Leslie's random thoughts and adventures

To Timbuktu and back, 1: Bamako

2011-02-09T14:43:00.009-07:00

It turns out the only way to get to Mali is through Paris, and the best way to get to Paris from Calgary is through Amsterdam. So that's what I did. But if I'd done that at any sort of civilized hour I'd arrive in Paris 30 minutes after the flight to Mali left. So I started off a day early and spent the night in Paris.Any reasonable person would have gone to Paris days early and taken in the

To Timbuktu and back - my trip to Mali

2011-02-09T14:23:00.003-07:00

Mali. The third poorest country in the world. Home of Al-Qaeda and Tuareg terrorists. A place you need at least 8 shots before you visit; where you have to take anti-malaria medication daily while you're there and for a week after; where you're crazy to eat the lettuce and almost certainly will get gut-twisting turista anyway. Why would anyone want to go there.I did.Last November I was browsing

Our Pacific voyage

2010-12-08T18:01:00.003-07:00

Here's a summary of my Facebook posts from our trip to New Zealand, Australia & the South Pacific. Sorry to all my friends who rely on this blog instead of Facebook to see what we're doing.Photos are on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lesliel/sets/72157624107939831/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/lesliel/sets/72157624109084617/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/lesliel/sets/72157624201407911/,

Touristing in Alberta

2009-08-12T10:04:00.005-06:00

It seems shocking that we've covered a large part of the world's surface and hadn't (until last Thursday) been north of Red Deer in our own province. So we decided to deal with that.A couple of months ago we reconnected with Ron's cousin Ralph at a family reunion. When Ron was growing up Ralph was one of the old kids and not part of his circle at all. Funny how 50 years can change all that. Five

We're home

2009-02-17T12:50:00.002-07:00

As usual, I neglected to let people know we made it home safely. I didn't know there were that many people reading this blog, but several have expressed surprise at seeing us around Canmore - "Aren't you still travelling?" So this is formal notice that we made it back home.And the picture to the right is what we faced in Toronto. We knew there would be a bit of a temperature difference - we left

Do we gotta go home?

2009-01-27T07:26:00.002-07:00

So here we are in Santiago, within hours of having to leave for the airport, and I really don't want to go. Chile is very much to my taste (in every sense of the word), and I'd love to spend more time here. To continue our voyage north from Antarctica... We made our way through some of the fjords on

To Antarctica and back

2009-01-20T13:55:00.000-07:00

So Ron made it out of quarantine in time for the Falkland Islands and our first view of penguins in the wild. Our ship couldn't get into the inner harbour at Stanley, so we tendered in and were met by a fleet of minibuses to take us on our tours. We chose to go to Bluff Beach Cove and its Gentoo penguin flock. That was a half-hour trip along nice roads and another half hour in landrover over

Quarantined in Montevideo

2009-01-10T02:28:00.003-07:00

Well, we got onto the M.S. Amsterdam just fine and had a lovely smooth departure from Buenos Aires. I would hate to have to navigate along the Rio de la Plata. It's essentially a river delta just waiting to happen. At some points, we were told, there were only a few meters between our ship and the bottom - and with this being a huge drought year, the situation can only get worse. The water is

Turista in Iguazu

2009-01-08T06:09:00.002-07:00

So we got to our gaucho show, which turned out to be Opera Pampas, a song, dance & horse-riding survey of Argentina's history. Brief summary: there were native people who sang and danced, then the Spaniards came with their horses and gave them a really hard time and sang and danced, then settlers came and wiped them out and sang and danced, and now we're all happy, singing, dancing Argentinians -

Sunburned in Buenos Aires

2009-01-03T12:33:00.002-07:00

The thing about Canadians in winter is: we're pale. So a day on an open tour bus can have some painful results. Nevertheless, it was a good thing to do.We arrived in Buenos Aires New Year's afternoon after a 12-hour flight from Toronto. To my surprise I was able to sleep through most of it, waking in time to see dawn over the Orinoco River and Guyana. The sun really does come up fast at the

At least one head is warm in Canmore

2008-12-15T16:52:00.006-07:00

Last night we drove past Canmore's Big Head (a statue of a head emerging from the ground, to celebrate the meaning of Canmore's name in Gaelic, wished on us recently by the town fathers and mothers) - and this is what we saw:Some kind person had knitted a hat to help the poor guy survive the -40C weather. He's still wearing it today, which is just as well because it's still *&*% cold.I didn't get

Around Beijing

2008-10-03T10:26:00.001-06:00

Sleep didn't last very long last night. We were both ready to go at 1:30 a.m. We managed to stay in or around bed until 5:30, but it was no problem getting fed and ready to go by 7:30.Beijing is even more crowded than usual this week. It's National Holiday week, 7 days to celebrate the founding of the People's Republic of China. Most people have time off work, but it looks like everyone in the

