Having smugly thought that I had completed my duties in the fields of present-buying and cake-baking, while taking down the Christmas tree I suddenly remembered it was Kaan’s birthday that following week. I really don’t recommend having a baby in January – it just seems such a lot of effort to go to so soon after Christmas and New Year! And I always feel guilty because Emre’s birthday is in August and there are plenty of people around to help celebrate with him.
Oh well, Kaan is stuck with us, grandma and a couple of friends. I made him a cake and – despite him telling Grant he got nothing – he got a mask for diving and a few other bits and pieces. He is thirteen now – a teenage in training. I hope he doesn’t learn too well, though he has the best teacher in Emre!
School holidays begin here this Friday but we decided to go away before the holiday as we wanted to go skiing and it gets expensive and busy when school is out. We looked at lots of options including Bulgaria and Macedonia but finally decided to try Uludag – the oldest and probably best-known ski resort in Turkey.
Uludag is near Bursa, abou 200km south of Istanbul. We drove there – a journey of about 650km which we did through the night, arriving there at about 9 in the morning, It might seem like a long journey but it isn’t especially long for Turkey where people jump in the car and drive from Fethiye to Istanbul without much thought or planning. Also away from the major cities there is a lot less on the roads than there is in the UK and the roads have improved hugely in the twenty years I have been here.
So, we drove slowly up the road from Bursa into the mountains, stopping for breakfast and to put chains on the tyres on the way. We arrived and found the weather was a bit extreme – overcast and strong winds but plenty of snow. The resort was not as big as I had imagined – though there are plenty of runs – and the hotel we had picked was just 50m or so from the nearest lift.
The weather was not perfect, with fierce winds at the top of the mountain (actually blew me along the terrace of the cafe) and a near-blizzard on Saturday; of course on Sunday when we only had a half-day skiing it cleared up and the sky was a brilliant blue. But it didn’t stop us skiing and we were all happy to get on the slopes again after several years. The boys leave Cem and I behind now – but any of you who have facebook have seen that from the photos Cem put on!
We got back to Fethiye on Monday and the weather has been all over the place this week. There was a big storm on Thursday night. The awning from the front of BusStop bar blew off, damaging the wall it was bolted on to and putting a hole in the roof where it landed! We went to the hotel at 4am but everything was OK there. They have actually given flood warnings again for tonight. As we still haven’t quite got our claim together for the last flood I really don’t want another one!
