oh what a bummer!!

Thursday started out as a really pleasant day, sunny and warm, so it seemed like the perfect day to lay the concrete base for our mosaic. We called Stuart to see if he was free to assist, and to our relief he was. Then we proceeded to prepare for the job, getting out tools, premixing some cement and laying some metal ties in the circle. When Stuart and Pat arrived, we set to and layed the most level and flat pad ever in the history of building. Once finished, we repaid the favour by washing Stuart's car for him, which had arrived covered in dust from a building site not far from their villa. Then we sat and had a cuppa and a slice of Christmas cake in the sunshine.

As the sun descended, and the day grew cooler, Pat and Stuart took their leave and I decided to do one more job before dark. I wanted to tweak the satellite dish to get better reception. So, with Sue observing the TV, I climbed up onto the roof to do the necessary. Unfortunately as I was stepping onto the roof the ladder slipped and I tumbled off the roof and down onto the very hard tiles of the top terrace. The thud shook the house and Sue came running. I was in agony. She called the builders from next door, and between them they managed to get me into a car and off to hospital where they discovered I had split the humerous (upper arm bone) from the top downwards and extensive abrasions and bruises on my face. The hospital were excellent. They took bloods and other samples, x-rays, cleaned me up and then sent me to the trauma clinic, where the doctor assessed the x-rays, and said that I wouldn't benefit from a plaster, and they strapped my arm to my body, and there it must stay until it starts to knit back together. With an injection in my bum for the pain, pills for on-going pain relief I was released, just an hour and a quarter from accident to return home. We are amazed at the many offers of help we have had, and must thank everyone for their kind wishes. We must especially thank Mevlut, Mustapha and the other builders who assisted, Pat and Stuart who immediately came up to the hospital to give Sue some moral support, Erdi from the Blue Restaurant who transported us back home, Mary who got in essential supplies, and Graham and Ann who are taking Sue to market tomorrow.

We would also like to thank all of the blog readers who sent us Christmas and New Year greetings.

In the new Year we will start a new blog, hope you will all keep reading.

Until then ..... Byeee!

Christmas in Yesilkent

Saturday 15^th should have been market day, but it was pouring when we got up. We checked the weather on the web and as it said it should clear in the afternoon, we decided to wait. However, by the time it did clear it was probably too late so we abandoned that idea. As it's Bayram (religious holiday) next weekend, there will be no market, but they may hold it on Wednesday before the holiday instead., so we'll try again then. Otherwise we'll have to resort to the (more expensive and poorer quality) supermarkets. I spent the rest of the afternoon installing software and setting up a computer that a friend had left with me.

Sunday morning the sun was out so, while Sue was making mince-pies and generally tidying up, I cut up wood for the fire and then spread sand over the garden project to level off the land. The next job will be to cover it in polythene and then fill it with stones. In the afternoon friends came over to collect the computer, and have a quick lesson on how to use it. Before we got into that we went for a nice walk along the beach in the sunshine. Then we had coffee sitting outside in the sunshine and then as the sun went down we got down to the nitty gritty. Before our friend got overwhelmed with info, we stopped and had dinner before sitting down in front of our log fire. They didn't seem in a hurry to leave, not surprising really, a log fire is quite unusual around here, but we're glad of it.

As Bayram was fast approaching, Monday morning we thought we ought to get in the heavies .... you know, bottles of lemonade, wine and that sort of thing. We also needed to call at the post office, try to sort out Vodafone with our Turkish friend, but no joy again. We'll have to try a different tack. We had to get back home as Phil and Lorraine were coming round to have me look at their computer, install software ... I should set up a business, shouldn't I?

Tuesday was bright and sunny, perfect for continuing with our garden project, putting down the polythene and covering it with stones (kindly donated by Bob). Many wheel-barrow loads later and we'd run out of stones before we'd run out of garden ... oops. Now we'll have to try to find about ½ m³ more of stones. We also scattered some of the excess sand around the rest of the garden. The remainder we'll keep for the cement to lay the mosaic on and to make more “anchors” for the boats (ours and friends'). We have also put aside a bucketful for Lawrence who has to build a small table on his terrace. Then it was off to see Mandy and Lawrence, before returning, lighting the fire settling down in front of the box.

