Thur 24th

Today we begin our pilgrimage to Gallipoli. Emotions begin to bubble up as I start to think about it. 

I recall as a little kid going with my father in the dark to the war memorial in Canberra for the dawn service. Later with and without kids to local and city dawn services. 

Here in Turkey and pondering the actual event and it brings home the futility of war.  Necessary and tragic at the same time.  I'm not espousing pacifism. It's the fight that gives us the freedom we have. Once we were enemies and yet here I am welcomed by the Turks.

Here in Turkey, both sides remember the sacrifice and respect the other. I was in a shop and the shop keeper spoke about mother's sending and losing their sons. On both sides. The absolutely tragic waste.

There are so many graves here. It bring meaning to the statistics. 

It's a war though that solidified three countries. Australia, New Zealand and Turkey. I understand that for the first time Australian and New Zealand troops fought in the name of their own countries. Modern Turkey born from the death of the Ottoman empire and the successful defence of their homeland.

This is a life size diahrama of WW1 trench warfare. Only 8m apart. Certain death in the front lines. Very even.  A stalemate. Tens of thousands died on both sides.

Helles

We decided to go to the Helles memorial. 

Blue bus 30 lira. At the next town it stops. We are told to have a cup of tea and take the yellow bus. Through Google translate and lots of gestures it is established that is several hours wait and we should have a cup of tea. OK so we have the tea. 

Phoebe negotiates 1300 lira for a taxi.  

The taxi goes the wrong way. Back to Eceabat. Through a lot of hand waving and google translate we establish he's got to buy petrol.

On the way down we see lots of police. At one point we come across a coach trying to do a U turn and traffic on both sides backing up. Our taxi driver deftly deviates up a side street. This takes us on a cobblestone back road through the village. Eventually we make it back on the "main road".

At one point a grip group of about 6 puppies block the road.  We slow and pass. Through the back window I see them running after us.  Sad. 

We make it to the Helles memorial. They are getting ready. A man on a ride on mower. A couple of police with dogs. It looked like they are familiarising the dogs with the site. 

We negotiate another TRY1300 for the taxi driver to wait an hour and drive us home. 

We are looking for Tasman von Stieglitz. Eventually we find him on the top part of panel 206.

Having looked at the memorial and once again pondered the huge numbers who died.  20000 English and a few hundred Australians on the Helles memorial. In the distance I could see a Turkish memorial complete with a huge Turkish flag. They lost 100's of thousands.  More than the allies but they defended their homeland.  Respect on both sides. 

We go back to the taxi. We take some photos of the taxi driver. That was fun and personalises the connection and also is consistent with the friendly reception we've received by people in Turkey. 

Troy

5:50am

Rise shine and shower. 

Washed yesterday's shirt and jeans in the shower. 

Walked around the town. 

Observed they have lots of solar hot water but no PV.

Breakfast- hard boiled egg.  Bread cheese honey.  Salad. 

7:00

Bus to Troy 

Walked around the Troy ruines. Learned lots of stuff. 

There's 9 levels of towns starting 3000BC. Essentially as one civilisation died another would begin to grow.  It seems it doesn't take too long for dirt and grass to cover a layer somehow. They build on top rather than cleaning up an old city.  Not sure how that works. 

Down the road to a cafe.  I'm assuming a fee is paid to the tour group.  We had a couple of coffees and a toilet stop. We've learned Private toilets are more likely to have toilet paper. 

Onto the bus and across the road to the archaeological museum. This looked crap on the outside. Rusty. Inside it was really good. Artefacts displayed as one would expect a very small amount of AV. I guess to keep people feeling up to date. 

Back on the bus. 

Dropped of in Canakkale. A panic as I left my phone on the bus.  The guide called

Gallipoli 1 Istanbul

We have booked a tour with TJ tours.

6am. 

We met as instructed infront of Hagi Sophia (Pink Mosque).  A fellow with a clip board flagged us down. Find our names on his paperwork and ticked us off. 

It's cool enough for a jumper but far from freezing. A kid in shorts and his dad kick a footie. A few cats watch us. Presumably bemused at the antics of humans. 

When everyone had arrived we walked, dragging suitcases to wake the locals along a cobblestone road. 

A modern coach. Suitcases packed in the hold. Clean and has seat belts. We were advised we must use them. It's law. 

On the freeway early enough to avoid the inevitable traffic. 

After a couple of hours, stopped at a petrol station for a coffee and toilet break. 

TRY10 for the toilet.

TRY 60 for coffee. 

Everyone friendly as we have come to know. 

20th

Hagia Sophia Mosque 

   Soup and tea. 

Breakfasts 

Looked for church

3 stops to Armenian church

Walked back streets. 

Turkish coffee small shop

Baklava 

Lots of kids clothing shops. 

Tram back. 

Lunch at restaurant

   Pide and salad. 

Snooze

Walking tour

Walked through bizarre.

Boat trip on Bosporus 

Dinner 

  Souo, meat balls, salad

   Too much wine. 

