Sit down and make a pot of tea, this is a long one!

Monday morning, and the kitchen fitters turned up at about 10.30, with a truck load of cabinets. There were about 8 lads working, bringing them all up the stairs and into the house. They worked all day fitting the base units and then the wall units. Everything was going fine, until they realised that there was a recess in the wall that they hadn’t noticed. Eyup got the drill out and started to drill into the overhanging bit to hang the cupboard. Oops! The reason for the lower than expected recess was that it contained some kind of pipework, and we now had water seeping down the wall! Time out as they realised they would (a) have to repair the pipe and (b) take all the wall units for that side back to the workshop and cut out for the recess. Luckily the pipe was not mains water, but some kind of drain, so there was not too much water involved. We looked around upstairs but still to this day do not know what the drain is for, where it comes from or where it goes.

A couple of hours later and the boys are back with the modified units, and the drain hole is repaired. Before they left that first day at 8.30pm, all the carcasses were in.

With no kitchen facilities, we headed out to Kosem for fish and chips.

Next morning, and we go off to the granite man to make sure the stuff he has got is what we ordered. Iain, being Iain, had tried to get a discount from the man, but as the stuff is imported he wouldn’t play ball. Undeterred, Iain then asked if maybe the guy would throw in a ‘cucuk hediye’ which is Turkish for a ‘small present’. Iain was after a stand with feet to go under the woodburner to keep the heat off the laminate. Worn down, the man agreed. The granite was exactly as we’d ordered, and we gave them the go ahead to make the worktops.

We got back to the house to find two of the workmen busily attaching the door fronts and handles, then cutting and fitting the top cornice and the under unit pelmets.

After lunch a young man arrived from the granite shop to measure up.

At 4.30pm the oven and extractor arrived complete with service engineers to fit them.

While all this was going on Iain supervised and chatted to the boys, while I got on with making roman blinds.

Wednesday morning and all the units are finished, and we are expecting the granite to arrive and be installed. Pat popped by for lunch, which she brought! One of her delicious soups since we were unable to do much without kitchen, and not long after Clare and Rec popped by to see the state of the kitchen and say goodbye as they were off to Malaysia for a couple of weeks early the next morning. Rec was free for the afternoon, so he offered to hang on and help us with any details when the granite arrived, which it duly did at 13.45pm. There were 4 large pieces, each weighing a flipping tonne, which the three BSB’s had to carry up the stairs to our apartment. They had already cut out and stuck in the sink bowl. There was one main join to be cut on the long straight run, and they also had to cut out for the hob. Using angle grinders, no eye, ear or mouth protectors, they set about this causing an horrendous mess of fine granite dust. Once in place and levelled they joined each piece with apoxy and then set about doing the splashback edges and the window sill. Just as they were finishing the hob arrived from Ariston, but the granite boys said they still had to rub on a granite sealant fluid which would take an hour to dry before any more dust could be made, so Recep asked the engineer if he’d come back in an hour and a half.

After all that we thanked Rec and wished him a good holiday before heading back down the Kosem for, hell why not, fish and chips again!

Thursday was spent all day cleaning up. Every cupboard needed cleaning off from granite dust inside and out, on the sides and under shelves. A mammoth task. Iain zipped into town to pay Bekir for the appliances, and Eyup came over to plumb in the sink. He did a fair job, but had hardly any tools, so Iain had to supply most of what he needed. When he’d finished, we had a working sink and tap, but the joint leaked.

We headed back down to the Kosem, for our third meal that week – Iain couldn’t resist fish and chips…again! But I went for lamb chops and they were gorgeous.

It was quiz night, so we stayed and played, and came a rather predicable last.

On Friday we were both feeling pretty tired, but Iain went off to the bank for the money to pay the granite man and the kitchen guys. We then headed into town to meet up with Pat and Chris at Mustafa’s carpet shop. While we chatted and Chris and Mustafa played backgammon, Mustafa’s nephew, another Bekir, went off to the bakery and came back with a great selection of little cakes to have with the seemingly endless stream of tea and coffee – delicious. After a very relaxing couple of hours, we headed back home, and Iain had a couple of hours napping.

The kitchen now in commission, I cooked my first meal – aubergine cannelloni, stuffed with cream cheese and herbs – fabulous.

Saturday, and we were still waiting for the tiling, electrics and a few last minute items, so we decided to clear all the old kitchen units off the front balcony and give the dining room it’s second coat of red paint. Half way through, Jan called and we made a plan to meet up and go and see the Holiday at the cinema, with dinner afterwards. We all really enjoyed the film which is partly set in England, and then had a nice meal at Pasha Kebab, where I had a delicious Ottoman lamb casserole, and Iain had a mixed grill – letting Jan have his liver kebab. Walking home, we were passed in the car by Atik and his family, who’d finished work for the day. They waited for us on the other side of the junction, and said, hey, wanna pop over for a nightcap? Love to, said we, and walked on back to theirs instead of home. This was going to be a bit of a challenge for us, as normally we see them with Adem and Nese or with Ramazan, and they help out with the language side of things. Without our helpful friends, we were going to have to make conversation n Turkish. Atik and his family are really friendly, and welcoming, and Atik likes a drink. He said to me, what would you like..Raki, Whiskey or beer? It was quite late, after eleven, so I said I wouldn’t mind a tea, but he just said, Raki, Whiskey or beer again, so I thought, what the hell, I’d like a whiskey! So we sat around and chatted in Turkish, sipping Jim Beam and coke, and nibbling on snacks of mixed nuts, sliced avocado and stuffed vine leaves which Tenor brought out. We had a great night, and felt really pleased with ourselves at having been able to make conversations in our pidgin Turkish.

