Decisions, decisions

We decided that we needed extra lighting in the kitchen, as Sue was standing in her own light when she was making pastry etc. We had toured various lighting and Diy shops, but couldn't find exactly what we were hoping for, no in our price range anyway, so eventually we decided we get our favourite carpenter, Ali, to build us one. It was done overnight, and this is the result.

We also decided upon the boat. We found a Rotaboat Kirlangic that we could look at, and, believe it or not, it was just down the road. Once we'd spoken to the owner and had a good look at it, we took the plunge. Well if he'd had no problems with it over the last 5 or 6 years that was good enough for us. We ordered it over the phone, and were given 3 weeks as a delivery date .... we'll see!

A phone call the same day informed us that David's certificate for passing his language course would be presented that afternoon at 2 o'clock. A quick change and a dash up to the Belediye to collect that. The press were there, and it's amazed us since, just how many people recognised David from the resulting press photo. We'll put our picture in here, as it's better.

On the 4th of the month it should be recorded that we took our first swim of the season ... a bit later this year than last. Are we becoming wimps? (or maybe we are acclimatising!).

We also took the canoe out, and as the sea was mirror calm, we paddled from Gaye 2 right round the peninsular, past Ladybird Beach, Pine Beach, The police academy, Marti Sitesi and onward as far as Tuntas, which is on the outskirts of Altinkum itself. It took about 2 and a half hours. Having run out of energy, we gratefully resorted to the electric motor to get us back to Gaye 2. During this trip Sue thought she glimpsed a turtle swimming ahead of us, but by the time we had padded to the spot it had disappeared. It is the right time of the year to spot them though, shame we couldn't get closer.

Everybody started to arrive and we were inundated with requests for assistance as friends opened their houses, and found problems after the long winter layoff. We pointed them in the direction of reliable tradespeople and also gave assistance where we could.

We were lucky enough to be invited out by several people for meals at our favourite establishments, such as the Police Academy and the new restaurant that has just opened in Yeşilkent called the Green Park (formerly known as the Medi Pansiyon).

During this time we also had to prepare the mooring for the arrival of the boat from Izmir. This involved going up to Didim Marin to order ropes, chains, shackles, a buoy and various other bits, and making some large concrete blocks, that would be moved into the sea, chained together, and used as the anchor point for the boat. Having made the blocks at home, we then had to tackle the problem of moving them to the sea, and getting them to the place where the boat was to be moored. We scratched our heads and thought about it, and came up with a plan.

We removed the pod from the sidecar chassis, and using a borrowed scaffold plank, we slid the blocks onto the chassis, and transported them one at a time down to the shoreline. Using the plank again we slid the blocks down the steep incline into the water and then dragged them to their final position. Then we joined them together with the vast lengths of chain we had been persuaded to buy and attached the buoy as a marker. Job done, although our sailing friends think we could probably moor the QE2 on our mooring.

Pat and Don kindly invited us to join them on a trip to Bodrum and Turgetries. Turgetries is really beautiful and we had our lunch there in a little restaurant by the sea. We also introduced them to the delights of Koçtaş (B & Q), Kipa (Tesco), Tekzen (DIY chain) as Pat was searching for a barbeque, and we also discovered a large M & S that we didn't know was there. Sue has made a mental note to return later in the year to stock up with shoes and clothes from the Per Uno range.