Caboose

One thing I noticed while I was in Turkey was the number of motorbikes around. Japanese mopeds seem to be the most popular but there are also lots of mysterious old bikes.

I thought at the time that they looked a bit eastern-European, and I was right. The most common makes I saw were MZ (DDR) and Jawa (Czechoslovakia).

I’ve added a Turkey 2003 section to the Journeys part of my site, enjoy the pictures.

I’ve now got a semi-automated way of generating photo albums, I still need to sort out some kind of database though.

Last night’s distraction was working out how to put Turkish letters into HTML, read on for more information.
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I’m back from Turkey and into the stage of sorting everything out. The washing machine is full, my pack is empty and the digital camera is busy uploading pictures.

Once I’ve got all the pictures sorted out I’ll put them up here. Which reminds me, I need to come up with some kind of gallery script for this site. All the other ones I’ve seen seem way too complicated or way too simple.

Looks like a job for Perl and MySQL.

Due to the incredible heat in Turkey just now we’ve abandoned our walking plans, so I may be able to post the occasional update.

On Tuesday we’re off on a four day yacht cruıse round the coast from Fethiye.

Turkish keyboards are a bit tricky, they’ve moved all the punctuation and swapped i with ı (that’s dotted and undotted I for those of you with the wrong fonts).

There probably won’t be any new posts here for the next three weeks, I’m off on holiday.

I’ll be away until the 29th, walking around part of the coast of Turkey on the Lycian Way. Checking my email will probably be difficult, so don’t expect a quick reply if you mail me.

The digital camera is going with me, along with a load of batteries and a solar-powered charger. Expect some pictures when I get back.

Bye for now…

12:25 (nr Alexandra Palace) It would be difficult to overstate just how horrible this train is. The grotty rolling stock, the old man snorting and gargling in his sleep, the slightly odd-looking twitchy guy who decided to sit next to me — with his collection of tatty carrier bags — in a mostly empty carriage.

The oddest part were a couple who got on just before we left Kings Cross. A tall, well dressed man and your typical drunken wee Scotsman, as found throughout London. The tall man seemed determined to wind up the Scot, insulting him and accusing him of making threats, all the time calling him sir and speaking oddly polite and uninflected English. This strange argument continued until the wee man got off at Finsbury Park.

Now everything has gone quiet, apart from the snorer. I’ve reached the point where I wish he’d either just roll over or choke on his own phlegm.

1:08 (nr Ashwell & Morden) Great. Somebody’s throwing up on the floor.

My housemate Al and I went for a spin in his Triumph Spitfire yesterday, from Cambridge along the smallest roads we could find to Long Melford.

After a pleasant pub lunch in Long Melford (mmm, mixed grill!) we drove back via Saffron Walden.

Here are a few pictures from last week. I kept meaning to get someone to take a picture of me boarding but never quite got round to it.

This first one is the view from Le Lac, the main part of Tignes, just before 9am:

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Got back from my week of trying to learn how to snowboard, unfortunately not in quite the same state as when I left.

Oh yes, it’s one-handed typing time, I broke my shoulder (in two places) on the fifth day.

Some nice scenic photos of the Tignes area will follow soon, first I’ve got to sort out my insurance claim.

The rest of this post is the full story of what happened…
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I’m off on holiday tomorrow, away skiing for a week in Tignes. The snow is looking good, or at least it was before it got dark.

There should be some photos and information here when I get back.