First day in China

2008-10-02T21:36:00.004-06:00

So we finally got to Beijing! We left Canmore on Monday the 29th and stopped over in Salmon Arm so we could enjoy our new favourite Barley Station Brew Pub. Tuesday we had lunch with Ron's cousin Rae, catching up after years and years. We were in Vancouver in time for dinner with Rachel - Chinese dumplings at her favourite place (and now ours) on Broadway. And Wednesday we caught the

A Day Redefined

2008-09-12T12:38:00.006-06:00

For the last 7 years September 11 has meant terror and death to me. Yesterday all that changed. Our grandson, Dimitry Joseph Fisher Lewis, was born. Now September means hope and life and new beginnings. Only problem: I'm not sure how to spell his first name yet! That's what you get when your children have diverse heritages to celebrate.Meanwhile, Ron and I are busy getting shots and things in

Up to date

2008-08-18T16:25:00.004-06:00

Just a note to let you know I've finally got all the pictures from our trip uploaded to Flickr. The easiest place to start is here. They're a lot more informative than I've been able to make this blog - have a look. (I'm still adding comments and putting them on the map.)

Home

2008-08-12T08:10:00.002-06:00

It's 8 a.m. on Tuesday, and I've been up since 5. Not bad for the second morning home, I guess. And the advantage of still being on a time somewhat east of us is that we get to watch the glorious sunrise light our wonderful mountains. Driving home from Calgary Sunday evening we were both struck by the beauty of our own part of the world: the mountains in the evening light with scattered patches

On the way home

2008-08-10T04:58:00.002-06:00

I'm sitting in the Air Canada passenger lounge at Heathrow (thank you, Evan!) enjoying their free coffee and internet and catching up with a bit of Flickr picture uploading (we're all the way up to the second stop in Iceland - just wait for the Greenland pictures!). We left the ship Thursday morning, not without a sense of relief. Three weeks is just a bit long to be cooped up with a couple of

Iceland again, Scotland and beyond

2008-08-06T03:31:00.002-06:00

After two days of rough sailing we were in Iceland again, this time in Reykjavik (smoky bay) in the south-east. Didn't spend long there, though - we boarded a bus right away and headed out into the countryside again for more waterfalls, plate tectonics and geothermal stuff. We saw the original Geysir, but he's not spouting any more - tourists threw too many rocks into his mouth. His neighbour

Greenland

2008-07-31T14:53:00.002-06:00

When we first heard about this cruise it was the chance to see Greenland that appealed to me most. I've always wondered what that big white blob at the top of the globe was really like. And here was a chance to find out in relative safety and comfort.Usually we've found that it's dangerous to have high expectations for a place. Some of our best experiences have been in places we expected to hate

From Norway to nowhere

2008-07-28T03:24:00.003-06:00

I've been falling into the trap of waiting until there's a good solid internet connection to write about what's been going on. That's not going to happen very soon, so what I'm doing now is writing something on my computer when I can and uploading it when the ship is in contact with a satellite for a few moments. 'Cause most of the satellites - why am I surprised? - are positioned to make

Petrels at sea

2008-07-18T08:25:00.004-06:00

My GPS seemed to think we were walking on water at lunch today. That reminded me of a recently-learned useless fact: that petrels (sea birds) are called that because they seem to run along the top of the water like St. Peter. So we must be a pair of petrels. Or a boat-full.We boarded the MV Prinsendam yesterday at Dover, bound for Amsterdam via Norway, Iceland, Greenland, the Shetland Islands and

A Week and a Bit in England

2008-07-14T12:57:00.003-06:00

As usual I'm days behind in updating people on our whereabouts - and almost out of minutes on BT OpenZone, which is one of my least favourite ways of getting at the internet. Anyway... We're in Exeter, in southwest England - Devon - just back from a less-than-lucrative day at the races at Newton Abbott. It was a good day nonetheless.So far we've done plays and concerts in London (Hairspray, the

Wow!

2008-06-27T08:13:00.004-06:00

Just discovered this site through Ravelry's stranded knitting group's design resource page. At this page you can upload a picture - or link to a Flickr photo - and get a set of colour samples to match. I tried to save a result & post it here - but don't know how! Just go and try it.

