Thursday is bazaar day! No. 38

Today is an extra-festive day at our house, as we are celebrating two things: the Turkish national Victory Day holiday, and the third anniversary of my move to Turkey. So due to the celebratory mood, I bring you a special edition of the Thursday bazaar post.

All praise to the mighty Zoloft.

Quite often I’m asked by readers what sorts of things I actually buy at the bazaar— well, we go through a lot of vegetables in this house, but we have the unusual situation that kitchen duties have nothing to with me (if you ever tasted my cooking you’d understand why), and that includes produce acquisition, so I leave veggie shopping to the boys. Me personally, the first place I usually hit is my favourite fake makeup guy. There are about ten fake makeup guys at the bazaar, but I keep going to this particular one because he’s never let me down. He sells the absolute best fakes available. Today I bought these fake Lancôme eyeshadows for the grand price of 3 for 5 lira (that’s about a dollar each). And how does one know they’re fake? Well, if the fact that it’s a guy selling them from a table on the sidewalk isn’t enough for you…

…perhaps the fact that they actually say “Langôme” might tip you off.

After I bought my makeup I went looking for a new bed sheet because we, ahem, tore the old one (yeah yeah, shut up). One vendor had these stretch knit cotton sheets (just like t-shirt material, perfect for late summer) for 3 lira. They only had black and red; I chose black because red reminds Emirhan of a certain football team we’re not allowed to talk about in this house.

If it seems to you like our bed appears to be on the balcony, that’s because it is on the balcony— believe me, in this weather, there’s no way it would ever be cool enough to sleep inside. Maybe at the end of next month we’ll be able to move the bed back into the house.

For ages and ages I’ve been threatening to buy one of those luxury bathrobes that Turkey is famous for, but they’re so expensive, and I rarely see one in a subtle solid colour. But today I got lucky and found an inexpensive alternative, this fantastic cotton waffle pattern robe with a thick terry lining. The tag says Nordstrom, but don’t let that fool you— it was 6 lira.

I have no idea what the wild look in my eyes is about… perhaps it’s the fact that I’d just come inside from sauna-esque weather and the last thing I wanted to be doing was donning a heavy bathrobe. The things I do for you people.

Pretty sure that was supposed to be my pleasure, her majesty, but hey, whatever works, mylove. But what are the zig-zaggy things?

After I came back from the bazaar and saw how great the new sheet fit on the bed (our mattress is one of those fat ones that regular sheets won’t cover), I decided that red could also be representative of the Turkish flag, and I went back down to buy the red sheet as well. Unfortunately, the vendor informed me that he’d just sold the red one five minutes before I arrived. My loss. Maybe next week, he says.

So in my disappointment I decided to wander back to the makeup guy and see if he could cheer me up. I got two eyeliners, 1 lira each. The one that actually says L’oréal seems to be colour-blind— note that the label says “frozen chestnut” and indicates a shimmery gold colour, but the pencil itself is clearly jet black (which was confusing because I’d been looking for a black label, silly me). The wine-coloured one is actually wine-coloured, go figure, but as you can see it’s made by Lqreal. You can’t have everything, you snob.

Time to get into celebration mode with the best wine 10 lira can buy. I have no idea about wine; I asked the wine store guy (no, there’s nothing as cool as bazaar wine, I went to an actual wine store) for his advice, and he chose this in the “under 10 lira” range. I haven’t tried it yet, so you’ll have to ask me again tomorrow. My guess is it’ll do what it’s supposed to do. Yeah, I’m that kind of wino.

Rock attitude seems to be all simple thing— enjoy your Thursday evening, wherever you are and however simple it is.