Marlow

Marlow is a pretty little Buckinghamshire village.

The cost of living in Marlow tends to be on par with Maidenhead and a little lower than central London.
Visiting Marlow is very easy via the M40 or the M4 as well. Marlow is also close to the Heathrow airport and it has rail connections to London too.
Marlow bridge on the Thames river is very famous and is a big tourist attraction.

If you are planning to relocating to the Marlow area, you can contact the Estate Agents in Marlow.

Weather in Maidenhead

The weather forecast to go in here...

KALDIRIMLAR

Sokaktayım, kimsesiz bir sokak ortasında;
Yürüyorum, arkama bakmadan yürüyorum.
Yolumun karanlığa saplanan noktasında,
Sanki beni bekleyen bir hayal görüyorum.

Kara gökler kül rengi bulutlarla kapanık;
Evlerin bacasını kolluyor yıldırımlar.
İn cin uykuda, yalnız iki yoldaş uyanık.
Biri benim, biri de serseri kaldırımlar.

İçimde damla damla bir korku birikiyor;
Sanıyorum, her sokak başını kesmiş devler...
Üstüme camlarını, hep simsiyah, dikiyor;
Gözüne mil çekilmiş bir ama gibi evler.

Kaldırımlar, çilekeş yalnızların annesi;
Kaldırımlar, içimde yaşamış bir insandır.
Kaldırımlar, duyulur, ses kesilince sesi;
Kaldırımlar, içimde kıvrılan bir lisandır.

Bana düşmez can vermek, yumuşak bir kucakta;
Ben bu kaldırımların emzirdiği çocuğum!
Aman, sabah olmasın, bu karanlık sokakta;
Bu karanlık sokakta bitmesin yolculuğum!

Ben gideyim, yol gitsin, ben gideyim, yol gitsin;
İki yanımdan aksın, bir sel gibi fenerler.
Tak, tak, ayak sesimi aç köpekler işitsin;
Yolumun zafer takı, gölgeden taş kemerler.

Ne sabahı göreyim, ne sabah görüneyim;
Gündüzler size kalsın, verin karanlıkları!
Islak bir yorgan gibi, sımsıkı bürüneyim;
Örtün, üstüme örtün, serin karanlıkları.

Uzanıverse gövdem, taşlara boydan boya;
Alsa buz gibi taşlar alnımdan bu ateşi.
Dalıp, sokaklar kadar esrarlı bir kuyuya,
Ölse, kaldırımların kara sevdalı eşi..

NECİP FAZIL KISAKÜREK

Windows XP Apache 2 mod_rewrite

Module mod_rewrite:
===================
LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

Allow .htaccess:
================

Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None


Options Indexes Includes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all

2010 world cup draw

FIFA World Cup European Qualifying : Group Five Table

1 Armenia
2 Belgium
3 Bosnia-Herzegovina
4 Estonia
5 Spain
6 Turkey

Can Turkey qualify from this group?

Most analysts in Turkey think that this is an easy group to qualify from and most Turkish people are predicting Spain to be the group winners and Turkey to finish second earning a play-off spot.

In my mind, the Turkish team can even win this group but realistically, I think they're going to make a dog's meal of it.

For sure, as Rafa would say in his interviews :), Spain will win the group. They have enough stars to win enough points to do this. However, they will lose points along the way. This makes life more difficult for Turkey as they will also be losing point against the lesser opponents as well. So, depending on who Spain drop their points against, Turkey may find itself not finishing even second in this group.

American Ingenuity

During the heat of the space race in the 1960s, the U.S. National
Aeronautics and Space Administration realised that astronauts would
have to be able to record certain things while performing their duties
and so it would need a writing utensil capable of writing in the zero
gravity confines of its space capsules. Of Course, normal pens will
not work since they are all gravity fed.

After considerable research and development spanning over
two years, the working zero-g Astronaut Pen was developed at a cost of
approximately $US 1 Million (in 1960's dollars !!). The initial production
run was fifty pens.

The Soviet Union was faced with the same problem....
but they issued pencils.

EURO 2008

Before the weekend, I told my friends that England would get a chance for qualification after Israel beats Russia by 2-1. However, everyone was in doom and gloom.

The bottomline is that noone can imagine a tournament without the English team and supporters present. So, the footballing gods smiled on England. Now, it is up to the England team to seal their faith by beating Croatia.

In the same context, the Turkish team had their own destiny in their hands. They had to beat Norway in Norway and they managed to do exactly that by 2-1.

