Thursday the 12th, is our first full day here, and after a good night's sleep - where we miraculously slept through the pre-dawn drummer and the early morning call to prayer, we are ready to face the task of putting away all the stuff from the car.
The drummer is a regular feature during Ramazan (Ramadan), ensuring all those fasting during daylight hours are up and fed, ready to start their day.
We spend the morning sorting everything out, cleaning and stocking up, before heading into Fethiye to meet up with a man who reads Fethiye Times. We are soon joined by Pat etc, to discuss preparing for the Bodrum Cup. Pat tells us she has a *great* idea for how we will win the fancy dress competition. We will perform as 'Kaptan Sevket's International Whistle Orchestra'! The whistles come from a set of crackers I'd brought out at Christmas. Each has a different note, and the conductor points to the revelant number as required by the tune. Now, we have performed this orchestra quite a lot since Christmas, at various parties and do's, and it goes down a storm. My role is as conductor, and at the last outing in May for Frank's birthday party, I was bedecked in a gold lame dress and 4 inch heels!
Pat insists that the same 'get-up' is required, and that the pipers will all wear printed T-Shirts (which we have yet to arrange!). This then is our mission, and we head off to find if we can get 8 white T-Shirts printed in 24 hours. After a fair bit of running around we discover we can get a hundred or, none. Plan B is to print up the text and pin them to the T's. Happy with this solution, we head off to the mountain village of Uzumlu, for a pide lunch.
The tea shop doesn't have the ayran I want, but no problem - he sends a boy to the shop to get some. He also doesn't make pide, but again, no problem - he whips rounds the corner and comes back with the pide man who takes our order and soon returns with a wide selection of the cigar shaped pizza's which are a Turkish speciality fast food. All we actually buy from the guy in the end are a few teas!
After a turn around the village, we head back into Fethiye. Jill and Den are an English couple who own one of the ground floor flats in our building. They are looking to sell up and properly move to Oman where they are teaching, so we arrange to get the key from Nese and have a look around. Then it's goodbye for now to 'Pat and party', so we can get ready to meet up later for a 'welcome back' slap-up meal in the one truly good restaurant in town - Il Fiore.
After a wonderful dinner, Clare and Jonathan join us to say 'farewell' to Jon, and 'bon voyage' to Clare, who has to go back to England for work for a week.
On Friday we meet the Canadians up at Yakamoz, which is a wonderful hotel in Ovacik, with a great setting. They have rented their jeep through Mike and Jan who run the hotel, and are returning it. The eight of us then travel onto Oludeniz, in our and Pat's car, for a cold beer while watching the paragliders practicing for the forthcoming Air Games.
That evening is dinner at Pats, where we practice our party piece, and print up the signs.
Saturday arrives, and it's up and packing ready to catch the 10am bus to Mugla, and then onto Bodrum. But you'll have to wait a few days for THAT instalment!!
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