Turkey in Turkey

The Christmas menu at Poppy….

…a large quantity of turkey; I asked Cem to get an 8kg turkey which he did – but it had an eat-by date of 24^th December!  When he went to change it he found all the large ones were the same, so we ended up with two 5kg turkeys.  I cooked them both and I think they were alright, though I stuck to my nut roast.  Disappointingly the gimmicky plastic ‘thermometer’, which was supposed to show when they were cooked, didn’t do its stuff.  Anyway, there is a lot of turkey in the freezer!

The roast potatoes were spectacular, the hazelnut and apricot stuffing was alright but not amazing and the vegetables were as they should be – though no sprouts because I hate them!  Everything arrived at the table pretty much together and hot, unlike the food at a hotel where some of my students had their Christmas meal!  There is not so much emphasis in Turkey on getting food to the table piping hot; I have often seen chips being cooked and put on the table half an hour before the rest of the food is ready and have never seen plates being warmed here.  Still, this particular meal apparently broke all records by being absolutely cold.

Many local restaurants now do Christmas dinner.  A few years ago when we had Cumba bar in Fethiye we did Christmas dinner.  When you are cooking for paying customers, you have to do the whole works (even sprouts!) and want everything to be perfect (read hot!)  It meant I spent a couple of hours of my Christmas panicking with the chef in the kitchen; maybe that’s why I find cooking for friends a relatively easy job!

the best-dressed bear in town

This week life is fairly normal, with me giving lessons again and the boys back at school.  They have a half day on Friday and will be home ready for us to do the whole big meal thing again – with pretty much the same caste of characters – on Friday night.  The big difference is that I won’t be doing much of the cooking this time so can look forward to running up and down the stairs a lot less, relaxing a bit more and of course applying myself to the wine a bit better.

Many Turkish people celebrate New Year and it seems to be getting a bigger affair each year with more presents being given, way more decorations and increasingly expensive ‘New Year programmes’ in the restaurants.  A lot of people prefer to make it a family affair, with a big meal at home and – rather strangely this – a traditional game of bingo! 

We used to do a bit of each – having a meal with Cem’s family, then sneaking out leaving the children there, to party at one of the bars in town.  These days we no longer seem to feel the need to go out – whether because of the cost or because we are old and boring I don’t know!  Our other tradition, after plenty of partying, used to be going for a swim in the sea.  The expats had a Boxing Day swim at Çalış which I am sure had plenty of participants but that was in the day when it is sunny and quite warm.  I asked Cem this morning if he was planning on swimming on New Year’s night but he replied with his usual ‘we’ll see’.  Perhaps we should move over and let the boys take over that tradition!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS FROM POPPY

The weather is a bit better and there is no longer water in the hotel- though we still have some work to do cleaning up. Last night was, I think, the longest night. It’s dark now at 5.30pm and though I know that is later than in the UK, it will be nice to have longer days again.

There are only 2 windows left on Kaan’s advent calendar, which means not much time left to get everything ready. Still I am not in too much of a panic. There is not nearly as much pressure as there is in the UK and though I will be cooking dinner for about 18 people, most of them are Turkish so they won’t really notice if something is not quite right!

I am lucky that Cem is an enthusiastic celebrator of Christmas. I never used to think this was strange but speaking to other foreigners married to Turkish men I have found that some of the husbands choose to ignore it altogether. Actually it isn’t just Cem but his family and close friends who have jumped on board and eagerly join in our celebrations. They enjoy the turkey, love the roast potatoes (not a common thing in Turkey) and are amazed by a cake that you make months (or at least weeks) in advance and feed with brandy.

Christmas is also made easier for me thanks to the hotel. Just as it made it easier to celebrate Turkish bayram with 28 members of Cem’s family, it enables us to have large numbers of people for dinner without too much stress. The kitchen is large, there are two ovens, no shortage of plates or cutlery and the mess can be left and cleared up the next day!

So, my preparations are nearly in place. I have tested a new recipe for chicken liver pate; hope it’s nice because I am taking some to some friends who we are seeing tonight. I have never made it before, but it doesn’t seem to be that difficult and with an Anthony Worral Thompson recipe you can’t – hopefully – go wrong! I have made my nut roast and it’s in the freezer. The remainder of the shopping can be done on Friday at the local farmers’ market.

