She shall have a fishy

Usually in Prague when you use the word ‘fresh’ it means a drunken Australian expat has tried to grab your arse in a seedy bar on Dusni. Thankfully in Istanbul it comes with rather more tasty connotations. A few nights ago I was taken to dinner by my friend Erdinc who works in IT. Having already discovered that I am a raving wino, Erdinc was kind enough to take me to a famous Turkish restaurant which has its own vineyard in the West of the country. The only downfall is that when wine tastes this good you don’t want to dilute it with soda water and the grape juice works it magic a little quicker than one might expect.

Anyway whilst ordering my fish dish I was a little perturbed by the waiter who kept asking what I would prefer if my first, second and even third choice of fish was not available. ‘Does he not even know what the kitchen has in stock?’ I asked my companion. ‘Certainly he does, but the fishing boat just pulled in and he has no idea what they have got till he runs to the harbour.’ Yeah okay, I can live with that.

Despite my very healthy appitite for Turkish food I still seem to be loosing weight. Vunderbar! I haven’t been a size 36 for about 6 years. The fish and salad diet agrees with me. I also sampled the office gym today and was unsurprised to discover that much like England and the CZ, most women only go to the gym to take a leisurely stroll on the walking machine and look at the training instructor’s pecs. As usual I was the manic red faced minger in the corner running like a crack ho with a warrant out on her. I have been challenged to the Istanbul half marathon in May. I have some training to do.

I also tried beer at a Turkish brewery this week. I’m not really a connoisseur of beer but it seemed pretty good to me. The dark one was particularly nice. I am wowing my colleagues with my rapidly expanding knowledge of bar Turkish.

Work. Well I don’t have much to say. The furor of getting legal has only just died down and now I find myself with little to do. Now Martin has started I am hoping to have a clearer idea of what my future career holds. I am assured I will be more involved soon.

I signed the contract on my flat today and was happy to discover that my landlady, who lives in Ankara, is a smashing and rather cool woman who speaks great English and is really helpful. I already know two or three girls (Turkish and German) who live in the Yenikoy area, so despite being a little out of town I’m sure I’ll be in good company. I can’t wait to get out of this bloody hotel, and more importantly, into a place with a washing machine. Oh will my smalls n’er be clean?

But at times like these I must bestow praise upon my mother who taught me how to handwash at an early age. A skill that has proved far more useful to me than any academic qualification I have ever gained.

Ironically the balcony on my flat was added by a previous tennant who was a writer. May even start on that book this summer…..

Tonight I am spending a rare night in with room service before the crazy weekend to come with far more invitations than there is time. One such invitation includes a meal at an oriental restaurant on Friday. A Chinese Burns night if you will.

You can take the girl out of Prague…..