I think on Wednesday England is less likely to slip up than Turkey. When the groups were drawn, I couldn't believe that Turkey's luck. They couldn't have ended up in a weaker group but they made it very very difficult for themselves.

So, if I had to bet on the last games and if one of the teams couldn't qualify, I'd probably bet on Turkey losing out because of their incompetency.

Anyway, let's hope that both teams qualify and we'll have a trip to Austria/Switzerland next summer.

Golfing nun

A nun walks into Mother Superior's office and plunks down into a chair.

She lets out a sigh heavy with frustration.

"What troubles you, Sister?" asks the Mother Superior. "I thought this
was the day you spent with your family."

"It was," sighed the Sister. "And I went to play golf with my brother.
We try to play golf as often as we can. You know I was quite a talented
golfer before I devoted my life to Christ."

"I seem to recall that," the Mother Superior agreed. "So I take it your
day of recreation was not relaxing?"

"Far from it," snorted the Sister. "In fact, I even took the Lord's
name in vain today!"

"Goodness, Sister!" gasped the Mother Superior, astonished. "You must
tell me all about it!"

"Well, we were on the fifth tee... and this hole is a monster, Mother -
540 yard Par 5, with a nasty dogleg left and a hidden green...and I hit
the drive of my life. I creamed it. The sweetest swing I ever made.
And it's flying straight and true, right along the line I wanted... and
it hits a bird in mid-flight, not 100 yards off the tee!"

"Oh my!" commiserated the Mother. "How unfortunate! But surely that
didn't make you blaspheme, Sister!"

"No, that wasn't it," admitted Sister. "While I was still trying to
fathom what had happened, this squirrel runs out of the woods, grabs my
ball and runs off down the fairway!"

"Oh, that would have made me blaspheme!" sympathized Mother. "But I
didn't, Mother Superior!" sobbed the Sister. "And I was so proud of
myself! And while I was pondering whether this was a sign from God,
this hawk swoops out of the sky and grabs the squirrel and flies off,
with my ball still clutched in his paws!"

"So that's when you cursed," said the Mother with a knowing smile.

"Nope, that wasn't it either," cried the Sister, anguished, "because as
the hawk started to fly out of sight, the squirrel started struggling,
and the hawk dropped him right there on the green, and the ball popped
out of his paws and rolled to about 18 inches from the cup!"

Mother Superior sat back in her chair, folded her arms across her chest,
fixed the Sister with a baleful stare and said.........

"You missed the fucking putt, didn't you?"

Liverpool-Besiktas

I had told friends that this would be an easy game for Liverpool but even I didn't think it would be a new record-breaker in the Champions League history.

Although the commentators were bigging up the Liverpool players (even Harry "the donkey" Kewell), I couldn't help myself thinking that Besiktas looked like a rabbit in the headlights.

I knew that the recent defeat by Fenerbahce in the local Istanbul derby would not have helped their preparations. I have also questioned the credentials of the Besiktas coach but I though at least they would be encouraged by their recent win over Liverpool (which is not often in Europe) would fire them up. However, Besiktas didn't turn up on the night. They were not interested in playing football. They didn't care about their pride either.

As a Liverpool fan, I was secretly hoping that we'd lose to Besiktas so that we can focus on the Premier League 100%. To me, and I'm sure to many other fellow Liverpool fans, winning the Premier League is the most important target at the moment. It's heading towards 20 long years since we last won the elusive title.

One thing is for sure that this result is misleading for the team and they're still lacking skill up front. Similar to the Derby victory, this win should be taken with a pinch of salt. No other team is going to be as soulless as Besiktas.

Sample Proof of Employment Letter

Here's what I have used in the past. Feel free to use it at your own risk...

---

[Date]

[concerned organisation]
[address for the concerned organisation]


Subject: Proof of Employment for [Name]

This letter is to confirm that [name] has been full-time employed by [employer], since [employment start date] as [position].

Should you have any questions, please contact the undersigned.

Best Regards,





[Signature]

[management or hr department representative]
[employer’s address]
[Manager or HR department Tel]

Şehitler...

Şehitler, Kuvâyi Milliye şehitleri,
mezardan çıkmanın vaktidir!
Şehitler, Kuvâyi Milliye şehitleri,
Sakarya'da, İnönü'nde, Afyon'dakiler
Dumlupınar'dakiler de elbet
ve de Aydın'da, Antep'te vurulup düşenler,
siz toprak altında ulu köklerimizsiniz
yatarsınız al kanlar içinde.
Şehitler, Kuvâyi Milliye şehitleri,
siz toprak altında derin uykudayken
düşmanı çağırdılar,
satıldık, uyanın!
Biz toprak üstünde derin uykulardayız,
kalkıp uyandırın bizi!
Uyandırın bizi!
Şehitler, Kuvâyi Milliye şehitleri,
mezardan çıkmanın vaktidir!

