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Dedicated to my ex best friend.

Beni unutma, unutma, beni unutma
Bilirsin unutulmak dokunurya her insana
Sen de kendi payından bir hatıra seç
Ve o ben olayım unutma, beni unutma

Bilir misin seni gerçekten sevdim
Sevdiğim daha birçok şeyin arasında
Bir tek seni seçtim hatıralar arasında
Sebep diye bir küçük mutluluk

Posted in Uncategorized.

Twittering my way through the Eurovision

I was inspired by one of Simon’s blog posts about a previous Eurovision contest where he detailed what he thought about each contestant so I Twittered my way through the Eurovision.
As you will surely see, some could say that I bet on the wrong horse. I still really don’t get how Norway won.

# Eurovision has finally started, the “Believe” song sung by Dima isn’t half bad but the whole set up is funny.12:09 PM May 16th from TweetDeck
# Lithuania @ Eurovision; Not a chance mate, even with an impersonation of Justin Timberlake you’re not gonna make it to the top 10.12:15 PM May 16th from TweetDeck
# ..The Lithuanian dude sounds better when he sings in his own language, they should really just stick to that.12:16 PM May 16th from TweetDeck
# Israel @ Eurovision; I like what they tried doing, I assume those two ladies represent each side. Not bad.12:20 PM May 16th from TweetDeck
# France @ Eurovision; Damn Patricia Kaas looks smoking hot!!! If I wasn’t Turkish I’d be supporting her for sure.12:22 PM May 16th from TweetDeck
# Sweden @ Eurovision: Guys, not all your local produce is as successful and excellent as Robyn, this song is bound to lose! Eck!!12:27 PM May 16th from TweetDeck
# Croatia @ Eurovision; i liked, until the girl started squeeling.12:32 PM May 16th from TweetDeck
# Portugal @ Eurovision : :( …12:34 PM May 16th from TweetDeck
# ICEland @ Eurovision; I like, I like.. Is it tttrrrrrruuueeeeee?1 day ago from TweetDeck
# Greece @ Eurovision: Goodluck to our neighbors! This is the night! He’s rocking the song!about 24 hours ago from TweetDeck
# Armenia @ Eurovision; Some parts of the song were good, others were a real GENOCIDE.about 24 hours ago from TweetDeck
# Russia @ Eurovision; Please excuse me while I turn the sound OFF.. good god.about 24 hours ago from TweetDeck
# Azerbaijan @ Eurovision; Better than Sweden + Russia, not as good as Greece.about 24 hours ago from TweetDeck
# B&H @ Eurovision; I think I like the song. I’m not sure about the dancers. Those women scare me.about 24 hours ago from TweetDeck
# Moldova @ Eurovision; Cool vocals. I think I like your song, but is it a winner?about 24 hours ago from TweetDeck
# Malta @ Eurovision; Call me sappy - but this is a song I would download and listen to from time to time. Sweet!about 24 hours ago from TweetDeck
# Estonia @ Eurovision; I was expecting less BLEH and more WOW.about 23 hours ago from TweetDeck
# Denmark @ Eurovision; Are you sure you don’t represent England? Coz I sense some major Ronan channeling there.about 23 hours ago from TweetDeck
# Germany @ Eurovision; You get my vote just because you’re smart enough to cheat by using Dita VT! Kiss Kiss Bang!about 23 hours ago from TweetDeck
# Turkey @ Eurovision: YURRRUUUU HAAAAAADIIISSSSSSEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!about 23 hours ago from TweetDeck
# Albania @ Eurovision; omgs, there’s a blue dude and twirling ninjas, i hates it.about 23 hours ago from TweetDeck
# Norway @ Eurovision; No.about 23 hours ago from TweetDeck
# Ukraine @ Eurovision; If you wanted to lure me to voting for you the naked gladiators would’ve been enough. no need for the singing tranny.about 23 hours ago from TweetDeck
# Romania @ Eurovision: Cute.about 23 hours ago from TweetDeck
# U.K.: it’s not your time now.about 23 hours ago from TweetDeck
# Eurovision; EUROPE START VOTING!..for Turkey :P So say the spacemen.about 23 hours ago from TweetDeck
# Good god, what is it with all the Norway voting!about 22 hours ago from TweetDeck
# THANK YOU FRAAAAANCCCEE…. TURKIYE TURKIYE TURKIYE!about 22 hours ago from TweetDeck
-By this time I was starting to get a bit too overexcited..-
# GAWD, STOP VOTING FOR NORWAY THEY SUCKED.about 22 hours ago from TweetDeck
# YAAAAY THANK YOU SWITZERLANDabout 22 hours ago from TweetDeck
# THANK YOU UK!!!!about 22 hours ago from TweetDeck
# We love you Macedonia! <3about 22 hours ago from TweetDeck
# Thaaaank yooooou Azerbaijan! <3about 21 hours ago from TweetDeck
# Turkey/Hadise Eurovision 4th! Congratulations to Norway and their out of tone song!about 21 hours ago from TweetDeck

