egg plant dip), green salad (speaks for itself really) they come with fresh breads, either loaves or flatbreads and you can easily make a meal of these. Mains are a variety of things - whole split and roasted chickens, fish, kofta (lamb sausages), shwarmas (see above). A lot of places do tagines - stoneware pots with casseroles - usually they have the meat (chicken or lamb) with a little spice and a sweeter fruit, prunes, apricots, figs etc. They also do a desert called Umm Ali or Mother of Ali. Legend has it that a sultan was travelling, he stopped in a village and the best cook was asked to prepare a desert. She cooked up flatbread in milk with spices, cinnamon etc. She was the mother of Ali and the desert was named in her honour. Another theory has it that an Irish woman called Bridget O'Malley introduced bread and butter pudding over here and it was named after her.

There are plenty of great Indian eateries here that are a bit more upmarket. Andrea has been to one in a hotel and we went to one about 10mins walk from our apartment - a place I went past taking Matija to the bus stop. Matt Ford would think he had died and gone to heaven. We started with naan breads, then got into some fantastic curries from Kerala. I had one with prawns and coconut and awesome spices, Ande had a chicken curry in an amazing gravy. We got kofta (minced lamb sausage) for Matija, but it was hot and we had to eat it ourselves. It came with rice and more breads, yoghurt and raita (yoghurt and cucumber). We were the only ones in the place because we were there at 5:30 with Matija. We were next to a frosted glass wall into the kitchen and there were patches of clear glass. We could see about 6 cooks working in a large stainless kitchen, all with hair nets, white clothes etc. It was all very sanitary and they were cooking everything from scratch. Amazing food and it came to $30 NZ for all of us.

There are a few good Thai places around and plenty of Lebanese and Turkish restaurants as well. There are Phillipine places too, but haven't tried these out yet. There is a very good Chinese place just down the road too, but still have to get there.

The hotel restaurants are pricier, but you can go for flash or very, very flash. Our Christmas lunch was fantastic - anything from cold seafood dishes, to turkey, roast beef and 20 or 30 deserts.

Friday lunch is a big thing here in the hotels too. Huge smorgasboards that people go along to from 10am to 3pm, kicking back and chatting eating etc. Many places cater very much to families with entertainment for the kids too. These are more expensive - some of the flash ones charge a little over $100 per head, but kids are free and they include free drinks for the adults. We may go along to one of these things just to check them out - haven't been yet.

On another tangent - Ande is really enjoying work and Matija has just got back to pre-school. We've all had some colds and flus and things but it looks like we're OK now. Ande met a committee last week to decide if I could stay. If I was a woman and Ande was a working guy it would have been no problem, but as I'm a non-working guy they look a little harder at us. We were advised to say that I was just looking after Matija and the house, not writing. They couldn't understand why I would want to hang around to do that, but Ande must have been convincing so I will be allowed to stay. Unfortunately it meant we didn't get a company paid trip to Dubai or somewhere so that I could renew my visa.

I haven't got very much writing done at all, but I've done a hell of a lot of thinking. The outline for my next series (Scrap) is firmly in place and I'm very excited about it. I've thought a lot about what I really want to say and why I want to write these books. That's really underpinned the whole series and I'm looking forward to getting my teeth into the writing in the next few weeks. I guess I could have been really frustrated about not being able to get into writing yet, but I'm learning to wind back and really enjoy the things I'm doing, whether it's looking after Matija or even cleaning the house. I am making time to get to the gym - taking some time out for me and keeping fit and healthy. I suppose I'm living in the moment and making the most of each one. The writing will come when it is time and I'm sure it will be a lot stronger when I'm ready to focus on it (which is very soon). I'm also there for Matija, loving the time with her and Ande and generally a very happy camper.

love and hugs

V, Ande and Matija

photos are just some random ones from the park, the zoo etc.

Christmas

Merry Christmas from Doha,

We had a neat Christmas in Doha - presents at home on Christmas morning, then a day out at Sharq Village with a fabulous meal, enjoying the company of around a dozen of Andrea's team from work. Very relaxed with plenty of bubbly flowing, outside overlooking the harbour and fantastic weather. If the rest of you were here it would have been unbeatable.

Matija got a CD player, a table and chairs from Nana and Dida, a jersey from Grandma and Grandad and lots of other pressies - thank you all for that. Ande received pearls and pot plants while Vince got a world globe, cufflinks and a very nice salt and pepper grinder.

I've attached some photos - Ande is back at work, I'm driving now on a temporary licence and Matija and I will be out and about a little now going to some playgrounds and other exciting attractions.

All our love,

Vince, Ande and Matija.

Coming up to Christmas

It's a couple of weeks after Eid-al-Adha. Andrea has begun leading workshops with developing principals, aspiring principals and master trainers (those training to lead principals) - that's about 250 people participating for three days in a week, over five weeks and all of the materials have to be prepared far enough in advance to have them translated! Feedback has been wonderful, although she was battling a flu over the first week, which hasn't helped at all.

Matija has finished kindy for about three weeks over Christmas, so she'll be back at home with Dad for a while. She's been loving kindy, the teacher and helpers are all great and she runs around to give each of them a hug before she goes home. She has made two friends, Emma and Paige - she'll look forward to seeing them again in the new year.

We've had a celebration of Cognition's 20 years in Doha which was fun - dinner, drinks and speeches a the Diplomatic club. We had the Cognition Christmas function last night, which was a sit-down meal, drinks and a band at the Intercontinental. Nice night, but Ande was still feeling the effects of the flu so we didn't stay too long.

