New Beginnings............ again.

Today is the first of January 2017. The weather is a mixed bag here in Wexford, a mixture of sunhine, wind and showers. As I am recovering from a bout of flu I decided not to risk getting wet but instead opened my window, stuck my head out like a dog does in a moving car, and got my breath of fresh air. I am now sitting at the kitchen table having decided to be a little retrospective.

 For many of my friends 2016 was a bad year, several lost loved ones. Many agree the world has gone crazy, the country where I live has undergone traumatic events, bombings, a coup and the devastation of its tourist industry. Many wondered how I could return to Bodrum after a visit back to Ireland last summer. Mum's birthday was July 16th and the only topic of conversation was what on earth was I doing going back to Turkey the following week.

 I explained it was like living in Ireland in the seventies. When foreigners asked about the war, we would look at them in puzzlement and wonder "What war? The penny would drop and we would say "Oh you mean the troubles?" In the south east of Ireland the problems in the North barely touched us. And so it is with life in Bodrum, for the vast majority life goes on as normal.  We still sit outside in the cafes and drink our coffee. I swam in the sea daily until the end of November.

2016 was a very mixed year for me, I spent the early part of it dealng with the frustration  of the broken arm I sustained in Vietnam and wrestled with some major life decisions. On the other hand, I travelled to the Maldives and  Iran and celebrated my Mum's 90th birthday, my daughter's wedding and also that of my nephew, with family and friends. So in many ways it was a year of joy. One friend said to me, she is so tired of the constant negativity expressed daily around her, we still belong to the privileged people, sometimes it is good to shift perspective and remember. This resonates with me. It is easy to become weighed down under the weight of our own and others problems. It is important to shift our perspective and hold onto the joy, the good things and the people who walk beside us and offer to share our load, to remember we are the lucky ones who have choices!

Over the past few days I have had the urge to write again. How long this will last I don't know. I have had this impulse before. and it has fizzled out. I logged onto my blog and found several draft posts from my earlier travels, going back to 2014 all awaiting the addition of photographs. My last post was in October 2015  as I started my travels to Vietnam and Cambodia before I fell and broke my arm.

It is not as if I have been sitting down doing nothing since then, the adventures never stop. I refuse to become an "Altin kiz- golden girl" though my hair and wrinkles belie this. I remain a cilgin kiz. When I did sit, it was to work on my hexipuff quilt, which is now complete...minus a few threads to be tidied up.

Therefore, I have a lot of fodder for my blog. I can't and won't promise what form it will take in 2017 or even if my refound desire to write will continue. However, I promise if it continues it will reflect me, it will probably it will be as disorganised and as messy as my mind.

Like my mind. it will probably wander backwards and forwards, There may be posts from past travels mixed with past and present photos and random musings, including my recent brief stint as a chicken minder, but always the adventures of a cilgin kiz.

After a brief thought that I should  change the title from  The Adventures of Cilgin Kiz. to the Adventures of Altin Kiz, I can tell you now it is not going to happen. While my friend decided instead of sitting in she would go out and dance in the New Year, I will stick my nose out into the wind and breathe in God's good air.

Through the open window, definitely light on the horizion.