Nâzım Hikmet - 1959

PKK

There has been increased and sustained attacks by the terrorist group PKK against the innocent Turkish people recently. As with any other terrorist group, they're trying to destabilise the Turkish people and cause trouble in the Souther territories.

I have followed in delight that the Turkish parliament has again passed a sensible legislation and voted for cross border attacks in Northern Iraq against the terrorist group if the US or the Iraqi governments do not take any action to weed these people out of the country.

In sadness, I have seen some irresponsible comments on the BBC website from so called "Kurdish" people claiming that Northern Iraq has been the least troublesome area in Iraq and any Turkish actions in the area would put this at risk. I find it utterly irresponsible when the Turkish Republic welcomed the Kurdish people in the 80s and ensured the security of Northern Iraq for years.

It is also ironic to see the US government warning Turkey not to take any action along her borders where the US invaded Afghanistan and Iraq for much flimsier grounds and both countries are thousands of miles away from the US.

I hope the Turkish Republic do take necessary actions to stop the violence and I fully support them. I do not think there is any other Turkish person who wouldn't.

C'mon the Canaries

Fenerbahce has made a blistering start to the Champions League this season. The reports on the home win against Inter were sensational. That was the first game in the group stages. The result was 1-0 but Fenerbahce could have scored a lot more. Tonight they played away at CSKA Moscow tonight and managed a well deserved 2-2 draw as well. 4 points from the first 2 games cannot be a bad start for Fenerbahce at all.

It is just a huge shame that the team is not playing as well in the domestic Turkish league.

I think the upcoming 2 games against PSV is going to be crucial for Fenerbahce's dreams of getting to the next stage in the Champions League for the first time in their history. Getting 2 points from the next 2 games would help thei cause a lot and anything less than that would probably put their chances of reaching the next stage beyond reach considering that they still need to play Inter in Milan. Although one advantage is playing CSKA at home for the last game.

i Phone/ u Phone

I happened to see the new Apple iPhone on Friday, the owner claimed to have paid over £350 for it and the device cam from the US. Thus, the phone was, of course, unlocked to be used with other networks than the O2.

When I quizzed him about the Apple warning about unlocking the phone, the owner was pretty cool. As far as I can understand, if you do not have the new firmware upgrade, there are no problems.

The phone itself looks pretty slick and well-designed. The whole touch screen capability seems good and the keypad seems good enough. I have been told that the touch screen is only perceptive to the finger movements and it wouldn't work if it is in your pocket.

One point that might potentially put me off is that the fragility of the screen. This is something to be kept an eye on.

Mozaik Pasta

Mozaik Pasta used to be one of my favourites as a kid. I am aware that it is known as "Fridge Cake" in the UK. I've learnt today interestingly enough that the Yanks call it the "Rocky Road Biscuits".

Here's the Turkish recipe for it:
Ingredients

* 10-12 digestive biscuits (crumbled)
* 100 Gr. Margarine
* 1/2 pint of milk
* 3 table spoonful of Cocoa
* 4 table spoonful of sugar


* Melt the margarine, milk, sugar and cooa in a pan. When it starts to boil, turn it off and leave it to cool down a little.
* Add the biscuit pieces into the mixture before it is still warm.
* Pour the mixture into an aluminum foil and put it in the freezer for 3-4 hours.
* Slide the cake and serve.
* Optionally, you can serve them with some chocolate sauce.

NOTE: There are literally tens of different variations of this recipe; mainly around the ingredients you add to it. Some people add orange marmalade, some people add walnuts, etc. You can experiment what you like but I like it very plain :)

Not so Special One anymore

All the football supporters have been expecting the news for over a year since Abrahamovic insisted on signing up Shevchenko and Ballack previous summer. However, Mourinho's departure from Chelsea is still a big shock in England and beyond.

Every Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal and rest of the premier league team supporters must be very excited that the Special One has left the building. It is just unbelievable how the club can let go of him.

