When
I left my job in London twenty-five years ago one of the things I was happy to
give up was the routine of an office job.
It’s a bit ironic then that in the last couple of weeks I’ve caught myself
longing for a dull, predictable day.
This is why...
You
probably heard about the earthquake that struck off the coast between Greece
and Turkey on 21 July. It measured 6.8
and was felt all along both coasts, most strongly in Bodrum and Kos, where two
people died and more were injured when the roof of a bar collapsed. After I posted a complaint on Facebook about
the reporting of the event it was suggested that I was downplaying it in order
to protect tourism; this was certainly not the case. However I still don’t see how
sensationalising (ie. lying about) the circumstances of the deaths shows
respect. For me the most significant
fact, sadly ignored by many locals as well as most of the press, was that in an
earthquake of this strength (on the Moment scale used to measure earthquakes, 6
is described as ‘moderate, may cause damage in populated areas’ and 7 is
described as ‘strong earthquake with loss of life') there were so little damage
and so few casualties. This shows that
building regulations have been successful in raising the standard of
construction.
On
a more local scale, there was drama at Poppy a few days later when the cleaner
and her assistant fell out. I heard the
shouting, but thought it was coming from next door and by the time I realised where
it was actually coming from, quite a few of the guests were enjoying the
entertainment! Luckily we found a new
assistant cleaner very quickly and she is working out better than I could have
hoped.
The
following week, there was more excitement when Emre had to jump into the pool
to save a Turkish boy. That same evening
we had a visit from the Health Department to say that a Turkish guest who
stayed one night at Poppy early in July had died the following week from
malaria. Though he had contracted it in
Nigeria where he had been working, a team came out from Mugla (2 hours away) to
take blood from all of us to make sure we weren’t infected!
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| Poppy is NOT impressed! |
Then
last week, it was the police who turned up at the hotel. The new security system into which we are
required to enter the details of all guests had identified one – barely an hour
after he had arrived and within minutes of us entering him into the system – as
an army avoider. I had visions of him
being dragged out of the hotel but actually they just gave him a paper and told
him to go to his local recruitment office when he got home.
Just
when I thought it was calming down, we had a family of 14 arrive in an old
Peugeot minibus (ex dolmus). I asked
Kaan to keep an eye on the children who got straight in the pool with arm bands
on but half an hour later it was a lady and a teenage girl that we had to
rescue from the pool – only ten in the morning and I had to go home to change
my sopping wet clothes.
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| Abidin the crow |
In
addition to this, we have been enjoying the attentions of a very naughty crow
that someone has tamed but which has decided to hang around the hotel. Cem has named him Abidin and been putting
videos of him on Facebook. He steals
cigarettes from packets, pecks at clothes hanging on balconies and squawks
loudly at anyone who dares to tell him off.
And today two kittens have turned up in the garden – very cute and quite
healthy-looking but Poppy has already had her nose put out by the crow and
Mischa chased them up a tree today and the boys had to rescue them.
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| cute kitties looking for a home |
Thankfully,
through all this madness we have had some great guests, friends and family
staying at the mad house and keeping us laughing. But you will understand why I am beginning to
hope for drama-free days!
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| The peace and tranquility of Calis! |
