Happy New Year

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 of sadness, ordinarily I would have high tailed it to Crewe to see her as she was not expected to live. Sadly I didn't get there. Somehow I found the time to drive up to her funeral. It was the least I could do, I took comfort that she was with her Sharon, but I miss her and will continue to do so.
Mumsey 2.


Then came my worst nightmare. My dad dying. I looked after my father for 9 years, after the death of my mum, but his health was failing, his attitude towards life dimishing. If you had asked me a year ago would you be living in Turkey, in a relationship, my answer would have been no. It was the furthest thing from my mind, but the decision for him to go to a nursing home in Devon was the best decision for him and this presented me with an opportunity I never ever considered. I confess, there are days when I am wracked with guilt. Did we do the right thing? Would he have died if he hadn't gone to Devon? Was that the straw that pushed him towards dying? Of course the answer to that is no. But even so, those things pop into my mind. My father dying was one of the worst things in my life, I amaze myself sometimes, that I can carry on as normal. Some days I suffer from a lethargy that paralises me, but I force myself to carry on
Dad with his great granddaughter 9 years ago




Of course, to counteract the negativity, something wonderful has happened. I am living in a beautiful county, I am with my MHTTB and his family have offered themselves up to me as my family also. Life is good and I know I have the support of my own family and my dad, if he were here.

So 2017 has been a mixed bag of extremes for me. My life has changed beyond all recognition from last year, and I am learning to embrace it. I spent New Years eve quietly with my Turkish family. I hope 2018 brings many happy things for me and them. Last year has seen the best and the worst.

So dear reader, I hope 2018 brings you great things, challenges and triumphs and good surprises.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hospitality

Image
Turks are very hospitable people, they are not the richest people, in fact some of them are downright poor. Yesterday we went to visit a friend of MHTTB, he was at his girlfriends house. She didn't know us at all, but the hospitality was immediate, she invited us to join her for a barbeque. The food was simple fresh chicken and fish with salad. I used to hate people turning up unexpectedly at mealtimes, but she just took it all in her stride, most Turkish people do. They seem to be able to rustle up a delicious meal from nothing at the drop of a hat. She had a small, clean lovely house in the middle of nowhere at a place called Yaniklar. It is a village about a 15 minute drive away. My Turkish is very poor, but with the help of Google translate we managed to have a good chat and a laugh. Today a man came to quote for putting a chimney up for the wood burner, including the materials I am looking at a cost of 700tl, which is about £140 quid at todays rate. Considering I am on the f
Read more

Customer service and other stuff

Image
The one thing you cannot complain about here in Turkey, is customer service. When I first purchased the apartment, I needed Wi-fi access, because at that time I did not (and still don’t) have a residents permit MHTTB had to have it put in his name. We went to turk telecom at 5pm on a Tuesday evening, ordered it and at 10am the following morning we received a call from the telephone engineer saying he was outside and could he come in to install it! He came, with the modem, fiddled about a bit,plugged the modem in and voila! We had Wi-fi. None of this farting about that BT provide. Send a  modem in the post and then they tell you to wait up to 5 working days to connect it at the exchange. The same with the curtains I ordered. I went in gave them the measurements, chose the material and by 4pm the next day they were made, complete with the clips sewn in and ready to hang. Everything electrical that I purchase comes with an automatic 2 year guarantee. Go to the bank and say see this bill c
Read more

making a house a home

Image
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
Read more