On Wednesday we had to go to the market ... I know, we're always going on about market day being Saturday, but as Bayram starts Thursday, there won't be a market on Saturday. In fact it's a bit like Christmas Eve as all the shops and banks closed at lunchtime and everything winds down ready for the holiday. This festival is known as the festival of sacrifice, and to that end, there were several vehicles transporting sheep and cattle around. Tradition has it we're told, that a third of the meat goes to the relatives, a third to the poor and the rest to the family. So off to the market, post-office, then home to prepare for a visit from Yo and Nigel. They were coming in to Altinkum from Akbuk as they needed to get money from the bank before it closed for the holiday, and were going to pop over to see us. I just had time to chop wood for the fire before they arrived. We spent a few hours chatting over lunch and coffees, but, as it's Bayram, we had to make sure that they could get home before the Dolmuş finished.We didn't want to find that the Dolmuş had stopped leaving them stranded. Not that it would have mattered that much .. we have got plenty of beds after all, but they were supposed to be entertaining guests themselves in the evening.

Bright and sunny again on Thursday although a little on the cold side in the northerly wind. I'd had a cry for help from Wendy, another computer owner with problems, so while I went to help sort those out, Sue baked some mince pies and took the opportunity while I wasn't getting in the way to have a massive clean-up. In the afternoon Phil and Lorraine appeared, needing guidance with their laptop, so as we helped them we consumer tested the mince pies ... delicious!!

We took advantage of the sunshine, and the peace and quiet (no builders next door because of Bayram) to have our breakfast on the patio. Out of the wind it was quite pleasant. After breakfast Mandy and Lawrence came round and we all went for a walk round Marti Sitesi, and along the sea's edge on the other side of the peninsular. We had an invite to spend the evening with Mary, and her parents, who are over here from Ireland for Christmas. Mary had really gone to town with the decorations and it was very cosy and Christmassy.We spent the evening sipping mulled wine, eating Christmas nibbles and enjoying the craic (I think that's how you spell it!).

Saturday, without the market, proved to be a quiet day. Gardening in the morning and reading on the top terrace in the sunshine in the afternoon.

Sunday we again made the most of the sunshine and after a bracing walk down by the sea we breakfasted on the back patio. Then we utilised the sunshine to read in the garden until the builders turned up unexpectedly next door (it's Bayram!!) and started to break bricks. Fortunately, by then the sun had made it's way to the front of the house and we were able to lay on the top terrace and continue with our reading.

And so to Christmas Eve ... and it was up town for essential supplies and a quick visit to the PTT to see who had sent us Christmas Cards. Then we thought we'd spoil ourselves and take a walk along Altinkum seafront, sit in a sea-front restaurant and have lunch looking out over the sea ... beautiful, or as it's Christmas perhaps it should be “bootiful” á la Bernard Matthews advert.

And what happens here on Christmas Day? Well this year Brian was the first to phone us to wish us Happy Christmas. We really do appreciate those calls we receive. Then we met up with Pat and Stuart and walked the prom again at Altinkum, before taking a pre-dinner drink or two at a little bar, where we met some new friends, who apparently are just spending Christmas and New Year here. They've really been lucky with the weather this week. Then it was off to P & S's for our Christmas meal. We spent a lovely afternoon with them, before returning home to ring our daughter and grand-children to wish them a Happy Christmas.

Boxing Day we lazed about reading until lunchtime. Then we decided to walk the beach path here in Yeşilkent, from Gaye 2 to Pine Beach and back through the village. We met up with Lynn walking her dog and the three others she'd picked up on the way. As we walked we compared Christmas notes on how things had gone. Then it was back home for a lovely Boxing Day meal of gammon (thank you Gavin and Tania), and a few phone calls with friends. So that's Christmas over for another year.

