These are the Friday mornings I love: Waking up late enough to have company for breakfast... lingering over several cups of brewed Ceylon tea, served with the strongly brewed tea in the bottom of the glass and topped off with as much hot water as needed to reach the desired strength... maybe even sweetened with a cube or two of brown sugar brought back from a supermarket in Turkey; not bothering to clean up the remains of a breakfast of bread fresh from the Istanbul bakery, olives, a variety of cheeses, sliced cucumber and tomatoes... and maybe even some menemen (eggs poached on top of stewed vegetables and sucuk (spicy Turkish sausages made from chicken) topped with condiments from home: Sriracha hot sauce, Coleman's mustard... It is also important to have the right music to match the mood. I don't have a stereo, so my laptop perches on top of a couple of computer speakers on a side table in my kitchen. The music is one of a collection of songs given me by a former colleague, a politics professor from Turkey. The particular song is Allı Turnam, a Turkish folk song about a red crane. A crane with red points on his feathers is flying overhead and the man below sees it and implores that if the crane fly over his hometown, he greet his loved ones with sweet words (Say "sugar" say "honey") giving his apologies and explaining that his difficult situation have made it impossible for him to return home. In the version on my laptop, it is an instrumental piece, but my brunch companion sings along. The song is apt as he hasn't been home in over two years. He explains the lyrics to me. A little wave of nostalgia mingled with homesickness overtakes me even though my home isn't Turkey... but the mood is still good.
I haven't had one of these mornings in a while. This Friday is already booked, but I will leave you with a version of the song:
No comments:
Post a Comment