Off Again! This Time to Zimbabwe.

It seems that I am hardly back in Turkey again, that I am flying out on another mission. Tomorrow, Wednesday, David and I are off to Zimbabwe for ten days, to attend our niece Lauren's wedding. We will stay in Harare with Tim and Flo before driving up to Chitora, then on to Mutare for the wedding celebrations. We hope to visit Peterhouse as well while we are there. It should be a fun occasion!

On Sunday we said goodbye to David's ex PA, Nazlı, who is also getting married at this time. We were to have gone to her wedding, but it clashes with Lauren's. Nazlı is beginning an exciting new life in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, as her husband-to-be works there for the OECD (the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). We wish both of them everything they would wish for themselves.

People work hard in Turkey. mainly because they don't have the benefits safety net that allows people to idle away their lives in the UK. Sevil, my manicurist, is profoundly deaf, but she still works a full-time job in my local hairdressing salon doing manicures and pedicures. She is an expert lip-reader and communicates easily with her customers. She is such a lovely person and is always smiling.

Me with the lovely Sevil.


No one is afraid of doing menial tasks in Turkey, with the result that rubbish is collected and the streets are swept every single day. Istanbul is much cleaner than London, or even Norwich! We also have people who come in the night to sift through the rubbish for recyclable goods! People here work because they have no alternative.