Sunday, and Iain’s birthday. Pat and Chris were doing dinner, Iain’s favourite – a curry and before that we’d planned a canyon walk in the area behind Yaniklar. It was a lovely sunny and warm day, so we started off early and spent an hour sitting by the beach at Calis watching the blokes fishing and the Turkish families promenading after their late breakfasts. Lunch of soup with Pat, Chris and Jan and then we headed up the dirt tracks to find the walk. Iris’s and bee orchids were flowering and we descended through a sandalwood forest down to the foot of the canyon. The views were amazing, the sun was shining and after the rains we’d had the days before there was snow on the mountain ranges in the distance.

The bad news when we got to the river at the bottom of the canyon, was that the bridge had been washed away. The river was too fast flowing and wide to cross, so we had no choice but to head back the way we’d come. Iain speeded off, with Pat, Jan and I took a more leisurely pace back up. By the time we’d got to the top and the track, Iain was waiting with the car to take us home.

Gals versus Guys at Trivial pursuit preceded an excellent dinner, and Iain got to open his birthday gifts. We stayed the night with Pat and Chris, and then headed back to Fethiye early afternoon to see if the tiler was coming.

Pat and Chris were expecting Audrey, a very spritely 72 year old, who lives part of the year in Australia and part of the year in Kalkan, a pretty hillside resort further around the coast from us. On Tuesday morning, they popped by for coffee and to introduce us, before heading off to the market. About 3pm. Saban arrived with the tilers, and they started work. The next morning saw rain, and the tilers back again to grout. Adem helped Iain move the heavy marble sink upstairs, and then the cast iron woodburner. After all the hard work I made a round of Turkish coffee for the three of us and Nese.

We’d been having an intermittent problem with bad drain smells, and Ferit had asked Adem if he could sort it out. We mulled over what could be done, and then, after coffee, Adem and Iain went off to investigate. After getting into the inspection hole, which rather Turkishly had been tiled over, they could see the problem was the absence of a ‘U’ bend. Off they went to the plumbing supplies shop, and returned some time later with a guy who’d agreed to fix it. We had gardening club to go to, so left Adem overseeing the workman.

Gardening club, this month, involved going to the University in town, and meeting the horticultural faculty. Over 20 English people gathered and we were all shown into the restaurant which had been laid out conference style. Pat provided translation services, and they lecturers were able to answer questions about pruning and other queries that people raised. They provided us with tea and biscuits, and then showed us around their greenhouses. The rain was lashing down.

When we got back home, we met Adem and Nese going out to the supermarket, and since we were planning to get the woodburner going, we invited them in for dinner when they got back. While Iain lit the fire, and sorted out the electric sockets in the kitchen, I made meatballs in tomato sauce with pasta for dinner.

We were just about to sit down to dinner, when we heard Adem’s doorbell – he went out to see who it was and found Omur, from the flat below us. Apparently they were suffering from smoke coming through their chimney hole and did Adem know where it could be coming from? Ooops! Must be us! We put the fire out, and promised to sort it out the next morning. We’d had the fire lit loads of times before, but Ferit and Omur had been away in Izmir, so goodness knows what had gone on in their flat while they’d been away!

In the morning, Iain and Adem investigated the chimney, there was a small blockage and it seems all three flats share the same flue. The locked up the bottom of the flue and Adem blocked up the chimney hole in Ferit’s living room. That should solve the problem. While the lads worked on this, I sat down with Nese to bring the house accounts up to date.

That evening, we went to Calis where there was being held a meeting with Foreign residents and representatives from the Council. We stayed for an hour to inform our article for FethiyeTimes, before heading off to Pat & Chris’s where they had had Mustafa & Bekir over to Dinner with Audrey.

Eyup was supposed to be doing the plumbing and electrics for us, but after the leaking water pipe, we decided that we would probably be better off doing this ourselves, so Iain sources some wire, switches and other electrical bits and pieces and we worked out a scheme to make it all work, and be tidy and safe.

Pat and Chris invited us to spend the weekend with them and Audrey and we planned that after lunch we’d go to the beach and collect driftwood for the fire, before heading on to Gocek. When Saturday came, the weather had turned overcast and rainy, so we decided to stay in and light the fire early, and have another Trivial Pursuit match. Ahmet Kizen, an Instanbul Architect who lives in Yaniklar and runs an organic holiday farm, had been planning to have a ‘film night’ for quite sometime now, and tonight was to be the first event. Around 5.30, we all headed up the dirt track to his farm and met and mingled with the other guests while another Ahmet set up the screen, laptop and projector. We were a small and interesting group of around 13. Iain and I finally met Farouk Akbash, who is a very talented photographer. He is currently working on his latest book which is about flowers in Turkey. We told him of the flowers and orchids we’d seen the weekend before and he was interested to go and get some photo’s. He’d originally planned to walk from Kaya to Oludeniz on the Sunday (a walk that nearly finished Pop’s off, when we took him!), but after some discussion, he decided to change his plans and would Iain be willing to take him up to the gorge and show his the flowers. Of course!

After the pot-luck meal (which we weren’t aware of) we settled down by a large crackling fire and watched Babel.

The next morning Iain headed off to meet Farouk and party by the mosque, while Pat, Audrey and I headed off to Calis market for a bit of retail therapy – vedge style, before returning and spending the afternoon reading in the sun in the garden and chatting, before Pat took Audrey off to town to catch her bus back to Kalkan.

Iain was back about 4.30 and reported that Farouk had been very pleased with the flowers he’d seen and got some great shots for his book. They had also continued up the mountainside and found a really enchanting waterfall with about three of four levels of pools. He’d had a great time.

