We have had an interesting couple of
weeks since I last posted. The carnival
went off with good weather – the procession a little disappointing I thought
but the concert was a big hit. The week before last Emre had his graduation party. Here is the ‘before’ photo – looking very
smart in the new gear he chose. I wanted
to post the ‘after’ photo of a line of sleeping bodies on the sun beds – still
dressed in their glad rags - that greeted me when I arrived at the hotel on
Tuesday morning, but I haven’t managed to transfer it from the phone so you
will just have to imagine how funny they looked – all strapping lads with
facial hair, snuggled up one next to the other!
Emre also had the first of his two
exams yesterday for which we had to go to Muğla. It is about 2 hours drive and we went in a
minibus with a friend of Cem’s whose daughter was sitting the same exam, Grant,
Dawn, Kaan ….We left at half past six and it was hot already. Muğla was hotter and crowded with road works
– not to mention a few thousand cars bringing examinee causing huge traffic
jams. I don’t know about Emre but I was
seriously stressed – so much that I had my first swim in the pool (of this
year) when we got back about 3. Emre
said the exam went OK. I am just thinking
that we have to do it all over again next Sunday!
Other news that you may have heard
whisper of…we had a significant earthquake here last Sunday. Cem’s family had all come to visit and I was
making tea in the big urn but as I came up towards it I couldn’t understand why
it was jumping around before I had even turned it on…then I realised that the
whole bar was shaking. I have felt
plenty of tremors before but the centre of this one was quite close – off
Oludeniz at 19km down. It didn’t last
particularly long, though there were other small tremors and aftershocks for
the next couple of days. It was a bit
alarming for people who have never experienced it before, even though it is
actually a good thing to have these small and frequent ‘adjustments’ as it
stops pressure building up.
At home, where Emre was, a few
things fell over/off shelves and he was so worried about us that he ran all the
way from home to hotel barefoot – not very far but as those of you who have
walked on our road will appreciate his feet were in a bit of a state! I was also impressed when the neighbours
(English) said he shot out the door and ran off, then ran back to ask them if
they were OK. Actually in the hotel
nothing even fell over so we feel happy that our ‘mushroom foundation’ (special
for earthquake zones) is doing what is should.
Last night was also a night to
remember as a super strong HOT wind suddenly blew in out of nowhere, battered
us for a couple of hours, then blew away as fast as it had come. The electric was off for half an hour or so
and it was very warm with no fans or a/c, but there was no damage here, just a
lot of garden debris in the pool (clean and sparkling again now).
We have been following the UEFA 2012
tournament and it’s been quite lively in the bar – particularly of course for
the England
matches for which we have been getting the barbie out. The hotel is full now and we have had more
lovely guests and lots of laughs with Frank here. The boys and I go to UK next Monday but with
our super new cleaners, Murat, Hasan and Cem in charge I am confident that all
will be fine at Poppy!