I have bought and wrapped all but a couple of the presents, made a gingerbread house, knitted a few decorations and made a Santa suit for Kaan’s teddy. I think I have earned my Martha Stewart badge or - as my dear Canadian friend Fran says - my ‘Suzie homemaker’ points, for this year! Now I am going to sit back and enjoy a glass of wine and trust that by Saturday it will all be ready – and what isn’t ready, we’ll do without! I leave you with some thoughts about Santa…..Happy Christmas to you all!


From Saint Nicholas to Santa Claus

                                 Did you know Saint Nicholas was born in Patara, just a short way from Fethiye? He became bishop of nearby Myra and was known for his generosity in helping people in need. One of the stories tells of him providing dowries for girls from poor families by dropping sacks of gold through open doors and windows – making the gift anonymous.

After his death, pilgrims started to visit his tomb and many miracles were reported. He was made the patron saint of children, sailors and scholars and given the feast day of 6th January – still the main day for present-giving in some European countries.

His conversion from 3rd century Saint to the jovial red-robed character we know is the result of mass media and marketing during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In 1810, the New York Historical Society commissioned a picture of the first ‘American’ St Nicholas in which he appears as an amiable fatherly figure filling stockings hung over the fireplace.

In 1823, the famous poem ‘The Night Before Christmas’ was published, referring to Saint Nicholas as ‘a right jolly old elf’ who was ‘dressed all in fur’ and drove a ‘miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer’. Pictures showed him wearing a variety of styles and colours of dress, until the early twentieth century when illustrators started to favour the red fur-lined suit. Long-running advertisements for Coca-Cola, which began in 1931, also helped to make this the standard.

So what is left, among all the tinsel and fake snow, of the original Saint? The sacks of presents seem to mirror the sacks of gold he left, the candy canes could be a bishop’s crook and even the bags of chocolate money we buy for the children echo the legend of St Nicholas. Other connections may be more obscure so, for example, the way Santa Claus operates secretly under cover of darkness is similar to the way the Saint made his gifts anonymously. The story is a mixture of fact and fiction but Saint Nicholas is definitely a well-travelled Saint!

Floods in Çalış

So it seems we are now paying for all the glorious weather we have had until now! The weather has turned with a vengeance and the last few days have seen torrential rain together with cold.


Now some of you have seen how it can rain here! It doesn’t tend to mess around with that very British thing, drizzle. It pours down. And it has been doing so much of that in the last few days that Çalış was flooded on Tuesday. The channel near the beach was so high that some of the little jetties were washed away and many little boats sank. Even the more substantial water taxi jetty was lifted up onto the river bank.

storm coming in!

The drains on the road to the bridge couldn’t cope with the volume of water so the shops along that road were flooded and many lost stock. The channel that runs in front of Poppy overflowed its banks, pouring brown silty water and debris from further upstream into the gardens – and some houses - on the other side.

The hotel also flooded. Being low-lying, we have a system of drainage channels that funnel all the water from round the hotel towards one of two pumps which send it into the drainage system. Unfortunately, the power went off from 5am yesterday morning until about 1pm, which was enough time for the whole of the ground floor to be inundated. After the big flood several years ago, we are aware of the risk and remove much of the furniture from these rooms. Still there are always things that you forget, and we will have to wait until we have cleaned it all out to see just what we have lost.

The temperature change has been nearly as dramatic. I know those of you who have only seen Fethiye sweltering in 40 degree plus temperatures might find it hard to believe, but it really can be cold. The mountains behind the hotel (on the Antalya road) have a stunning cover of snow, while even Babadağ (‘Father Mountain’), the one the paragliders jump from, has a dusting on the summit. In Fethiye, snow is a very rare occurrence. The last time was 18 years ago, just before I came to live here, and everybody has photos to prove it.

The problem with the cold is not the actual temperature but the fact that the houses are designed to be cool in summer. Most of us don’t have central heating or wall-to-wall carpeting and many houses don’t even have damp-proofing. So, the Turkish insistence on wearing slippers round the house, which many foreigners find funny when they first move here, is actually very practical!