Jan was invited over for dinner, and Pat said we could stay another night if we wanted. Well, why not! It’s very peaceful and relaxing with them, and we are so well looked after! Another fun evening spent burning the driftwood piles and setting the world to rights before heading off to bed. Chris is a marvel, and had put a hottie in for us. As I went to bed, I could see the bulge in the bed, thinking it was the hottie, I gave it a smack. It seemed larger and more solid than a normal hottie, so I lifted the covers to investigate. Sticking out from inside the duvet cover was a very small ginger and white paw..Ahhh, so that’s were Giles the ginger Tom went!

Next morning, after another fine breakfast of fried eggs on toast and homemade jams, Iain and Chris decided to tackle the mulberry tree which sheds leaves and sticky fruits all over the seating platform in the garden, while Pat showed me how to make the delicious lentil soup that is one of her specialities.

After lunch, we had to tear ourselves away from the rural idyll and head for home, before heading up to Ovacik to help Jan with her ADSL problems.

Tuesday morning and Saban arrives with a bundle in newspapers. This must be our glass shelves! He gets one out and it is cut very roughly and badly. We have to send him away, and he promises to send the glass man around directly to us to sort it out.

We still have to sort out under unit lighting, so he head of to the shops to suss prices and options. We also chase the shop where we’ve ordered a new tap. After this, we drop in on Mike and Jean who have a beautiful bungalow villa in the hills behind Fethiye.

Next day, we decide on and order the lights and pick up the tap, which has now arrived, before heading home to install it. Another job ticked off. I spend the rest of the afternoon making coleslaw and Moussaka for our dinner in my spanking new kitchen.

We pop up and see Jan again on Thursday, and while there meet a lovely couple, Dogan and Nicky, and talk about setting up a photography for fun group. They travel the country collecting unusual Turkish bits and pieces to sell from their beachside stall in Oludeniz. For dinner, Jan suggests we go into Hisaronu and have fish and chips at Codswallop. These are just as good as we get in the Kosem, but quite a bit pricier.

The lights are in on Friday, so Iain collects them and we set about wiring them in. Jan is still having ADSL problems, now narrowed down to a dodgy telephone wire, so she pops in after her weekly errands and sorts her email and bookings out from here.

Don’t despair – nearly up-to-date!

This weekend, we spent with Chris and pat again. Iain and Chris wanted to prune a few more trees, so they set about trying to get the chainsaw working. It proved unwilling. So back to sawing by hand. During the operation, Iain extended himself at a funny angle and felt a twinge in his back. Work ceased and we decided to call it a day and head off to the beach in search of driftwood. It was a lovely afternoon and we collected sticks, waded into the sea and got a small beach fire going. As Iain bent to pick up a stick, he felt a really bad twinge in his back, not good. We sipped cold beers and poked the fire while Iain tried to stretch himself out.

The sun was waning, so he hauled the wood back to the car, Iain almost hobbling along, and headed for home. Another Trivial Pursuit match, and the boys levelled the score at 3 all.

The next morning, Jan was over early to use Pat’s ADSL, before we all headed off in search of the waterfalls Iain had found the weekend before. His back still sore, Pat said she knew of a German woman in the village who does a bit of physio, so first off the three of us headed off to see if she was in and could help. We were out of luck, the place seemed locked up. We weren’t planning on doing too much walking so we went back to the house and picked up Jan and Chris before heading off up the dirt track into the hills behind Yaniklar. First stop was to show Chris the gorge, and see the bee orchids and other flowers. We journeyed on to the waterfalls which we decided was a perfect picnick spot, so while Pat and Iain to a lesser extent made a fire, Chris, Jan and I climbed up to inspect the higher pools and falls. Stunning. Soon the fire was reduced to coals, so we came back down and made sojuk kebabs, with left over coleslaw, Jan’s Greek salad, and Pat’s yoghurt and walnut cake for afters – great fun and very Turkish of us!

We followed the dirt track stopping here and there to look at interest scenery, plants and what not. We seemed to be going for ages, before we eventually hit the main road. We must have made a wrong turn somewhere (not that there were any signs!), and we’d overshot ourselves by about 5km, coming out near Dalaman and on the other side of the Gocek tunnel! No matter, civilisation was now in sight, so we drove through the tunnel and were soon enjoying a cold beer on the marina side in Gocek – definitely worth waiting for.

Well, the last two weeks certainly have been busy!

After deciding the appliances we wanted, we headed back into town to the spot shop, and chatted to Bekir who runs the place. One of the items, the hob, we’d found in the Ariston catalogue he gave us. The other two – oven and extractor were Beko but we asked if he could get those too. He got on the phone to his suppliers and secured all three, with a sizeable saving on the prices we’d been quoted. He told us they’d be here in a week, and to pay him later – after they’d arrived. Great.

Don’s 65^th Birthday is coming up this year, and he and Ann will be abroad, so they were having a pre-birthday party this coming weekend (3 Feb), so we next called into a lady who makes cards to see if she could do something for us. We agreed that I’d do the art work and email it over, and she’d print it up, ready for Saturday, magic.

Time for a well earned G&T, so we headed for the Kizmet, where we ran into Ronnie, an ex-diver and now local estate agent, to find him there with his family, excited about the prospect of running their own new venture – an Irish pub in Calis.

In the morning we awoke to discover that Ferit and Omur, our neighbours who live below us, had returned from Izmir, with their new baby daughter, Omay.

Having decided on and ordered the kitchen appliances, we drove down to Saban’s workshop in the Sanayii, to give them the dimensions. Work on the carcasses was nearly finished and the doors had arrived. They were all set to start the installation on Monday.

The weather turned really cold, and a rainy day in Fethiye, produced snow capped mountains the following morning, and a bracing northerly wind. It appeared Ann and Don had picked what was probably going to be the coldest night for their party. They’d invited about 20 people, and I loaned Ann my slow cooker so she could make a large batch of chilli to go with jacket spuds to feed everyone. She also made a couple of lovely trifles and chicken liver pate. A very pleasant evening was had, and we were able to catch up with Denise, who’d been living in Fethiye when we were out for the year, and we’d met while walking.