Shifting Rib Scarf

2008-06-22T10:48:00.007-06:00

I've moved this pattern to my knitting blog: http://momles.livejournal.com/1495.html

Old-Fashioned String Bag

2008-05-21T15:41:00.008-06:00

I've moved this pattern to my knitting blog: http://momles.livejournal.com/1264.html

Ocean Waves Scarf

2008-05-20T12:47:00.004-06:00

I've moved this entry to my LiveJournal knitting blog: http://momles.livejournal.com/944.html

Knitting net

2008-03-22T10:58:00.004-06:00

Sometimes people who visit the knitting store are surprised to see me surfing the web. They're even more surprised when they ask me "What can I make from this yarn?" and I show them screens and screens of nifty things other people have made from it. The Internet has become an incredible resource for knitters.Here are some of my favourite sites.My first inkling that there were some treasures out

The Family Grows Again

2008-01-30T10:51:00.000-07:00

Since the last post we've been putting down roots in Canmore, getting re-established in our condo, joining two choirs, becoming involved in the church (Ron) and Rotary (Ron), landing two jobs (me - at the Canmore museum and at Knit and Caboodle, our local yarn store. We've been wonderfully lazy, just exactly what we wanted to do when we came home. It's great.Among the delights of the past 5

Home at last

2007-09-09T09:17:00.000-06:00

I'm writing this curled up in my comfy chair in Canmore, home at last. A lot has happened since the last post - sorry! I'll summarize our travels quickly now, and probably over the next few weeks tell random stories as i remember them. I left off as we were sailing out of Stockholm harbour. From there we went to Warnemünde, Germany, the port for Rostock. Several hundred of the passengers went on

A moment of high drama

2007-08-17T03:07:00.001-06:00

The MS Amsterdam is at the moment on the way from Stockholm to Warnemunde, Germany, so many of its passengers can take an all-day tour to Berlin. But for a while last night it didn't look like we would be leaving. We'd spent a pleasant day in Stockholm on various tours or shopping - great city; Ron and I had an hour at the Vasa museum built around a 17th-century ship retrieved from the bottom of

North to south and north again

2007-08-14T12:46:00.000-06:00

So here I am lounging in a comfy chair on board the MS Amsterdam - one of the Holland America line's lovely boats - somewhere between St. Petersburg and Helsinki, while Ron uses another hotspot somewhere on the boat. What on earth are we doing here?We left Izmir for good (or not - who knows?) towards the middle of July. First stop was Warsaw, to catch the last two shows in the Warsaw Chamber

Alive and well in Sebastopol

2007-08-02T02:38:00.000-06:00

We have 10 minutes at the post office internet facility in Sebastopol - just long enough to say we still exist and we're having a great time on a cruise down the Dniepr River from Kiev to the Black Sea. Last night was a little bumpy - we were crossing a chunk of the Black Sea just as a major weather front seemed to be going through with lots of flashing and banging. Only complaint with the cruise

It's not the humidity, it's the heat

2007-07-19T00:30:00.000-06:00

I missed a wonderful photo-op yesterday. Both of us went to bed with socks on - wet socks, with a fan blowing over them. The idea, from an Australian, was that the socks would cool our feet and thus the rest of us as the water evaporated, and the evaporating water would also cool the air blowing over us. It seemed to work for Ron. He slept much longer than usual, even after his socks dried. But I

Another day, another language

2007-07-13T05:32:00.000-06:00

That's the way it felt as our Central European jaunt wound up. We moved on from Poland to the High Tatras mountains in Slovakia the day after my last post - by bus and taxi! We arrived at the town on the Polish side of the Tatras just 15 minutes after the last bus to the Slovakian side. There was no train, so we had two choices: walk or taxi. It was only 20 km, the taxi fare was quite reasonable,

Polished Poland

2007-06-28T10:35:00.000-06:00

We've been in Poland since last Saturday night, 5 days now, and it's growing on us. We came by train from affluent and burgeoning Berlin, where the architectural mistakes of the communist years are rapidly being replaced by adventurous and eye-popping creations, and we knew almost as soon as we crossed the border that we'd left the land where money grows on trees. The smooth whirrrr of the German

Rainy Monday in Dresden

2007-06-18T02:35:00.000-06:00

We've been on the road for more than a week now and this is the first time we've had a chance to sit still and get an Internet fix. And I'm not sorry. It's been far too interesting to waste time in front of a computer.We flew from Izmir to Istanbul and then Vienna a week ago yesterday. Ron had found us a nice little hotel a block or so outside the historic center of the city so we were able to

Time out in Bodrum

2007-06-09T00:37:00.000-06:00

Ron's been busy planning our next major excursion, to Eastern Europe and thereabouts, for some time, and we didn't think we needed much more travelling than that. But things have been getting a little noisy in Üçyol recently with the natural gas coming to this part of the city, and it has been unreasonably hot. We needed a break from the jackhammers and the sweat. So I went onto Trip Advisor and

Disappearing history

2007-06-01T04:59:00.000-06:00

My Google alert on Turkey picked up this article the other day, talking about the house in İzmir that might be the home of the 17th-century Jewish "false messiah" Shabbatai Tzvi. The address it mentions, "920 Agora Girisi", doesn't exist, but there's a 920 Sokak beside the ancient Greco-Roman Agora, so we went there to look. This picture shows what we found.The ancient brick-and-stone house seems

It isn't just Canada geese...

