Decoration

There are times when the Turkish sense of decoration travels into the surreal, and even after so many years here, there are still things I find funny. Bouquets of roses stuck into the assholes of whole skinned sheep in butchers' windows. Dishtowels tied to the side mirrors of cars participating in wedding processions. Plastic hood ornaments of various American cars stuck all over a dashboard.

It's local election time this month, which means over the last year the municipalities have been falling all over themselves making things look pretty. Not that they're fixing potholes or putting in useful traffic signals, but there are lots of flowers, shiny newly revamped footbridges, and spiffy signs, often ones that light up and show the temperature and time.

Here's another thing that's appearing all over the city:

Doesn't it look nice? It's like an Ottoman-style gingerbread house, with the cosy shutters (real wood, by the way) and the brick and rock veneer. It makes you want to go on in for a nice cup of tea or baklava or something.

But, like the gingerbread house of lore, this one holds scary dangers inside too.

In this case though, it's not the witch that will kill you, but the high voltage.

Why did they go around and make these Houses of High Voltage look so inviting? That's the kind of thing that will always remain a mystery to me here.

In other news, after weeks of rainy, dreary weather (including a couple of days that it just rained mud), there's is hope for Spring after all.