She had a sad tale to tell. She’d sold her house in Ovacik, and bought a troglodyte cave in Cappadocia with a view to converting it into a pansiyon (like a B&B). Foreigners can’t actually buy the caves in their own name, but she’d fallen in love with a Turkish man, and they agreed to take on the project together. Work had gone well, but the relationship broke down, and it now seemed she’d have a battle on her hands to get her money back.

Sunday morning, saw Euyp come over to ‘sort out the plumbing’. I wanted to move the sink to a position under the window where currently resided a radiator. Within 40 minutes the entire old kitchen was taken down and relocated on the balcony. Eyup reckoned that the plumbing would be easy to do later, so sealed up and removed the radiator ready for us to give to Ramazan.

We have a problem with our telephone line, and in order to make it work, Iain has joined a cable directly to the junction box downstairs and run the line up the outside of the building and in through the window. Not ideal, but it works. Iain had spent ages one day trying to figure out where the wires came into the house, but concluded that the connections must be broken. Adem had told us that Eyup was an electrician and could sort our phone line out. So, he and Iain spent about 2 hours trying to locate the wires and make it work, but to no avail.

That evening we had been invited to dinner by Stuart and Dilek so we got washed and changed and headed out in the last of the afternoon sun to walk into town. Stuart and Dilek have a lovely house in the old part of Fethiye, with an amazing view over the harbour. They’d just bought a new wood burner, which had an integral oven space and the whole meal was busily bubbling away while heating the room up. Dilek is pregnant with her first child, which is expected in March and it was good to catch up on all the news. We were delighted to discover that they’d also invited Gordon and Clarissa, who we didn’t know were over. Clarissa has been unwell since the middle of last year, when she was diagnosed with cancer, and we hadn’t seen then since before then.

Dinner was excellent, lentil soup, followed by slow roasted chicken with Mediterranean vegetables. We had a busy day ahead of us, as on Monday the guys were coming to install the kitchen, so we said our goodnights and walked back home.

Terrible news greeted us on Tuesday morning. Dilara’s new little puppy, Odie and Atakan’s Doberman had both been stolen during the night. Nese was very upset, but I can’t say Adem was so bothered as they’d already agreed that Dilara wasn’t taking responsibility for the dog very well and that they would try and sell it.

After lunch, Ergun and his carpenter arrived bearing the new doors. They were all made up and in the frame. They expertly fitted them and made adjustments to ensure they opened and closed correctly. Once in, the carpenter fitted an architrave to both sides. Ergun asked us what kind of glass we wanted in the panels. Plain, clear glass please, so he gets on the mobile to the glazer, provides the sizes over the phone and within 15 minutes the glazer and his young assistant arrive to fit the glass.

Within two hours the whole job is done, and they are just what we want. They leave the fame braced with a piece of timber, which has to stay there for a few hours while the expanding foam they used sets. We now have to duck and limbo into the kitchen for a few hours.

Next day, we head off into town to buy some dark red paint for the dining room part of the salon, and Iain smoothes off and prepares the wall for painting with plaster.

We give the laminate floor guy a call, and he agrees to pop down at 5pm and finish off the join between the kitchen and the salon. When he arrives, he’s not happy as the door men have laid the frame right onto of the laminate. They should have left a small gap to allow for expansion movement. He reckons he told Adem to mention this, and Adem reckons he did, so I don’t know what went wrong. Anyway, it can’t be helped now so he just gets on with the job.

He glues the door strip down and we leave it weighted with my sewing machine, heavy books and an empty gas bottle. He instructs us to leave this until at least tomorrow evening. We now have to spend the next day or so straddling the various improvised weights to get in and out of the kitchen – will it ever cease to be an obstacle course??

That evening Jan has invited us up for dinner, she wants Iain to have a look at her laptop and sort a few things out. There are to be 7 of us in her very small and cosy bungalow. Pat and Chris, Clare and Rec, us two and Jan. Pat was going to pick us up, but she phoned to say Giles, the ginger tom, was ill and so they were just going to go up for a couple of hours, so they could get back for him. Instead we go with Clare and Rec in their Gas Fired Monster, a really old orange Renault 12.

We had a nice evening, it was very warm and cosy in the small living room, with Jan’s classy woodburner belting out the heat. It makes us nostalgic for our cosy soba, which is languishing on the balcony. We are really paranoid now about bringing it back into the salon because it might ruin the laminate, and distort the new doors.

Next day, Thursday, we spend the morning painting the first coat in the dining room. After lunch, Pat and Chris pop over to check out ‘the new doors’, woo, tourist attraction of the century!! And then we all head into town to have another go at seeing the film, which thankfully is now on.

After the film, we stop by the Kizmet to see the boys, and introduce Pat and Chris, who haven’t been in it yet. We have a couple of drinks before Pat drops us home. Chris is developing a bad cough, which turns out to be a bad omen.

Next day we head off into town to meet a FethiyeTimes reader and his wife. We’re a bit early so we pop in and see Mustafa and Bekir in the carpet shop. While Iain sets Bekir up with Skype, Mustafa shows me the new range of designer bags he’s brought from Istanbul. They are made from old Kilims, each one unique and very well made. We agree he’s onto a winner with these. After tea we meet up with Alan and Jennie and spend a pleasant couple of hours drinking tea with them. We hoping to bump into Pat at Mustafa’s as they usually pop in on a Friday so Chris can play him at Backgammon. We head back over and find Jan with Mustafa, but no sign of Pat or Chris. It turns out Chris has gone down with the flu, probably caught from the cat no doubt.

We’ve arranged to meet up with Rec, and go visit the kitchen workshop to see how things are progressing with the kitchen. We iron out a few details, and are told that the carcases will be ready for inspection the following Monday afternoon. Next up, we take Rec to see the Fethiye Lighting Centre in Karachula, which is a veritable Aladdin’s cave of lights and lamps.