2007-05-29T14:16:00.000-06:00

who fly in Vs. Tonight we were having dinner on the front terrace, watching the sunset and listening to the evening call to prayer, when we noticed a big scraggly V formation of huge birds flying our way out of the north. It wasn't until they were directly overhead that we were able to make out the black underwings and the long pink legs. They were flamingos They must have been heading to the

The Sahara drops in

2007-05-22T00:54:00.000-06:00

Last Saturday it rained in Izmir. Big deal, you might say, except there wasn't any rain last winter and western Anatolia is experiencing a drought. So the rain was very welcome, especially since we were just starting to recover from our exhausting travel and were happy to have an excuse to stay home and veg. But when Ron went out in the late afternoon to forage for some sustenance he noticed that

Another Turkish experience

2007-05-21T09:16:00.000-06:00

So I got tired of my hand hurting and decided to go and get it looked at. I stuck my head into the nearest polyklinik, a walk-in clinic, but they were closed. So I headed off in the general direction of the nearest hospital. But it wasn't where I thought it was, and I had pretty much decided to phone one of our friends and ask him to go with me tomorrow. And then I saw in front of me a

Update from Rome

2007-05-16T05:06:00.000-06:00

Sorry for the long break. We're still alive, but it hasn't always been easy to find the time and the Internet connections to stay in touch. Today we're taking a bit of time off, and if we open the shutters and hold the computer out the hotel room window there's a bit of a wireless signal available, so maybe this update will work.So I have to do another quick summary of three very full weeks. When

If this is Tuesday it must be Belgium...

2007-04-24T14:15:00.000-06:00

and it is. We've spent the last 12 days cruising down the Rhine on the Viking Sun, a comfortable but not luxurious river cruise ship that shuttles between Basel and Antwerp for 10 months of the year. It's turned out to be a good thing to do. The only problem: they charge outrageous amounts for Internet connect time, so I haven't been able to be as conscientious as I'd like about staying in touch.

A Happy Easter

2007-04-09T04:33:00.000-06:00

I must say yesterday was one of the best Easters I've ever enjoyed. And it was a uniquely İzmir experience.It began about 9 a.m. with choir practice at St John's. Mick McCann, a retired clergyman who has been helping out for several years at St. John's, has been working for some time with an assorted group of singers to prepare music for Holy Week and Easter. We joined the choir when we got here

People aren't the only ones who remember

2007-03-30T07:50:00.000-06:00

Went back to my old yarn store yesterday.Half of it has become a real estate agency, but there's still a yarn part of it. When he saw me the owner came rushing out (of the real estate part) to greet me. I found a heap of yarn for 19 YTL (about $Can 16) that would cost me closer to $80 at home.On the way back I met my old favourite street cat, MomKat. I chirped at her and she meowed back. She

Home in Izmir

2007-03-28T11:11:00.000-06:00

Well, we made it. We're back in our comfy apartment in Izmir - have been for three days, actually. It really does feel like home. We'd gotten things quite nicely set up before we left, and "the girls" - our former roommate Shadi, and her new roommate Elisabetta - made some improvements after we left. So the only things we miss here that we had back in Canmore are a microwave and English-language

Out of Portugal

2007-03-21T14:39:00.000-06:00

I loved Portugal. I hate to have to leave it. But we've been in Spain for four days now and it's time to get up to date.We zipped back to Lisbon by train and flew to Madrid for some ridiculously low fare. Of course the fact that there was no boarding lounge for the flight and it turned up 20 minutes or so late (some comments being made about siesta by jaded English-speakers among the waiting

Finishing Portugal, on to Spain

2007-03-18T04:34:00.000-06:00

We're in Madrid, with a reliable Internet connection. Tomorrow we move on to Granada. But I have a lot of rumination about Portugal to complete.The southwest was a highlight for me. Here was where the Portuguese prepared themselves to explore the world, using Chinese data gathered by a Genoese. In Prince Henry's fortress at Sagres explorers planned their journeys to the Caribbean and the Indian

Some menu items should not be translated

2007-03-18T04:30:00.000-06:00

The other day in Lisbon a restaurant's English menu offered us Vegetables cooked in spit.....3.50I don't think so.The next day a charming lunch place in Evora offered It wakes up eggs with shellfish.....5.00I wonder if they meant scrambled?