The run-up to Christmas

And so into December. At the start of the month it was quite warm still and on the Sunday 2^nd we visited Lorraine and Phil and sat in front of their villa in t-shirts drinking coffee and chatting in the sunshine.

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 29^th 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 (20^th - 23^rd ), 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

Projects

Monday was the day Pat and Don had to depart. We spent the morning with them just chewing the fat. They hadn't been gone more than a short while when we had a text saying could we check the back door as they had problems locking it. Guess who'd been so enthusiastic with the paint brush that she'd glued the lock together? After we'd fixed that with our “Irish screwdriver” we popped round to see Kevin and Annette for coffee. Spent a pleasant afternoon with them which was only broken up when yet another thunderstorm threatened. We made a dash for home. This thunderstorm brought huge hailstones which lay almost like snow, and of course the obligatory power cut. We've had so many of those this year that we wonder if we should have our own generator.

We did a bit of routine shopping the following day (including another oil lamp because of power losses), and then had a relaxing walk along the Altinkum seafront. It was the clearest day we have ever seen here we think, and that allowed us to see Kos and many other tiny islands that have never been apparent before. We had a coffee in the Vista Bar where we met two fresh faces who had just bought an apartment over here. As we sat there who should appear but Kevin and Annette. Doing much the same thing.

Wednesday we had a late start, but as the sun was shining, we walked down to Pine Beach. There was a lot of noise just beyond it, and when we investigated, we found huge construction vehicles demolishing the existing derelict holiday village to make way for a brand new 5 star hotel. On the way back we called in on Tom and Linda to say hello, and during our conversation we discovered that a “For Sale” sign had been placed on Nigel's sister's house. We were sure they didn't know, so we took photos and emailed them to Yo. Sure enough the house was being sold without their knowledge ... what a nightmare!!

Thursday after more enquiries we discovered that someone had possibly put a deposit down on the house that's not for sale. More phone calls to Yo and Nigel.

We are overseeing a couple of projects for friends at the moment, and Ilhan had just started on one of them and needed some money for materials, so we had to get to the bank on Friday. Once that was out of the way, and as the air was quite chill, we settled down indoors and did our Christmas shopping on-line. Good old Tescos.

Saturday as ever was market day, and after that, as the air was still chill, we put on some heating and stayed indoors. We did have a few visitors though which made for a pleasant afternoon.

Sunday was much warmer, the cold wind had disappeared, so after having coffee with Mandy and Lawrence, we all decided to try for a swim down on Gaye 2. Thermometer in hand we strolled down to the jetty where there were many of our Turkish neighbours fishing. The thermometer read 18.6 (65F), so we decided to take the plunge much to the amusement of the Turks, who gathered round and cheered .... so no chance of wimping out now!! After the initial shock it seemed quite pleasant and we stayed in for half an hour. On the way back, another Turkish neighbour called to us. He was doing some metal work for his friend. We mentioned we could do with his skills for our boat trailer which had been slightly damaged when we were bringing the boat home earlier in the month. He said he'd be along at 4pm. True to his word, he was at ours at precisely 4, and set about fixing the trailer. While he was doing that along came Kevin and Annette to show us the anniversary cake we had bought between the four of us for Graham and Anne's party. The party was a great success, and everyone had a good time.

Another of the projects we're overseeing kicked off on Monday, the connecting of Hibiscus Villas to the dirty water system, so we spent a while round there. The builder behind our house started to excavate the swimming pool, can you believe it, right up against our garden wall. Apparently there's little we can do about this. This is what they've managed to build in 4 weeks .. glad it's not ours!! To cheer ourselves up we went to Kevin and Annette's for a farewell coffee as they were returning to UK the following morning. As we were leaving they gave Sue the cakes they had bought for her birthday ... really kind eh?

So, Tuesday was Sue's birthday. We had been planning to hire a car and get away for the day, but for various reasons, including a foul weather forecast; we postponed it until a more suitable day presents itself. As it turned out the weather was fine, so we went for a long walk. Later in the day we ordered two beds and a wardrobe in preparation for the visit of the family next August. Nothing like forward planning.

