The flight from
Onur air have served the same in-flight ‘meal’ every time we have flown with them – a couple of rissoles which taste like catfood, a limp salad, some kind of gingery cake and a roll. Even though we’d opted to not have the meal, they were still pressed it upon us. Instead of eating that we produced our home-made sausage sandwiches which our seat mates eyed up enviously.
The flight went quickly and we were soon on the ground collecting our luggage and then outside – the warmth hitting us like opening the oven door on a Sunday roast – even though it was 2.30 in the morning.
Pat duly arrived and had prepared a survival pack for the journey home consisting of cold beers, crisps and wine! We cracked the beers as we headed back to Yankilar under the light of the silvery moon.
Back at their house, Chris was up, waiting to meet us, and we all settled down to Green Tangerine Gins at 4 in the morning! As dawn stretched out her rosy fingers, Pat and Iain went off to bed and I went out for an early morning swim. It was fantastic. The pool was warm from the heat of the previous day and the air now cool. All was quiet as I swam up and down the lengths – bliss.
Pat is part of an English folk singing and dancing group, who have become a bit of a local sensation. After their first performance at the Oludeniz Carnival, they have since performed their act on numerous occasions, and made a number of TV appearances. This day (Tuesday) she had to head off at lunchtime for filming of their performance by KRAL, a national music station.
Chris made us top notch brekkie with the bacon we’d brought and we spent the morning swimming and lazying, trying to catch up with some rest. Soon Pat was back, but heading off out again to Marmaris to oversee a wedding. She’s lent us her car for a few days so we loaded up and headed to Sarionak. Nese, Adem and Dilara were there when we arrived and we were amazed to see that work was progressing at a pace on new paved paths and the road – finally!! They helped us up with our bags and then we settled down on their balcony for a coffee and a catch-up on all the local news. It could be postponed no longer, Nese and I set about cleaning up the film of dust in the apartment, and hosing off the balconies while Adem and Iain went hunter-gathering to the market for provisions.
Within an hour or so, it was all done, and Nese left us to unpack and finish off while she went to prepare dinner.
Attik dropped by to say ‘welcome back’ which was lovely.
We were starving by now, so it was very welcome to be able to go next door and Nese made a lovely meal of chicken, rice and a salad which we heartily wolfed down. Ramazan, Ebru and the girls popped by for coffee, and Ramazan told of how he’d been watching TV a few nights ago and had quite a shock to see Pat on the telly, bantering with the presenter who is very well known.
Exhaustion was soon upon us, so we crawled back over the landing and sank into bed.
A well needed lie in was followed by getting ready to go to a ‘Tax for foreigners’ seminar just around the corner. Many brits were there and also in attendance was the town Governor, who we’ve met a few times before. They did an excellent job explaining the rules and were happy to answer questions – a really good PR exercise generally. In true Turkish style, the even was followed by tea and cakes before we left.
Next stop was the supermarket, Migros, for more provisions. After 14 weeks on non-use Iain managed to forget his pin number on both the Turkish bank card and the Nationwide one, so we had to pay cash. We didn’t have quite enough, so we had to put a few things back and go through the checkout again! Not tooooo embarrassing!
We got everything into the fridge and swung by to see Clare, for a few drinks and she made us a lovely meal of Thai red curry. We all then headed into town to see the boyz at the Kizmet. The Kordon, promenade, along the sea front was being worked on when we left and was now pretty much fully operational. New bars have popped up further along from Yakamoz, which have comfy bean bag chairs along the waters edge. We wandered back home this way and stopped for a nightcap. The atmosphere and view over the bay of all the harbour lights was amazing.
So another late night and solid sleep.
Thursday morning and Iain was wrenched out of bed by the workman outside wanting him to move Pat’s car so they can make a start of the pavements in from of our house – it’s all very exciting. There are quite a lot of workmen and they work from 8am to 8pm in the blistering sun – I don’t know how they do it! All the neighbours look after the boys taking them tea and fruit throughout the day. In return they are happy to make the odd modification here and there at a neighbours suggestion.
For lunch we were invited along to a sunnet (circumcision) feast of one of our neighbours. When boys reach about 8 or 9, they have to go through this ceremony. Like weddings it is a quite a drawn out thing. The previous evening Nese had been around for the henna party, so her palm was stained orange by the next morning. Today was a lunchtime feast - many friends, neighbours and family members all sat around tables and chairs in ablocked off part of the street, while dishes of various food including a slow roasted lamb stew, salad, pilav rice and a kind of rice pudding dish were bustled around the tables. Cold water and fruit juices were provided to drink. Fully fed and watered we headed back home for Turkish coffee. The actual circumcision will take place on the Saturday, preceded by a drive round of the young lad in the traditional blue and gold outfit.
It was still hot, and we had to get Pat’s car back, so we gave Nese and Handi a lift to Ciflik (on the way) and popped in to say hi to Nese’s parents. Fruit was magicked up, including a dish full of ripe figs. I explained to them all that I’d seen figs for sale in the
Next stop was Yaniklar, Chris was having a nap so we headed straight for the pool and a relax.
Pat soon arrived back from Marmaris, and after dinner we all jumped in the Gas Fired Monster and went to see Ahmet at Pastoral Vadi. He had an American guest staying with him – Jason from
We spent a cool night in Yaniklar, and after a hearty breakfast, headed back into Fethiye to meet Andre – the superfit French walker. Pat had agreed to do a bit of French to English translation for him. He told us that he’d heard from a friend that Canan and Erhan had split up. Something we determined to find more out about as they’d not been in contact for ages.
We dropped in to see Mustafa and Bekir in the carpet shop, and I admired his new range of handbags and wallets, before Pat dropped us back home.
Clare phoned to say there was a party on at the surf café as part of the Kite surfing competition that was in full swing and did we want to go? Great idea, so we invited her over for dinner and asked Adem and Nese if they wanted to come too. They had planned to go night fishing, but Dilara could come with us if we didn’t mind. So it was settled. We caught an extremely packed Domus to Calis and met another friend of Clare’s, Liz, at a bar before heading on to the beach bar. Even though it is really warm at night, they had a bonfire lit for everyone to dance around.
Dilara’s cousin, Cenk, works as a kite-surfing instructor at the surf café, so she and I headed off along the beach to see him and the rest of the family that were camping out there for the summer. When we got back a massive Hummer had turned up, bedecked with a huge sound system and mixing desks – the party had started! We all had a good time dancing, and Dilara mainly hung out with Cenk and his friends, dancing around the bonfire in the sand in bare feet.
Recep arrived after his shift and a couple of hours later it was time to go.
The next morning, we’d agreed with Nese and Adem that it would nice to go out for a picnic, and so we were all heading over to
It was hot day, but we had shade and a nice beach to sit on. The sea was amazingly warm and we had a good time mucking around and snorkelling about. Iain saw a huge ray and all kinds of other fish.
Around five, we packed up and headed for home as we were all tired from late nights and the sun.
Pat’s performance was due to be aired on KRAL TV that night so we set the video and went to bed.
Monday saw us at the gardening club meeting at the
Determined to find out more bout Canan and Erhan, Iain phone Erhan to see how things were and let him know we were back. He surprised us by saying he was in Sarigerme, which is near Dalaman, and taking a few days holiday. We arranged for him come over and meet us at Pat’s where we could spend the day on Wednesday.
Along with Andre, we all spent an enjoyable day at Pat’s and learned that Canan and Erhan had indeed split. In fact the reason he was staying in Sarigerme is that he has a new ‘girlfriend’! She’s an architech, and we all said how much we’d like to meet her, so with a bit of luck, they will all come to us for dinner on Sunday.