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Ramazan fasting timetable for Maidenhead

As sourced from www.islamicfinder.org:

Day	Ramadan	Gregorian	Fajr	Sunrise	Dhuhr	Asr	Maghrib	Isha
Thu	1	13/9	4:38	6:33	12:59	4:29	7:23	9:13
Fri	2	14/9	4:40	6:35	12:59	4:27	7:21	9:10
Sat	3	15/9	4:42	6:36	12:59	4:26	7:19	9:08
Sun	4	16/9	4:44	6:38	12:58	4:24	7:17	9:05
Mon	5	17/9	4:46	6:40	12:58	4:22	7:14	9:02
Tue	6	18/9	4:48	6:41	12:58	4:21	7:12	9:00
Wed	7	19/9	4:48	6:41	12:58	4:21	7:12	9:00
Thu	8	20/9	4:50	6:43	12:57	4:19	7:10	8:57
Fri	9	21/9	4:54	6:46	12:57	4:16	7:05	8:52
Sat	10	22/9	4:56	6:48	12:56	4:14	7:03	8:49
Sun	11	23/9	4:58	6:49	12:56	4:13	7:00	8:47
Mon	12	24/9	5:00	6:51	12:55	4:11	6:58	8:44
Tue	13	25/9	5:02	6:52	12:55	4:09	6:56	8:42
Wed	14	26/9	5:02	6:52	12:55	4:09	6:56	8:42
Thu	15	27/9	5:04	6:54	12:55	4:08	6:53	8:39
Fri	16	28/9	5:07	6:57	12:54	4:04	6:49	8:34
Sat	17	29/9	5:09	6:59	12:54	4:03	6:47	8:32
Sun	18	30/9	5:11	7:01	12:53	4:01	6:44	8:29
Mon	19	1/10	5:13	7:02	12:53	3:59	6:42	8:27
Tue	20	2/10	5:14	7:04	12:53	3:58	6:40	8:24
Wed	21	3/10	5:16	7:05	12:52	3:56	6:37	8:22
Thu	22	4/10	5:16	7:05	12:52	3:56	6:37	8:22
Fri	23	5/10	5:20	7:09	12:52	3:52	6:33	8:17
Sat	24	6/10	5:21	7:10	12:52	3:51	6:31	8:15
Sun	25	7/10	5:23	7:12	12:51	3:49	6:28	8:13
Mon	26	8/10	5:25	7:14	12:51	3:47	6:26	8:10
Tue	27	9/10	5:27	7:15	12:51	3:46	6:24	8:08
Wed	28	10/10	5:28	7:17	12:50	3:44	6:22	8:06
Thu	29	11/10	5:28	7:17	12:50	3:44	6:22	8:06
Fri	30	12/10	5:30	7:19	12:50	3:42	6:20	8:04

England-Russia

It is amazing to see the whole nation getting so excited about England beating Israel. It shows you how much trouble the England football team is in. Just 5-10 years ago, they would have expected to score 10-12 goals against nations like Israel.

Everyone is expecting tonight's game to be a real test now. People are expecting a close game; perhaps England winning by an odd goal. People are accepting Hiddink as a master, which he is.

In my opinion, the England football team will get a surprisingly convincing win over Russia. Don't forget the game is played at Wembley and there is a good sense of confidence in the team after Saturday's game. Most importantly, don't forget that there is quite a bit of pace and fresh blood in the existing team with Wright-Phillips and Richards. Of course, Steve G is playing again without Lampard, which seems to be holding Steve back.

All in all, I just hope that it is an exciting game and there is a deserved winner. Looking forward to the kick-off.

Are MacCanns innocent?

It is amazing how much media hype there is around the disappearance of little Madeleine. Now everyone has already acquitted the parents without even hearing a single piece of evidence. And what is the basis for their argument? Both parents are devout Christians.

First and foremost, for whatever reason she disappeared, I hope little Maddie is alive and well. As a parent I cannot imagine losing my little princess. However, being a parent doesn't seem to stop a lot of people hurting their children nowadays. Sadly, there isn't a day that I don't hear some sick parents harming their children on the news.

Just because someone is a religious person doesn't prevent them from being twisted either, just look at the Catholic priests abusing children.

So, I would very much like to wait and see what the Portuguese police come up with and go along with the judge's decision. It would be wrong at this stage to say the parents are guilty or innocent. Let's put our trust into the legal system a little and don't rubbish another country's police force just because their are not British.

To support Madeleine's case or to help the investigations, please visit www.findmadeleine.com.

Melemen Recipe (Turkish Omlette)

5 tomatoes, finely chopped (you can also use 3/4 tin of chopped tomatoes)
7 fresh peppers, finely chopped (it is better if you can use the Turkish paprika peppers)
4 eggs
some grated cheese
1 medium size onion (finely chopped)
salt/black pepper
oil

Fry the finely chopped onions with the oil until golden. Then add the peppers into the pan. Cook the peppers until they start to soften. Add the tomatoes and mix them well in the pan with the onions and the peppers. Cook for 5-10 minutes more.

