Contradictions

A few nights ago we went to a Narghile bar. After smoking the Narghile for a while, my friend lit up a cigarette. Within seconds the waiter was at his side tutting and pointing to a sign on the wall. 'No Smoking'. He doesn't seem to appreciate the irony.

Showing flesh

Sitting in the crowded streets of Kadikoy on a Friday night surrounded by people celebrating the end of another week, we are approached by a young boy asking us for money. Nothing unusual in that. I am wearing a long black skirt that would be modest if it weren't for the ostentatious slit up the leg. The boy suddenly seems to forget about the money and begins to stare and point at the part of my leg that's showing. He starts waggling his finger and tutting at me and we come to understand that he is telling me to cover up. I blush and quickly yank the slit in my skirt together. He seems to have the best intentions at heart, but still, who'd have thought I could be made to feel so ashamed by a pious 14-year-old?

Bubblegum

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that in most Western European countries the bubblegum phenomenon saw both its advent and its demise some time in the mid to late nineties, along with platform shoes, yo-yo's and The Spice Girls. In 21st century Turkey, however, it's the commonest of things to see people walking down the street, sitting in a cafe, working in an office all loudly masticating before blowing a glowing, opaque bubble from their mouths. And it's not just pre-teen girls wearing pigtails. It's the high-powered business men striding through the streets in smart suits, it's the people working in the banks, it's the policemen. I once even saw an elderly woman in a full burka blowing the most enormous bubble from the small triangular opening around her mouth, nose and eyes. Somehow it just didn't quite seem fitting...