Update from Porto

2007-03-15T19:07:00.000-06:00

If this is Thursday it must be Porto. Since we were last heard from we've gone to the farthest southwest corner of Portugal to the largest city in its north. We're still having fun, too.We made it to the fado restaurant, or at least one our Lisbon hotel recommended that specialized in a folklorico show. There were some fine singers, and a trio: two men who played a bass drum and an accordion (is

On the Road Again

2007-03-11T13:07:00.000-06:00

So much for a peaceful life in Canmore. We're off and travelling again.At the moment I'm curled up on my bed in the cozy and friendly Hotel Principe, Lisbon, recovering from our third day of seeing the city and environs. I've taken a real liking to Lisbon. I'm prejudiced in favour of the Portuguese, anyway, after getting to know some fine specimens when we lived in Toronto. There are more of the

Christmas update

2007-02-07T11:19:00.000-07:00

I realize I didn't say much about our wonderful Christmas. I probably won't; it's far too late. But our son Evan has some delightful pictures of his experience in Canmore. Check them out.

The wet coast

2007-02-05T12:08:00.000-07:00

We're just back from a week or so on the west coast of British Columbia, checking in on friends and relatives in preparation for our next expedition to Turkey and environs.It's not fair to call it the "wet coast" really. The weather was almost perfect most of the time. But BC has had such a series of fierce storms in the last few months that I felt we were unusually blessed.We had tons of people

Political overload

2006-12-03T21:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I did something I thought I'd never do: I bought a membership in the Progressive Conservative party of Alberta. I've worked for the NDP since I was 15 (I fell and broke my tailbone in their Halifax office, which gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "busting your butt").Ron bought a membership, too. But we haven't undergone a radical conversion. It's just that it looked like Alberta

An end - and a beginning?

2006-11-17T13:13:00.000-07:00

So I finally told the Bishop I wanted to retire. Last Wednesday we had a lovely chat by phone. Bishop John of Kootenay Diocese is a wonderful man and I would have liked very much to have been able to work with him, but I simply don't have the energy any more to be a parish priest. So now I'm officially retired - or on my way to being officially retired after the paperwork is done.Now what? We're

Surprise!

2006-10-31T14:55:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning this is what I saw out the window. That was Sunday October 29. The temperature in Izmir that day was 22. In Canmore it was -10, and it's stayed like that for 3 days.I wanna go back to Izmir!

Quote for the day

2006-10-23T09:32:00.000-06:00

My Google desktop started my day with this quote:Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whatever you say to them, they translate it into their own language, and forthwith it means something entirely different.Johann Wolfgang von GoetheIt occurs to me that maybe we're all like Frenchmen that way

Surprises

2006-10-09T04:20:00.000-06:00

So here we are in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, about as far from land as we've ever been. I'm lounging in our comfy little cabin, munching an apple and gazing out on a choppy, bouncy sea, when a bird flies by. A bird! And not just a seagull, which you don't see this far from land anyway, but a tiny olive and yellow warbler about half the size of a chickadee! It lands on our balcony,

All at sea

2006-10-04T02:27:00.000-06:00

What day is it today? Wednesday? It must be Cadiz.We're on board the M.S. Noordam, the newest of the Holland America Line fleet, bound for New York. It's our first ocean cruise, and it's awesome. Of course our more experienced shipmates say this is the best ship they've ever seen, so maybe anything else would be an anticlimax. Anyway, it's pretty good.Our original plan was to drop in on Rachel in

Looking back at Turkey

2006-09-11T13:17:00.000-06:00

I'm writing this on September 11, a day when all of North America seems focussed on "our enemies" in the Middle East and the threat they pose to us. And I'm thinking back to our time in Turkey and wondering how what we experienced there makes sense in those terms.We went to Turkey knowing some Turkish people and so with solid evidence that at least some Turkish Muslims are trustworthy, loving

Fourth-generation war hits home

2006-08-04T08:28:00.000-06:00

Well, not home exactly, thank God, but it feels pretty close. Four young Canadian soldiers were killed Friday in Kandahar, and attacks on Canadians continue. Meanwhile, Israel and Hezbollah continue bashing each other. It's all very ugly. I feel anxious and frustrated, just not able to get a handle on it.The other day I read an article - pointed out by someone on the Canadian Anglican mail list

Thai food in Canmore

2006-08-03T23:42:00.000-06:00

Tonight we had dinner at the little Thai restaurant across the railroad tracks. It was delicious, at least as good as anything we've had in Toronto or Vancouver. And here we are in a small town in the mountains.It didn't look promising at first. The waiter who seated us looked more German than Thai, and the other, older one definitely was German. But as it became obvious we were delighting in the

One more museum

2006-06-18T10:46:00.000-06:00

Our first Saturday back in Canada we went to yet another museum, just to compare: the Museum of Civilization in Hull. We'd driven past it before, and I've always liked the way it looks - layers of limestone just like the cliffs in Ottawa - but we'd never been in it before.My tolerance time for museums is about 2 hours. We were there for 3 hours before being kicked out at closing time. The

