Kurushii

This photo was taken in Van, where the big 8.2 quake recently struck.

The coastline where my flat is

Flying over Lake Van

Van isn't that far from the Iranian border

A mosque in Van

Gold has always been considered an investment in Turkey, as opposed to the bling it's seen as in the West. It's a sign of the times that a supermarket in the UK is now accepting gold as payment for groceries. I noticed that the price of silver has fallen somewhat but it doesn't bother me, it will soon go up, and up, and up. I really don't watch it that closely, not with all these persimmons being in season.

Breaking the fast after sunset. A street corner in Van beneath our room.

More Van.

It's still painful to look through these pics. Underlying the entire summer was immense stress, what with me having 'unquit' the job, and with all that had happened since late last year, into the spring, and then fck, I'm back in Japan, and then arghhhhhhhhhh, wtf, this year has been a nightmare, and I  find it really hard to look at these Turkey pics because behind the scenes I could hardly get my head around anything, it was all such a big mess, meeting up again, me having to go off again, fck fck fck fck, this year was so unnecessary, but hey, it happened, and all things happen for a reason, eh, so I'll just ride it out, and if it works, great, if it doesn't, then I have enough money to start over without the stress I'd have had had I quit in July and it not worked after all.
Fck. That was a lonnnnng sentence. What I do know is that I won't spend the entire 3 weeks waiting on what I want to hear - and he knows what I want to hear - and if nothing gets said in the first 10 days, I will up and leave for Mexico and go and check on the boat and start my starting over that way. Because I have been through too much distress in this relationship, huge distances involved, months leading to years spent apart(I couldn't enjoy the bike ride home this evening because I started thinking about crap like this), indeed, knowing that even 2008 didn't need to happen, makes me so bitter, which is why I have not enjoyed posting these pics, because I start thinking about it all again, and it depresses me, I just can't handle any more stress, so this is it, the last chance for us, and I promise myself before leaving that I won't hang around if it's just more of the same old,  because I have so much going for me in my own world, so much, I always tell him this, that I'm not some lame hippy chick waiting around for a man to show me the way, that before I met him, I was out there, doing it, setting myself up for freedom, and this is it now, this is the last chance. Fingers crossed that the first 10 days allow me to have a great time with him for the entire three weeks, with much to look forward to for the rest of our lives, because if nothing gets said, I'm outta there.

Wayyyyyyy out northeast

Cappadocia

A castle wayyyy out northeast. One day I'll write more about this trip but it's kinda hard right now.

So I've started thinking about what I want to do this winter vacation after four long months of work and my own company, and beyond spending a traditional Christmas down in PHX getting trashed on eggnog,  I fancy some skiing up in Flag - log fires, good wine, and whatnot - and a trip to Vegas, cos I love the all-you-can-eat-and-drink deals there and the seediness of the whole place, and the drive, oh the drive, it's so awesome to go through Death Valley, and off the beaten track, yes, that's what I want to do, I want to camp in the desert again, I don't care if it's cold, we can build a fire.
Right. Gonna cycle home.