It is November and I am eating strawberries grown in Turkey . If this is global warming then I am all for it. October was lovely and so far November is perfect. I haven't even lit my 'Soba' heater yet, so my curtains are safe for a while ( I set fire to them once trying to light the Soba ).
In England where I just came back from a short visit, It was grey skies and damp of course, but not cold. The supermarkets were full of perfectly formed foods from all over the world, christmas goods were on sale, but the television for once was giving global warming and environmental issues a break. Well they do have a full blown financial crisis to get hysterical about at the moment. Put the word 'meltdown' into any newspaper internet site and you get about 3 million references. Most of them now prefaced by "financial", though the ice caps get a look in occasionally as well. I'm surprised the word itself hasn't melted. (Actually you can't put 'meltdown' into the 'Sun' newspaper site, they only go up to words with 5 letters. )
I was in England on the day that the interest rates were cut by 1.5% . The news presenter on ITN, practically wet himself. 'This must be disaster' he kept on saying, his voice rising in pitch 'it must be the last chance', 'Minister , is this the last chance?'. Well, actually as rates were still 3% then it obviously wasn't the last chance, and as everyone had been saying that rates should come down, hard to see why it was disaster. But he's a journalist, and some 'expert' had probably told him it 'could' be bad, which journalists always love to hear. It must be a great time to be a journalist – lots of fun new phrases – credit crunch, sub prime lending, toxic debt, stock market plunge, meteoric fuel price rises, housing meltdown, Funny that nothing ever melts up .
Last month inflation was to be feared - fuel, food , everything going up in price. Now thats going down we have to be scared of deflation - prices going down! In some ways going back to England, although depressing, does remind me how nice it is here. The sun shines, food is cheap, and fresh, tomatoes dont have to be perfectly round, and you can get 20% interest in the bank ( how do they do that ?).
I've just sold my house so I can move to Marmaris. Yes, I am the person who has sold a house ! Apparently it is generally thought now not to be possible. Except for Emlaks selling houses in Marmaris who have a touching belief that the housing meltdown ( thats the 3million and 1st mention) won't affect here. I have looked at a few of the several thousand for rent or sale, with Lucy, my dog, and found that renters are very selective, and concerned that a dog would detract from the general ambience. The fact that plaster is falling from the ceiling and electric sockets hanging out is less important.
I guess it's a culture thing. I like cultural differences. The very word 'culture' can mean so much. It can mean the music of Mozart , and it can mean female circumcision. It can also mean newspapers on sale everywhere full of girls in bikinis, but a block on U-Tube because one site makes a passing reference somewhere to something a faceless censor doesn't like. And have you noticed a terrible disease is afflicting movie characters who smoke, on Digiturk channels . Their hands get all blurry and sort of disappear. I can understand that smoking is bad for your health and might damage your hands, but the same thing happens to girls who get their kit off. They go all fuzzy as well. Weird.
Actually a bit of censorship might be good occasionally. The power of the press is terrifying. And even more so because they have no accountability for their ability to destroy everything. To build up and tear down. I watched the US presidential elections in the UK. The media scared everyone with the spectre of Sarah Palin, lampooned mercilessly on 'Saturday night live', and presented as one heart beat away from 'old man' Mcain, And they built up Obama. Not difficult . He's Black, young and intelligent and personable. Quite the reverse of the current incumbent . But he has to take over when everything is so screwed up. And the media mob who were hailing his arrival will soon be blaming him for everything that is happening now. Including global warming .
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