Dalyan – 18th & 19th December

I’d not slept from coughing most of the night and was still feeling rough on Sunday 18th December. Before I’d got out of bed I’d had messages from various people about buses to the beach on Christmas Eve. When I’ve been before I’ve just got the public bus but for some reason people were getting their knickers in a twist about organising private mini buses to take everyone. Captain Caveman and I had already decided we would get a taxi because then we could take Charlie and if it got too much for him we could leave when we wanted. I’d already checked with Fikri that he would allow Charlie in the car and he would. I told my Mom, Vanessa and Kate that we would be doing that. We would also be meeting Josh in Lukka bar as soon as we got back from the beach and that they could join us too. For some unknown reason one of the expats in Tez Bar had told my mom that I was organising a trip to Fethiye or Çalış for next week. This lead my Mom to wonder why I hadn’t asked her when the reality was I was sick in bed, was never involved and it wasn’t true – sometimes I despair! While Captain Caveman went dogging and looked after the dog walking, I had soup and toast. I was exhausted but I finished what I needed to do, by which time Captain Caveman had gone to watch Dalyan Spor play football in the afternoon. I’d managed to make a curry in the slow cooker for dinner before going back to bed.

I was still sick and awake from coughing at 5am on Monday 19th December. Captain Caveman made me a bacon sandwich when he got up and I ate it in bed. We had an invite to Jan and David’s Christmas party this lunch time and I really wanted to go but I was very conscious that, although I’d tested negative for Covid, whatever I had got didn’t need to be passed on to anyone (vulnerable or not). Jan and David are in Captain Caveman’s Bridge group so he’d become quite good friends with them and we were both pleased to have been invited. Captain Caveman thought I looked much better and suggested I go but I didn’t think I should. I stayed at ‘home’ with Charlie, made a slow cooker meal with roast potatoes for later and slept, a lot. When Captain Caveman returned he had a Christmas card and 6 mince pies from Jan and David and I was really touched. I could tell I was ill as it made me emotional when I bit in to one of the rather delicious mince pies. Captain Caveman said he’d had a good time at the party with some lovely food and nice people.
I went back to bed, slept more and woke up feeling a little bit like I was starting to recover. For the first time in 4 days I decided to join Captain Caveman and Charlie on their walk and wrapped myself up warmly. We had only gone to Poo corner and were heading back in the direction of the corner shop so we could pick up some bread when I started to get out of breath. This flu bug really had knocked it out of me and, as we approached the end of the road, we saw Vanessa, Matt and my parents sat in Waterfall bar. They had been out to Dalaman for the day and had called in to our local for a beer. We went in but I was so wary of being near them in case I passed on my illness and I wasn’t really functioning properly. Mehmet automatically brought me a beer which I didn’t want and I gave most of it to Captain Caveman. I don’t even remember what we talked about apart from buses and Christmas Eve beach arrangements. By 7pm we were eating sausage casserole with lovely roast potatoes and I was back in bed early.