Re-entry

2006-06-15T22:00:00.000-06:00

So we've been back in Canada for a week now. Almost time to get used to the place again. And the culture shock isn't too great yet. Of course, we've been pretty sheltered by our loving family so far; just wait until we try to make it on our own.We left Istanbul early in the morning of the 8th, flying Lufthansa to Munich and then London, and Air Canada to Ottawa. Lufthansa disappointed me for the

A sermon for Pentecost

2006-06-05T11:26:00.000-06:00

Given at the Church of St. John the Evangelist, Izmir, June 4In my old parish we used to have an elderly Englishwoman named Freda. Freda didn't have much formal education, but she was wise and faithful and often quite funny. I loved to hear her read in her cockney accent; she often cast new light on the scriptures with her fresh point of view. One Pentecost it was her turn to read. She got to

Farewell tour

2006-06-01T10:19:00.000-06:00

I know something you don't know The end is getting near. In a few days we'll be boarding a bus for Istanbul, visiting our dear friends, the Şamlı family, and finally jumping on a plane for Canada. Part of me is really longing for familiar food, familiar language and familiar friends, but there's a big part of me that's going to miss this place terribly.There's still a lot of Turkey we haven't

On the road

2006-05-26T11:18:00.000-06:00

Just a quick note from an internet cafe in Antalya to let you know we're alive and very well. We're in the middle of our farewell tour of Turkey with Begüm. We started off back in Cappadocia, touring places we saw at the end of March and doing a balloon flight as well. Wow! There will be pictures on Flickr when I get home and upload them. We stayed in an amazing cave hotel beside a river near a

A picture I didn't take

2006-05-19T13:25:00.000-06:00

Today is a holiday in Turkey - Ataturk's birthday, which is known as national youth and sport day. The kids have the day off school. I was looking over the edge of our rooftop terrace this morning watching our 8-year-old downstairs neighbour Mustafa playing football with his friends (they're pretty good) in front of our building when I saw another kid coming down the street. He was about the same

Skype anyone?

2006-05-12T09:47:00.000-06:00

We are just discovering Skype, the Internet telephone program. If any of you use it, get in touch. Our Skype name is Turkladians.

Ankara and the east

2006-05-11T11:14:00.001-06:00

"Oh no, not another Roman theatre." You can tell you need to get out of the Aegean region when that's your reaction to a bunch of ruins. So we did. Bronze-age stagOriginally uploaded by MomLes. Our friend Timur was being confirmed in the Anglican church in Ankara the last Sunday of April. That was our excuse. Ron put on his travel agent hat again and arranged a couple of tours to make the trip

Life's short and then you die - but life goes on

2006-04-26T00:38:00.000-06:00

That's the way I feel after all the ruins and things we've seen recently. People think they're building for eternity, but eventually the plants and the critters take over anyway.We spent a couple of days last week in Pamukkale, Aphrodisias, and places like that around Denizli in southwestern Anatolia. Although we thought we'd be going to Denizli by train and getting around by bus, we ended up

I'm still around

2006-04-24T04:14:00.000-06:00

Really I am. But that daughter of ours pointed me to a couple of web sites and I've been far too absorbed with them to do my blogging.The dangerous sites are Clipmarks (www.clipmarks.com) and LibraryThing (www.librarything.com). My clipmarks are at http://clipmarks.com/clipper/MomLes. Play with these sites at your peril.However, I've uploaded some new photos to Flickr, and maybe later today I'll

An afternoon at St. Mary's

2006-04-12T03:14:00.000-06:00

Vandalism at St. Mary'sOriginally uploaded by MomLes. This Saturday evening we're going to hold the Easter Vigil at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Bornova, so Monday Bülent and I went there to clean up and see what we need. As usual, there was a little more vandalism to the church. It really isn't anything personal or anti-Christian; it's just that the poor building doesn't have anyone

A few days in Austria

2006-04-10T04:45:00.000-06:00

Last week (Sunday to Friday morning) we were in Austria & Bavaria - another of our flying visits to get a feel for the world around us. It left us wondering if we'd been visiting another planet.I was a little under the weather still from the bug I picked up in Cappadocia, so I didn't get around as much as Ron. We did our usual thing: find a couple of tours to get a look at the area, and wander on

Twilight at 2 p.m.

2006-04-07T08:06:00.000-06:00

Twilight at 2 p.m.Originally uploaded by MomLes. We did get to Cappadocia to see the solar eclipse. We left Sunday afternoon, the 26th, and got back on the afternoon of the 30th just in time to meet Shadi's partner Jason - here from Rhode Island for a week or so - and do the laundry before taking off for a Sunday-to-Thursday in Austria.Cappadocia is quite another part of Turkey. Izmir has

What in heaven's name is going on?

