Almost expat

I am worried about one of the street cats we feed. He is the smallest of the litter and has always been a bit fearful. When we captured them to get them neutered, he was the one who needed the most coaxing and it took him a good week to trust us again. Last week, he disappeared for 2 days. This was unusual as he seemed to need his big brothers to sooth his nerves. He's always rubbing against them for reassurance and wouldn't come too close until they did. The other 2 venture into the apartment, but he took his time and would only come in if they were with him. Anyway last Saturday, he showed up, he was terrified and wouldn't come near us, he attempted to eat and it was then that I noticed that he was dribbling from one side of his mouth. He has been every day but he wasn't eating and starting to look thin, then Wednesday he walked into the apartment and was mewing around me. I offered him food and as he attempted to eat it he let out a very loud yowl. Thursday MHTTB man...

So I am into week 5 of my Turkish lessons and for the last 3 weeks have been given homework. The past 2 weeks we have been leaning ordinal numbers and cardinal numbers. To get me used to numbers and to learn them, he gave me Turkish telephone numbers. The British tend to say the number  individually, not so the Turks. A number like 0539 744 50 05 is given out as zero five hundred and thirty nine, seven hundred and forty four, fifty zero five. I really had to think about how to write it down or how to translate it from the spelling, but I tell you what, I now have no problem at all with counting anymore. I also think I finally have got my head around the vowel harmony, we have moved onto the endings of words for from at and in. I still can't hold a conversation but give it time and I'm sure I will. This weekend, MHTTB and I drove to Finike, which is in between here and Antalya, the drive was beautiful, going via the coast road through Kas, Kalkan  Demre and finally into ...

I can't believe we are in March already. The time just fly's by, and if I think about what I have been doing it all jumbles into one!! They say time fly's when you are having fun, so I must be having fun. Tuesday saw Fethi Bey day. Fethi Bey, aka Tayyareci Fethi Bey was a famous Turkish aircraft pilot who was killed in Al-Samra in 1914. My Turkish teacher tells me he was the 1st Turkish pilot to be trained by the RAF, but I have no idea if this is correct or not. Fethiye was named after him.  Anyway, on Monday we saw the Turkish airforce practise flight, in their F16's for a fly past on Tuesday. We missed seeing the flypast in Fethiye itself, but we got a cracking view of them flying past our windscreen while we waited at traffic lights!! The noise was tremendous, and it reminded me of being in Wales where the RAF practise low flying, sometimes as low as 50ft. Usually by the time you have heard them, they have gone.  Below, is a photo I managed to capture of the more ...

Well at the weekend, myself and MHTTB had our first major domestic, and yes it's all cool now, but it got me thinking. In my British life I have always been independent but since I have been over here I have had to rely on MHTTB to drive me around, speak for me and generally hold my hand. This is just not me at all. I decided on Tuesday, as it will be a while until I can purchase a car, I would hire one for 2 months and get myself out there alone and driving. As I may or may not have mentioned, a lot (but not all) Turkish drivers are down right dangerous. Red light? Pah check the coast is clear and ignore it! The driver in front dared to hesitate a nano second after the light changed green? Ha TOOT TOOT TOOT, indicators? What are indicators? quite literally you need eyes up your arse  bottom. So with that in mind, it was tempting to carry on being needy, but I contacted a car hire company instead. I got a good deal on a Fiat Albea at £550 for 2 months, the morning of delivery, they...

It's been a crazy few days, MHTTB's Auntie came to visit from Izmir. There are different words for Aunt in Turkish, if she is your mothers sister she is Teyze if she is your fathers sister she is Hala, same for uncle, on your mothers side he is Dayi on your fathers side he is Amca. In this case, Fatma was Teyze. We went over Ozlems to see them and found the whole family there. The second day we went and picked them up and spent a nice afternoon at Calis beach and decided on the spur of the moment to come back to the apartment for a barby. Now my Turkish is almost non existant but some of the other family came over and they started playing a game called vampires. Everyone picks a piece of paper and you are either a peasant or a vampire. There are 2 vampires and everyone closes their eyes then the two vampires open them and then the others, after opening their eyes have to guess who the vampires are. A simple enough game, but it turned into raucous laughter. I didn't have a c...

I went off to the PTT on Thursday to collect my parcel. I wasn't confident, I have heard horror stories about how chaotic the sorting office is, but when I got there, there was a nice man calling people with calling cards into a back room where he found my parcel. It came from my oldest friend and I was delighted, when I got outside and opened it to discover these!! Thank you Sue, you know just how to make a girl happy Also this week, I found a really nice garden centre. A few months ago, I bought some pots but as it was winter there wasn't much to plant, then a week ago we happened upon a big garden centre that had a selection of spring plants which is where I went back to this week. I got a nice selection of Pansies and Primulas, I need to go back as I noticed she had a good selection of Tulip and Hyacinth  bulbs. I love Hyacinths, the pungent fragrance they give off will be nice on the  balcony. MHTTB's friend is coming today to extend the balcony out by a foot or ...

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...