On the way back, we invited Clare and Rec over for dinner, but Rec says he’s planning to make a curry and why not go to them? Ok, it’s a date.

Rec’s curry’s are really good, I make a salad and we troupe over. After dinner we start talking about the weekend, and how bad the shopping is in Fethiye. Before we know it we’ve decided that we will get up early on Saturday morning and drive to Antalya, to do some shopping and mooch around the old town. We have already arranged to do a walk on Sunday at 1pm, so need to be back to Fethiye for that. We will take overnight things and play it by ear. If we want to stay over, we can.

Next morning we rendezvous at 7am, and are on the road. A quick pit stop to fill up with petrol and get a free car wash, and then we’re on the open road. It takes about 3 hours to get to Antalya

After a bit of shopping, and a light lunch we head towards the old Kaleci area of town, and have a mosey around the back streets. I’m starting to feel a bit rough, and soon realise that I am going down with the same flu like symptoms that Chris had. (Picture of Suze and Claire in Kipa. Suze is holding a Rubic cube!)

It's a beautiful day and really quite warm over this side of the mountains, so we take a little time out to relax with a G&T at a restaurant on top of the cliffs, which has the most spectacular setting overlooking the bay and harbour, before heading into the main town and find a food hall for dinner. We share a couple of starters of stuffed mussels and deep fried mussels – lovely, followed by shish kebabs. Over dinner we decide that we’ll just head back to Fethiye as if we stay over we’d have to be up and gone by 8.30am to make it back. I’m feeling worse by the minute so this seems a sensible plan. We’re home by nine, offload our purchases and head to bed.

By Sunday, I’m too ill to walk and spend the whole day in bed, as it Pat, so Iain cancels the walk. Sunday is a write-off. By all accounts this is not an epidemic localised to Fethiye, Mum is reporting similar symptoms back it the UK, so here’s wishing you a speedy return to your ebullient self, mother! :-)

Monday, and Iain and Adem have to go to the tax office to pay their respective scooter and car taxes. I’m feeling a bit better so go with them, but the air is biting cold, only tempered a little by the sun. When we get back we arrange for Rec to come over at 4.30pm so we can all go and look at the kitchen. In the meantime we empty the cupboards and start taking off the tiles, in readiness.

As promised, all the carcases are made and set up. We iron out a few more details and then go with the carpenter to see the granite man. He reports that the granite will arrive on Saturday, so we plan that Eyup will sort out the plumbing on Sunday, and the kitchen and granite will be installed on Monday.

We need to sort out the cooker, hob top and extractor fan so that these can be built in. Slowly, slowly it’s all coming together.

Tuesday, and the air is cold and I’m still a bit ill, but we need to see what appliances are available and check out prices, then make a decision. So well wrapped up we venture out. Actually it is quite warm in the sun, but in the shade it’s colder. We traipse around all the main dealers and a few sole traders to see what’s on offer. Armed with a load of brochures and prices we head for home to weight up all the options. After a couple hours evaluating – most of this spent trying to understand what the features are as they are all in Turkish naturally, be settle on our choices. Next job is to check that we can actually get the ones we want, and then beat as much off the prices as we can. Shopping here is exhausting!

Saturday morning, and the floor fitter arrives early to finish off the skirting boards. This is quite an involved task and requires lots of cutting. It’s raining first thing, but by 11 the skies have cleared and the sun is back. I make lunch for the three of us of doner wraps, and by three, the work is nearly finished. All that remains is the edging around the area which will be the new door. Ibrahim, the ‘usta’ says he cannot do this until the frame and doors are fitted, so we take his mobile number and he agrees to return on Tuesday or Wednesday to finish off. The floor looks perfect, so Iain, Nese and I go about sweeping and mopping all the dust off.

Adem arrives all dressed up and is planning to drive to one of the supermarkets to capitalise on their ‘weekly offers’. We chat and agree we’d all like a decko, so we down mops and head off to the shop.

After snagging a few bargains each, we’re back and ready to reinstall the sofa’s, TV, table and rug so we say goodnight to Adem & Nese and set about the task. We’re soon done and decide neither of us can be bothered to cook anything and as we feel so pleased with the floor, why not treat ourselves to fish and chips down at the Kosem.

The food maybe good there (and cheap) but there is little atmosphere, so we head off along the Kordon into town to see the ‘boyz’ down at the Kizmet bar and see what’s new with them.

They’re having a great time so we catch up for a few hours before ‘staggering’ home.

Sunday brings a well deserved lie in, Ramazan has invited us all over for *breakfast* at 12, so no need to get up too early! Awaiting us is a fine table, and we are joined by Adem, Nese, Eyup (our kitchen guy), his wife Nesrin and their daughter Gisem. In all we are 11. Ramazan and Ebru have surpassed themselves with a hot meat dish, many different cheese and olives, boiled eggs, fresh tomato and peppers, jams, honey the full monty – Turkish style, accompanied by seemingly unlimited bread and tea.

After a lazy and decadent feast, Iain and I check out the new boiler system he has installed complete with a Tarzan style pulley style to get the coal up to the roof terrace without carrying it through the house.

It’s a beautiful day, so I suggest we all go out for a walk. Some of the men folk aren’t keen, so we eventually agree that Iain will drive some of us ladies and a the children to Kaya village to explore the deserted Greek ruins.

We change and rendezvous by the car, and then realise that there are eight of us to get into the Toyota! Iain and I bag the front, and the other six all manage to squeeze into the back seats! Amazing. We are all happy to be going out, so we head off to Kaya. Spring seems to have come early and the place is festooned with pink and purple anenomies, which many Turkish women and girls are busy gathering in armfuls. Our group falls in and does the same, with Elifnas leaping around like a mountain goat.

