When I woke up on Sunday 25th December, I was slightly regretting agreeing to a Christmas Day walk so early. Our friend, 007, had previously suggested that she would like to join Captain Caveman, my parents and I if we decided to opt out of the usual Christmas Day festivities and go for a walk. We’d been looking after Charlie for 26 days now and I was wanting to make sure that we gave him plenty of exercise before we left him to go out enjoying ourselves.
007 was prompt and outside Waterfall bar at 9.30am and it was just us and Charlie, who wasn’t really wanting to go out for a walk and wanted to stay at home.
We had a lovely walk, chat and 2 stops for a hot beverage at the tea gardens, one of which we couldn’t take the dog to so we had to move on. We had set off in the cold but had ended up taking several layers off and by 1pm, when I headed back ‘home’, it was very sunny. 007 had kindly given me a small Christmas gift which I put in the kitchen for later. Charlie was absolutely done in and had decided he was getting on the sofa and not moving. This was concerning as I’d already told my parents I would go on another walk with them this afternoon. The one this morning had been too early for them but I was also worried I’d even manage it as it I was pretty tired already. Captain Caveman was about to leave to meet Josh and they were heading off to Dalaman to watch Dalyan Spor play football. I was unsure if they would be going at all as they had struggled to find transport to accommodate everyone who wanted to go.
When I contacted my mom about the walk she suggested we went to the tea garden for lunch first and then see about a walk afterwards, which I was pleased about, even though I’d already been to the other two this morning. I didn’t take Charlie with me, much to his delight and we bumped in to Tay (from Rehab) and he joined us. My mom and I had Fanta, Dad had a beer, my parents had a sandwich and I just had chips. It was really warm and we spent a couple of hours there before going back home, ready to meet up again in a couple of hours, once the fellas were back from Dalaman.












By 5pm on Christmas Day, Captain Caveman and I were treating Charlie to a trip to see his friends in Waterfall bar after his walk to Poo Corner. My parents were on their way to meet us and Josh had popped back to Captain Caveman’s apartment to get ready for tonight’s shenanigans. After dropping Charlie back off at home we walked to Bistro Blue where I had booked the 5 of us in for a meal. Captain Caveman was on good form and behaving himself, he even agreed to share starters with me. We chose stuffed mushrooms and garlic mushrooms, Josh had the onion bhajis and I can’t remember what my parents had. I was too busy trying to make sure Captain Caveman didn’t snaffle both starters. For main courses my parents had casserole type dishes, Josh had a veggie stir fry, Captain Caveman had chicken fajitas and I decided to have the steak with peppercorn sauce. My parents ordered a nice wine that they particularly liked, Captain Caveman and I stuck to the cheapest, Buzbağ, and Josh was on Efes. The meal was really lovely and I enjoyed my steak very much, having gone for the big size I had to take some home. Captain Caveman couldn’t eat all his chicken fajitas either so we had that packaged up along with a trifle and a mince pie, courtesy of Annie. We had thought we might pop by Adam and Kath’s for a drink to wish them, as well as Mark and Kate, a Merry Christmas but it was getting late. By 9.45pm Captain Caveman had surprisingly ordered an Irish coffee and was scooping the cream off, Dad was on brandy, Josh on the posh whisky, Mom and I on the Bailey’s. Annie gave us complimentary shots, Ferrero Rocher and After Eight Mints to finish off our meal and we didn’t leave there until almost midnight. I’d really enjoyed my non-festive Christmas Day and it seemed like everyone else had too.
















