*If the wind is not blowing a gale when you next go from Bodrum to Yalikavak by road you may be lucky to see the turning sails of a windmill standing at the mountain pass where the road starts to descend toward the sea and the view is one of the most dramatic anywhere. There are three windmills at the pass that have stood forlorn and crumbling for years until two enterprising people, Mustafa Er and Muammer Mehmet Kaya, a building contractor and a lawyer, respectively, decided to make a sizeable investment to restore one of them to proper operating condition, including all the machinery and real millstones to make flour. These businessmen may not get a satisfying financial return on their investment but they have earned the gratitude of everyone who will pass by and get a thrill at the sight of a landmark saved.

**The birth of the Bodrum Chamber Orchestra will be celebrated with their inaugural concert at 20:30 hrs on Friday, 16 May, ’08 in the Bodrum Municipality Nurol Cultural Center in the Oasis Shopping Mall. Conductor Gürel Aykal and violinist Suna Kan will participate in this momentous event which will introduce the 15 piece string ensemble to the Bodrum public. The program includes works by Mozart, Vivaldi and a living Turkish composer, Hasan Uçarsu. Most interesting and moving is the fact that the orchestra was brought together by Numan Pakdemir who was born in Turgutreis and came back now to give us not just a one-time musical treat but a chamber ensemble of our own which we hope to hear often in years to come. ***Horror and revulsion are perhaps the most fitting words to describe the feelings of many Bodrumians last week when it was learned from the media that the central government in Ankara had a new law passed by the parliament which will reportedly allow the construction of 5-storey buildings in Bodrum, removing the previous 2-storey limitation. Apparently the language of the new law is so confusing that nobody can say for certain whose interpretation is correct. Such obfuscation, however, is all too often the cover that allows the high and the mighty to ride roughshod over local sensibilities to ever greater profits. Bodrum has suffered before from unscrupulous entrepreneurs using Ankara to go around local rules so opposition is starting to organize.