Add salt and black pepper to taste. Crack the eggs together into the pan over the onions, peppers and tomatoes. Slightly stir the eggs into the vegetables. Cook over low heat until the eggs are lightly set.

Estate Agents Maidenhead

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Highly professional Appleton Estates agents can advise on all types of residential property for landlords or tenants, institutional or private investors. For landlords looking for an estate agent in Maidenhead, they can provide advice on acquisitions, lettings, management, rent reviews, lease renewals, general maintenance, rent collections and sales valuations.

If you require anymore information about our estate agent service in Maidenhead, then please feel free to contact Appleton Estates through their website at Appleton-Estates.com, they will be pleased to answer any queries or questions you may have.

Bisham Abbey

I can now understand why the English football team use Bisham Abbey as one of their preferred training grounds.


I had a friendly 11-a-side game there the other night and it is a fantastic place. As soon as you drive into the place, you feel the luxury. I'm not sure why I have never been there for the last 11-12 years.

The facilities are great, I could see a gym, 6 tennis courts, 3 grass pitches that are in pretty good condition, a pitch-and-putt golf course as well. From what I saw the "Abbey" itself was a really pretty building as well.

Firefox inline spellchecker

After recent auto upgrades, I have found the inline Firefox spell check function not working at all. There doesn't seem to be anything on the Net on this either. Eventually I figured out that somehow the dictionaries were not installed.

By right-clicking in a text field where you'd expect the spell checking to work, you'll see "Add dictionaries" option. Upon addition of the dictionaries, the FF requires a restart and after that everything works again :)

Good luck...

Turkish Election results

AKP winning by a mojority is the worst possible outcome for a secular state in Turkey. Let us hope that they are a little more sensible in whom they propose for the presidency and there is a consensus in the parliament on who sho be the next president.

Let us also hope that AKP does not push their luck too much by forcing the military's hand.

Stupid system

One of the signs of being a developed country is the lack of bureaucracy forced upon the citizens. Unfortunately, I have witnessed that Turkish Republic has taken a step backwards in this.

The latest issue that is forced upon the Turkish people is the mobile phone saga. If you have/buy a mobile phone abroad, you cannot simply put a SIM card in it and use it in Turkey. No! that would be too simple. You have jump several hoops to be able use your own mobile phone set:
- at the customs on your way back into the country, you need to get your passport stamped.
- you need the original receipt of purchase (as if I'm going to hold onto it forever). In the UK, you get a free phone with most contracts anyway. So, you don't have a purchase of receipt.
- you need to write a letter and photocopy several pages of your passport
- you then need to go to a shop in person with all these evidence so that they can unlock your phone.

What a load of rubbish!

Some of my friends claim that this is simply to decrease "terrorism" like everything else that the governments are hiding behind nowadays. You know that people are not going to like a decision you take so you find a "terrorism" angle to pass the legislation. However, this argument doesn't hold water either as you can freely walk into a shop and buy a pay-as-you-go SIM card with pre-allocated credit, which would be like heaven for those people that don't wanna be caught. By a hundred of these SIM cards, use them and throw them away as they run out of credit. What are the governement agencies going to intercept?

Anyhow, coming back to the original discussion. Another point that people argue is the fact that this is helping reduce the mobiles being stolen. So, the government does not truest its own police force to reduce this crime? And, asking the citizens to jump hoops?

Bottomline is I couldn't give my old mobile phone to my mum so that she can use it for emergencies.

Annoying blogger word verification

Everytime I create a new post on this blog, I get a word verification, which understandably tries to prevent the auto blogging. This is very reasonable.

What gets to me is that after I complete my post, I have to go through the verification twice as the word I see on the screen never works.

I hope they fix it soon.

AVI sounds issues

I tried playing a couple of AVI clips on my computer. The video was pretty good but there was no sound. After spending quite a bit of time I dound out the although I had downloaded the DivX codecs the AC3 filter was missing. As soon as I installed it, everything was working properly.

Alan Johnston

is finally free. It is great news for everyone involved and people who made this happen behind the scenes deserve a lot of credit.


It is another discussion to have whether or not he should have been abducted in the first place as a reporter.

Anyhow, good luck to him and all his family.

Global Warming

I was in Istanbul last week and I had never seen the weather being so hot before. During the day, it was over 40+ degrees and it was around 30-35 degrees at night.

No breeze either :(

Surely, this is the result of global warming and if it continues like this, it will be unbearable.

Luckily for the Turkish people, the temperatures have dropped a lot over the last few days.