We slowly climb through the deserted old streets, gathering flowers as we go, and soon we all have armfuls too. We go through a small canyon and emerge to an open vista out over the sea. It’s breathtaking. Time for a break. We settle down and take in the rays, gazing at the sea. Gisem has some MP3 music on her mobile phone, so she fires it up and the girls start dancing while us old ‘uns clap and applaud, just happy to be outside enjoying the day – the guys back home don’t know what they’re missing!

Pleased with their bouquets, we all head back to stuff ourselves in the car – this time Elif is riding in the boot, and head back to Fethiye.

We say goodbyes, and Iain and I pack up a few things to head over to see Pat for dinner and a night over.

We have to travel down a fairly long and potholed dirt track to reach them which is being ‘done up’. Unfortunately, we find at one point the track is impassable for our low slung ‘sport’s car!’, so I abandon Iain and walk on, while he turns and goes off to Park on the main road – walking over then via the back fields.

Pat and Chris have a roaring fire going great guns in the grate when we arrive, and we settle down to G&T’s and a good ol’chat.

After dinner it’s a Trivial Pursuit rematch, this time Pat and I lost rather emphatically to the boys! (lucky maybe??). It’s getting late, so we fill up hotties and head off to bed.

The next day (Monday, today!) is beautiful again, warm, sunny and clear, so we have a lazy morning before Iain and I head off back home. We’ve arranged to meet up later with Chris and Jan and go to the pictures to see Flags of our fathers, so we wander in after lunch, checking out a few haberdasheries on the way. I want to put some new curtains up in the salon, so we were on the hunt for material. In the end we found something suitable and bought 4 meters of it, so I can make some Roman blinds, just got to figure out how to do it now! Pat, Chris and Jan were waiting for us by the cinema, but our luck was out – the projector was knackered so instead we all went to a caff and had a drink and a chat before heading home for a quiet night in.

Iain has been so busy over the last week or so, we had decided to have a day away from DIY on Thursday, so we in the morning rallied Nese and after Turkish coffee, headed downstairs to check out Jill and Den’s flat. Jill and Den are in Oman, and are planning to sell their apartment, so asked us to have a look at it, and remove some bags of clothes that they wanted to give to charity.

We gave the place a good airing and retrieved the clothes, sorting out any good quality jumpers, which Nese will give to the poor people in her father’s village.

We lazed the afternoon on the side balcony, reading and dozing in the warm sun, when we got a call to say the laminate floor was here from Izmir, and would be delivered late that afternoon. All materials and a large circular saw duly arrived, and Iain signed the chitty to confirm. The manager of the shop as well as the carpenter came too, to survey the job and agree that he would be around the next morning between 8.30 and 9 to start.

Friday morning, and the workman arrived at 8.55, fully clad in a rather nice navy blue suit! He then, snuck behind the corner to change into work clothes. He began straight away, laying underlay, and then the boards, cutting as needed as he went. By 11am, he’d done a quarter of the room.

Pat arrived, bearing the ficus that she and Jan had bought for us, and while we chatted over coffee, Attic from across the road popped in to have a look at how the work was going and to say ‘hi’. He’d managed to get himself a black eye from playing football the week before. A glutton for punishment, he told us he planned to play again that evening!

Chris soon joined us, he’d come over on the dolmus, and so I made a quick lunch for all before heading off into town with Pat and Chris to offload J&D’s clothes to FIG. Iain stayed back to monitor progress. Friday is the main religious day for Muslims, so at around 12, the workman changed back into his suit and told us he was going off to the Mosque and would be back in an hour or so.

We’d planned to meet Jan in town, and see Mustafa, the carpet man, but Chris told us Jan had phoned and Mustafa was in Izmir. After FIG, we headed off to Mustafa’s shop anyway to see if Jan was around. Bekir got us all tea, and then played a few games of backgammon with Chris, while Pat and I surfed the net on his shiny new laptop. There was no sign of Jan, so we headed back to the car, and drove to the Kosem for a round of drinks and a forage through their book store. Armed with a new set of reading materials, Pat and Chris dropped me home.

The workman had made excellent progress while we’d been out and done over two thirds of the room. Iain said that the other carpenter, Ergun, who was making our doors had told Adem that they were made and ready for a viewing. We grabbed A&N and headed off to Hedef’s shop in the Toyota. The doors were indeed made and undercoated as was the frame, just requiring glass, handles and a final coat of paint. They looked brilliant. He said they would be ready for installation on Tuesday!

After a coffee and a chat, we came back to the house where the laminate floor guy was just finishing off for the day. He’d be back tomorrow to do the last few boards, and then fit the skirting boards. The floor looked fantastic. We chatted with Adem about the next stages of work preparing the kitchen over a beer. After some time Nese came in wondering what had became of her husband! It seemed the only way we could get him to go home, was if we went too, so we took Nese up on her kind offer to feed us, and went next door. After dinner, Adem fancied watching a film, so Iain went to get Swordfish, which was great on his big TV! One last look at the shiny new floor and then off to bed.

Building works..

With the house in disarray, we must get busy and get things sorted out. First up we decide to have a look around at laminate flooring, but it’s Saturday afternoon, so not much we can do. On the way back, we call in on Clare and Rec for a coffee. Before Christmas I’d been extolling the virtue of my Slow cooker to Clare, and so she’d asked Santa for one, and as luck would have it, her first experiment was bubbling away, filling the house with gorgeous smells as we entered.

They kindly asked us if we’d like to stay for dinner, so we nicked off for beers and wine and returned for a cosy night in theirs. The experiment was a great success, and we settled down in their warm front room, watching TV.

