Monday was a day of work as we completed digging up our lawn, and made a few running repairs to the rockery/water feature. Bob returned home .. it hardly seemed any time at all since he arrived. No sooner had we waved him off than Mandy and Lawrence came to visit, so we downed tools and spent a pleasant couple of hours chewing the fat. Not surprising we don't seem to get very far, very fast with our projects is it?
The weather changed for the worst on Tuesday with rain, thunderstorms and power-cuts. So indoor pursuits were the order of the day. We packed ourselves off to Mandy and Lawrence to help with their computer.
Wednesday saw no change in weather or power-cuts, so, between the electricity “outages” we booked ourselves a flight to the UK (Feb 29th 2008). For the rest of the day we prepared some comfort food and just lazed around reading etc.
Thursday the rain stopped .. hooray!! Got out the trusty (oh yeh?) steed, and went into town to order the materials for our garden project, the sand, cement, bricks and so forth. Had a bite to eat in town and then returned home to wait for the materials to turn up, which they duly did. The cement and the bricks were OK, but one cubic metre of sand seemed to be a small mountain. Last year when we needed sand to break up the clay in the garden, we ordered 3 cubic metres and the pile was of a similar size .. think we must have been diddled the first time .. well this is Turkey. We were shifting sand round to the back of the house until it was dark. 27 wheelbarrow loads. (Yes Don, it was your wheelbarrow .... thanks!!).
Friday was yet another sunny day, and although it felt cold we got on with the project.
Sue learned to mix cement (she says it's like mixing a cake), and I layed bricks for the first time in my life. A steep learning curve for us both. We must admit we were quite surprised that when we got to the other end, they had stuck firm and were still level .... 5 gold stars for us!! Yet more computer problems arrived at our door in the afternoon, when Marge and Ian turned up wanting help. As soon as we had finished our brick laying we hot footed it over to theirs and did what we could to help. As with anything to do with computers, it took much longer than we thought and three hours drifted by very rapidly.
Saturday, as usual, was market day, and, as the weather was still holding we took advantage to finish the rest of our brick laying. Just the stones to lay, and a mosaic to put into the centre circle now. What do you think? Should look nice shouldn't it? We got chilled outside, so at the end of the day, we indulged ourselves, by lighting the log fire and roasting chestnuts. Funny how just looking at a real fire makes you feel warmer.
Storms, powercuts and fearsome rain stopped play on the garden Sunday, so we tackled a few indoor jobs like putting in a few extra electric sockets and Sue did her domestic science bit (making cakes and cleaning). Think I got the better end of the deal.
We had a text message over the weekend to say that our vodafone mobile was about to be cut off, so on Monday we hot-footed it up town to find out why. If you were not aware, in Turkey all mobile phones using local sim cards have to be registered. If you try to use a phone from abroad (UK), then within a week or so it is blocked. We had our phones registered nearly 2 years ago, but for some reason, this Vodafone one has now been de-registered. Well we met a language brickwall when we tackled them and were told we would have to buy a new phone. Doubting this, we enlisted help from the wife of our electrician. Even so, we couldn't break through the bureaucracy. She was told they could do nothing until the phone was actually disconnected. Probably not true, but they were adamant. We will see. We did a bit of shopping, met a few friends along the way and finished off the day going to Za Za's, a new bistro, with Pat and Stuart. The good thing about Za Za's is that they will send a car for you and return you home after the meal. If you think this means it will be expensive you couldn't be further from the truth, and the food was very good.
More rain on Tuesday, so, Sue made some scones and we had afternoon tea with Phil and Lorraine to cheer ourselves up.
Wednesday and still it rains. However, as Yo and Nigel were coming to Altinkum from Akbuk, we made the effort, got out of our armchairs, donned the wet weather gear and caught the Dolmuş (minibus) to town ... motorbike? ... you must be joking!!! The four of us spent the next four hours catching up over coffee, some lunch, some more coffee and yet more coffee. Then we all made a dash for our respective Dolmuş to get home to get dried.
Thursday started wet, no change there then. We picked up a hire car from Maxitour and collected Pat and Stuart for a day trip to Izmir. We all had a long list of items only to be found in the “big city”. By the time we got there the rain had stopped .. not that it mattered as we intended to be in the big shopping complexes all day. We started at Praktiker and Carrefour, and then moved on to Ikea, Kipa and the miriad of UK type stores (Next, Topshop, Pull and Bear, M & S, Accessorize, Claire's). By a miracle, we got everything on our lists (and lots more besides ... that's all the exercise my credit card needs this year!). Finally arrived back in Altinkum at midnight, got good use out of our hire car didn't we!
Friday after we had returned the car, we paid the utility bills, got our post and then checked on the two projects we've been overseeing for friends. Both projects had been completed satisfactorily, so we were able to make the final payments on their behalf. With Christmas fast approaching, we decided to put up some decorations, and get into the festive mood. It's not so difficult this year as a Moslem festival is also taking place (20th - 23rd ), so the shops are full of decorations, sweets and luxury goods not normally seen, even the alcohol is on special offer in the supermarket, so that's useful.
We may have time to fit one more update in before Christmas, but if not, we'd like to wish you and yours a very
Happy Christmas and a New Year that brings you all you could wish for
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