Cem, Yılmaz and a few helpers have been working for the last three days, pumping water out of the hotel with a diesel-powered pump that makes so much noise you can hear it half-way across Çalış! Then we will begin the job of cleaning up. I do admire the Turkish attitude in times like this which is just to get on with it. They are very fatalistic and seldom waste time complaining or asking ‘why me?’ So I’m trying to be more like them, though when it started to rain again this evening after a day of sunshine I was finding it a bit hard to be optimistic!

the clean-up at Poppy

'Doing' the tree

On Sunday, the Calis Carnival Fundraising Committee held the fourth Christmas Fair. It was a great occasion with locals and expats selling mostly hand-made items, from pickles and cakes to jewellery and cards. Santa arrived to hand out presents to the children and there were carols and some great mulled wine for the adults. The only damper was the weather - which picked that one day to pour down. Still, Brits have plenty of experience of coping with bad weather!


Having got in the Christmas spirit (and got some of the 'Christmas spirit' into us!) we - actually Cem - decided it was time to 'do' the tree. We have settled into a routine over the years. This starts with me (the only one with any patience) spending half an hour bending the tree back into shape after being squashed in the cupboard for a year, followed by Cem putting the lights on (obviously this is a sufficiently technical job to require a man!) The children then hang the decorations, pausing only to squabble about what should go where, after which I’m left to wrap tinsel round the barer sections.

This year, the routine was slightly modified due to a Fenerbahçe (football) match on the television, which meant that Cem did his light-hanging in record time and Kaan and I were abandoned to finish most of the decorating. Still, the finished effort makes me smile a goofy smile every time I pass it.

this year's tree

Now I know our tree would not win any ‘chicest tree’ award; nor do I want it to. For me, the Christmas tree is like a family monument and the odd assortment of things on it nearly all bring back memories.

So, there is my mother’s favourite decoration – a delicate crescent moon – which every year I unwrap with trepidation, knowing that one day I will find it in pieces. Then there are the Scandinavian wooden ornaments that a friend used to give me every Christmas back in the UK and which we added to on a trip to Finland a few years ago. There are some angels and reindeers which I made with the children with modelling clay and cookie cutters and there are even a couple of gold-sprayed pine cones that Emre and I collected and painted back in the days when tree decorations were hard to find in Fethiye. This year, Kaan and I have added to these with some knitted candy canes and a snowman.

And looking down on all of these is the oldest item of all. It doesn’t come close to the 124 year-old mini Christmas tree belonging to one English family I read about yesterday, but our fairy is as old as me. To other people she might be looking her age but to me she brings back the memories of forty-something Christmases.

The season isn't over

You might think that having closed the hotel for 2010, we are able to concentrate on getting bookings for next year. Unfortunately this is not quite the case as we are still struggling to get money from the agencies for this year’s guests.


Some of you will have heard me ranting about this before and I do apologize. But sometimes it gets so frustrating!

Firstly, many people are not aware that we have to wait until after they leave to get payment for their stay. This caused much aggro in July when Goldtrail Holidays went bust and guests were asked by hotels to pay for their stay. The guests were right in pointing out that they had already paid for their whole package; but the hotels were right too as they had not received any money from Goldtrail.

And when I say we get paid after guests have left, I am being generous. Our contract with one of the big companies says payment will be made thirty days after guests check-out but we are currently owed more than a third of the total money for this season. In order to receive this money, we have to keep pushing the local agent, who will use excuses like they are waiting for money to come from the UK.

Today, they made us mad by ‘billing’ us for their free rooms. These are rooms we agreed to allow them to use, free-of-charge, for a promotion. Having failed to use this opportunity, they are now trying to ‘reclaim’ money for a paying guest – money we haven’t even received yet!

One of the companies usually sends payment in the form of a cheque, post-dated for some time in the new year. This would be bad enough by itself, but they add insult to injury by leaving us to pay the postage on the cheque – an insignificant amount but still a pretty poor gesture.

What is the alternative? Working towards taking only direct bookings as we did in the first two years we had the hotel. We have started to get our website updated and will be looking for cost-effective ways to advertise. I used to put ads in all sorts of UK publications, from the Bolton Evening News to Private Eye magazine. These days, however, with so many people booking their holidays on the internet, I will look for other ways to attract new guests….