Last month the fabulous people at Displaced Nation asked me about:
- My most enchanting experience this summer
- My least enchanting experience, and
- Tricks of the trade for dealing with the unforgiving heat.
I feel a little trilogy coming on.
Displaced Nation Trilogy – Part 1
Bodrum is the most secular and modern of Turkish towns. Normal social rules don’t apply here. It’s where people come to escape the conformity of everyday Turkish society. However, scrape the surface and you will find magic of a different kind. We were visiting our friend Jessica – a thoroughly modern Millie and a gorgeous Bodrum Belle to boot. Jessica lives just a few hundred metres behind the swanky marina with its luxury yachts and raucous watering holes. Her home is set within a traditional quarter of whitewashed buildings huddled together along narrow lanes. As we approached her door, we noticed an elderly neighbour dressed in traditional livery: floral headscarf, crocheted cardigan and capacious clashing pantaloons. She sat cross-legged in a shady spot of the garden and seemed to be plucking a fleece. Liam and I are self-confessed city boys and asked Jessica what the old lady was up to. Apparently, she was preparing the wool for hand carding, straightening and separating fibres to weave on the spinning wheel she kept in her house. The amazing woman hummed as she plucked, happy under the cool of an ancient knotted olive tree and doing what women have done in Turkey for millennia. Now you don’t get that in Blighty.
Part Two tomorrow – Disenchanted Jack
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Perking the Pansies 
true!
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Definitely on the enchanting side of the equation. I very rarely come across such vignettes of old tradition in Jamaica – but if you look around you can find them. This must go way, way back in the mists of time…
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Well, thank you Jack! Feeling rather disenchanted this afternoon, flipping the pages of Google Reader, and there we are – suddenly fabulous! How lovely of you.
Loved the post the other day on gorgeous Nigella vs desiccated Gillian. The perfect reason to grill a steak and make some creme brûlée, I feel, and stuff the diet. Did you know Nigella has a cupboard where she keeps all manner of wicked foods, which she and her friends call the Gillian McKeith Cupboard?
Kate @TDN
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I didn’t know that. How delicious! I’m glad I cheered you up.
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Hi Jack: Remarkable as usual. I have a favor to ask. I have been nominated for one of the top writer’s of 2011 out of an initial field of over 2,000 and now it is down to 113 finalists. This nomination came from The Author Show. Could you give me your email address and I can forward the details to you? Sure would appreciate it hon. . .and if you have already given this to me, my apologies. I’m in a worldwind of marketing, illness and other stuff. Thanks hon.
Sincerely,
Penelope Van Buskirk
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Sure. My email is jackscott.bodrum@gmail.com
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Jack: I have been nominated as one of the top 50 writers in 2011 by The Author House. On Oct 1st, go to The Author Show 2011 and vote. Thanks hon!
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Will do
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And it is a trilogy! What a great idea Jack. You´ve got me in suspense (in suspense, I said, you dirty minded man). I was with you on the “floral headscarf, crocheted cardigan” but the “capacious clashing pantaloons” pulled me up rather short. Next time grab a photo of said lady, please. Looking forward to part 2 tomorrow!
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You never have a camera when you need one!
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An enchanting visual (the olive tree gets me every time)!
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