In the end, it was quite good coming back to rainy English summer :)

When is everyone going to accept PKK as a terorist group?

When the UK is blindly supporting the USA in their bid to fight "terrorism" in Iraq, there is still no official recognition that PKK is a terrorist group, killing many innocent people in Turkey.

The most recent suicide bombing in the Turkish capital, Ankara, has not been reported in BBC, CNN, etc as a headline news. Even the everyday events like this in Israel and Iraq are making to the main news bulletins but when it comes to Turkey it is no big deal.

The more frustrating part is that they are still reporting PKK as a seperatist group rather than terrorist group.

Mind boggles! What else does PKK need to do apart from killing over 30000 innocent people in Turkey to be called a "terrorist group" by the Western media?

Internet censorship on the increase

I am seeing and hearing more and more incidents where the "independency" of the Internet is being threatened by the glocal companies as well as the governments.

We all know Google cooperation with the Chinese government to censor some content. We know that Yahoo hass just recently censored some comments about FlickR.

It is not just our daily lives being turned into a Big Brother state but the Internet is getting its own fair share of this treatment as well.

I know that we need to closely monitor any sites that are exploiting young children, etc but the question is how do you strike the right balance?

eurovision 2007

What a result for Turkey!

For years, we got used to hearing "Turkey no points" and became the joke of all Europe. Now Mr Terry Wogan cannot believe it when the 12 points (top vote) from the UK go to the Turkish song. He doesn't undertand the power of the Turkish expat community in the UK.

By the way, the 12 points from Turkey went to Armenia, which was another subtle message to the West.

Shake it up Shekerim...

Happy Birthday Helvetica

A BBC report says that Helvetica is now 50 years old. I didn't know that the font was created artificially.

Happy birthday to you Helvetica...

Just real estate

Real Estate agents - worldwide real estate companies directory and property buyers and sellers guide.

Marketing rental property

I wrote this article Marketing rental property a while back. I was searching for a related topic the other day and came across it. Reading through the article, it still makes a lot of sense.

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton is not being hyped up as the new star of British F1 racing. I think the sport needs someone new after dismal failure of Button to deliver on his promise. Some people are also making a huge deal out of his skills.

Having said all this, I think Lewis has done a great job so far and managed to finish in front of the reigning world champion, Fernando Alonso.

McLaren still has a long way to go to catch up with the Ferrari pace but I think the McLaren strategy is working so far having 2 of their drivers tied up with Kimi at the top after 3 events when they lacked comperative speed.

Reds have pulled it together last couple of weeks

It's been an amazing run from Liverpool over the last 3-4 matches. Especially, the wins over Arsenal and PSV (away) have been very significant.

In the Premiership, they're 4 points clear of Arsenal and in the Champions League, they're virtually guaranteed to go past the PSV hurdle.

Now, the challenge is to keep focussed on finishing 3rd in the Premiership and to beat Valencia or Chelsea in the Champions League next round.

Someone even mentioned that Liverpool are the favourites to win the Champions League.

Let's hope the new owners do put up some money for new players and Raffa makes the best use of his transfer budget.

Turkish Armenian Church restored

According to BBC, Turkey has renovated a 1,100-year-old church in the east of the country. near Van Golu. The Church of Surp Khach - or Holy Cross - is one of the finest surviving monuments of Armenian culture in the region. Its location is called Akhtamar in Armenian.

I think this a great step from the Turkish government to improve the relationships with Armenia.

2007 F1 season starts

This can only mean one thing: summer is on the way :)

I think this season is going to be very interesting with all the big names moving around. It'll be interesting how Raikonnen handles being in Ferrari. I think his time at McLaren will go in the F1 history books as unlucky due to all the mishaps he experienced.

On the other hand, can Alonso still win the title in a much faster but perhaps less reliable car than last year's Renault?

There is also a lot of hype in the British press about the new Englishman, Lewis Hamilton. I don't think Jenson has delivered on his potential so far. Judging by this year's Honda, he may need to wait for a few more years too unfortunately.

New blogger templates

I found the switch over to the new blogger system a little painful personally. The new template system seems to mess up some of the meta tags unfortunately. My site has been significantly affected by this by the time I have discovered the issue.

I don't seem to be the only one experiencing this problem though. A lot of other people have already posted about the issue. I have even raised this with the support team but no responses yet, it's a little disappointing.

Spurs missed a huge chance

against Chelsea today. I cannot understand how they gave up a 3-1 lead and drew 3-3 in the end against this very weakened Chelsea team. Although they may think that they still have an opportunity to go through to the next round due to the 3 away goals and the next leg being played at White Hart Lane, I think Chelsea will beat them unfortunately.