Thank you for tuning in!

<3

-I.

Posted in Turkey.

UnTick Me Please

It’s 2.30AM and I’m still up, glaring at the ceiling waiting.
Did you know that for a couple of years now, there has been an invasion of infectious ticks in Turkey? They carry a disease that causes death after a couple of days of being bitten who’s origins have been traced back to Africa.

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I live in an area where you’ll find all sorts of creatures, from scorpions to snakes and whatnot. We also have LOTS of ticks..They’re not the infectious ones since we’re not in the epidemic area but ticks being ticks, they still carry all sorts of ickness within.
I was busy doing the washing up after dinner when I felt rather nauseous. Nausea, very high fever, headaches are only some of the side effects of the disease they seem to carry. Ever since the epidemic started (especially since we’re right in the middle of the incubation period for these insects) we’ve been paying extra care to checking ourselves each time we come back from the garden or the sea..I don’t remember checking myself this afternoon after watering the plants in the garden but I remember my heart skipping a beat when I saw a tick sucking away at my leg.
In a bout of panic, I called my sister, my voice trembling and probably on the verge of losing the plot, and told her that I had been bitten. Now since the ticks in the Aegean area haven’t been known to carry the killer disease she didn’t start freaking out but since all the family is currently in Istanbul and I’m all alone here, she still did stress adequately.
She hung up and called a close friend of mine who lives 45 minutes away. Every minute passing stressed me even more and by the time he called me I was already crying and shaking and glaring at this vampire of an animal sucking away at my blood. Obviously I started feeling feverish, even though when my friends checked I was apparently ice cold..I was rushed to the hospital but by the time we got there, our friendly tick had ejected itself from its new home and had left me with an itsy bitsy mosquito-like bite mark.
The doctor checked the bite mark to make sure the tick hadn’t left its head in it and once he seemed satisfied told me to come back in the morning to get blood work done.
I was brought back home, still shaky, and put to bed. It’s been 2 hours and I’ve still not managed to fall asleep. I need to get up at 8AM to prepare my sisters luggage since she’s in Istanbul and heading to Brussels on Saturday morning for a one month internship and then I need to head to the hospital but I just can’t seem to get to sleep. Deep inside I know that I should be fine, but I am still freaked out to the point of sleep depravity.
While I’m on the topic of Brussels, I’ve been checking Expedia to see what kind of rates they have for hotels in Brussels and I managed to find cool deals for hotels in the Avenue Louise area, I’m going to go visit my sister at the end of the month so I’ll keep looking until I find even better deals, provided I’m still alive by then. If not; I hereby request to be incinerated and for my ashes to be scattered in Cesme and in Istanbul, the two places that have become my home away from home.
Only a couple of hours left until I get those blood tests done, cross your fingers for me.