The furniture arrived Wednesday, so we spent the rest of the day re-arranging the bedrooms to accommodate everyone who's arriving next August, carting beds and furniture up and down 3 flights of stairs. More preparation for the visit, fitting extra power sockets in the top bedroom, and while I (David) got on with that, Sue crossed her fingers for no power cuts during the day, and made our Christmas cake. Her luck was in. We were knackered by the end of the day!

It was a good job Sue chose Wednesday to prepare the cake, as Thursday we had a long power cut, which finished just in time for Sue to make cakes for Pat and Stuart who were visiting in the afternoon.

Bob, who is here for a week, came over on Friday morning to offer us a pile of stone chippings he'd got left from his garden project. So we spent the next couple of hours wheelbarrowing them round to our house, with Bob's help. This has now inspired us to get on with our own project. We want to dig up the “lawn”, as it has totally defeated us. We have planted and re-planted it so many times, but, unless we are constantly, and we mean constantly, pouring water onto it throughout the summer, it just gives up and dies. So the rest of the day was spent digging and re-arranging the garden. A long way to go on this project though.

After market on Saturday we checked again on the project at Hibiscus Villas, which is almost finished now. A digger was expected at 10am but arrived at 2 pm to dig the road and make the final connection to the main sewer. Our own project is on hold due to the garden being waterlogged from the previous night's thunderstorms.

Fireworks et al

Friday 2^nd November we picked up a car from Maxitours. Bulent, the owner, asked us where we were going. We told him we were off to Izmir, to which he asked if we were going to the airport. We said we were going shopping. As Maxitours do airport pickups we didn't want to upset him by telling him we were collecting our friends later. We met up with Annette and Kevin and all made our way to Izmir once again. This time, as Sue and I were picking up Pat and Don from the airport, but going via Ikea, Kipa, Carrefour, Praktika and the Ege centre. A & K were going to find their own way home on the dolmuş and the bus.

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 14^th, 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.

A Sad Loss!

Well this short epistle brings with it some sad news. Peter, a well known and popular figure down at the Blue restaurant, who lived up at Renkli villas beside the Police Academy, and a neighbour of Dave and Lynn, died suddenly on Saturday (27th Oct). He had taken his wife to the market and then, as he wasn't feeling well, returned home. A short time later he was rushed to hospital, but passed away. He is to be flown to the UK for a cremation. He'll be sadly missed in the village. A wake was held in the Blue Restaurant on Wednesday (31st) evening, coincidentally his birthday, and was attended by many of his friends and neighbours.

A short October Supplemental.

On Monday 22nd we had friends over, and spent most of the day with them, walking around the village and exchanging news. Stuart had discovered and wanted to tell me about a company in Didim who were installing satellite internet connectons. We will be following this up for any one who isn't able to get a phone line put in. As the evening approached, so did a VERY black cloud. Stuart and Pat beat a hasty retreat back to their home and we battened down the hatches and waited for the storm, which duly arrived in all it's fury. Sue put our only surviving houseplant outside for a welcome drink, but when we fetched it back in an unwelcome visitor had hitched a ride. We noticed it later on in the middle of the living room carpet ... a three inch long scorpion. It was unceremoniously swept up and disposed of outside.

Tuesday was fine, if a little windy, and we were woken by the merry hammering on the plot next door .. the builders had started. That was our cue to get up and go out, something we will have to do on a regular basis for the next few months. We collected our post from the PTT, and then went to Isbank to close all our accounts. On to the plant nursery to get a few trees and shrubs to screen our garden and that of our neighbours from the builders. We managed to get them planted, but discovered a leak in Nicky's garden. We arranged to have a plumber come to fix it, but he wasn't available straight away, not that it was a real emergency at that time. It had been caused by one of the builder's lorries churning up the road so badly, that he'd hit the water pipe and pulled a connector off further down the pipeline in the garden.