Overall it was a smashing game though.

Another double standard by Europe

From BBC:
"A Swiss court has convicted a Turkish politician of racial discrimination for denying that mass killings of Armenians in Turkey in 1915 amounted to genocide.

Nationalist leader Dogu Perincek, 65, was on trial for remarks he made in a public speech in Lausanne in 2005.

He was given a suspended sentence and fined $2,450 (£1,270).

The Swiss parliament, along with more than a dozen countries, has labelled the killings as genocide. Turkey firmly rejects the genocide allegation.

Perincek, the head of the Turkish Workers' Party, had denied the charges.

"I have not denied genocide because there was no genocide," he told the court earlier this week.

Armenians say 1.5 million of their people were killed in a genocide by Ottoman Turks during World War I, either through systematic massacres or through starvation.

More than a dozen countries, various international bodies and many Western historians agree that it was genocide.

Turkey says there was no genocide. It acknowledges that many Armenians died, but says the figure was below one million.

A law criminalising the denial of genocide was adopted in 2003 by the parliament in the Swiss canton of Vaud, where Perincek made his remarks.

Twelve Turks prosecuted in Switzerland on similar charges in 2001 were acquitted."

I ask myself where the EU that convicts Turkish Republic for taking Orhan Pamuk to court because of his ideas and her that this is against the human rights. Where is the proof that there was an Armenian genocide? How can a European court pass sentence on something on circumstantial evidence without any substance behind it?

I think Turkish Republic award a medal to Mr. Perincek in a similar attitude where Europe awarded Mr. Pamuk a Nobel prize under disputable circumstances.

Even better, Turkish parliament should pass a law to convict anyone that claims an Armenian Genocide. See the Europeans like it.

It is a shame that EU is pushing Turkey away so eagerly. It is going to come back to bite it. Shame!

Lucky Man Utd

They were very lucky to beat Liverpool on Saturday. Come to think of it, they have been riding their luck during the last few of their games. It can turn against them overnight. Look at Chelsea, they seemed to be salvaging wins before Christmas before they stumbled. Man Utd need to be careful that they don't stumble now.

I think Liverpool are on the right track. Especially if they can go through tomorrow night against Barcelona.

Media winners and losers

Virgin vs Sky

The recent fights over the pricing is not going to help either company. Sky seems to have a stronghold on the popular programmes and they feel threatened but the new and shiny Virgin Media but I don't think they're helping their own cause by these actions.

BBC
BBC has just announced that they've reached an argument with Google and Youtube. I think this is they've made a giant leap and this will prove very useful for the future. BBC has also proved that they're willing to change and keep up with the cutting-edge technology.

Channel 5
I think Channel 5 found a goldmine in CSI. I am sure this is increasinng their rating a lot. Also, Five US is letting us view a lot of handy programmes, such as US boxin, NBA etc without having to pay for it.

They're also heavily trying to get people involved in their news etc. I think this is a very good initiative as well.

ITV
Unfortunately, ITV seems to be heavily betting on reality shows and ITV2,3,4 doesn't seem to have much substance behind them. I wish they'd reduced the number of ITV channels and improved the quality a little.

Well done to Wimbledon

I applaud the decision of the organisers of Wimbledon tennis tournament to pay he same amount of prize money to the female winner as that of mens.

Nort Hell

Funny cartoon...

Property Abroad

Property Abroad - the number 1 website for property in Spain

MANTI (Turkish ravioli) recipe

4 serving

For the dough
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp salt
1 egg, lightly beaten

For the filling
1 small onion, grated
1 pound ground beef or veal
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
salt
freshly ground pepper

Yogurt and garlic sauce
2 cups yogurt, at room temperature
2-3 tsp minced garlic
salt, optional

Pepper topping
2 Tbs butter
1 tsp Aleppo pepper
pinch of sumac, optional

Prepare the dough by making a well in the flour, and adding the salt, egg, and ¼ cup water in the centre. Using your fingers, work the ingredients together until dough is formed.

Prepare the filling by mixing together in a bowl the grated onion, meat, parsley, salt, and pepper to taste. Set aside.

In a small bowl combine the yogurt and garlic, with salt to taste, if desired. Let sit at room temperature until ready to use.

Divide the dough into 2 balls. Roll out one ball of dough at a time on a lightly floured surface until very thin (about 1/16 inch). Cut strips 1 inch wide, then cut into 1-inch squares. Place about a ½ teaspoon of filling in the center of each square. Bring the four corners together over the filling and pinch to seal. Continue making manti until all the dough and filling are used. Place the manti on a lightly floured surface to lightly coat them.
Lightly fry the manti until the manti parcels turn golden in colour. This usually takes about 4-8 minutes.