P.S.: Listen to Wonderwall by Ryan Adams, I think it kicks Oasis’ arse.

Posted in Belgium, Cesme, Istanbul, Izmir, complaint dept., horror and pain inducing, them, travel.

twitterrrr..

Okay, so, I’m lazy these days.There will not be many updates on this blog for a while.. Micro-blogging feels easier than blogging on angelvox so if you’d like to see what I’m upto; head onto twitter and follow me!

<3

Posted in Uncategorized.

brownbook issue 15 - chefs in Turkey

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brownbook magazine
photos: i.m.j Creative Agency - Idil Jans

Posted in food, interviews, work.

This is why you’re FAT!

obesity_surgery

The ULTIMATE weight loss plan..? Check this website before every meal. Guaranteed to put you off food and make you lose those pounds by the bucket load.
Bonne Appetit!

Posted in Linx, food.

Quote of the Day

He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret.
If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips, betrayal oozes out of him at every pore.

- Sigmund Freud

sigmund-freud

Posted in Quotes. Tagged with , , .

Australian BushFires

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Australia holds a very special place in my heart. Right now, Victorians are living what could probably be qualified as the worst days of their lives due to the bush fires ravaging Victoria. 133 deaths have already been reported and firefighters are still out there trying to extinguish the fires.
Please show your support by donating to the Australian RedCross ASAP and help them fight this tragedy.

Pictures of the fires can be found NineMsn News Website

The death toll from Victoria’s bushfires could top 200 as authorities sift through the piles of ash that were once entire communities.
The death toll from Victoria’s bushfires has risen to 131, police say.
The toll has risen with confirmation of another death at Narbethong, in the upper Yarra Valley, bringing the body count there so far to nine.
Police disaster identification teams have worked throughout the night the process of identifying and remove the remains.
Interstate police have also arrived to assist in removing remains.
Senior fire and parks officials have told staff they fear there may be more than 200 deaths when the heartbreaking task of cleaning up is complete.
The fires are already Australia’s worst natural disaster by far: worse than Ash Wednesday, Black Friday and Cyclone Tracy.

Taken from here.

Posted in Australia, historical, news.

Splash!

Have you ever been at a photo shoot and had your model fall into the freezing cold waters of the Bosphorus to only have her followed by four men who think it was smart to fall ontop of each other in a failed attempt to rescue her?

splash_smaller

I had a shoot scheduled this Sunday with a gorgeous young lady called Elena, who thanks to her infinite patience, kindness and wisdom decided that she absolutely wanted to work with me. Little did she know that what she thought would be a pleasent evening taking shots would end up in her being stung by jelly fish and covered in 7 types of different seaweeds.

Elena is a stunning young woman who has been working as a model for the past 4 years. She worked with several big Turkish fashion houses and you can see her pictures plastered accross the walls of the city often when you drive around in Istanbul.

Elena and I were at her place for hours picking what she was going to wear during the shoot, meticulously laying out thousands of euros worth of designer clothing that she keeps in a room slash walking closet, right next to her enormous room which just happens to have one of the best views of the city. Things like these happen when your father is a Russian mafia lord.
She picked this black Valentino evening gown, which flowed to the floor and looked like something out of a dream. The fabric used was exquisite and made her look like she was ready to walk down the red carpet right at that instant.
I would think that one wouldn’t even need an elaborate hair do or extravagant make up to go with this dress since it was enough to make anyone, especially Elena, look gorgeous.

A couple of other outfits were picked and given to her assistant who prepared them for the shoot. Everything was loaded into her Mercedes van and we set to go to the scene of the crime.
We wanted to work in Yenikoy, which is 20 minutes away from where I live and right on the Bosphorus. Studded with old Yali’s, Yenikoy is by far one of the only areas in Istanbul that kept its charm and beauty.
We arrived in her car and the van was already there. Her assistant and my crew were ready for us and thankfully, one of my friends who lives there had accepted to let us use his house so that Elena could change and get ready.