Next morning, we’d all arranged to meet at Yonca for Sunday brunch. Jan came along with David and Stuart, and with Pat and Chris we were nine, all seated around tables on the beach for the stunning breakfast. An ulterior motive for the gathering was to plan out the arrangements for Jan’s 50^th birthday party, which is on April 28^th. The theme is ‘gold ‘cause I’m old’ so we had a good brainstorm of what needed to be done, followed by the divvying up of tasks.

Clare, Rec, Iain and I were all pretty tired and hung over from our night before, so after breakfast we headed back and Rec bought some celeriac to make us soup. We dropped them home and after giving Iain a hair cut, spent a couple of hours reading on the balcony in the warm sun, before Rec phoned to say the soup was ready. We picked up some bread and headed over. The soup helped the hangovers, and later in the evening Rec followed this with a curry, which really did the trick.

Monday morning, and time to get to work sorting out the kitchen/salon jobs. We grabbed Adem, and the three of us sorted out the laminate flooring first. This will come from Izmir, rest for a couple of days in Fethiye to acclimatise and then (hopefully) fitting will start on Friday or Saturday. Next up, the doors. The boys had made an opening of 1.5m, and I’d originally wanted a pair of French doors, opening into the salon. Now this looked impractical, as the left hand door would foul the room door, and the right hand one would hit the woodburner. Iain suggested sliding doors were the only workable solution. I was not keen, so sat down and tried to think of an alternative. How about a each door being made up of two smaller doors, hinged in the middle. That way you could open the two centre doors, each folding back on the other halves if you wanted, or for a larger opening open the fully, the centre parts folding back against the walls at an angle. It was hard to visualise, so I made a prototype using an old business card. Great, this should work, so we all headed off to a carpenter to show him and see what he thought. Yep, this will be possible, so we arranged for him to come round at 4 to measure up and get started. This should be in in maybe a week or two he said.

It was lunch time now, so I made kebab’s all round for the three of us, before I headed off into town to meet Pat, Chris, David and Stuart to watch ‘The Departed’ at the cinema. Iain and Adem went off to sort out plaster or something, and while out ran into the flooring guy. He had a bit of free time, so he came back to have a look at the job. He measured up and found that it was more likely only 38 square meters needed, rather than the 50 odd we’d thought, so that will save us some cash. The carpenter came to measure the doors, and could now make a start on those.

Chris and Pat dropped me home after the film and came up to check out the work.

Adem had bought fresh fish that day from the market, so they invited us over for dinner, Ramazan and family were coming too. After a delicious meal, Nese suggested we call up Nesrettin and Eyup – who live across the road, to invite ourselves over for coffee. We had a lovely evening with them, coffee, then tea, then fruit. Handi has been learning to play the sass, so she went upstairs to Ramazan’s house and gave us a lovely recital. Before we left them, we agreed that Eyup would come over the next morning at 10am with his brother and give us a quote for the kitchen. They had been over before and arrived promptly on time with a CAD designed kitchen. After making a few alterations, we agreed to visit their workshop at 12 to look at door styles and granite. Adem was no where to be found, so we were on our own. Eyup’s brother, Sabat took us to a warehouse to look at door panels, and we had difficulty finding the exact colour we wanted. He then took us into town to show us some work he’d done at a local jewellers shop. The quality was excellent, but still not quite the right colour. Clare’s kitchen is very similar to what I want, so I suggested we call round and see if they were in and would let us show Sabat. No probs, so up we went and Rec made us all coffee while we inspected their kitchen. While there, Rec impressed on Sabat that we had lots of English friends who would see our kitchen, as well as a website where we would write and say if the work was good or no good, so make sure you do a good job! Next up was to check out the granite, so back to the Sanaiye (the industrial estate) to see what was available. Soon we found exactly what we were after, a dark black granite with small sparkly bits in it. We agreed a price and left the chap to order it in.

So, within a couple of days, wheels have been set in motion, and with a bit of luck all the work should be done and dusted within a few weeks, as they say round here - inshallah! (god willing!).

A new week starts, and as always, never quite as you plan it. Firstly, Nese knocks on our door after breakfast. It’s a lovely sunny morn, and here she is armed with her aquavac. Come on, we can wash your carpets today and they will dry before I change the hoover back to *normal* mode. OK, great, so in she comes and gets busy washing the carpets with the machine. While we are doing this, we lament the poor quality workmanship that has led to a number of tiles coming loose in the back room. This is nothing compared to the ones in the salon, which appear to have semi erupted – forced up for some reason. When she is finished, we settle down to a well deserved Turkish coffee and in comes Adem all dressed up ready to go into town.

We’re soon back to discussing the tiles, so Adem, man of action that he is says, come on, let’s sort this now. I’ll change into my overalls and we’ll reset those pesky tiles. In a flash he’s back with a hammer and chisel and the pair of them lift about 10 tiles in the back room. Next, they move to the salon, but soon realise that there are so many loose tiles here, that we may need to get the services of a tiler in.

Off they go, and comeback a couple of hours later bearing free calendars each and a tiler. He appraises the situation, tapping tiles and sucking air through his teeth (this must be a universal gift of tradesmen) and says he will take up all the tiles, clean and relay, but that it will cost a lot of money.

Adem and Iain drop the guy back to his shop, and then consider the options. Maybe it will be best to replace the cold hard tiles, with a softer, warmer laminate flooring. They get a few quotes and return, this time bearing a free clock each!

We all sit down and discuss the situation, and agree that if we decide to re-floor, we ought to really do the building work we were planning for our remodelled kitchen first, as the laminate would scratch and be ruined if we waited until after.

That evening, Clare and Recep came over for dinner, so we were able to put all thoughts of mess and upset to one side and have a pleasant evening with them.

