Holidaying at home

I feel as though I have been on holiday again – in Çalış, Fethiye.  My lovely friend has been out here with her two beautiful daughters.  We have known each other since we were 18 (just a short time ago!) and though we only see each other these days for a few days a year – sometimes not even that – we have managed to stay close.

playing with my new camera! - panoramic shot of POPPY

 Last time they came out here was about 10 years ago and the girls were still quite young. Now they are 18 and nearly 17 so it has been nice to show them around properly and for them, like discovering a whole new place. 

We went diving last week.  They hadn’t really been planning it but when I suggested it they were keen and they turned out to be naturals!  The girls both did their skills so they can add to that and do their PADI open water diver course if they want to.  It was a lovely lazy day with about 10 beginners on the boat and a couple of people doing courses – so different from last year when the ‘experienced’ divers on the boat drove me demented with their non-stop-and-very-loud stories about ‘When I was diving in Sharm….blah blah blah!’

Morning talk on European Diving Centre boat as we head out to dive sites

 We also spent a day at the Surf Café in Çalış.  For those who want a sandy beach this is better than the main bit of the beach as there is sand – and sunbeds, umbrellas and a man to bring drinks and food!  It is also nice to watch people kite-surfing, sailing and generally being active.   The most active we got was late in the afternoon when we moved to the bar area and lay on large cushions with some cocktails!

On Sunday we had a Turkish bath and massage, then a lovely meal at MOD in the marina in Fethiye but the major event on Sunday was the boat actually went back in the water – hooray!!  Even better, it floated and took in very little water;  there can be a problem with wooden boats when they have been out of the water for while – the wood shrinks and cracks open.  Anyway, the new improved SUNTRAP has now been refitted with its overhauled engine and is ready to take us out for a little trip this afternoon.

SUNTRAP just before it slid went into the water

 And on Monday we went to Ölüdeniz.  Whilst I agree that Ölü is a stunningly beautiful place, I am a little deterred by the crowds and the crush of sunbeds and umbrellas.  Still, when we got out on the lagoon in a pedallo (girls) and canoe (Kaan) the water was gorgeous and the ‘rock’ that I tried to steer to avoid turned out to be a turtle who swam round us for a while.

sunset at the beach last night

 Last night we had a meal at Şat – the restaurant situated on the point looking across to Fethiye.  Since it opened about 5 years ago is has been through several owners and various incarnations.  Finally, it seems that somebody has got it sorted and everything was very good from the menu to the service, the music to the food.  On evenings like that, watching the sun set over a silvery sea and the lights come on across the bay I remember why I fell in love with this place.  It’s so easy to forget how lovely it is but I don’t often get time to ‘holiday’ here any more!

Poyraz returns

Murat clearing leaves from the pool - look at the palm tree being blown about

The poyraz wind which comes at this time every year blowing hot air off the land (unlike our normal breeze which brings cooler air off the sea) started yesterday morning.  It is roasting – over 50 in the sun today – some of the lads were keen to try cooking an egg on the marble round the pool!  I feel especially sorry for anybody who is trying to fast for Ramazan; I am not usually very good at drinking water – I mean I can’t drink it very cold or very fast and I have to really push myself to make sure I drink the minimum requirements but in current conditions even I am drinking continuously.  Those fasting are not allowed to eat or drink (or smoke cigarettes – this being the hardest for many turks) from sunrise to sunset – approximately 16 hours at the moment.

visiting family members

It was Emre’s birthday last week – seventeen.  Scary to think that in the UK he could now be in charge of a car!  Luckily here the minimum age is 18.  We didn’t make a lot of his birthday.  I made a cake and iced it (at 7 o’clock one morning) but we didn’t even find time to cut it until the next day!  He wants to do his PADI advanced diving course so we are going to arrange this for his present.

He also decided last week not to make applications to uni this year but to have another go at the exam next year.  Hopefully he will find something he wants to do and be a bit more motivated to get the points necessary for it.  He won’t have the ‘distraction’ of school – funny as it sounds the university entrance exams happen here rather separate to school things.  He will be going again to a crammer college where they focus just on these exams.  At the moment he is busy trying to learn to juggle with five balls – he is good at 3 and 4 but finding 5 harder.  In London he wanted me to buy him a unicycle.  Perhaps we should just send him off to the circus?!

They had a few good nights in the bar last week.  This week is a little quieter but we also seem to have a lot of ‘youngsters’ around – some on their own some with families but after initially eyeing each other up they are now all getting along!  Yesterday evening they were delighted to learn that Burger King out here delivers…Emre had to order in for about ten of them (all the lovely Turkish food and I am enabling people to eat fast food rubbish – it hurts me!!)

OK - I know what the ones on the floor are doing but what are the other two twits up to?

