Van Earthquake

I’m sure you have all read about the latest earthquake in Turkey. It struck last Sunday in the region of Van on the east side of Turkey. It measured 7.2 and was at a relatively shallow depth of 20km, meaning it caused a huge amount of damage.


Today the death toll stands at over 500 and over 1000 injured, while thousands of buildings have been destroyed and tens of thousands left homeless.

But it is the individual stories in the news that bring tears to my eyes. Although most of them are sad, there are also some amazing stories, like that of the two week old (premature) baby who survived for 3 days in her mother’s arms. Squashed into a small space and holding her daughter to keep her warm, this mother fed her until her milk dried up and then used her own saliva to keep her from dehydrating – a mother’s protective instinct. The baby is doing very well and both will make a full recovery, though who knows what psychological effects this woman will suffer.


Baby Azra

 Another one who will wonder if she is lucky or unlucky is the teacher who was stuck for 8 hours in the rubble of the 1999 İzmit earthquake. In Turkey, government employees are often sent to the eastern regions to work and this lady was sent to Van. She was caught again in this earthquake, again trapped under the rubble but again pulled out alive, this time after a day or so.

And then there are the tragic stories of the mother (also a teacher), found dead with her 8-month old son in her arms and buried with him. And the little boy waiting every day by the remains of an apartment block, hoping they will find his mother alive.

I can’t imagine what it feels like to be trapped under steel and concrete for hours, let alone days. Although I have felt lesser earthquakes here, I can’t imagine what it feels like to be in a building that is shaking so much you can’t find your way to the stairs, or make your way down them. I can’t imagine what it feels like to lose everything you own in a few seconds or worse, to be waiting and hoping your family will be pulled out alive.

The rescue operation and aid operations are continuing and also contains good and bad stories. When I watched the people in İstanbul rushing to donate blankets, beds, clothes and other necessities I thought how relatively little many of these people have but how willing they are to donate it to those less fortunate. But one of the army vehicles carrying aid in the area was attacked by terrorists which is disgusting.

I’m off home now to sort out some things for the aid operation. If you would like to help these people, you can log on to www.redcross.org.uk where these is a Turkish Earthquake Appeal.

The end is near

The weather has reminded us that we are nearing the end of the season by pouring with rain for three days.  It started on Sunday with threatening black clouds all day.  It didn’t really get going until the evening, about 7 o’clock, when it rained and blew such a gale that the rain was coming down sideways, pushing its way under doors.  Monday and Tuesday were pretty miserable but by Wednesday it was clearing up and now it’s beautiful and bright again, a bit over 20 degrees.

Last Saturday I had my first trip on the boat, Suntrap, and my last swim of the year.  We went out with the boys and a friend in the afternoon, swimming and fishing just off Red Island where they caught a couple of good-sized ‘palamut’ (mackerel), then going into Aquarium Bay where we moored up for a while.  As we came back in to Fethiye it was getting dark and it was so cosy on the boat with the lights on and the lights shining across from the town.  Next summer I think people will really enjoy going out for days – and even staying overnight in quiet bays- especially after Cem has made the improvements he is planning to the boat.

I have started giving more lessons and am taking on new students for the winter.  Murat laughed the other day when he listened to me give the same lesson to three different sets of students in one day.  Actually, I still enjoy it and am happy with the course and the material I have put together over the last few years.  The two sets of new students who have started in the last few weeks say they are already feeling more confident than they were with the lessons they have tried before – which is a good sign.

We have also finally had success in making a contract with Hotels4u for next year.  After calling us to the office TWICE and not being there, the contracts manager (very apologetic) came to the hotel and made a contract which gets rid of some of the things we were not happy about – particularly the early booking discount.

The hotel is very quiet now, with just a couple of rooms in (and Kenny) and three more arrivals.  I have been busy sorting out the photos from this summer (what a job!) and thought I would put on some of the prize ones….

Frank and Andy

2 angels?

Grant's birthday

Jan's birthday - the gang on the balcony

Murat, Nilgün & co ready for the foam party

Happy Birthday 'slim-ed'!

Another 50th!

So...we had a party to celebrate Paul’s fiftieth birthday last week and it turned out that two other guests had birthdays that day!  It was a great night, with belly dancer and the fire show again.  Cem was manning the barbecue as usual, I was in the kitchen and Murat and the boys in the bar.  Thankfully, all our friends turn up when they can to help – namely Durmus, who is nearly a permanent fixture here, Hakan the boat captain (more about that later) and our friendly taxi driver Veli (known to some as ‘deli Veli’ or ‘mad Veli’), who came along to have a drink with Cem but got stuck in carrying plates and serving drinks!

Here are Verena and Paul cutting their cakes...pity you can't see the pictures on them but they were good ones!

 The Peeters family from Netherlands, who have been staying with us for many years, left this week after a busy holiday including jeep safari, boat trip, diving and more. From this weekend, for the first time since early June, the hotel is down to half occupancy and most of the guests are relaxing and enjoying the gorgeous weather (sunny and warm but not scorching).  However, rather unusually, we also have three rooms of lads who are here to party.  One of them had a bad start to his holiday when the police brought him back on his first night (after rescuing him from wherever he had passed out) and his girlfriend ‘attacked’ him on their second night here.  Anyway they have calmed down a bit and the only problem is that they tend to be a bit loud in the early hours when the rest of the hotel is sleeping.

We have a boat!  Cem has taken over ownership of a 12m wooden boat set up for day trips.  He assures me it will pay for itself next year, but at the moment he is busy planning all the improvements he wants to make to it.  It has two cabins, a sundeck and a ‘fly deck’ on the top and is licensed to take up to 12 people on day trips.  It is a nice boat, though I have yet to go out on it.  Kaan has taken to spending his lunchtimes on it (when it is not out on a trip), ‘hanging out’ with the captain!

And finally, Cem and I were hopping mad yesterday with hotels4u and the agency that represent them here.  They called on Tuesday morning and asked us to go to their offices to make next year’s contract.  We agreed to go there at 1 – and duly turned up at that time to be told they were waiting for the contract manager to come from Bodrum.  We made a new time of 3 and went into Fethiye to have some lunch, during which they called to say it would be better if we made a new appointment for yesterday (Wednesday).  We dashed there yesterday at the arranged time of 1 (between my 12o’clock and 2 o’clock lessons), only to be looked at as if we were mad and told the team were visiting hotels in Ovacık.

To me, this shows either a complete lack of respect for us or total incompetency on their part.  I am still deciding which, and waiting to see if they come to the hotel as we have refused to go there again!