Next morning, we join Adem and Nese for coffee after breakfast, and plan the work. Firstly the boys need to reset the tiles in the back room. Then we need to empty the salon of furniture and set up the back room as a living room. Then we need to lay down dust sheets in the kitchen and cover the hanging light fitting with bags to keep dust away. We also need to mark and measure the location of the double doors to go from the kitchen to the salon. All this done, the boys can get their tools out and start knocking through. A hole is made in no time, and while Adem neatens the frame edge with concrete, Iain starts to lift the remaining tiles from the salon. By the time it’s dark, we have a door shaped hole, half the tiles up in the salon, dust everywhere and a massive pile of building rubble.

Nese comes to the rescue and after a quick bath, we all go next door for dinner.

Last week, we had planned with Jan and Pat to visit Erhan and Canan in Bodrum for a few days – Wednesday to Friday. What had started as lifting a few tiles had turned into the start of a major building project, so Iain suggested that I go on my own and that he stay and work with Adem to get as much done as possible.

Next morning, I pack up and leave for a girls 'weekend' away, while Iain and Adem carry on working.

The weather was lovely, clear and warm, and we had an enjoyable drive to Bodrum. We stopped along with way for lunch and a look around the old town of Milas, before arriving at Bodrum early afternoon. We’d arranged to pop over and see Mustafa, that captain of our Bodrum cup Gulet, so we found his office – a beautiful old house a stone throw from the beach front. I helped him set up his Skype, and he offered to meet us the next day and take us all to lunch. We were delighted and suggested that we could meet in Gumusluk – a wonderful undeveloped little seaside cove around the peninsula. He said he knew it well and that he’d phone in the morning to settle the time.

Next up was some essential shopping, as I forgotten my peejays, so we popped into MGM which sells outlet clothes including Matalan stuff and Banana Republic. Jog bots and a Tee shirt later we were on our way to Turgutreis to meet up the Canan and Erhan.

We eventually found their lovely converted cottage and were soon settling down to a good catchup with all that was new with them. Canan cooked us a superb dinner of baked salmon, veggies and stuffed mushrooms, finished off with some of the orange cake that Pat had brought.

Meanwhile, back in Fethiye, Adem and Iain had been very busy. They had taken up the remainder of the tiles, and found an old guy to come with tractor and remove all the building rubble. They had also bricked up the old doorway. Iain spent the evening with Adem and Nese and Attic, watching the football after dinner.

After a fairly early night in Turgutreis, we all rose quite late the next morning and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast outside on their new deck area. The weather was still warm and sunny and it was amazing to think of sitting outside and eating brekkie in early January. Mustafa phoned and suggested we meet at 3, for a late lunch/early dinner – perfect.

Around 11.30, we set off with Canan driving Jan’s Doblo, to see the peninsula, and revisit a few of Pat’s old stomping grounds. There is a great deal of development going on in the area, and things had changed a lot since the seventies. To Jan and I though, seeing it all for the first time, it still looked pretty stunning.

We meandered around the small seaside towns and arrived at Gumusluk about half past two. We had tea and took walked the length of the seafront. The ancient causeway that exists linking Gumusluk to the nearby Rabbit Island was just exposed beneath the surface. Mustafa arrived and we took at waterside table at the restaurant, where he suggested we have a selection of meze instead of a large meal – as Canan was planning to cook for us that evening. Excellent idea, so Pat, Mustafa and I went inside to the meze counter and chose half a dozen different dishes - Fried Calamari, Octopus salad, Mustard leaves with Garlic, pureed fava beans, tomato and chilli salad and fried wild mushrooms. Mustafa ordered some wine and we settle down to a lovely lazy lunch.

After thanking and leaving Mustafa, Canan asked Jan if she’d like a quick tour of Turgutreis on the way home. I think it’s a charming little place, and has been developed quite well. There is a really nice park, and as we passed bay, Canan pointed out the flat she had rented when she first came there. The landlord had become a firm friend and owned the bar too, when she and Erhan were now regulars. He was also the guy who had found them the house she now had. As it the sun was nearly down, why not stop for a G&T and see the bar? Great idea, so we turned and pulled up outside. It was then we saw Erhan’s car parked up the street, and when we entered there he was, behind the bar helping out with serving and sorting the music!

We stayed for a few, chatting to a few of the local characters, before heading back home to get dinner underway. Erhan came home about an hour later.

Back in Fethiye, Iain and Adem had by now rendered the old door way, and resited the kitchen light switch into the salon. They spent another enjoyable evening together again and this time were joined by Attic’s neighbour, who Iain said was a really nice, well educated Turkish man, and they had lots of really interesting conversations. Iain’s Turkish progressing in leaps and bounds, he was able to follow a lot of what was being said without help.

Friday morning, and we girls were up early for breakfast, as we had a lot of shopping to fit in before heading back later in the afternoon. After saying thanks and farewell to C&E, we drove back to Bodrum, shopping at Mudo, Marks and Spencer, B&Q and Kipa (which is Tesco).

We don’t have B&Q in Fethiye, and I knew Iain would like to know what kind of things they had and the prices, so as I explored I took photo’s of various things so he’d be able to see. After a while, one of the staff came over to me and asked me what I was doing. I told him, in Turkish, that my husband was at home, and that he wanted to know prices of things. Grudgingly he said OK.

Laden with purchases, we had a quick lunch before getting on the road around 2.30pm. With a few Cay stops on the way, we were back at Yaniklar by 6.30pm.

Iain was there and had brought over a couple of spit roasted chicken, so we had dinner while filling in Iain and Chris with our adventures, and Iain telling us how the building was going.

Jan was very tired after driving so far, so she headed off back to Ovacik, and we weren’t long after her. I couldn’t wait to get back and see how the house had changed. I was so impressed with the amount of work they’d done and how well it was done. Now we need to sort out the doors, frames and laminate flooring and may as well get on with getting the kitchen done too!

Let’s see what next week bringeth! Until then..