I'm Soner Ölmez — forty years old, six foot tall, dark hair, eyes that can't quite decide between blue and green. Turkish by birth, British by passport, Londoner by choice.
I grew up in the Deli İsmail İller family line — from Bucak in Burdur, through Keçili and Kestel, to İstanbul's Beşiktaş, Şişli and Küçükçekmece, mostly behind a bar. Then Antalya — Alanya, Belek, Düden Şelalesi — bartending, 2002 to 2010. Payas in 2002, a very dusty place where I learnt swimming. Jandarma training started in Çanakkale, 18 Mart 1915, in 2005 — Yeni Foça in 2004, then policeman at İzmir Adnan Menderes Airport from 2006. Bodrum and Gümbet, bartender again, 2004. Warehouse operative in the North East of England — Billingham, Middlesbrough, Darlington — 2010 to 2016. And hotel receptionist in central London, between Bayswater, Paddington and Marylebone, since 2016.
I've travelled to nearly one hundred countries and speak more than a few languages — poorly in some, fluently in others. On my days off I'm somewhere else entirely.
This is what I do, and how I live. Some places I stayed a while, some I only passed through, and a few left no photograph at all — but every one of them is on the list.
Lastman Standing — the name I was given, and the one I keep.
