Sales Fever

Does this look familiar? No not an impromptu trip to the UK .... just us hitting the Boxing Day sales in Izmir.




Not quite the UK experience either as we were given our own personal shop assistant and offered refreshments as we shopped.

Happy Christmas Everyone

Click here for our Christmas message

New Project

We decided to start a new project this week. We thought we would get even more use out of our front terrace both in winter and in summer if we glazed it. So on Tuesday we spent some time going around the many and various glazing firms on the industrial estates to get prices and judge quality.



Having chosen a firm, we had them measure up and today they arrived complete with sliding doors and glass and most importantly, mosquito nets. Unfortunately today the heavens decided to open and we were swamped. The men did as much as they could but need to return to do the finishing touches.

However ... it's already looking good.

Garden Redesign update

Our project is almost finished

A few plants and the water feature will be complete.

Mosque Update

The mosque is still rising ...



It should hold 2500 people when it's finished

It looks very grand doesn't it?

And just over the road we now have access to 24 hour banking at the top of town.

What's planning permission?

Having shown you trees jumping out into the road,

How about this building?




We think it's trying to trip up passing cars.

How did they get planning permission?

Don't comment ... I think we all know the answer!

Important Information

No pictures this time .... just some important information for ALL those who have bank accounts here in Turkey. This article has been re-printed from Zaman (A national Turkish newspaper).

Basically, the authorities are bringing banking practice into line with the EU to counteract money laundering and other criminal activity. It was to have been completed by the end of the year, but fortunately, the deadline has been extended.

Data update deadline for accounts extended

The deadline for bank account holders to update their identity and address data has been extended. The Finance Ministry's Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) announced yesterday that they have extended the deadline for data updating, previously Dec. 31, 2008, to June 1, 2009.

Accordingly, account holders have another five months to confirm their personal data with their banks. Failure to update personal information will result in a freeze on banking services, such as bill payment. Under a MASAK regulation intended to prevent the financing of terror activities and money laundering, introduced in April of this year, customers opening a bank account after July 1, 2008 are required to provide identity and address data. There are currently around 90 million active bank accounts in Turkey. Account holders who opened their accounts without providing this data will be able to convey their ID numbers to their banks' databases via e-mail or SMS. MASAK officials note that the regulation provides that civil servants and employees at private corporations with more than 100 employees will not be responsible for updating their data. Instead, their employers will handle the update on their behalf. Account holders updating their data in person will be asked to provide one of the following documents to confirm their address and identity information: residence permit, identity card, electricity, water, natural gas bill or marriage license.

This means that anyone who opened an account prior to July 2008 must provide proof of identity to their bank as laid out in the final paragraph. We have done this and we have found that both our banks required 2 of the above, our passport and a utility bill.

Night out

We had a night out with friends to get into the Christmas Party Mood.



It was held at the Orion Hotel. They laid on transport, a meal and entertainment all for 15YTL / head ... excellent value.

The entertainers were a troupe of 4 players who had us in stitches all night

Between each set, while the costume changes were carried out, the host ran a little light-hearted quiz

At the end of the evening there was time for a little dancing before returning home.

Well done the Orion Hotel for giving us something more than the usual low quality dance acts.

Garden Redesign

We have started work on redesigning our garden water feature.



We want to enlarge the pool area, and do away with the running stream. The cactus has had to go as well as a palm that was threatening to overwhelm this little corner of our garden.

We hope to reduce the amount of water loss from evaporation and leaks this way, as well as being more attractive.

Meanwhile we have moved the rocks to another part of the garden.
The garden looks a little bare now as we have been round with the secateurs and shears, pruning everything back hard, the theory being it will come back twice as strongly next year.