The weather turned very wet and windy on Wednesday, but we still decided we’d like to walk the 2 or 3 miles to Calis along the sea front. We arrived at the Gardening Club meeting at 2.50, thinking we were nice and early for the 3 o’clock start, if a little muddy and sopping wet. But everyone was already there, apparently they always start at 2! Iain was compering a Gardeners Question Time style discussion, but luckily they had just finished all the other business and this was ready to start.

After the meeting we headed off to another bar to peruse their book selections before heading back home with Pat and Chris to eat the famous turkey.

We got back to find Adem in the house, we asked what time we needed to be ready for the big meal. But Alas, the turkey was still languishing outside on the balcony. Tenor has a bad back and as the weather is bad the cooking is being postponed.

Never mind then, we decided to cobble a meal together between me and Nese, and all eat in our house. Iain got the fire going and I made roasted chicken with caramelised carrots, while Nese provided soup, dolma and ‘wedding pudding’, which is like porridge. In the end a good night was had by all, and Chris and Pat stayed over.

Thursday and the rain was still with us, but the wind died down. Late afternoon we met up with Jan at the Doruk cinema and settled down to watch Borat, which was alternately good, funny, and cringe worthy! We’d promised to take Jan to Kizmet to meet the boys and check the bar out, so after the cinema we headed downtown.

Jan and the boys really hitted it off, and were soon planning charity events to be held at Yakamoz, with them providing the entertainment.

This morning, Friday, the sun and blue skies are back, so we’re busy catching up with the laundry and waiting for the solar panels to heat enough water for a well needed shower!

Nese has popped round to say that the turkey will be cooked today (they better get on with it say I, as it’ll take a lot of cooking!), and can we let Pat and Chris know. It's a lovely morning and we have a few errands to run. Firstly Iain needs to get a static IP address to help a friend with an IT problem, so we head off to Turk Telecom to sort this out. There is some confusion here, as the account is in my name, so the lady wants to see my identification. No problem we hand over my passport. She looks the date of birth, and then at my photo, then she looks at me. She seems to be saying that I don't look like my photo. The photo is of someone with brown eye's and mine are blue. The girl in the photo looks very young - I guess I do not!. Do I have any other ID? Luckily Iain has my driving licence on him too, so we pass this over. She still looks a little quizical, and reluctantly agrees that these must be photo's of me, so lets us have what we want.

Next up, we need to go back to the Nil bar, where we had the gardening club meeting, as I left my fleece behind. It's there, fantastic, so as it's a nice day we decide to check out a new cafe which has been build at the far end of Calis beach, rather unfortunately called 'Shat'. It's a superb building, in a great location. Large clean glass windows looking across the entire bay of Fethiye, and across to Sovalye Island. We enjoy a leisurely coffee staring at the scenery and the sparklies on the sea. The few rainy days have resulted in snow caps on the surrounding mountains, magical.

That evening, Pat and Chris arrive promptly at 7, and after a quick G&T with us, we all head next door. Our offerings to the dinner are potato’s boulangere and mash potato with celeriac from me and Pat has brought a delicious walnut and yoghurt cake.

Apparently we are not going to be eating with the other families and the turkey has been divided up, so it didn’t need too much oven time in the end. Nese has excelled herself with a carrot gratin, barbecued red peppers, and aubergine salad to complement the roasted bird.

It was a fairly quiet night as I think most of us were pretty much partied out by now, so after dinner Chris and Adem had a few rounds of backgammon, before we all settled down to watch a film on the mega TV.

Saturday arrives, the day Clare and Reg are due back. Chris and Pat had stayed over that night, and we were all awaken about 9am to the sound of drumming. A family down the far end of the road must be celebrating a wedding, and we can see them setting up the irrepressable white plastic tables and chairs from our balcony for their family feast. After brekkie, we all headed into town to get cash and a few bits, before leaving parting for now. Iain and I then walked around town to suss out prices and styles of sofa bed, which we want to get for the new second sitting room (the ex-office).

It’s another beautifully sunny day, so after a quick lunch, we head off to Yaniklar where we plan to go beach combing with Pat and Chris. The two wet and windy day’s we had last week should have blown various flotsam and jetsam onto the beach, precious free firewood we hope!

En-route we call into the local bakal, and pick up a few cold beers to reward ourselves for the hard work, and to enjoy the waning sun with later.

The beach is deserted, and there is debris a-plenty, so we fill sacks and crates and anything we can find with bits of sticks for kindling, logs, roots and pine cones for the fire. There is loads of it, and Pat and Chris vow to get up early tomorrow and collect more. Within an hour the car is full to brimming, so we grab the beers and head for a rocky outcrop at the end of the beach to gaze at the sea in the last of the afternoon sun. Pat gave Iain a handmade catapult for Christmas, so he busies himself firing stones to see how far he can reach. Once bored of that, he decides to build a little beach fire, using some of the kindling lying about. He makes a small sand pit to contain the hearth, with high sides and a front channel to help draw the wind through. It’s not long before he has a nice little fire going, and we all stand around it with our beers adding our own sticks and cones of choice.

Once the sun goes behind the headland, it starts to really get chilly, so we agree it’s time to get back to the house and get a proper fire going, and prepare for Clare and Reg’s welcome home dinner.

While we waited for them, they were not due to arrive with Jan until after 9, we had a couple of rounds of Trivial Pursuit. Girls v Boys. Naturally the girls won! Well, they did give us a good run for their money though! Soon after 9, we see headlights.

It’s great to see Clare and Reg, we’ve not seen them for 5 weeks now, and it does feel like a long time. Jan picked them up, and had brought a Turkish friend, Usnu, along with her. A nice guy who owns a jewellery shop in Hisaronu, who spoke superb English and was very good company indeed.

After an excellent dinner and catch up with C&R, Pat enlists all our services to take down the Christmas decs, as tonight is twelfth night, so we put on the Christmas CD for the last time and collect all the trimmings, putting the various bits of holly and ivy foliage onto the crackling fire. By now everyone was getting a bit tired, so we transferred their baggage from Jan’s car to ours and said our goodnights to Pat & Chris thanking them for a wonderful evening, before we took C&R back to their house in Fethiye.