 I have done very little work today – I admit it.  I expressed an interest in researching my family history a little to one of my guests last week and she very kindly showed me the site she has used and got me started.  And it’s addictive – I went on this morning and I haven’t quite managed to close it yet.  I know more about my father’s family – grandparents and great grandparents already than I ever did before (it should be stressed that I started from a VERY low level).  Being able to see the census information and the actual marriage register from the church brings it all alive – though it does make some things hard to read.  But I’m going to have to make myself leave it until winter time or I will be neglecting my duties….

Cool in the pool

It's not quite as hot as last week, but very sticky.  The best place to be in this weather is the pool, which is freezing since we emptied and refilled it yesterday.  It doesn’t stop the kids though, and under this sun it will be back to more reasonable temperatures by tomorrow.

Kaan and Matt in the pool

The pool was also the venue for a ‘dive show’ this week when divers from European Diving Centre came to give people a chance to try SCUBA diving.  They had a lot of takers this week including two children of seven and nine who are too young to dive in the sea but did a tour of the pool with so much confidence that they both got a round of applause when they came up!  There was also a guest who had always wanted to try scuba diving and thought he wouldn’t have a chance after he had a heart attack a few years ago; needless-to-say he was very happy.  

Sarah getting ready to try SCUBA

 Sarah and Matt who have had more than 20 holidays to Çalış (at Poppy since 2000) had never tried SCUBA before.  They had a go and loved it so much they went out on the boat the next day to experience ‘real’ diving in the sea with the fish.  They loved this too and have plenty of photos of their great day out.

Turkish Night on Friday was good fun.  There were about 35 people for the barbecue and others who came just to join in the dancing. The belly dancer is one who has been before and is good at getting people up to join in and enjoy; as with most of them, she does a little routine that involves blindfolding and playing a little game with one of the men.  However this time she was the one to get a surprise when one of the guests (who celebrated his sixteenth birthday with a cake in the bar this week) came out in his mankini - a la Borat.

Roger having a GOOD time!

 The good news is we finally received payment for May’s guests, which was handy as we had a rather huge electricity bill come in yesterday.  Even accounting for all the a/c units, fridges, pool filters etc. over £400 for 10 days seems a bit excessive.  We are going to query it but without much hope as last time we did that the electricity board agreed the metre wasn’t working properly and made us pay to change it – but also made us pay the inflated bill!

We also signed a contract with one of the agencies for next summer.  This was relatively hassle-free.  Two glamorous and very positive ladies came to do the new contract; they even decided to change the listing of Poppy on their website from two to three-star (apartments are not included in the official star rating so it is a company rating).  However while we were discussing business in general one of them said she manages contracts across fifteen countries and she has learned that properties with less than 100 rooms and especially those offering self-catering accommodation just don’t make money.

That’s why I shudder when the electric bill comes in!

HOW HOT???!!

Back in a VERY hot Turkey – temperatures late 40s and up to 50 (110 to 120 ish – or damned hot!)  Still, our good old Çalış breeze is doing its best to cool us down and there is always the pool – or a cold Efes.

Everything seems to have gone smoothly while we were away.  I came back with a lovely British cold which has made me snuffle and sneeze my way through the first through days but I seem to have got on top of the washing, the paperwork and the bookings already – much better than I managed last time we went away.

boys in Fletching, Sussex where I grew up

Here are a few grumbles…!  Hotels4u have acknowledged our May account but not quite got round to paying it yet.  I thought it would be better this year as they are paying us directly in the UK rather than through the local agent here – but it seems my hopes were misplaced!  As this left me a bit short of money, Cem transferred some from the bank here using internet banking.  Is this not virtually instantaneous in the UK?  Well, not between countries.  He transferred it last Monday and when I checked this morning – a full 8 days and 6 working days later it still hadn’t gone through.  We really need to chase it up - he could have driven to the UK with the money by now – but I’m sure the bank here will say they sent it and it is the intermediary bank that is the problem.  I hate banks!

Back at the hotel, two things are causing me stress and it appears there is nothing I can do about them.  The first is the drains.  Most people know that the drains in Turkey are a bit temperamental but our pipes have always been pretty good and can handle reasonable amounts of toilet paper.  However they cannot cope with wet wipes (virtually indestructible), sanitary towels (made to absorb water and expand) or some of the other things that people attempt to dispose of down the toilet.  Before I left I put notices in all the bathrooms explaining this but we had another – thankfully small – problem the other day after somebody flushed a WHOLE toilet roll down the toilet.  What can you do?

The other problem is the linen.  We demoted a lot of towels and sheets this year to the rag bin and I spent approx £500 on new linen.  However a lot of this is already spoiled by stains which do not come out.  Some of them are sun cream – I think it is mostly the all-day creams and particularly P20 which leave ugly yellow stains on the sheets, pillow cases and towels.  But someone had also used a brand new towel the other day to mop up hair dye.  I wonder if they would appreciate being given a towel with dark brown stains all over it?_  Of course not, but of course they also don’t think like this.

a wet afternoon in Camden, London

However I’m trying to stay chilled after our lovely holiday. A lot of places are complaining that business is down – my sister was even advised that she would get a good deal in Kalkan as the hotels were so desperate for business – but we are pretty full and I have just had to stop sales for the middle of September.  Now if we could just get paid….!

