It takes two flights to reach Gaziantep in the South of Turkey, which went as usual, me just sitting there eating the rather unappetising food which the airlines promote as 5 star cuisine. Well it did become interesting, as the plane took off late from London’s Heathrow airport, leaving only half an hour to disembark from the London-Istanbul flight, TK1992, get a visa, pass through immigration and get from International arrivals terminal to the domestic departures terminal to get the Gaziantep flight, TK0696.
I made it, using my prior knowledge of the system and the culture of other countries, pushing in, jumping the queues. Very un-British, as we as a people are born to queue. If a British person sees two people standing one behind the other, we will join the queue. We will not know what we are waiting for, but we will wait.
As we descended into Gaziantep airport the captain gave us the obligatory arrival information, obviously being read from a pre-written script, which has blanks in it so they can insert the arrival time, weather conditions and temperature. The captain made his announcement and said that the temperature was “-0” (minus zero). How can the temperature be minus zero?
Is this an example of a glass being half empty or half full?
Yes it was cold when I came out of the airport, but there to greet me as snow, it was snowing again. I had thought I had seen the last of the snow for this part of the year, and this far south in Turkey, not far from the Iranian and Syrian borders.
This morning, as I look out of the apartments window, over looking the rolling hills, more snow is falling. What a contrast to the last time I was here.
Still work calls. I must prepare myself for the start of a string of courses I will be giving in a number of countries in the coming months. No time to play or try out snow boarding as I did in the sand dunes of Peru.
The snow covered landscape in Gaziantep, February 2009.
The normal landscape in the hills around Gaziantep, Turkey. July 2008