Maggie's Magic Pantry

The Royal Arcade.

Inside the Royal Arcade.

This photo (below) is the new mall called 'The Sovereign Centre. I think it's a 'modern monstrosity', without too much going for it. It's not even built well; on rainy days, a veritable garden of buckets blooms inside, to catch the leaks! But on Christmas Day the glass entrance doors were closed and I liked the effect of the reflected sky.

Huh?

Wish I'd written this!

London Airport.

Last night in London Airport
I saw a wooden bin
labelled UNWANTED LITERATURE
IS TO BE PLACED HEREIN
So I wrote a poem
and popped it in.

by Christopher Logue

 The library (above).
 This is what you see if you're standing in the library and look up. (Above) Beautiful, isn't it?
 This used to be the water's edge (above). Now it's miles inland.
 The huge ampitheater (above).
That's our own expert Dave! What he doesn't know about the area probably isn't worth bothering with. (Hope you're reading this Dave. A bit of flattery never goes amiss! And it's true)

Our shadows cast on the ancient stones in the early morning sun.

One of the residents!

As you can probably tell, I've developed quite an affection for the country of contradictions that is Turkey. It's an exciting place of contrasts and colour. Turkey has adopted new technology- and that technology often works side by side with the older ways: Wi-Fi is available almost everywhere, even as you walk the streets of a ruined city built in the time BC; switch on a TV in your modern hotel room and find CNN or BBC World news service- and step outside to find the Evil Eye embedded discreetly somewhere near the main door; and enjoy the superb Turkish olive oil, processed in a spotless factory, with sparklingly clean stainless steel equipment, only to learn that the olives were picked the hard way, by hand by someone who earns less than £5 ($7.50) a day.
Here's a few more examples I managed to photograph.

After we visited Gallipoli, we caught a ferry across the Dardanelles and arrived at the next hotel quite late at night. The following day, after yet another early start, I dozed off on the coach. I snoozed quite happily until I felt the vehicle stopping as we pulled into somewhere called Troy.

And here I must make a somewhat embarassing confession. I, er, thought Troy was in Greece. Not wanting to appear to be too thick, and not having actually read every single part of the literature that came with the tour (well, who does?)I didn't like to say anything. Maybe there were 2 Troys, I wondered. I mean, I know there's one in Michigan.

But no, as the coach entered the car park we could see the fabled Trojan Horse. This was clearly the right Troy. Apparently, as I discovered later, there was a time when this part of Turkey belonged to the Greeks. I suppose you knew that.

Our helpful guide soon debunked the story of the wooden horse. If there was any such thing, he claimed, it was probably some sort of structure covered in horse hide. The wooden horse we saw here had been built to delight tourists, especially children, for whom it was designed so they could go up inside. Hmm. Children, you say.

Well, you know what happened next, don't you? Yes, of course I did! And here's the view! That's the rest of the group, probably wondering if it was too late to switch to a different tour.

The Evil eye - it's everywhere in Turkey. But in Bodrum- I think we found the Mother Ship.

I joined a tour group in Istanbul and on our first day out of Istanbul and headed south, we visited Anzac Cove. It was very moving to be were so many lives were lost. And although it wasn't warm when we arrived, it wasn't difficult to imagine how dreadful it must have been for the men fighting on that exposed ridge, in the hot Turkish sun.

Here's the restaurant we went to for the first night of the tour in Turkey. It's called the House of Medusa Restaurant and it's in the old area of Sultanahmet. The food was delicious! That's stuffed eggplant (aubergine)- and no, there wasn't a scrap left!