After a hearty lunch, which was much needed due to the blistering cold and the long hours of work ahead of us, the make up artist started to work on my model. Everyone was fluttering around her, helping her and responding to her every request. She was truly the star of the day and the pampering helped her remember that. If only she knew what was to come, she would’ve probably enjoyed it much more.

My make up artist made her look like a diva of the 60s, in her long black gown and her natural beauty. We covered her up with coats and shalls so that she wouldn’t freeze to death outside and set to walking to our location which was being prepared by the crew.
Without going into too many details, the props were set and everyone was waiting for us, ready to start working and cooing at Elena while she got into character and started to pose for me.

There is a huge difference when you take pictures of a model and a non professional, models like E already know how to work the camera, they know what looks good on the image and it is much easier to guide them.
Working with E was effortless, she gave me a pout, a fierce look which illuminated my whole scene and off I was shooting image after image.

I work with memory cards of 8GB when shooting and I had gone through my first one. I set the camera down so that I wouldn’t let it slip out of my frozen hands while changing the card. I took it out and handed it to one of the assistants and put in a new one. While I was busy fiddling with buttons and adjustments on the camera, I heard a huge splash! I remember distinctivly holding my breath and looking at the props praying that one of them had suddenly fell and rolled down till the edge and fell into the sea. My eyes were frantically looking around trying to see what it was that had made everyone freeze in place and look down into the dark waters of the Bosphorus.

Suddenly, the assistant to whom I had handed my precious memory card threw down one of the cameras he had in his hand onto the floor, which ended up making a huge smashing sound, and threw himself into the very dirty water. He was then followed by the rest of my crew, who decided to jump right onto the same spot of water where the initial crew member had jumped upon.
I then suddenly realised that I was alone with Elenas assistant and the make up artist and it had dawned onto me that Elena was missing from the set. A wave of panic overcame me and I started running around like a headless chicken.
All of this happened in a matter of seconds, even though when I think about it it felt more like minutes and minutes long, and suddenly a blue face rose up from under the black waters of the Bosphorus. Followed was four equally blue faces, helping Elena swim back to the steps that would lead her to the safety of firm land.
Elenas assistant was frozen, I think she was in some sort of shock which she didn’t seem to want to get out of, it must’ve been warm and comfy in shockland because I had to help Elena out, strip her infront of everybody and cover her up with 4 blankets. All of which I was doing while tears of laughter were streaming down my cheeks.
I had started laughing as soon as it had dawned on me that it was my friend that had fallen into the water, and not a prop. I couldn’t stop giggling. Even when her color had come back to its natural state of pinkness, I was still cracking up and smirking.
Ofcourse, the pictures that I took were destroyed, thanks to the heroic rescue attempt perpetrated by my courageous crew member, and so was the magnificent gown, which ended up back in Elenas closet (once dried), to be never worn again.

Posted in work.

Xobni - Life Saver

xobni

One of the programs I use the most at work is Outlook. Thankfully, I recently noticed that I could upgrade my Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2007, which I happen to adore just as much, if not more than Thunderbird, the Mozilla counterpart.
As soon as he heard that I had upgraded to the latest version of the famous email client, one of my managers quickly sent me a link to a small program which revolutionized my mailbox. I wonder how I ever worked without it.
Have you ever tried Xobni? It’s a small Outlook utility that indexes all of your mails when installed and just makes your life easier.
It’s very discreet so you don’t feel like it’s monopolizing half of your screen and with the statistics that it offers to you is very interesting.
It lists my contacts, the emails that they’ve sent me, the attachments that they sent, the frequency at which we email each other and their rank in my Mail-o-Meter!
If you do use Outlook 2007 every day at work like I do, I would highly suggest that you give Xobni a chance and let yourself be seduced by this powerful add-on.

Posted in daily doings, work.