Almost expat

There have been a few firsts this week. Ozlem came over on Saturday to teach me how to make borek, to cut a long story short, MHTTB and Ozlem ended up having 'words' and as MHTTB had had a few too many alcoholic beverages, it was left to me to take her home. MHTTB has a big Hyundai 6 seater van, it's a battered looking thing, but drives surprisingly well, in fact I have driven us to Dalyan and back in it. The thing is I don't like driving in Fethiye. Look at any dodgems at any fair ground and you get a rough idea of what driving in Fethiye is like, only worse. Luckily Ozlem decided to drive us to Fethiye. On the way home we got stopped by the police. The policeman's face was a picture when Ozlem wound down the window. She is a very attractive woman and he took one look and was smitten and quite surprised that this battered old van contained 3 women and no men. She asked Yagmur, her daughter to pass her over the driving license but the policeman just waved her on and

Like most places here, the apartment, decor wise is quite bland. I brought my sofa's over, but they too were cream and it was all a bit..........boring. For quite some time I have been looking for carpets to put down. I have even bought a few carpets, but I like the kilim style, and they weren't really practical for a heavy traffic area and once again, they were beige. I needed new curtains so I got in touch with a lovely young woman, Grace. She came and measured and brought HUNDREDS of samples and as I wanted to inject some colour and as Ozlem had made me some rather nice cushions, I went for red!! This in turn gave me an idea of the colour carpet I wanted to tie it all in. Kilims tend to have traditional patterns, they usually have vibrant colour, but sometimes the pattern just doesn't appeal to me. For a number of weeks now, I have been passing a shop called Villa Home and had noticed some very nice carpets outside. They are all different pieces of Kilims made into patch

20 Months ago, I had to have an MRI scan, I'd been experiencing sciatica and the doctor wanted to see what was going on. The scan revealed I had a bulging disc at the bottom of my spine, but as it wasn't causing too much trouble it was left to it's own devices. Fast forward a month and my back gave out completely. The pain going down my left leg was horrendous, I couldn't stand up, I couldn't sit down and I ended it up going to A and E. They filled me with co-codemol and sent me packing, 4 days later I ended up back there. This time they kept me in overnight, filled me with diazapam, got a physio to give me a crutch and sent me home. I ended up on my back for 2 weeks, my sister had to come down from Devon, it basically took me a long time to get back on my feet without the aid of crutches. It was a horrible experience and I have taken great pains not to repeat it, but 2 days ago my back went again. This time I could stand, but the pain was excruciating. MHTTB kept u

I have noticed something about myself since arriving here, I seem to be a brand junky, and I honestly didn't realise I was. Obviously I knew I would have to find alternatives to certain products that I use. Some that, to me, were essential, I bought lots of and sent them over with my belongings in November, mostly toiletries and shampoos. The other day I happened to come across a pork shop nearby, there are a few dotted around, mainly to cater for the expats who like their bacon. Being a predominantly Muslim country, pork is not eaten. Anyway, I went in and you'd think I had never seen food for years. along with pork joints and bacon, there was an array of familiar brands like Heinz baked beans, HP sauce, Paxo stuffing, Lurpak butter. All of it is overpriced because it is imported, but I ended up spending almost 98 tl on branded items because they were familiar to me. I resisted the baked beans, because MHTTB makes his own and the taste is far better and sugar free. I could hav

I like vegetables, but there are some that do not really appeal to me. Brussels will never ever appeal to me, corgettes, spinach and aubergine are not on my list of favorites, but thanks to Ozlem, I have been making some recipes using the latter. My favorite by far is the Spinach. When buying veg here you can forget those tiny bags of spinach already washed with the stalks removed. The chances are, as you walk around the market, that the spinach on sale was, that very morning, still in the field. Every vegetable you buy here has to be washed thoroughly, each leaf of spinach has to be washed under a running tap or you are liable to get a mouthful of grit. Anyway, back to Ozlems recipe. A handful of Bulgar wheat or white rice a large onion cut into thin slices as much chopped spinach as you like Tablespoon of tomato puree salt tablespoon of Olive oil As much or as little Chilli powder to your taste chicken stock cube 3 garlic cloves So you start by frying the onions in the ol

Most apartments here in Turkey are not designed for winter living, so I have spent quite a bit of money winterising mine. The one thing this place didn't have was a chimney and getting one installed has not been plain sailing. The first guy we called (a friend of MHTTB) came and gave us a price, he asked us to provide him with some money so the metal welder could get to work on the outside chimney. Not a problem you would think? Sadly, he waltzed off with 500 lire of my money and so far has not returned any of MHTTB's calls. MHTTB is very embarrassed, but for some reason, I'm not surprised, as with anywhere, there is an element of dishonesty. It's taught me a valuable lesson, I no longer hand over money first. He has another friend, Berhat, he now gets all my jobs around the house. He is a carpenter by trade, but is very handy at everything, something MHTTB is not. He's had to replace a support that holds up the balcony roof, water had got in the bottom and rotted.

I really don't know where the time is going, it is already the 11th of January and another week has just flown by. On Monday, I went to see an agency about getting my residents permit, I was warned to give it plenty of time, because the last thing I wanted to do was overstay my tourist visa and possibly get fined or deported. I am allowed to stay for 90 days in a retrospective 180 day period. I worked out that my 90 days would be up on the 18th of January, but because I had to return to the U.K for 2 weeks this put it back to the 4th of February. So I went thinking it would take ages. I filled in the application and then got the appointment with the GOC officer for Wednesday, yesterday!! I am so glad I applied early, because the officer had access to all my entry and exit entry stamps, and believe me, he counted all the days I had been in Turkey for the last 180 days, once he had counted them up, I could see all the wind deflate from his sails, I really think he thought he was on

With the smooth comes the rough, and with the rough comes the smooth. 2017 has in the most part been one of the best years of my life, but with that came the rough patches. 4 years ago, my very best friend died after a long term illness. I was devastated, but not as much as her mum Sheila. After Sharon's death, her Mum was a great comfort to me and I hope I was to her too. I have very happy and fond memories of Sheila as a teenager. Sharon and I used to pretend we were twins, and she would happily go along with it, in fact on one holiday, she went into great detail to a nosy camper about the trials and tribulations of having twin girls!! Her humour was amazing, we liked the Glitterband so she put a poster in a frame and kept it on her living room wall, she was far more approachable than my own mother, and was like a second Mum to me. In August, Sharon's daughter sent me a text to tell me Sheila was very ill. As my own father was in hospital at the time, this caused me a lot o