Yes – we have
officially started our winter season, though you wouldn’t guess it from the
weather which after a few wobbly days is back to being glorious.
The last guests
left on the 25th October and Kenny left on 26th. However it didn’t immediately quieten down as
Cem’s family were down for the bayram holiday (known as Eid in the UK) – 15
staying at the hotel and another 10 or 12 visiting. They were here partly to celebrate the
holiday but also because one of his cousins was getting married on 28th. This is a busy season for weddings in Fethiye
as people take advantage of the good weather.
There are few indoor wedding venues and even fewer that can accommodate
the several hundred people invited to most weddings.
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| some of the family! |
I went shopping
for gold with Cem’s mum – you probably know that rather than buying ‘presents’
they usually pin gold or money on the bride and groom. However even I hadn’t seen the latest way of
buying it. Traditionally the gold was
either bangles (village women particularly like to wear these to display their
wealth – though they can also be cashed in at the jewellers any time) or
sovereign-type gold coins, which can also be traded in for money any time. The new version is a credit-card sized piece
of plastic, with a piece of 24 carat gold (that is 100% pure gold) of your
chosen weight- one gram, 5
grams and up. I
suppose it is practical but not very romantic – I prefer the old system of gold
sovereigns myself.
As well as
having a lot of guests, I had temporary charge of 4 alsation pups – the cutest
things you can imagine but requiring a lot of feding and cleaning up
after. I nicknamed them the ants as they
swarmed around my legs whenever I went out to them, making it hard to even fill
their food bowls without stepping on them.
They finally went to their new homes on Friday.
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| how cute are we? |
I still have
Poppy the dog – the puppy who walked into the hotel in September and decided
not to leave. She is now living at home,
growing fast, playing rough-and-tumble all day with Holly, though she won’t follow
Holly into the sea when she goes swimming.
She is still very gangly and quite clumsy, falling over her own feet
quite often.
And then there
is Poppy the cat (named by guests) who we have renamed Zeytin (meaning
olive). Some of you know that despite
being not 6 months old and not fully-grown herself she has been expecting
kittens. The last couple of weeks she
looked as though she had swallowed a football and was waddling round,
especially walking up and down the stairs.
However she is
now back to her slimline self since as I arrived this morning she started to
give birth. I held her paw as she pushed
out first one and a bit later a second black and ginger stripey baby – just
checked again and there are three! She seems to be doing her motherly duties in
washing and feeding them, despite being so young herself.
Apart from
that, it’s been pretty quite round here!!
