WELCOMING THE NEW YEAR 2006

We fly to Las Vegas.  It is 28th of December 2005. 
Ceylan is six months pregnant. 
It means Baby Emre travels with us for the first time; Alp, Sarp, Aytaç and me... We had our breakfast in Boston airport while we waited for the plane.  Now we are on the plane. It is very early in the morning and sleepy passengers are taking their seats. 

My Dear Notebook, long time passed since I started to write again. Another year has flown like a stream.  When did 2006 come? We are in the middle of February already...

I have missed my pencil and these lines.  I started taking notes while in the plane; I am now in Istanbul trying to sleep in my bed. It is nearly five o’clock in the morning. There is heavy snow in Istanbul. While I was taking out previous year’s pages and putting 2006 calendar pages into my agenda, I realized once again that time has gone really swiftly for me. I guess the times that I spend in front of my pc trying to sort out my website placing my writings and photos are my happiest hours.

Years ago I met a fortuneteller in a friend of mine’s house who said many things about me. I took notes of what she had said.  While I was tidying my agenda, those papers fell off from my old notes.  It is really incredible but a lot of things that she said came true. Her last sentences were: “You will create something and your name will be written on it...”  At that time, I thought for a while and told her smiling that I could only die after this time and tomb would carry my name on it.... Opening her black eyes widely she objected to this and in a serious manner she repeated that this would be a pleasant work.  Now I have a website with my name on it and I share it with my readers.  

Why did I do such a thing? Some people ask this question. Maybe, I wanted to leave something behind, to share with people what I ate, drank and saw. Maybe, I wanted to leave something about myself and my life for my grandchildren.

I am in Boston for three months with Sarp.

We went to London for a week beginning of November. Some part of it was business meetings and some holidays... We celebrated Alp’s birthday there.  We were in London Cipriani for his thirty first birthday.  Baby Emre was in his mother’s womb for three months then. We took great pleasure in spending our holidays shopping for the baby.

Then we split our ways; I went to Boston, Aytaç to Moscow and Ceylan and Alp to Istanbul.

This time my Boston days were really full. Although it was end of November, the weather was really nice. 
I was able to walk a lot.

I went:

to a concert - Blue Man Group,

to a ballet -  Boston Ballet Nutcracker,

to the movies -  Shop Girl, Munich, Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire and a musical Rent.

We were in New York during Thanksgiving Holidays.  We stayed in Chambers Hotel. We were very happy about the location of the hotel, its restaurant called “Town”, its fireplace that made us feel warm every time we entered the hall of the hotel and the comfort of its rooms.

We met with our friends, ate nice food. (6 Bond Str. Sushi) ( Le Bilboquet 25 E 63rd St. NY)  

We went to the movies, “Walk the Line” and “Producers”...      

The whole family got together end of December and we flew to Las Vegas. We met our friends and my cousin who came from San Francisco. We stayed at Hotel Bellagio.

Invited by the Bellagio Hotel, we welcomed the New Year in a magnificent party in the ball room of the hotel.

We watched the “O” show once more with great admiration.

We saw the newly-opened Wynn Hotel and Le Reve Show.

The weather was beautiful. We spent a day in the mini zoo at Mirage Hotel on Treasure Island where there were lions, panthers, a leopard, dolphins and other animals.  

Siegfried & Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat

 



We experienced the wedding ceremony of a friend in a small church in Las Vegas.  Celebrations were in Bellagio Hotel.

We went back to Boston on 5th January and from there we traveled to New York for a long weekend.  We stayed in W-Times Square.

We got together with Serap and Bob. We chitchatted while drinking hot chocolate and tea.  We had dinner in Hudson Hotel Cafe.

On Sunday the temperature fell down to minus twenty in New York and the cold weather made us freeze to death. There was not one on the pavements. We were invited for Sunday brunch. We had super food within a super family atmosphere in the historical Palace Hotel.

Aytaç went to Toronto and we threw ourselves to the movies.  We saw the films called “Break back Mountain” and “The Family Stone”. Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day and it was a holiday.  As the road to Boston was not crowded, we arrived home quickly.         

Of course the sweetest memory of this vacation was Baby Ava.  I spent an unusual time with the newly born baby of Dayana in Boston.  Driving her pram in a colt way, I passed over people’s feet. I became happy whenever she smiled at me with her tiny dimples.

 

Hey Ava, let’s see if you will read these lines when you grow up?

Tulin Erkaya

2006