We managed to keep to the plan and had a good day out. Do you remember our trials and tribulations when we tried to import a hot-tub into Turkey earlier this year? ... well guess what we found in Praktika (a huge DIY store)? .... Yup, the very same, and for less money than we paid in the UK. Oh well!! Kevin and Annette left us at this point to get the dolmuş back to the bus-station. We heard later that they had no problem and in fact everyone was so very helpful to them, and their dolmuş driver treated them like celebrities. They didn't think he got many tourists on his vehicle.
We found our way to the airport to wait for the BA flight to arrive. The first person we bumped in to was Bulent from Maxitours .... oops, how embarrassing. But he didn't seem to mind and we spent a pleasant hour or so chatting in a cross between English and Turkish The flight was only 10 minutes late, and Pat and Don were so pleased to see us. Then it was straight back home.
We kept the hire car for Saturday. That allowed us and P & D to use it to pick up the veg at the market, and to show them just how extensive the building is around here, before having a drive to Akbuk to show them the changes down there. We stopped at a few of the pretty bays on the way, such as Konya and Zongulduk. After Akbuk we called at a garden centre and then shared our transport with a rather large bamboo which we will use as screening between us and the new building going up behind us.
Monday, and we started by checking our bank accounts. All the interest rates have gone down by ½ a percentage point this month, and some had already gone down last month by a ¼ point. We are going to check out the rates being given by Finans Bank and TEB bank later in the week, to see if we can better what we are getting at the moment. We also heard that the customs allowance for spirits coming in to Turkey is 5 litres and wine 7 bottles, so we checked that out as well, and according to the Turkish ministry web-site that is indeed the case. We, like many other Brits, have always assumed that it is 2 litres. As booze is so expensive here, that's a welcome discovery.
We also had a few jobs to do, fitting all those bits and pieces we bought in Izmir. Pat and Don had brought us a weather station from England, which also records wind speed. That'll help when we're trying to decide whether or not to go out on the boat. We fitted that to the solar heating frame on the roof. We also planted the bamboo and re-arranged a few plants in the garden 
before going for a very welcome and refreshing swim in the sea (still 20.4C). We finished the day off at a bonfire party with a few friends ... a very pleasant evening made even better as we could sit outside till nearly midnight enjoying a light supper and convivial conversation ... unlike the UK where we used to have to wrap up in 3 or 4 layers and rush to get in the warm as soon as the display was over.
Thunderstorms and rain dominated Tuesday. We had a visit from Ilhan to discuss projects he may be doing for us and for friends.
Wednesday Ilhan came to put a hatch in our chimney so that we can remove the soot. Although quite cool, we decided conditions were OK to sail. We managed about 2 hours, but were frozen by the time we came in ... silly really as day time temperature is till 15C. However the wind was coming from the north and had a real edge to it.
Thursday was a bit of a non day, in that, although we seemed to be busy, nothing specific seemed to be achieved apart maybe from the fact we opened a new bank account with Finans bank, as they are currently offering the best interest rate around town.
Which brings us to Friday, which proved to be very busy, as we tackled the garden. We are just amazed at how well plants here grow in what seems to be poor soil. We had a massive heap of organic matter when we had finished pruning. We also moved our citrus trees (protecting our entire crop of one as we did so) as they weren't performing in the “wind tunnel” down the side of the house, and we also think they need to be in an “open” situation not surrounded by other shrubs. We also moved the canoe to the patio next door (thank you Nicky and Mary for the offer), in readiness for the return of our sailing boat, which we will remove from the sea shortly.
Oh Boy!!!!! What a storm we had on Saturday!! It started of with the odd shower but as the wind increased, so did the rain. It lashed down. The weather station we had installed got up to gale force eight before it lost it's marbles, and still the winds and rain increased. We had a phone call to say that our boat was listing to one side, so we donned our wet weather gear and braved the storm to check. It wasn't too bad but we decided to bale the water out, and proceeded to pull the boat in. Well the wind nearly pulled us in, but we managed to get the boat to shore, and empty the water from it. We were beginning to think that we should have brought the boat home on Friday. We were just putting it back on it's mooring when an absolutely massive gust took me (David) clean off my feet, and Sue grabbed to ensure I wasn't washed away When we turned around, Mandy and Lawrence's boat had capsized. A quick phone call brought them hurriedly down to the beach, where we all set about trying to right it. Lawrence pulled himself out along the mooring rope and managed to free a halyard and pass it over the hull. He was hoping to use the halyard and dagger board to lever the boat upright, but to no avail. So David joined him in the water and with David standing on the dagger board and Lawrence lifting the mast, they finally managed to bring “Turkish Delight” upright again. The wind strength had started to diminish, so we thought it would be OK to leave the boats overnight, but all four of us agreed that we would take the boats out of the sea on Sunday.
So Sunday we reconvened on the shore, complete with launching trolleys and a few helping hands, and between us we brought the two craft out of the water. We had several months of barnacles and algae build up to clean off. That took a lot of elbow grease and about 2 hours. Once clean we called Kevin and Annette to give us a hand to lift in to it's winter storage position. Then we had to clean and stow all the accessories like the sails, mast, boom, and all the ropes.