2006-03-26T03:19:00.000-07:00

Got off the bus on the way home from church this morning and heard the most unearthly drumming and tootling. There, just ahead of me, was a parade of gentlemen dressed in what I assume are Ottoman uniforms. The ones in front were marching with swords, swinging from side to side and looking fierce. Behind them were some equally fierce bell-janglers, then some trumpet and horn players, then some

Bergama

2006-03-25T13:52:00.001-07:00

Mother and newborns One fine warm day this week we decided to rent a car and head north to check out the area around Bergama, about 100 km from Izmir, to see if we could find any locally-made carpets. We left the highway and headed into the part of the mountains where we'd heard Turkmen shepherds wove traditional patterns.Almost first thing we got a clue that there were plenty of sheep in the

To Greece and Back

2006-03-21T12:39:00.000-07:00

Parthenon and flowers Originally uploaded by MomLes. We're back from Greece and wrapped up in Izmir life again. I haven't finished tidying up the pictures on Flickr yet, but I've got more to write about here so I urge you to go there to catch up with what we did and saw: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lesliel. It was great! I like Greece.

Taze! Taze!

2006-03-12T03:40:00.000-07:00

This is a picture I've been wanting to get for months. Shadi took it in her first week here. This guy walks around our area every day with a tray of gevrek (called simit in Istanbul - big donuts covered in sesame seed) shouting "Taze! Taze!" (Fresh! Fresh!). He also delivers the mail.

We have a roommate

2006-03-12T03:07:00.000-07:00

Life has become even more pleasant the last week with the addition of a young American to our little family.Shadi Khadivi is a Fulbright scholar, an architect working in New York who was born in New Mexico and grew up in Texas (daughter of an Iranian family). Her Canadian partner Jason discovered my Flickr photos and got in touch a couple of months ago. We emailed back and forth and soon felt

A trip to suburbia

2006-02-22T09:26:00.000-07:00

Today was another lovely day, so we decided to try to get to the Kuş Cenneti, the bird sanctuary (bird paradise, literally) on the other side of the harbour. We hopped onto the bus that the web site said would take us to a place where we could get another bus that would go fairly close.We rode from one end of the bus line to the other - about 45 minutes - through parts of the city that have

It's spring

2006-02-20T08:55:00.000-07:00

It's spring Originally uploaded by MomLes. While our poor friends in North America are reeling under winter's blows, we're finally coming out of the dark, cold tunnel and emerging into warmth and sunshine. What do you do in the spring? Play with water, of course. A nice warm (18C) day is a good excuse to wash the terraces and bask in the sun.In the shadows in behind Ron there's a cherry

Good things can happen on buses

2006-02-20T06:10:00.000-07:00

We get around in Izmir mostly by city bus or metro. We're fortunate that we live a couple of blocks from the south end of the metro (subway) line, so we can get a few places downtown quickly and easily, or go all the way out to Bornova at the north end of the line in 20 minutes. But the church is a fair way from a metro station, so I end up taking the bus quite a lot. And that's almost always an

Bebek lives

2006-02-13T13:29:00.000-07:00

Bebek lives Originally uploaded by MomLes. We thought when we left for Italy there'd be no Bebek when we got back. But there he was, still sick but very glad to see me. So glad, in fact, that he insisted on being picked up and cuddled. Now when I call the cats for their treats he wants to be patted before he'll eat. He loves my woolly sweater. He's a little stinky - after all, his natural

Noah's pudding

2006-02-13T13:20:00.000-07:00

Noah's pudding Originally uploaded by MomLes. Semiha arrived today with some aşura, a dessert made once a year during this (lunar) month. It's made from wheat, barley, beans, chickpeas, rice, figs, raisins, apricots, apples, orange peel, and lots of sugar. Amazing! It's supposed to be what Noah and the animals ended up eating on the ark. Lucky critters. The oranges are still good,

Quiet day at the church

2006-02-12T09:56:00.000-07:00

So what else is new, you might ask. Normally I wouldn't even bother mentioning church - you'll all assume I was there and did something if possible, and what's so special about that? Only just now the Muslim world is all in a flap about some really stupid cartoons published in Denmark several months back. It looks like it's a convenient issue to distract people in countries like Egypt, where

A whirlwind visit to Italy

2006-02-11T10:51:00.000-07:00

We spent last weekend in Italy. What a luxury, to be able to just jump on a plane and in a couple of hours be in Rome! Both of us have wanted to see Pompeii for a long time - me, since I was 6 and saw a National Geographic picture of a plaster cast of one of the bodies; Ron since we listened together to the audiobook of Richard Harris's Pompeii. So that was what we did.We landed in Rome around

