I am waiting ... for my long term stay visa, for my appointment with the people who select the language school best suited to my personal needs and who ascertain whether I need to attend the socio-cultural integration classes ... a series of visits to libraries, museums and other important sites. I like the idea of it. It's a 2 hour interview 29 September.
Meanwhile, winter struck violently today, or so it seemed however, I might be exaggerating. I kick-started ye olde soup of long-suffering and diet. It's nasty in the beginning, yet highly effective. In Istanbul, towards the end of my intensely satisfying work with the young (and machevillian) students under my care, I came to rely on various sugar-filled, caffeine-loaded forms of sustenance. Now comes the time when I break their hold over me ... perhaps demonic cleansing just might be simpler to live with.
The winter exaggeration comment was in reference to the fact my body temperature seems to drop about 10oC when I go through sugar withdrawal however, I have a need to be slyph-like, so here I am, sucking back a desperately required coffee as I write this.
My flights home are all altered ... open until August 2nd, 2006 ... one year after my original booking. Actually, I had a wee incident yesterday, with regard to the ticket changes. I have notes all over my desk, to-do lists etc ... and I phoned up Singapore Airlines, to confirm changing my flight. After a couple of minutes of frustration on both ends of the phone, it became clear that Turkish Airlines couldn't help me ... mmm, the problem of using scraps of paper to note down phone numbers. The grumpy missy at Turkish Airlines finally laughed when I suggested she must have all kinds of idiots phoning her and that it seemed that I was today's idiot. When you phone the right airline company, things go so much more smoothly ...
I don't think I've written anything about the dogs here. They're allowed everywhere, on the trams, in shops and pubs ... simply everywhere. And oddly enough, if you don't treat dog and dog owners as if they are criminals they repay you by behaving. There's no problem with poo on the streets, and I've yet to see a dog behaving badly. A pet peeve of mine, as I recall my dog and I often felt hounded out of Dunedin city by a city council focused on dogs, and ever-decreasing dog space.
I'm slowly locating pubs, restaurants, bookshops, tours and all manner of things for those of you who might wander this way. Imagine the dreary research ... I do expect to be frantically busy with work by January (at the latest), so this is a good thing to be doing with my time.
When I first flew in from Istanbul, I couldn't sit down without falling asleep, and used to slip back to bed after Gert went to work and sleep until lunchtime. I'm through that phase, now it's the sugar ...
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