I've got a little writing done, completed some changes to the first in a series, although I can't see myself getting much writing done while Matija is home. I'm not getting stressed about that though, I may as well enjoy my time with her while I can.

We had a day off on Thursday as it is National Day today. We went down to the Corniche to watch the parade. There were thousands of people there to watch. They were about 5 deep where we were, luckily we were in a family area that they fenced off. Matija was on my shoulders and we stayed to see marching troops, others mounted on horses and camels, school kids etc. It was pretty hot and crammed. There were thousands of single Indian guys just beside us and we were all jammed in. The police were pushing the young Indian guys back - it wasn't nasty, but they are certainly treated as a lower class than locals and westerners and it wasn't pleasant. We didn't stay for the whole parade but came home and caught some of it on local TV - big speed boats on the gulf, a fly-by from the Air Force and the Emir driving past.

There are also heaps of cars with flags, stickers and Qatar stuff all over them, Ande took a couple of photos to show you how they look. Others have big photos of the Emir and his son plastered all over them.

We did get out to a camel and horse show at the edge of town, but they don't post the times etc, so we only saw some young boys saddling camels. I did get to hold a falcon though and Matija patted it.

We have the Christmas tree up and there are a few pressies under it. We've still got a bit of Christmas shopping to do. We're going out to a hotel - Shaq Village for Christmas with quite a few of Ande's team. All food and booze supplied and there is an area for kids where they can play and be watched when we want to chill out for a bit too. Should be fun.

We're settling in pretty well, starting to find our way around better and getting some things accomplished. Having fun too and both learning to live a little more in the moment and enjoy those moments - each of them are precious.

love V, Ande and Matija.

Eid al-Adha

Hi everyone,

we're still in holiday mode over here. Eid al-Adha is the second most significant celebration on the Muslim calendar and there are three days of celebration (although Andrea gets a whopping 10 day break). It celebrates the old testament story of Abraham, who is asked to sacrifice his only son. When he is about to do the deed, God lets him off and he sacrifices a lamb instead. The locals had prayer on Thursday morning and, as part of the celebrations, they slaughter an animal. A third of the meat goes to friends and family, a third goes to the needy and they keep a third.

We visited the fruit and vegetable markets on Friday morning - the produce was pretty cheap and it ranged from pineapples to cabbages to strawberries and bananas and some stuff we'd never seen in our lives. After that we visited the live animal markets. There were big makeshift pens of sheep and cattle along with the trucks they came in and their feed. Many were from Somalia and places further away than that. They were charging around $400 for a sheep on the hoof (a premium for Eid and for Westerners I think). One Somali sheep-seller offered a money back guarantee. If it didn't taste any good he'd take the sheep back. There were a few merinos (from Australia I think) but they were mostly long-legged or fat-tailed woolly sheep. There were slim looking goats too and Brahmin style cattle.

As part of the animal market there are two slaughter houses, one for sheep and goats and one for cattle. If you didn't choose to drive you purchase away in your boot then you backed your ute up with your cow on board or you dragged your sheep/goat around to the slaughter house and waited your turn. When it was your turn you roped your cow and dragged it in. There was a public viewing area where we saw them drop the cow with ropes then cut it's throat, hang it, skin it, gut it and cut it up, then loaded the bags of meat back into the ute. No hanging the carcass here. There was a bit more of a chain operating for the sheep, they had five or six on a bench and were cutting throats and hooking them onto a chain as others were being dragged onto the bench. Because of Eid the whole place was going off - utes and animals everywhere. Very exciting.

We also went camel racing. That was really hard case. They line up at the start of the 5km course. Their Somali handlers are on one side of a barrier, holding onto lead ropes and the camels are on the other. They banned small boy jockeys a while ago so they use battery operated robots that spin a whip around when you press the button. Anyway, the barrier goes up and the handlers run for their lives to the side of the track and dive out of the way as the camels launch themselves down the track. We saw three or four handlers go under the camels at the start and a couple of camels went down too, but no-one was carted off to hospital. A few camels balk and go sideways and their handlers sprint after them to try and grab hold of them again, since they're not going to win the race. We were about ten metres down from the start and we got very close-up to a couple of camels that hadn't quite got the hang of the start.

Anyway, they take off, then all of the owners vehicles race off around the road at the edge of the track to follow the race and whip the camels along where necessary. Spectators leap on a bus on the inside of the track and the bus tears alongside the running camels so you get to watch the whole thing in close-up. The buses are wired with Arabic race commentary, you can hear the owners screaming at the camels and the little robots occasionally come to life and start beating the camels along. It's fantastic fun. They should do horse racing like that back home! About 15 of Andrea's work colleagues came along too and we had a great day out, apart from the fact that no-one could tell us when it was, and when we did get there the races were about 100m from the grandstand and we never realised when they actually started.

Other than that, we've joined a health club at one of the hotels where we have access to the gym, pool, squash and tennis courts etc. We've been flogging that over Eid, one of us takes Matija swimming while the other hits the gym. She's got a little floaty vest and has been loving bobbing around the pool.

We're off to the Souk tonight to check out the nuts, dried fruit and spices and we'll stay down there for dinner in a Moroccan place that is supposed to be very good and still pretty cheap by NZ standards.

All in all we're settling in pretty well, finding our way around and starting to get a handle on things. We'll keep you posted on exciting news as it happens and I'll add some photos too.

Cheers V, Matija and Ande

First Posts

Hi everyone,

Just posting some photos and updating. Matija got a

new bike last night and hasn't stopped riding it since. I'll take her up to the apartment roof for a ride this afternoon (hopefully there is a wall or rail around the rooftop!). Also included are photos from the beach, nothing like a Gizzy beach but still warm, sandy and wet.