Then, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and in half the manti. As soon as they are cooked they will rise to the surface. Remove them from the pot with a slotted spoon and place in a serving bowl or individual bowls with a tiny bit of the cooking liquid. Cover to keep warm while cooking the remaining manti.

Pour most of the yogurt sauce over the manti saving the rest to pass in a serving dish. Quickly heat the butter in a small skillet and when the butter is sizzling hot, quickly add the pepper and paprika, mixing well. Remove from the heat and drizzle over the yogurt sauce. Sprinkle with sumac if desired. Serve manti at once with yogurt sauce.

Excellent weather over the weekend

It was a just like a warm autumn weather both Saturday and Sunday. Let's hope that we don't end up with a hose pipe ban again this summer :)

Dir4sites

Dir4sites is a directory where sites are relevantly grouped by subject and region.

Microsoft Vista

The new Microsoft Vista operating system has recently been launched officially. I am always skeptical about being one of the first to use the new Microsoft products as they tend to be quite buggy initially.

I haven't seen too many people jumping up and down with joy anyway. It's probably best to wait if you are not in a rush.

Thumbs up for the new Blogger

I really like the new additions to the new Blogger. They can even host the blog for your own site :)

The editor interface is still simple and easy.

And, best of all, it is free; presumably unless you wanna upgrade to use some other features.

EU state were aware of the CIA flights

According to BBC News website, the EU states knew of what was going on (alleged kidnapping of innocent people and flying so that CIA is not bound by any laws).

We are talking about the same EU that are threatening Turkey's application due to the "human rights" concerns.
Double standards again :)

Jules Morgan photography

Jules Morgan has gained extensive experience photographing people in the UK and abroad for the past 4 years, doing both studio portraits and shooting weddings.

She is now based in South Africa but also undertakes commissions in the rest of Africa and internationally.

Letting Agents in Reading

Appleton Lettings agents in Reading provide residential property sales, rental and management services in the Reading, Caversham, Twyford and Earley areas of Berkshire.

Liverpool team sucks at the moment

They've had a shameful run against Arsenal in the last 2 cup games. I hope they do better in the Champions League and the Premiership.

I reckon Rafa might be on his way out soon!!!

i phone, u phone :)

It's hard to understand what all the hype is about on the new iPhone device. I haven't seen anything it offers drastically different than the other mobile phone devices. Yes, it doesn't have any conventional buttons but so what. They also say you can download music etc onto it; I say what's new about it?

Apparently Apple's shares finished up 8% as a result. People must have gone mad.

Wold's strongest man 2007

It's a shame that they've moved the program from BBC to Channel 5. The presenter is not as good unfortunately, neither is the format.

Anyhow, it was a closely contested event with quite a few new events for the World's strongest man competition. I suspect lifting the odd-shaped stones etc. might have been used throughout the circuit before but it was good to see it at the top level.

Unfortunately the final was a little disappointing for me. There was really only 2 people going for the title although it wasn't decided until the "Atlas Stones", which is always the last event. Mariusz Pudzianowski looked underprepared and gifted the title to Phil Pfister. I must give credit to Phil though that he won 4 or 5 events. Mariusz didn't look as hungry for the title as he did before. Phil was the man with desire.

The highlight for me was to see Odd Haugen, competing in the final. The remarkable story is that Odd is 56 years of age and still performed well against people probably half his age.

Sample invitation letter

British Embassy

Meşrutiyet Caddesi No:34
34435 Tepebaşı
İSTANBUL

date

Dear Sir or Madam:

Re: Visitor Visa Application – names

My name is … and I am a British Citizen, living in … for over … years. Please see the attached copy of my passport, my mortgage statement and bank statement as evidence.

I would like my parents (names) to visit the UK and spend a week with my family.

I will be supporting my guests during their stay and I will bear all their responsibilities including, but not limited to, financial responsibilities, travel, housing and medical expenses within the UK. I enclose my mortgage, bank statements and my letter of employment as evidence that I have enough money to support them.

I trust that this information is sufficient to support their application for a visitor visa. Should you require further details or evidence, please do contact me.

Yours faithfully,

Own name

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Saddam

It is interesting how the EU countries that were telling off Turkey for trying to hang a tyrant that killed 30000 people in Turkey did not react the hanging of Saddam.

I suppose the human right violations are only enforced on the less developed countries.