Slept 

Travel ESIM

Baseline - optus $5/day roaming.  say 50 days = $250

 AIRALO
100GB Europe (Covers Turkey and Georgia)  180 Days $307.50  Ouch

FLIGHT CENTRE

20GB AU$91

 MAYA.net

40GB 180Days $53

SIMIFY.com

Turkey = Middle East  Georgia = Europe & UK Region
 

They have a Europe & UK Esim that covers Turkey but not Georgia (Contradicts their search)
100GB data 

Unlimted data is AU249 90 days $2.77/day - No point as Optus $5/day for 50days $250.
Unlimited data    AU$179 60 Days  $2.98/day

house statistics

it's estimated that Australia has around 11 million dwellings. 

Of these, 3.3million are investment properties. 

Population 28.3 million

In the 2020-21 financial year, 2.24 million Australian taxpayers (around 20% of all taxpayers) owned investment properties, and they collectively held 3.25 million investment properties. This means that on average, each property investor owned 1.45 investment properties. 

Here's a breakdown of how many properties individual investors owned: 

71.48%: of investors held 1 investment property.

18.86%: of investors held 2 investment properties.

5.81%: of investors owned 3 investment properties.

2.11%: of investors owned 4 investment properties.

0.87%: of investors owned 5 investment properties.

0.89%: (or 19,920) of investors held 6 or more investment properties.

love and connection

Lying in bed awake at 12:30am

Pondering love. 

Such a comfy state. 

When one is together. 

The song mickey has a line:"you take me by the heart when you take me by the hand" and its so true. 

There's an emptiness when one is apart. 

Going back in time, there's a huge ache, grief when it breaks apart.  Possibly visualise like when one rips a loaf of bread in half both halves have jaggered edges.  Maybe why when relationships end there's all the constituents of grief - anger, sadness, denial, bargaining, depression. Sometimes so intense that they are all piled ontop of each other all at once. 

Love stitches two people together. Healing the torn wounds of the soul. Creating something new.  Close.  Very close. Two become one. 

All of this is a selfish love. It's all about me. Even when Freddie Mercury crys:"find me someone to love", it's all about him. 

In the silence I ask myself, what does she want? What does she need? What does she feel? What can I do for her?

Tour de Brisbane

4:50 wake

Breakfast.

Load bike

5:30 depart Corinda 

600 drop Henry round the corner from Somerville. 

Off he went to ride 120km.

10:27 Henry texts: "Finished. Safe".

I respond: "Already?"

Phoebe and I decided she'd go home. We will catch up later. 

I drove in.  The roads are open.  I feel the council have done a good job. Esp since they did not keep them closed after the event. I collected Henry in the cul-de-sac near the wheel of Brisbane. 

Palm Sunday

SUNDAY

In the Christian calendar, today is Palm Sunday. It's remembering what's referred to as Jesus's triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Apparently, at the time, the Jews were looking for a military strong man to rise up and push the Romans out. They were expecting a big man on a horse. By contrast, Jesus borrowed a donkey, a poor man's creature, symbolising suffering, service, humility and not a military animal. 

Kind of contrasts with a recent entry by ISRAEL into Gaza.

In a way,  Jesus entry was one of many symbolic events calling us to a way of life and focused millions over two thousand years.

St Mary's Church 2

Lovely service at St Mary's Kangaroo pt.

Second time we've been. 

Beautiful architecture. 

Lovely people. 

Good service. 

This week the morning tea liturgy was outside.  

In regard to the architecture, 

I like the clear window to the left of the inside picture. A nice contrast to the stained-glass.

 Philosophically, the stained-glass glass windows reminding us of church history and the big picture that involves the world outside but paradoxically prevent us viewing that same outside.  That one big clear window works in well with such Philosophical musings.

Peter & Robyn Kirakov Wedding

Attended the wedding of good friend Peter Kirakov  and his now wife Robyn.  I had the honour,  along with another old friend, Ashley Miller as the ring bearers.

So nice to see such love and commitment. A light friendly service with lots of fun injected by Peter.

Ashley and I were chatting about the really good memories we have of youth group way back in the early '80s

Park run

Rocks Riverside parkrun results for event #559. Your time was 00:43:50.

I was being very careful testing out my right ankle.  It was walk run walk run.  A fair bit of walking. 

Congratulations on completing your 43rd parkrun and your 32nd at Rocks Riverside parkrun today. You finished in 474th place out of a field of 564 parkrunners. You were the 267th male and came 13th in your age category VM60-64. Take a look at this week's full set of results on our website. Your PB at Rocks Riverside parkrun remains 00:36:07. Your best time this year remains 00:41:14.

Electricity Bill

 Recently received my electricity bill  $701.67

I wonder whether what rate I am paying 

Item Description Units Price Amount
General Usage 1565.460 kWh $0.336160 $526.25
Controlled Load 2 Usage 236.829 kWh $0.206910 $49.00
Daily Supply 90 days $1.366530 $122.99
Daily Supply - Controlled 90 days $0.038060 $3.43

		Origin	Qantas RED
General Usage	c/kWH	33.6160	30.448
Daily Supply	c/day	136.6530	118.8
Controlled Load 2	c/kWH	20.6910	20.79
Daily Supply - Controlled	c/day	03.8060	0 I think

RED ENERGY

https://www.energymadeeasy.gov.au/plan?id=RED552334MRE&postcode=4075

10000 Qantas points when pay first electricity bill.  + 2 points per $