The New Barbie

One day, early on in our friendship, I went to visit Gülsüm. We sat and chatted and then she invited me to come with her to visit her mother. Her mum lives less than 500m from her. So off we set. The first thing İ noticed when we arrived at the house was about 10 pairs of ladies shoes outside the door. Oh oh!. Sure enough when we went in there were eight women of varying ages, sitting and chatting. Not only were they chatting but everyone of them had some handwork, knitting, sewing crotchet. İt was like stepping back a couple of generations in İreland. Gülsüm told them I was a friend and immediately they started to ask her about me. Where was I from, was İ married, where was my husband, did İ have children,were we renting a house......?????????? Much to their surprise, I answered the basic questions in Turkish. There was an immediate cry of....'Come to my house, come to my house, İ live.......' One lady wanted me to tell her why her husband who had died of cancer when working in a factory in Holland hadn't received her pension form the EU and could İ sort it out for her.

Later, İ went back to Sean and told him that even though İ didn't have the body for it, he was looking at the new Barbie. Everyone wanted to play with me!