Horrors - it's at least a fortnight since our last blog, but that is about to remedied. First of all, some comments on the world we live in -
We are often given to thinking that if there is some extraterrestrial being or beings that created the human race here on Earth, they would either be pulling their collective hair out or having a huge laugh at how their experiment could have gone so wrong! It's amazing actually how we have survived so long.
We have the increasingly disgraceful spectacle of the political establishment in the world's so-called foremost democracy doing their damndest to topple a legally elected leader, who is achieving great things, which of course undermines the very same political establishment (the Washington "swamp") and drives them ever onwards with increasing desperation in their attempts at political sabotage. And all at the expense of their country, of which they don't appear to care about in any way whatsoever.
Donald Trump has achieved what no President in 40 years has managed to do and that's to force a showdown in person with the North Korean leadership. Not to mention the (so far) cordial discussions between the two Koreas. He deserves the Nobel Peace prize for this remarkable achievement, but will probably not be nominated, as the Nobel Committee is politically left leaning. They gave it to Obama, but now nobody is sure what for actually. But we doubt that Trump will be too worried about that - he'll be concentrating on breaking North Korea's nuclear ambitions once and for all and also with the added benefit of bringing an improvement in living conditions to the people of the DPRK - that's a misnomer if ever there was one!!. But as an afterthought, how can you negotiate with a lunatic who says on the one hand that his aim is denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and on the other hand says that he won't be told by the US or anyone else for that matter to give up his nuclear toys? It's a tough call for Trump - if indeed the Singapore meeting ever happens.
Then there's Iran. Jim often recalls the remarks of a director of a notable Auckland meat export company that Jim worked for in the late 1970's when the company was exporting large quantities of NZ meat to Iran. He said that the average Iranian would cut their grandmother's throat for sixpence and of course right now the stakes are much greater than sixpence. We have no doubt that President Trump is absolutely correct in withdrawing from that poisoned deal and will in concert with Israel prevent Iran from covertly developing nuclear weapon capability under the former umbrella of a flawed agreement.
Not so sure about the decision to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem, but once again Trump has been pilloried as being responsible for the deaths of aggressively rioting Palestinians. The fact is that there would have been no deaths if they hadn't rioted. There are always peaceful ways of conveying disagreement.
Then there are presidential elections coming up in June here in Turkey and also in Colombia. We are about to apply for a 1 year residency in Turkey and so are wondering what would be the effect if the incumbent is defeated as some are predicting. Very unlikely and we have been assured that there is no cause for concern, but there may be some unrest and we may need to do a midnight flit to Greece (Rhodes is only 43 miles away) on the boat - let's hope we are back in the water by then! Colombia is an open book and we have very little idea of the respective merits of the candidates. Suffice it to say that they all have considerable political baggage - some much more than others. But overall we have faith that Colombia will never return to the anarchy of the past and will continue with the massive strides that they have made to date.
Another political development that has riveted our attention due to our time spent there on Langkawi Island, is the stunning upset in Malaysia. The 92 year old Dr. Mahathir and his multiracial party have triumphed over many years of cronyism and out and out corruption. He may have been involved in some of that in the past during his 22 previous years as PM, but former PM Najib and the 1MDB scandal take the cake. There are some 3 - 5 billion US dollars missing from the so-called state owned sovereign wealth fund (1MDB) which was established by Najib and it is to be hoped that eventually the government succeeds in recovering the lost and stolen funds, which undoubtedly the former PM, Najib, his political cronies and some of his family are up to their crooked necks in misappropriating. At one stage USD700,000 landed in one of Najib's personal bank accounts; he claimed that it was a personal political donation from Saudi Arabia which at the time the Saudis denied. Apparently his wife had a predilection for expensive USD20,000 handbags, according to a newspaper report from Malaysia. The report actually said "USD200,000", but we can't believe that would be true! Even a PM's salary doesn't provide that sort of purchasing power. These stories would never have seen the light of day during Najib's tenure as the paper would have been shut down and the journalists thrown in jail.
There are many other people in Malaysia from the former PM down who deserve to be thrown in jail. Let's hope this is a true watershed and that at last Malaysia can progress as it should in the world.
In Australia we have the cricket cheating scandal which possibly surpasses even the underarm bowling incident of a few years ago. And Australian Rugby have just been quoted as saying that they need to increase their level of cheating to effectively counteract NZ's continuing dominance in that code. At least we're forewarned! And the Australian finance industry Royal Commission of Inquiry which continues to expose shonky and downright illegal actions by finance companies and the big banks - who all also operate in NZ. But at least NZ has a far stricter regulatory framework which hopefully will curb their worst excesses.
New Zealand by comparison seems quite benign, although not without some serious headwinds ahead. Costs are already high in NZ and with oil now tipped to hit USD140 per barrel, the economy will be severely affected. Then there has been a resurgence of the "dirty politics" first experienced under the former National Government with all sorts of political innuendo being pedaled by political low-lifes. The latest apparently have been a series of deliberate rumours about the PM's partner being investigated by the Police. This prompted the necessary and unprecedented Police response that there is and has been no such investigation. Then there's the cow disease which is endemic in all but 2 countries in the world, and which has just recently developed in NZ. There is a scheme afoot to slaughter all affected stock which would just about wipe out 100% of NZ's dairy industry - not to mention the export meat industry as well. Let's hope wiser heads prevail.
Where is all of this taking us? It's a worry.