That complete we had to set to and clean up after the night before. Mandy and Lawrence had water through every South facing window. We had water forced under the roofing felt and down the walls of our office. Our satellite dish had also been blow off it's setting, so we had to call Digiturk to rectify that. They couldn't come till Tuesday they said. We had some plant damage, as well as a drain pipe blown from the roof to the patio, and smashed. In the evening Pat and Don came round and we dined together ... a pleasant end to a fraught day.
First thing Monday morning we went back to the shoreline to recover our mooring gear from sea. Once home it all had to be cleaned and put away. Then it was up to the roof to stick down the roofing felt with black mastic to try to prevent further ingress of water. While I was up there I thought I would check the satellite dish and discovered the support pole was split and bent. Don took us to a nursery to buy some more plants for Nicky and Mary as well as a mimosa and a lemon tree for us. Planted all those before going for coffee at P & D's. Digiturk called to say they were on their way (one day early) and would be with us shortly. However, before they could make it the evening culminated in another long power cut together with thunderstorms, so they had to curtail their one hour journey from Söke.
Tuesday gave us the opportunity to go to the new Kipa at Kuşadasi and browse it more thoroughly. Kevin and Annette came with us, and we met up with our friends from Davutlar when we got off the Dolmuş at Kipa. We all headed for the restaurant area to have a catch-up chat over a coffee. Then we split up and hit the shops. It took a couple of hours to browse the main store and the other shops in the complex, and then we all met up for a late lunch, and compared purchases. As the recents storms had destroyed the covers we had over the canoe, we had found a good quality car cover to do the job. Annette had a clothes airer, which we were going to have to transport back to Didim on the Dolmuş. One very spooky encounter we have to mention though. As mentioned before, Digiturk had aborted their visit the previous evening, and we had received a text in Turkish from them giving us instructions on what to do next. Well needless to say we couldn't understand it, so, having seen a sales point for Digiturk in the complex, we thought we'd ask them what the message said. We walked up to the booth, but before we could show the guy anything, he said “You're from Didim aren't you? You have problem with your dish. My friend is coming to fix it tomorrow about 4 or 5 o'clock”. We were gob-smacked. We had never seen this guy before and we were an hour and a quarter from home in a busy shopping complex, with a broad mix of nationalities, and yet he knew exactly why we were there. We still can't fathom how he knew. Scarey or what!! We parted company with Margaret and Ted, and we and Kevin and Annette went off to find the Dolmuş stop. We all made it back home to Yeşilkent just as the heavens opened and we had more thunderstorms.
Wednesday was a nice bright day and, as it was the 14th, it was earmarked for paying our bills. It was also interest day at Akbank, so our first port of call was there to close the account, and shift the money to the new account at Finansbank. That I would do later on the internet as it's much, much cheaper than letting the bank do it. The bill paying proved to be very stress free as there was no one in either office, no queues, miracle of miracles!! Digiturk turned up in the afternoon, just as the young man at Kipa had indicated and fixed our dish. We now have better reception than before. They'd just left when the power went out again during yet another thunderstorm. Sue decided she would prepare soup on the gas (a dual fuel cooker is a must here). Then, with a bit of luck, the power would be back to cook the rest of our meal in the oven. Well it couldn't have worked better, as the power did come back, and stayed on just long enough. We had just served up our meal, when another massive thunderstom arrived with a bang. We had pulled all the plugs around the house, but we heard a bang upstairs, and one particularly vicious bolt of lightning had hit the phone line and wiped out our modem and phones.
Thursday, I checked out the damaged phones, they unfortunately were not salvagable, but the modem was undamaged, only it's transformer was blown. This meant we couldn't transfer the rest of our money to Finansbank. However, we knew Akbank have an internet terminal, so off we went. The only problem was, unlike the internet at home, there was no “English” button on the bank's terminal. Most of the website we could manage, but as usual, there's always one or two questions that we couldn't understand, so we enlisted the help of another customer and the security guard. Job done. Up to Finansbank to complete the transaction by opening the new interest account. We had read on the internet that they offered an account where you leave the money for a year, but they paid interest into a current account each month. However, the young man at the bank said they didn't offer such an account. We insisted, and he started to make phone calls. ¾ hour, and a cup of coffee later, and he had the information. However, the interest rate was not good enough, so we chose a different account. Bet he loved us. However, he did learn a bit more about his own bank's products didn't he? We hunted round the local electrical shops for a transformer for our modem and finally tracked one down .... in the fishing tackle shop ... well this is Turkey! We popped round to Pat and Stuart to say hello and spent a lovely afternoon with them catching up, and then we had a text from Pat and Don inviting us to eat with them at Café More ..... they didn't have to ask twice.
With Friday being a lovely sunny day, and with the builders behind us having the day off, we were able to have breakfast on the terrace. Then we ambled down to the seafront on Gaye 2 and just sat and gazed at the water for a while ... so peaceful. Wandered back home to do a few things but we were pleasantly interrupted by Kevin and Annette who had brought the pictures from bonfire night to show us. We had another pleasant interruption a little while later, when Graham and Anne rolled up to deliver an invitation to their ruby wedding celebration.
Don was kind enough to offer to take us to the market on Saturday in his car he'd hired, so we were able to pick up all the veggies etc. and travel home in comfort. That was a luxury we don't often experience. The afternoon was warm enough for us to relax and read up on the top terrace. Although we are having a lot of rain and thunderstorms at the moment, the temperatures are still holding up, and when the sun does appear, as it did this day, the temps are up in the middle twenties.
