Back to reality

So - had a great time in Canada (even though Fran did make me go to the gym nearly every day!)  While there, we did a lot of searching to try to find a moose for a friend who loves them.  Now, you would think that finding a moose in Canada was easy – not a real one, I don’t know how easy that is, but a soft toy or an ornament or something - but amazingly we spent a week looking every time we went anywhere and couldn’t find a moose; you could say we went on a wild moose chase!  Beavers there were plenty of (joking aside – it’s their national animal) and bears and deer but NO MOOSE – or rather the few that we saw were the size of a small child and would never have fitted in the case.  Finally, a friend of Fran’s kindly joined in the search and came up with this hockey-playing moose. 

After that, of course, there were moose everywhere.  But the cutest thing – a real animal this time – were the chipmunks which raced around everywhere so fast that I couldn’t get a picture of them...so here’s one I downloaded!

(By the way, Wikipedia lists the UK's national animals as: British bulldogs, Barbary lions, Mute swans, Red kites, Unicorns and Dragons - so 2 birds, 2 mythical animals and one that doesn't live in the country?!)

I arrived back from Canada last Tuesday after a journey of almost 24 hours door-to-door (not counting the 7 hours’ time difference).  I was prepared for stricter security after the awful events in Paris but there wasn’t an obvious increase. 

My biggest difficulty was packing my case.  Usually it is me laughing at guests who have bought too many things and are trying to squeeze them into a bulging case – and worrying about the excess baggage duties; this time it was me!  I borrowed a larger suitcase from Fran – but then I went shopping again and had more to squeeze in.  Having just about managed to close it by a joint effort, I then managed to drop it on my foot which is only just recovering – not surprising as when I weighed it at the airport I found it was 30kg!  We did a quick rearranging and put a few bits into my cabin bag but the heaviest items were several bottles of maple syrup which I couldn’t move as it would have been confiscated.  In the end, I just sucked it up and paid the excess baggage, telling myself I have still saved money on some of the things AND I have done most of my Christmas shopping!

Since I got back, the weather has been amazing.  You could have got a suntan – you could have got sunBURNT – the last few days.  Friends in the UK have not appreciated me sharing this news with them (Grant especially) as I gather it has been pretty miserable over there.  Don’t worry - it is due to change here this week but you can’t blame us for making the most of it!

I have started giving Turkish lessons again.  It’s been a longer break than usual this summer – almost 6 months – which makes it hard not just for the students to get back into it but for the teacher too!  Still once I do, I enjoy it.  I have several new groups starting and I am also hoping to set up some conversation classes as the hardest thing is often getting people to actually use what they learn outside of lessons.  While this will still be a lesson situation it will give people a chance to practice and hopefully give them more confidence to do the same outside.

Sunset yesterday

from Canada

So, here I am in Canada!

The journey over last Friday was not nearly as grim as I had expected – I was pretty good on all the flights and the time actually went quite quickly.  The worst part was in Heathrow where I would actually have missed the connection if they hadn't sent a girl to ‘fast track’ me from one gate to the other.  The connection time was 1 hour 20 mins but with congestion causing delays to both take-off from Istanbul and landing in Heathrow, we eventually landed about 40 mins late.  Then it took another 10 mins or so for them to open the doors and for everybody in front of me to finish getting their bags and doddering about – leaving me about 30 mins until take-off and it clearly said that the gate would be closed 15 mins before take-off time.  

Anyway, with my fast-track guide I galloped through the airport – through another passport check, more security scanners, onto a little train and got there with about a minute and a half to spare.  The worst thing?...they hadn’t sealed the bag of duty free that I had bought in Istanbul so it was taken off me in Heathrow.  I wasn’t happy.

my first ever selfie!

I haven’t seen Fran, the friend I have come here to visit, for 9 years and obviously we have both changed a lot because we managed to walk past each other!  But we did finally meet up and it is so good to see her and her family.  We have been calling other rogues we used to work with in London too.

She lives in a small town near Toronto.  We have been out and about a bit, though it is not a particularly touristy place.  The weather has been quite mixed – glorious autumn days and gray and rainy, getting quite cold yesterday.

wolf statue at Crawford Lake

On Monday, one of the lovely days, we went to a woodland area with a lake, saw some Iroquois long houses and hiked through the wood – see pictures.

