donatello r.i.p.
May 22, 2009

our turtle died today after 20 years :(
i remember "losing" him in our garden in Dikmen when i was a child... preparing a swimming pool just for him using concrete when i was 8...

spring came...
April 5, 2009

it was a sunny sunday afternoon and we drove around Kyrenia and finally decided to stop by the diana beach in catalkoy for a picnic.

izzet & sifa - our picnic spot - the ants scene - sifa - flowers

they're going in - my sandwich and sifa's cheese and the artificially put tomato piece which got stuck :D

hepiiidibörthdeytuuuyuuu
March 26, 2009

hepiiidibörthdeytuuuyuuu...hepiiidibörthdeytuuuyuuu...
amaninnnnnnn... :P

we had a casual birthday gathering with the family at sifa's.

we're nowadays working on the architectural drawings our architect (elvan hanim) designed for us. next week, we'll visit her for some minor tweaks. it gonna be BIG ;)

a.d.
March 3, 2009

according to latest news; a.d. is "seeing" a french chick, a.d. has moved to a new flat with a swimming pool and jacuzzi in london with an indian friend, a.d. is a consultant for a mining company, a.d. plans to give 3 month notice to quit work by the end of the month, a.d. and izzet is planning a 2 week fun in europe, a.d. will do paid military service in july, a.d. is confused about what he shall do after military, blah blah blah... it's been a while since a.d. and izzet talked for one and a half hours :)

alagadi beach walk
February 22, 2009

we went for a walk on alagadi beach on sunday...

the rock moment: sifa wins - izzet loses

shot with an interesting perspective

stathis came
February 21, 2009

stathis, my friend and partner in car hire business in south cyprus came to kyrenia with his family and friends. i think we last saw each other 3 years ago... they stayed for only 2 nights. we talked some business and had a nice dinner all together at the archway restaurant and had a surprise birthday cake for chris. we also went to jasmine casino and played texas hold'em poker which was a lot of fun. stathis won a good amount on the second night :) berkan and i will drive to paphos this summer for fishing with them :)

bogaz famagusta trip
February 15, 2009

we went to kemal'in yeri fish restaurant in bogaz famagusta.

the food was terrible with smelly fish, sticky calamari and lettuce with ants in it. it's amazing how the place was packed though?! right after i took this photo of sifa, it started pouring and we could not walk around the harbour :/ on the way back, we stopped to take a pic of the rainbow :)

sifa, mom & dad - aysem & grandma - izzet & sifa

video with the restaurant owner playing drums [4mb]

feb 13 :)
February 14, 2009

we wanted to have dinner at chinese house on valentine's day, but it was fully booked when i called last week.. so we went on friday the 13th (just realised this!) :P
the cork shot

p.s. we've decided on our architect (not musti - he's doing military service) and are waiting for our first draft in the next few weeks.. exciting!

istanbul
February 7, 2009

berkan and i went to istanbul for 2 nights. stayed at the marmara taksim which was expensive but a real 5 star hotel. the galatasaray-kayserispor match wasn't so good after lincoln was dismissed with a red card. honestly, lincoln shouldn't have been dismissed. we all cheered for "selcuk dereli, soyle anan nereli" and "selcuk gol gol gol". we spent the night at cicek pasaji - fried mussels (midye tava), seabass (levrek) and beer! berkan didn't like that much. mission was completed after buying the louis vuitton handbag at istinye park.

mushroom hunting
February 5, 2009

this year, we didn't get much rain so the mushing hunting period was late; it will be relatively short and the worst of all, less mushrooms! :(

not many mushrooms were left to be collected anyway, as it's the half-term for kids and teachers.

uncle hasan cutting the mushroom

sifa returns
February 1, 2008

sifa returns. no more homework. no more 1 week vacations. no fuss.

btw, lost season 5 started. kemal has finished watching season 1 in 3 days..
i've watched all episodes of how i met your mother. if you liked "friends", you definitely need to watch himym. it's like r-rated version of friends.

alya
January 14, 2009

dear baby alya,
this is your very first presence in the online world.
your father berkan promised to create you a website and a facebook account, so you are lucky. :)
when you grow up, i hope this post will make you smile :)
wishing you a happy and healthy life.
izzet & sifa

skiing at troodos, or not!
January 4, 2008

we went to troodos for skiing, but the ski shop refused to rent equipment to us at 14:30, claiming that it would take half an hour to get the skis and half an hour to return them by 4pm and we would not have enough time to ski! i was so pissed. it was very disappointing but hey we slid fast! :)

climbing up - scenery by the roadside - skiing area

aysem, izzet & fatos - izzet, aysem & berkan - aysem

new year
January 1, 2009

we celebrated 2009 quite differently, with our new family :)
motto: kayseri pastirma, cheese, whisky & a fireplace

whole family 1 - whole family 2 - almighty grandma

izzet family - sifa family - moms - dad & granddad ozdemir

sifa & izzet - sifa, izzet & ersoy

last few days of 2008
December 30, 2008

izzet holding skippy, the adorable pincher

sifa buying marks and spencer - sifa's mom and dad

one of those crazy saturday nights at night park

the classic zephyr scene - the shots scene

squash
December 22, 2008

berkan and i started playing squash (voted the healthiest sport by Forbes) at hilton cyprus, 2 times a week. it takes us 40 mins to drive and 40 mins to come back to kyrenia. i really wish we had a court in lefkosa or kyrenia!