More torrential rain and thunderstorms overnight gave the trees a good start. We went walking to escape the noise from the builders, and ended up down Ladybird Beach (in front of the Blue Restaurant). Low and behold it's been dug up again. We think it's an attempt to stop the sea taking away the new sand but it doesn't look very nice. The swimming platform was still there but has since been taken away.


Even more torrential rain overnight, and the morning saw Nicky's leak had turned into a flood, so much so that the builder decided to get his own plumber in. He took a look, made a temporary fix to stop the water flowing, and then left saying he would be back the following day. Meanwhile we had to cancel our plumber, who was on his way (not a happy chappy).

What happened on Friday when the plumber finally turned up to fix the problem was like something out of "Some Mother's do have 'em". A total fiasco. He cleared the pipework back to the garden wall and as the pipe looked a little worn, decided he would replace it with a new section. Well that would have been fine if he had started attaching the new pipe to the dry end, but no, he cut the pipe, the water shot 20 foot into the air, fittings flew everywhere, the garden filled with water, he was wearing wellies, but they were under the water level and filled with mud and water. He finally managed to attach one end only to find that he'd lost the fittings for the other. They were scattered all around, and under several inches of gloop. So he had to bend the pipe to stop the water flow, and go off to town for some more fittings. And the chaos continued as he tried to join the pipes together with the full force of the water coming down the pipe. Sod's law dictates that we have very high water pressure at the moment. It was dark before he finally had it all under control, but it had to be left for two days to let the water subside and allow us to make sure that there were no leaks before the garden could be restored to some semblance of order.

Saturday, market day, but before we could shop, we came across Annette and Kevin drinking tea at a pavement café, so we joined them and planned our trip to Izmir on Monday. Saw many other people in the market .. it becomes quite a social event. We hadn't been back long when we had a text telling us the sad news about Peter.

Later that day, I (David) decided to attempt to restore some of the lost files from my back-up hard drive back on to my newly fixed computer. I'd hardly started when yet another computing disaster .. all the files on the hard drive became corrupted ..... b*****y!!!!!!!!!!! For those of you who are not too computer literate let me assure you that this is very bad (so was the language). My mood became very black and Sue evacuated to another room. I tried all sorts to get the files back but to no avail. Eventually I found a program on the internet, and tried the demo version which seemed to be relatively successful. So I gave in and purchased it. I would say that it recovered 3/4 of my fies, including all the music, photos and video. Only some of the office documents failed to survive, so I was very lucky.

Sunday our escape from the builders took us to the boat. There was no wind, but we couldn't face the noise back home, so we motored out about 300 yards, anchored and then used the boat as a swimming platform. We had a lovely long swim in crystal clear water. We had taken the digital thermometer with us, and it read 20.4C in the water, really warm for the end of October. Just as we got out a breeze sprang up, so we dried off, hauled up the sails and spent the next two hours zooming up and down the bay. Very peaceful as we had the whole bay to ourselves.

Monday we were up early to catch the 9 o' clock bus for Izmir with Kevin and Annette, it was their wedding anniversary, and to celebrate they wanted a guided tour of the city (as much as you can do in one day anyway). We started in Basmane, and then we went through the Souk. Many of the shops there were shut, very unusual, but when we enquired we discovered it was the 87th anniversary of the creation of the Turkish Republic, and so was a public holiday. Down on the seafront there was a huge rally, with parades and flags and noise and razamataz. Thousands of onlookers and participants, Tv crews, the works. We watched for a short time before boarding a ferry to Karsiyaka. There the shops were all open and it was bustling. We found a little Pideci (Turkish pizza shop), and had a bite and a drink before hitting the shops. Once we were all shopped out, we got the 7 o'clock bus back to Didim, an excellent day.

Tuesday was another day we had to escape the noise by sailing and swimming, and on Wednesday we went over to Akbuk to visit Yo and Nigel. They've settled in well and made lots of friends over there, some of whom we met as we wandered along the seafront and came across them in various cafes. Well of course it's only polite to sit down and sup a coffee or whatever with them isn't it? We had a good day with them and as the road back from there is so bad, this time we took them up on their invitation to stay the night, so that we could tackle the pot-holed road in daylight.