Crawford Lake

On Wednesday we went to a gallery that has a lot of Canadian art.  There were some great pictures and I learned about some of their most famous artists.  There was also an art ‘installation’ in the garden which was very modern and possibly very meaningful but went quite over my head (as Fran said, very ‘Tate Modern’)

Tom Thompson painting

Yesterday we went into Toronto to the Royal Ontario Museum.  We saw an exhibition about Pompeii  and then the Canadian and First Nation (Indian) rooms.  It was a lovely day, though not without its challenges.  First, we couldn’t find the metro station and drove around for a while (Fran has – by her own admission – the worst sense of direction in the world and it’s quite amazing that she ever gets anywhere!), then we couldn’t get in to the car park because both the machines at the entrance were out of order ; after driving round for a bit and failing to find anywhere else to park we returned and found they were now working, paid our 5 dollars to get in and then couldn’t find a space.  Eventually we gave up and parked in a corner of the car park, praying all day that the car wouldn’t be towed  and got back to find it was still there – but had a flat battery!  Luckily Fran has jump leads and found a very nice young lady who brought her car over so we could jump start Fran’s.  After she’d gone, we collapsed in howls of laughter until we were crying:  could anything else really have happened.  Later, when I learned that yesterday was Friday 13^th, it made more sense!

Election week and I'm off!

There was a general election in Turkey yesterday.  It was the second one this year, the first being in June and leaving the winning party – the one that has been in power since 2002 - without enough of a majority to form a government.  As none of the other parties would enter a coalition, they had no choice but to call a second election.

The result?  They took more votes – up from 41% to only just under 50% - and enough seats to form a government.  Not in the Mugla region though (the area that includes Fethiye, Marmaris and Bodrum) where the CHP (Republican People’s Party) increased their vote to 48% which I think is the highest of any region.

One of the amazing things is the turnout.  In both elections, this has been over 85% - compared to 66% at the 2015 UK elections.  The last time there was a turnout of over 80% in the UK was the 1950s!  But people here are interested and passionate and even when they know the result won’t be the one they want, they still see voting as a right and a duty.  At the school where we voted, this was obvious: families came carrying children and cars pulled up at the door bringing the sick and elderly to vote.

Halloween cupakes

Halloween (see pictures) means the summer season has finished.  The last guests left yesterday which meant for the first time in six months my alarm didn’t go off at 6 this morning.  Needless-to-say I am back in the hotel now, sorting things out and putting things away.

It has been a good season for us – thankyou to all who visited Poppy!  The only difference I noticed was that there weren’t so many families in peak season – presumably because of fears over security.  The guests who come early and late in the summer are mostly regulars who know the situation and are less influenced by media scare-mongering.

Halloween a few years ago (the boys will hate me for this!)

I am hopeful too for next season, barring any further international crises.  We have already signed contracts with Hotels4u and Alpharooms.  The other agency that we have been working with, who shall remain nameless, have so far only paid for May and June’s guests and as we have had this problem with them for the last two years I am not very keen to re-sign. We are also on Booking.com site which has the benefit that control of price, availability and booking terms are all in our hands and can be changed instantly.  Sometimes it is a juggling act trying to fill the hotel but not be overbooked, especially when reservations are coming in from several sources and the agencies require a couple of days’ notice to stop selling.

Anyway I don’t have to worry about this for a few months.  Now that the season has finished, we have started to take in monthly renters, mostly Turkish people who are working in Fethiye.  One group are running an illegal ‘gambling den’ where they play – wait for it – bingo!!  Unlike the Mecca Bingo Hall, it is drawing mostly male clientele and opens from about 10 at night until 3 in the morning.  The way they talk, you would think they had invented the game, but as a novelty here (previously, as I have mentioned before, bingo was something that children played on New Year’s Eve) it is apparently very popular.  Who would have guessed!

view of Fethiye from the rock tomb

And finally - I am leaving the country (but not because of the election results!)  I am going to Canada to visit a friend and I am so excited about it.  We used to work together in London but since she moved back to her native Toronto with her husband and son I haven’t seen her.  We are not even very good at keeping in touch with mails and skype –life just seems too busy sometimes.  So, wish me luck for the ridiculously long flight – actually 3 flights each way (and some of you know how much I hate flying!) and if I don’t manage to post while I’m out there, I will be back…..