From this month's newsletter

APRIL / MAY 2008

Now spring has officially arrived I do hope everyone remembered to put their clocks forward! It is so nice to have the lighter evenings after the dark winter days and great to feel the temperature warming up a little. It is at this time of year when the white storks fly over Turkey on their migration path. I am sure many of you have already seen them. They really are an amazing sight as their wing span can be up to one meter across. Last weekend there were huge flocks of them flying over Istanbul on their way to Europe.

Christmas already!

I know Christmas is possibly the last thing on any of our member’s minds at the moment, but Roz, our cooking co-ordinator, is already on the case of Christmas pudding and cakes. As you know baking for the Christmas Bazaar is a huge part of the Corona programme and this year we want to get started early in September. It takes a great deal of organising. As well as the actual hands on side of the preparation there is a lot of background work which Roz does, like sourcing all the ingredients and how much is needed to make 120 Christmas puddings and 100 cakes! Certain items are not available here and we would like our members to try and bring some back from the UK if they are going in the next couple of months. Even a little would help and if you can contact Roz and let her know what you get then she can update our list. The items we need are listed below. Please remember to keep your receipts and you will be reimbursed the cost. We won the award for ‘Most Original Stall’ last year at the Bazaar so we have a lot to live up to!! Please contact Roz.

Ingredients required:

Vegetable suet
Brown Muscovado sugar (the type found here is coarse)
Schwartz (or similar) mixed spice
Seedless currants
Glace cherries
Mixed peel

Please remember to check sell/use by dates as they need to be no later than November.

Activities

Our Corona Members have been very busy this past month with lots of events going on. Our visit to Acacia Jewellery was an interesting one. Not only did we get to learn a little about gemstones and designs, but we were able to go into their workrooms and see the jewellery being made. It was amazing to see how such small pieces are so skillfully crafted. At the end of the tour we were all able to try on some of Acacia’s beautifully designed jewellery which we all enjoyed!

There was a great turn out for the Easter Coffee morning hosted by Ann Soguksu. Ann had made the most delicious hot cross buns which were such a treat, especially so as of course they are not available here. Thank you Ann for all your time and hard work you put into the morning. The raffle was a great hit and the brunch at House Café was won by Annelies and the Easter Eggs were won by Maretta, Caroline and Sevgi. A total of 200YTL was raised from the raffle and the sale of preserves. This was given to the Christ Church.

The monthly Coffee morning at Gloria Jeans was also well attended again this month. It’s so nice to be able to do a bit of shopping as well as catch up with other members!

Frosie Goetz opened up her beautiful home to us at the Austrian Consulate for our coffee morning with Muhtar and his talk on ‘Antique Historical Maps’. Everyone who attended said how fascinating and well presented his talk was. He made everything so interesting and it was hard to believe some of his maps dated back to the 15th & 17th century.

Muhtar and some of his maps		Alyson thanking Muhtar

Thank you again Frosie for your hospitality and for inviting us in to your home. The delicious apple strudel was much needed after walking up the 67 steps!

The morning at Jo Malone’s was a very fragrant and fun morning.  After a talk on fragrances and the art of fragrance combining the ladies were treated to an aromatic hand and arm massage – lucky things! French Lime Blossom and Honeysuckle and Jasmine were the most popular choices of combinations. We would like to thank the staff who looked after everyone so well. 
You'll find pictures of this event on the Activities page.

What a fabulous pot-luck lunch our Chairwomen Alyson, hosted at her home in Kemerburgaz. Her beautiful kitchen with its wonderful array of china and hanging copper pots was the perfect back-drop for the event.

The pot-luck lunches seem to get more and more popular every time and everyone brought the most delicious dishes for us all to taste. It was good to see so many of our members from the Asian side enjoying a day out in the ‘country’ too. We can’t thank you enough, Alyson, for all the hard work and effort that you put into making your home the perfect place for lunch.

Events for April and May are listed on our calendar page.

 

contact us : coronaistanbul@hotmail.com