I recently paid a visit to Çakırlar Market which is a 20 minute Dolmus ride from my apartment in Konyaalti.

On arriving the first thing that I noticed that it was a market, sure, but that it was on either side of a main road!! Ok, fair enough.

The market itself wasn’t that big or particularly special but its main attraction is the amount of eating places where each family or group of people have their own private well for want of a better word…tent.

Gozleme (a pastry with different fillings) seems to be the order of the day. So of course we had to sample 3 of them with the feta cheese one being my favourie and we some Ayran (yogurt drink) and a nice big pot of tea to wash it down.

When I go to restaurants here I always take advantage of the free glasses of tea they offer at the end of the meal, usually having at least two sometimes 3 of them. I think I got about 8 of them out of the pot and that was sharing it with my wife. I was thoroughly tea’d out by the end of it…but happily so.

In photos 13,14, and 15 you can see photos of my favourite stall that day. They were selling antiques and models cars and motorbikes but the best things were two gramaphones which were in working order and selling for 350 YTL which is about 100 pound, which I thought was a bargain for the condition they were in. I would have bought one but for two reasons, I didn’t have 350 YTL on me and I don’t have any records to play on them.

My other favourite was a Pinochio puppet which I would have bought if I had 30 YTL on me but as it was, I didn’t. I had my bus fare home and that was about it.

We then had to wait for the Dolmus home again, which took about an hour as when I said the market was on a main road, it is still out of the way a wee bit so it wasn’t the usual 5 minute wait for a suitable Dolmus.

By this time it was getting dark and I was missing the Premiership footie on the Telly so I was getting slightly irritable and a little cold. So cold in fact I even had to put my jumper on!!

Now get this, when the Dolmus did arrive my boy decides he wants Strawberries. We’ve stood waiting for a bus for an hour beside this stall and now he wants Strawberries and of course my Turkish wife has to keep the boy happy at all times.

So I get on the Dolmus with the boy and the buggy while my wife places her bag on the steps of the Dolmus and rummages through her handbag for what must have been at least 3 minutes although it seemed like 20, before she eventually finds it, buys the Strawberries and gets on the bus…and nobody bats an eyelid at this…including the driver!!

I was getting super tense as I was thinking how if I done that in Scotland, I don’t think the general response would have been quite the same.

But this slower more relaxed way of life and taking the unexpected twists and turns of life in their stride is one of the things that I love about living here.

We got home and I ran into the house to see the second half of what game was on and it was Middlesborough…again. Why are Middlesbourgh on all the time? Because a Turkish international called Tuncay plays for them thats why.

I wouldn’t mind so much but Middlesborough are pretty awful to watch….most of the time. However this time was the exception as they beat Arsenal 2-1 with Tuncay scoring a classic.

So all in all, a good day.

If you think that Muslim’s don’t celebrate Xmas then you’d be right. Then why all the Xmas decorations in Migros shopping centre? Well, they are for the New Year Celebrations. They usuually have a Father Christmas in the supermarket area as well but he wasn’t there when I took these photos last week. Perhaps he’ll be there now though

Remember the church of the original Father Christmas, St Nicholas, is just a two hour drive from Antalya at Myra.

Quite impressive decorations though, do you agree?

Last night we held the 2nd meeting for the Gentlemen of Antalya at a bar called Kabanos in Kaleici. I missed the first one where 7 gentlemen turned up as my wife got jealous of the fact there wasn’t any women invited so shall we say she strongly suggested that we go out that night. Last night as you can see by the photos there was a huge turn out of ……….four, consisting of myself, Paul, Uwe and Leon.

The idea and driving force behind the group is Uwe (sitting behind me). He wants to make the group just a sociable thing rather than an official organisation. We talked over a few ideas for places to go and events to organise for about 5 minutes then for the rest of the night we concentrated mainly on the important matters of life here in Antalya….football and how to get english speaking channels on television.

It was an enjoyable evening and the lads were good company. Here’s hoping next time we get a slightly bigger turn out and can start planning things a little more seriously.

The meetings get held the first Friday of every month and I’ll keep you posted about where the next one will take place.

Cheers or should I say Şerefe.

On Sunday December 2nd The International Women of Antalya held their annual Xmas Bazaar at the Talya Hotel Conference Centre.

All proceeds went to charity and this year there were some fabulous items just waiting for you to buy. As always there was a Cafe, White Elephant Stall, Father Christmas ( with a photographer) and a nearly new clothes stall. Their was also International Stands with lots of guest exhibitors along with Raffles etc.

This year the Antalya Xmas Bazzar raised 13,400 YTL.

Well done to all concerned.

The Antalya International Womans Association was founded in 2002. Its purpose is to support the women from all different parts of the world who have chosen to live in Antalya. It also aims to help them to recognise cultural differences and help them to make friends and adapt to the culture they live in. There are Turkish, British, Portugese, American, German, Dutch, French as well as women from Switzerland and Azerbejan in the Association. Below is an interview with Gul the current President.

Charity work is among the assocations activities. This includes bursaries to university students, help to people who suffered in the Istanbul earthquake, contributions to the ‘keep our coasts clean’ project, support to womens guest house, donation of 2 respiratory machines for the premature babies unit in Antalya as well as some other useful appliances. After last years Xmas Bazzar two wheelchairs were donated to spastic children rehabilitation centre as well as some other necessary equipment for the centre. Moreover, a playroom was created for the 0-6 age group as well as donating a tumble dryer, two hoovers, and three bicycles for the children of the 0-7 age group. This years charity work is aiming to help cancer patients as well as helping disabled children with various mentally and physically challanged aspects. To achieve this success with charity work they have recieved great support from the people of Antalya who come to the Xmas Bazzar in large numbers. Here is their website: www.iwantalya.com