UK tour

The boys and I have been over in the UK for 10 days now.  Our departure was a bit fraught as Emre had his second exam on the Sunday morning in Muğla, we had a barbecue on in the evening and I had been so busy getting things ready in the hotel that I hadn’t had time to pack.  Add to this the fact that I hate flying and Emre had left his ID card somewhere and only realised as we were leaving the house for the airport (where we use in place of a Turkish passport) and you will understand why I was hyperventilating and overdosing on kalms by the time we were ready to fly.

Actually the flight was fine, but my trial was not over as we then flew over to Germany for 3 days with my cousin who lives near Dortmund.  That was very nice…especially spending time with her twin boys who are nearly 4 and very sweet.

Since being back in the UK we have been mostly in Kent where my sister, various cousins and friends live. The weather has been drizzly but pretty warm.  The only thing it has spoiled was a surprise I had organized for Emre the other day – a flying lesson from a little airport near my sister’s house.  Unfortunately rain stopped play but we are hoping to squeeze it in before we leave.

Kaan on a bike ride

 That is easier said than done as our 3 weeks suddenly seem not nearly long enough.  We have a rental car (with satnav – how cool is that, no more looking at maps!) and spent yesterday driving round the beautiful area of Sussex where I grew up.  We even stopped at what used to be my mum’s farm shop and when I admitted that I was having a nose, the current owner was lovely and we had a chat about the history of the place and which of the old neighbours are still around.

Emre 'levitating' Lulu!

We are currently with Deb and Tom (who had second kidney transplant 8 weeks ago but is doing very well), driving up to Oxford today to see other uncle, then up to Blackpool where Kaan is insisting on going back to the Pleasure Beach (more sitting on benches for me and Grant).  After that we have a couple of days in London, leaving only next friday back in Kent before we fly home.

I am sure Cem, Murat and co are coping fine in the hotel but by the time we return it will be the frenzy of high season with 80 guests and everyone flopped round the pool as it’s too hot to do much.  That is great – but it’s always a bit of a shock when I first return and haven’t got back into my routines.  For now though I’m going to forget about that about enjoy my holiday…the sun is even doing its best today so we might have a good drive up to Oxford.

Kaan and Tommy - playing Xbox of course!

Panic Attack

I am beginning to get twitchy now.  The boys and I will leave the hotel about 11 tonight for flight to UK at 2am.  I am stressed because I am not really ready – have sorted most of the stuff in the hotel and left lists of things that the others will need to do in my absence – but I haven’t even decided which case to take and as for packing – it will happen sometime between tea with Cem’s mum this afternoon and starting the barbecue tonight.

I am also stressed because I don’t like flying.  This is something which surfaced in my late twenties – around the time I had children and has got worse since. Actually, if you saw me for most of the flight you would think I was pretty calm and even a bit of turbulence once we are up doesn’t bother me too much but I LOATHE take off.  Funnily enough I have a guest in the hotel at the moment and she is just the same.  We were discussing how paranoid we get at any changes in engine noise, how bad we feel when the plane banks, how we get so tense you would think we were flying the plane!  I have tried web sites that describe what is happening when the sounds change or the pilot does certain things and they do help for a short time but I think I need a refresher course.  For now, I will be the one on tonight’s flight with my fingers in my ears and my eyes squeezed tight shut!  I have some herbal ‘kalms’ tablets but am actually thinking that a couple of whiskies before we leave for the airport might work better.

Emre has been for his second exam this morning.  He said it went OK – he generally does think things have gone OK – and as it’s a month before the results come out we can forget it for now.  He had his ‘lucky’ chocolate with him (prayed on by Cem’s auntie – last week it was a banana but that went a bit soggy).

I went shopping with Kaan yesterday in Fethiye for a few presents.  I was pleasantly surprised by the lovely gifts available now in Fethiye – you used to have to go to Göcek for good presents (catering to the yachty crowd, Göcek though smaller has always been posher than Fethiye) but now there are some gorgeous scarves, ceramics, textiles and just silly trinkets.  And there is The Soap Lady – who has apparently been established in Ölüdeniz for a while but has recently opened in Fethiye selling natural soaps with benefits for all manner of complaints….carrot soap for sunburn, grape seed soap for wrinkles, rose soap for blackheads etc.

So, I might blog from UK but will be back here into the madness of July (80+ guests in the hotel and heat of 40 degrees and more).  And a propos of nothing at all I had to take a picture of this plant – which I think is an aloe – which I pass as I drive to the hotel every morning (yes progressed from 2 wheels to 4 very noisy ones) and which is just spectacular…

Things are hotting up...

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!