In the meantime though we shrug off all these concerns and are getting on with life here in Fethiye - dealing with the usual boatyard frustrations. The yard work is moving very slowly as they are very busy with mainly antifouling other plastic boats and getting them in the water ahead of the summer just starting. But things are starting to move at last. However, the lack of safety concerns us with dry antifouling being sanded with no protection such as masks or overalls whatsoever. The owner of the yard proudly showed us a respirator but it is never used!! He has said he feels sick after a bit of sanding or painting - Duh! In the meantime though we are getting on with our share of the work with sanding and painting the insides of the bulwarks, the caprails, coachroof and coamings The rudder still has to be re-fitted back onto the boat. Needs about 4 people to lift it!!.
We re quietly getting on with our jobs but getting not a little frustrated that yard jobs are taking so long. All the hull sanding has now been done thank goodness, but things have sputtered to a stop once more. Apart from our own smaller jobs, we need a stainless steel plate (forrard port side) removed, cleaned up and replaced, the pulpit modified to allow access when "Med moored", the rudder and associated fittings replaced and all exterior painting completed. It's like pulling teeth.
Then there is the saga of Jean's 2 boxes of health products from I-Herb in California. You absolutely would not believe the run around we have had spanning at least 12 visits to the Post Office and Customs over the past 3 weeks. It culminated recently in a visit to Customs to get the final declaration to enable us to take delivery from the PO. The head sharang told us that he could not issue the declaration because the doctor's prescription had incorrectly specified a couple of quantities - a 1 instead of a 2 for instance. So the head Customs guy whose English was only about 30% came with us in a local bus to the PO to inspect the packages and carefully write down the quantities. Then the next day Jean had to visit the doctor again to get another "correctly" worded prescription which she then took back to Customs. An hour and a half later the declaration was ready. During this time Jim was working on the boat. Then it was back to the PO to collect but another hiccup because the PO computer system crashed. That took almost an hour with Jim double parked with the hazards on and now, 3 weeks later, we have the items worth all of USD200. And we had to pay 20% duty. What a palaver!!!
Meantime we are about to make application for our 12 months temporary Turkish residency. We have an immigration consultant doing that for us so all should go smoothly. The cost in total including all fees and his charges amount to TRY1238 for both of us - that's NZD405 - and that works out to NZD1.11 per day over 12 months so not too bad.
Another thing which is working for us is that the Turkish Lira is heading south in a big way. 3 years ago NZD1 was buying TRY0.85 and now the Kiwi is buying TRY3.10 and that's a decline in our favour of 265%. That's in spite of a corresponding recent steady decline in the Kiwi itself. But marinas and boatyards which constitute the majority of our current expenditure right now get around that difficulty by quoting and charging in Euros and the Kiwi isn't doing so well against the Euro!
Just as well we're not still in Malaysia; there we had been buying up to MYR3.30 and right now it's MYR2.72 - a decline of 18% in 6 months. Main reasons for that are that Malaysia has oil and gas and with the political changes as well, the strength in the Ringgit will no doubt continue. The Colombian Peso is another currency we watch closely. It has appreciated against the Kiwi from COP2100 to COP1981 = NZD1 from when we were there last year. That's a movement against us of almost 6% - still we're not there at the moment. And the apartment which is always quoted in COP will have increased in value relatively. The main reason for that is that Colombia has much oil and is the beneficiary of the increased oil price. In addition real estate in Medellin is continuing to rise with increased expat demand - mainly from North America. Our apartment has now been let for 2 months but we cannot access the rental income as it is being paid into a COP account we have with a local finance house. Anyway, it will be a bit of a nest egg building up for when we finally get back there.
Our health has been somewhat indifferent of late. We have both had sore necks and shoulders which has made working a bit of a trial. Not sure how all that has come to pass but we both went to a recommended local doctor who used a TENS machine on both of us. This is an electronic massage machine and the effects were not wonderful. Incidentally you can buy the most expensive of these machines for about TRY340 and he charged us TRY300 for 30 minutes! We won't be going back there any time soon. Jean has since found a Turkish esoteric masseuse who was much better and Jean has improved. Jim seems to be improving regardless of any treatment.
But it's all been a bit of a trial with the work we have been doing - however, the sanding which is the most strenuous is all done now.
The weather is noticeably getting warmer now with afternoon temperatures in the high 20'sC and we are constantly told about the summers (July/August) which can reach 50C!! Still it gets cooler at night unlike the tropics where the temperature is a constant 30C for 24 hours and humid as well. At least here the humidity is relatively low. And the high temperatures are only for about 2 months - not 12!!
Apart from all that, life remains pleasant here staying at the Anna Apart Hotel out at the southern end of Calis Beach which is only a 10km drive to the boatyard. And the markets remain sources of wonderful fresh food.
Hopefully in the next blog we'll be able to report that we are back in the water again and at the Ece Saray Marina. There we will be "Med mooring" with the bow into the pontoon and the stern secured to moorings out in the water. Hence the need to modify the pulpit.
Today we went to the boatyard early but ended up only washing the boat down as the weather is looking threatening with the possibility of rain - and in fact we have since had some drizzle - not good for wet paint!! So we repaired to the Mulberry Café for breakfast (bacon and cheese omelette) and then we intended to go back to the Mulberry Café to watch the royal wedding which starts at 2pm.Turkish time. However, we found that the bar at the Anna was also showing the wedding live so we settled down there with 2 glasses of white Turkish wine each, a bottle of water and a plate of chips and 3 people from Northern Ireland. Very British!! Wonderful to watch and a great spectacle as expected, although one can't help speculating on all the undoubted undercurrents of feelings in the Royal Family and also feeling so sad that Diana could not have been present.
Not much more news because life at present is mainly eating, sleeping and going to the boatyard! Can't wait to get back in the water.
Cheers and lotsaluv from us here in Fethiye, Turkiye.....................
Jim and Jean
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