i hope to take some videos of berkan and i playing. we sometimes have great plays!

meanwhile, musti and cousin emek surrendered to military service on 15th december.
"eee ben mi yeyim be gardash..."

cycling and a bit more
December 10, 2008

we rented mountain bikes for 20 YTL each, near gecitkoy dam like we did in april 2008 but this time with a bigger crew.

taking a break - kemal tricked into climbing a tree
kemal fixing the tyre of berkan's bike
video - during the break (12mb)
video - funny berkan (4mb)
video - downhill (10mb)

bogaz picnic with fish & sifa :P
December 7, 2008

aunt tacan got some fresh fish out of water in the morning, flied from istanbul and fed us! yeyyy! :)

dad putting oil drops for barbeque mushroom
uncles at the barbeque - grandma with cats
izzet, sifa & aysem

download picnic video (27 mb)

2007 & 2008 Blogs
Year 2007 & 2008
last few days of 2008 December 30, 2008
squash December 22, 2008
cycling and a bit more December 10, 2008
bogaz picnic with fish & sifa :P December 7, 2008
bogaz picnic with uncle hilmi November 30, 2008
the fair November 28, 2008
ankara November 24, 2008
silent power November 11, 2008
Sweet £2100 November 4, 2008
galatasaray 3 - 0 trabzonspor October 19, 2008
varicocele operation October 9, 2008
chinese house with nisan October 1, 2008
yatsan furniture shop website September 1, 2008
family picnic at kirni (cinar pinarbasi) August 30, 2008
karpaz trip August 19, 2008
engagement August 16, 2008
Amy Villas July 23, 2008
military service over July 11, 2008
april & may June 1, 2008
working hard March 8, 2008
maxtor 1tb March 1, 2008
east kyrenia tour with kemal February 3, 2008
mom's birthday January 30, 2008
sifocan at uludag January 25, 2008
trip to korucam cape and akdeniz village January 13, 2008
new command centre January 12, 2008
aysemmm January 9, 2008
november: htc touch, sifa hacettepe mba, military November 30, 2007
tuzla infantry academy October 31, 2007
sifa graduates June 29, 2007
the month may May 26, 2007
the month april April 26, 2007
sifa birthday March 26, 2007
istanbul trip March 4, 2007
playing golf at korineum golf course in esentepe February 21, 2007
5if4 7urk531 January 25, 2007
what a bad start to 2007 January 20, 2007

2006 Blogs
Year 2006
surprise birthday cake December 20, 2006
mushroom hunting November 25, 2006
digital photo frame November 16, 2006
istanbul + ankara November 13, 2006
Cyprus44.com October 29, 2006
ankara October 22, 2006
cooking time with nezire October 7, 2006
CimbomArena.com October 4, 2006
rock concerto & dance show by tan sagturk September 23, 2006
paintball again September 10, 2006
Aysem September 4, 2006
waterpark sunday August 13, 2006
paintball August 6, 2006
camping 2006 July 16, 2006
serenity ad is up July 13, 2006
tiesto @ escape beach club July 9, 2006
Inhumanitarian Actions by Greek Cypriot Administration July 7, 2006
gnc turnover reaches £100,000 July 1, 2006
aysem's graduation June 30, 2006
ahmet dervis June 16, 2006
pacific has a new logo May 18, 2006
sampiyon cimbom May 14, 2006
trncwashdc.org May 13, 2006
well planned 5 hours May 4, 2006
the month april April 30, 2006
gnc announces 1st quarter profits April 1, 2006
what's going on :) March 29, 2006
prawn night w/ nezire March 14, 2006
"no no no.. u can't put .com in company name" March 13, 2006
ankara February 27, 2006
the shrimp party and ovgum February 9, 2006
sup January 29, 2006
the sausagefest 2006 January 6, 2006
google shares will hit $1000 January 4, 2006

2004 Blogs
2004: A Remarkable Year
Winter Break 12.11.2004
zappos.com 12.09.2004
the beach party 12.04.2004
tomorrow's beach party 12.03.2004
honors proposal 12.02.2004
Mailx0r releases StonyMail v1.0 11.30.2004
in memory of ahmet ince 11.28.2004
happy thanksgiving 11.25.2004
free MoMa ha? 11.14.2004
i like this part of the year... 11.19.2004
hotmail hacked? 11.17.2004
mailx0r meeting 11.14.2004
i won $45 tonight 11.12.2004
guys' poker night 11.11.2004
the weather 11.10.2004
american museum of natural history 11.06.2004
michelle 11.05.2004
BLOME II 11.04.2004
the Met 10.31.2004
indoor soccer 10.25.2004
texas hold'em night 10.14.2004
xda II 09.22.2004
summer 2004 09.10.2004