Tonight there is one more star in heaven - Some days you remember all your life, your first this, your first that, definately the first OTHER.. there is also the last this and the last that; for me yesterday - 20 Aug - was a significant last. My Twin lost her battle with Cancer yesterday; Ýt was a day to remember even before that..

Chris and I have been making progress - an entry on that in detal soon - you would not believe it , I tell ya.... So we ride off early - Oi Mr Mullah time to get up !! Go Wail - You know this is the earliest form of PR and Spinn!! We are heading for Diyarbikir in Turkeys Wild East - but not that wild any more, The Kurdish resistance Tonight there is one more star in heaven - Some days you remember all your life, your first this, your first that, definately the first OTHER.. there is also the last this and the last that; for me yesterday - 20 Aug - was a significant last. My Twin lost her battle with Cancer yesterday; It was a day to remember even before that..

Chris and I have been making progress - an entry on that in detail soon - lots of starring at rocks - you would not believe it , I tell ya.... So we ride off early - Oi Mr Mullah time to get up !! Go Wail - You know this is the earliest form of PR and Spin!!

We are heading for Diyarbikir in Turkeys Wild East - but not that wild any more, The Kurdish resistance is no more.. there was once a problem here, lots and lots of army check points but all empty and look like they have been for some time...

We arrive, we see, we leave... big mistake, we are off the tourist trail here, OK it is a bit scary on the first sight, we are hot and bothered and we break a rule.. we dont stop at 4 pm before the sun get low and the traffic gets even more crazy.. The hotels look shit, there is no obvious safe place for the bikes, we break another rule by not bothering to go in and ask.. we push on... on the map 50 miles away is a nice looking little town, must be better, they cant have crowded narrow streets confined between old fortress walls, must be a nice pension with a courtyard, boy can we taste the kepabs and cold beer...its so hot a pen in the top of my overstuffed tank bags melts and bends to a U shape

So we go there...and actually leave on the second time of trying, Chris's bike is reluctant to start, cuts out a few times too in traffic, next mistake is to play macho and say ' its working, move on'.. so we move on out in to the country side in the heat with a bike with a problem, very little water on board, no food of course, 6 words of Turkish between us and three of those we cant pronounce... sound sensible eh!

The countryside is barren parched rocky fields of harvested corn - click here 50 miles of this and low and behold there is our paradise - NOT.. Silvan a farming town, full of farmers, tractors on main street, no tourists come here for there is nothing for tourist to come here for - 'Come see our fields of corn and rocks, marvell at our herds of goats!!' well actally it could happen, people pay good money to go to Blackpool! I read in the local newspaper today that the new mayor of Troy, Mr E Presley has great hopes for his plan to twin cities with Atlantis...

The petrol staion has a 'Market', inside is nothing, some fertiliser in bags, lots of oils for tractors, no impulse purchase items here in cleverly designed racking, no incidental CD music only 4 dollars by the tills - farmers are practicle people, they dont buy this stuff

So no tourists mean no hotels - we cruise main street and p*ss off the cool dude on the new tractor - no signs for a Hotel, we resort to our feminine side and actualy stop and ask - shock horror - OK we point at the phrase in the book.. nice guys he was too, outside the petrol station, he did not laugh too much , he points back to Diyarbakir and says many hotels............................... So guess what we set off again down the same strech of highways with no food, little water, we are tired and the sun is setting in our eyes....My stomach gets the better of me, we turn back and go eat... Sense prevails and we go do a Tiffany, a nice unused unfinished grain store way out of town off to the side of the road , our thousand star hotel for the night, no money, no room service, nice sleeping bag on the ground sir, the bathroom, well of course sir any part of the field over there downwind!!

My Phone rings - news is given and a part of my life finishes..........Some people are profoundly moved by a teacher at school or a sports coach, I had a teacher in a different part of my life, I was taught the joy of giving, a passion for being alive, to be able to express feelings, to love, to tell someone you love them and to meant it, and not to care who the hell is listening - I was loved unconditionally faults, warts and all, she knew my history and did not care, She was the here and now and on to the future kind of special spirit..

I believe in re-incarnation, call me a Buddhist if you will, her spirit is here again on earth today - but we have to look a little harder to see it now - next time you see a smile in a child, that is her, the next time you see a face light up with joy, that is her, next time a stranger helps you, a random act of kindness, a birthday card sent, a special present bought and wrapped, then put away waiting till the day it can be given, and only then the surprise on the recievers face seen, that is her, a flower blooming in the spring rain brightening the day, that is her..... we have to look a little further to see this now, we must also look inside ourselves to see this now - and if you see it, Show It To The World.

The day after and no more tears - till the funeral at least - and I have my practicle head on.. The problem, six words of Turkish in the arse end of Turkey, - I have a customs entry in my passport that will not allow me to leave with out my bike - no nice easy fly home fly back - I need a customs office to let them impound the bike, for me to then return and collect ýt in a week or two - try asking for this with six words of Turkish, mime, you are having a laugh... Seems like being back at work -I dont even know when the funeral is yet, I am working with a big buket full of Ifs and Buts, solving problems that may not exist.... we think we are going to the university, there must be an English speaker there, its a bloody big buiding on the outside of town, even says Universitu on the side of it - It turns out to be a Hospital, well doctors speak English dont they! No not here they dont, Turkish seems to be a second language, .....English - well I can say David Beckham, Manchester United and look cool in my surgical greens, see the cute nurses are laughing, I will shake your hand and say goodbye......

I will return for the funeral and then come back and finish my journey - it is a journey from one part of my life to another - its needs to be done - there is a way, its natural for me... dam that Dharma!!!