Turkish paracetamol: one per box, a coffee-spoonful of powders pressed in a little box of communion wafer, the size of a horse tablet but they go down more smoothly than caplets, and seem to work. Two for a lira.

I'm on a bus to Turkey again as we have a four-day weekend. Another slow border crossing. Turkish buses like to stop for tea but on the Iraqi side they stop only once, just before crossing into Turkey, for petrol (it's half the price) and large quantities of loose tea, much of which is then then taken off the passengers by Turkish customs. I don't get it - why it's worth trying to smuggle tea into Turkey, and why they don't hide it better if it is worth it.