Gems from Aljazeera

2006-02-10T02:43:00.000-07:00

I know I need to bring you up to date on our flying visit to Italy. But before that I have to alert you to these three fascinating articles.First a serious one: Bottled water taxing Earth. Why don't we reuse water bottles?And another: Iraqi homes show US how to build. I wish the Turks would remember how they used to build. But this one is priceless:Gay penguins shun Swedish mates. Sample quote:In

A Walk in the Neighbourhood

2006-02-01T10:24:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks we've been hibernating, emerging from our chilly den only when absolutely necessary for work or shopping. Today was finally a little warmer, with temperatures in the low teens, and I felt like a walk.Some time ago we heard that there was some Roman pavement visible where the Sunday and Wednesday market happens not far from us. I saw on the map at the Agora that the Roman city's

Bird flu?

2006-01-28T09:42:00.000-07:00

Airwell pigeonOriginally uploaded by MomLes. Some people have expressed some concern to me about bird flu here in Turkey. You don't hear anything about it hitting the rich cities in western Turkey, like Izmir. But the little old man doesn't sell bird seed outside the metro stop any more, and the square where all the pigeons gather was washed once. The only thing that concerns me is this sad

The view from our bedroom

2006-01-24T01:59:00.000-07:00

The view from our bedroom Originally uploaded by MomLes. Looked out the bedroom window this morning and this is what I saw. Forget my stories of 40C temperatures; this is the real Izmir (at least in January!). I had woolly socks and a hat on in bed last night, that's for sure. Of course, if I start feeling sorry for myself I can just check the Kootenay Pass webcam, or the Parliament Hill

Good news from Janet

2006-01-23T00:25:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons I love churches is the people you meet. Everywhere we've gone we've found people who have made our lives better and more interesting - real "keepers".One of the special people here in Izmir is Janet Crisler. I mentioned her earlier when we toured Ephesus - she showed us around the exhibit at the museum in Selçuk of inscriptions relating to early Christian history in this part

Election thoughts

2006-01-19T05:58:00.000-07:00

Monday's Canadian federal election will, I think, be the first election for any level of government that I haven't voted in in the 38 years that voting has been an option for me. I can't say I'm sorry. I really wouldn't know what to do if I could vote. But an Internet friend of mine, Dean Robin Walker of the Diocese of Brandon, has written something on his journal page that I think any of you who

A Map

2006-01-18T23:06:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I tried linking to our new Wayfarer map, but it stopped working. Here's another try.

Into Egypt and back

2006-01-18T05:18:00.000-07:00

We're just back from a whirlwhind trip of Egypt. Well, actually we've been back for a few days, but I've needed some time to digest the experience and get my pictures onto Flickr. Our time there was so packed I really can't begin to describe it in detail, so I'll have to settle for some pictures and a few impressions.I really didn't think I wanted to see Egypt all that much. I thought it might be

Christmas, continued

2006-01-03T09:35:00.000-07:00

TogethernessOriginally uploaded by MomLes. So, as I was saying before life intruded...We went to Ephesus the day after Christmas on our own private tour. We're very fortunate to have met a couple of wonderful people at our church: Janet,an archaeologist whose special interest is Christianity in Ephesus, and Mick, whose wife Evin is an expert guide used by the Smithsonian and other august

Rachel & the hajis

2006-01-03T09:27:00.000-07:00

Rachel & the hajis Originally uploaded by MomLes. Yesterday Rachel tried to leave town. Unfortunately she decided to do it at the same time as several thousand people heading out on the haj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. That would have been no problem - they were well organized and the airport was set up to deal with the situation - but there was no wind and fog descended upon İzmir.

What a Christmas!

2005-12-31T01:25:00.000-07:00

So much has been going on since the last episode I hardly know where to start. Why don't I ever learn to keep up with this blog?When we left off we had just spent a week or so doing the town with Evan and were on our way to Chios to renew our visas. We have to leave the country every three months for long enough to turn around and go back in again, paying €45 for the privilege. In September and

Exploring Izmir with our boy

2005-12-20T00:24:00.000-07:00

Since Evan arrived last Wednesday we've been sharing our city with him. We haven't got all that much done, what with his mild jet lag and our extreme sloth, but we've been enjoying ourselves anyway.Ron (who teaches English to a couple of classes of people who know it fairly well) had the brilliant idea of asking his students to tell him where they'd take our son if they wanted to show him the

An evening with the ladies

2005-12-14T08:40:00.000-07:00

I was feeding "my" cats some elderly chicken yesterday afternoon when the woman downstairs came by. She's a pleasant young mother of two lively, bright children. We've exchanged greetings on the stairs quite often, and the kids have practised their English on me, but my Turkish hasn't been up to more than that. Yesterday we were able to chat a bit about the cats - how I love cats, and what a good