Istanbul: It’s 2am

Istanbul: It’s 2am

Istanbul Saturday 31^st October 2009 a howling sound whistles outside, the temperature has dropped below 10 Celsius the rain hammers against the balcony roof. The rain and wind continued from dawn to dusk, our plants disappeared of the balcony having gone with the wind. The television reception comes and goes, being able to catch only glimpses of the TV news channels showing minor flooding on the Asian side.

The Bosphorus looking angry in the high winds, small boats being hammered by the strong winds and waves, sea birds struggling to hover for prey against the incoming winds. The theme of winter is coming to Istanbul with a vengeance, for a while the beautiful sunsets and sunrises are gone being replaced with a distant a cold sun haze of the winter shadows.

Home the heating comes on for the first time in months, the curtains are pulled and a cosy feeling suddenly is in the air but not being able to dampen the sound of the winds hammering against the apartment. Oh how I wish for a cold fire and burning logs ,Fistik  the cat curled up in a ball but her ears moving each time the wind howls outside ,the call to prayer sounds far away coming and going has the wind blows the voice in different directions.

The evening darkness comes early 5pm with the sunset hidden by the angry looking clouds, the howling gets more intense and a glimpse of our old English 1930’s ship barometer shows a dip .Figen my wife sitting there teasing me about the Liverpool football score back in England they lose again and in the same sentence make me a coffee canim!. I oblige but wish I hadn’t  has I approached the table a cup went flying of the tray, oh how I wish the day would come to an end and the wind and rain would stop. I wanted to be down by the Bosphorus sitting under an umbrella drinking cay with a mixed tost (toast with cheese & salami) at Mado in Tarabya and watching the waves not being stuck indoors.

The rest of evening was spent watching Bruce Willis  on the popular show “Var Misin Yok Musun” ,for a few hours forgetting about the dismal conditions outside. The show for me is an example of happiness, it highlights the welcome appreciation of Turkish people whether you are a film star or an everyday person and if his words were genuine he surely must have loved Istanbul. Also it showed a personality of him of not what you see on the big screen, I only hope the program does return and how I would love to be in the audience sometime in the future. Unfortunately this was the final program and I for one will miss the laughter, banter and the mixed emotions of the contestants.

It is now 2am and my sleeping is restless and disturbed by the intensity of the howling winds outside, Fistik curled up on the end of the bed now in a deep sleep .Two hours go bye and I awake again thinking I heard the roof come off or was I dreaming consciously of the sounds and what will daylight reveal destruction or normality. Thankfully it was normality and makes me remember Istanbul, Turkey has the four seasons just like where I was born in England.

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