Dalyan – 28th & 29th April

When I finally surfaced on Friday 28th April, our shared swimming pool was being filled by hose pipe. This was great news for The Aussies as they had guests arriving shortly who would be staying for 6-7 weeks. I had strawberries for breakfast and went to Turkish class feeling a little delicate. I worked out I’d drank 7 beers yesterday so I was already on 75 syns for this week so far, which was still around the same as last week at this time. I treated myself to a fresh orange juice at Lukka bar for 50 lira (£2 approx) and we had a good lesson.
After class, I checked that the pool was almost filled and it was, an hour later it was a strange colour from all the chemicals.  I did the 20 seconds of squat challenge and 40 seconds of plank challenge – it was hard. I popped to the shop to buy bread, cheese and some sugar free lemon drink to perk me up a bit with a late lunch. It cost 76.25 lira (£3.15) for those 3 things, which wasn’t bad, from Bim Supermarket.
That evening, I stayed in for my 2nd alcohol free night of the week and ate leftover sweet potato cottage pie for dinner. Tomorrow I had a few treats lined up!

It was quite a busy day for me on Saturday 29th April despite not going to the weekly market this week. I had 1 week left in Dalyan and my friend, Wendy from Sheffield, was on her way here for a holiday.
My first appointment of the day was to meet another friend, at Ela’s Kitchen for brunch. I always enjoy meeting up with her and today was no different. I ordered a Yorkshire tea which now comes with a home made shortbread biscuit – I couldn’t resist eating that!  I decided to take no notice of the diet and ordered a sausage sandwich, which came with chips and salad. My friend ordered a jacket potato with melted cheese which also came with salad. We had a nice chat with Nicola, the co-owner, prices had increased again in Turkey and she had her new menu ready as they were going to be offering evening meals too, during the holiday season. It was still 40 lira (£1.64) for a cup of tea, but 175 lira (£7.16) for the sausage sandwich, so it’s not cheap but the portion sizes are generous, the service is good and the food is excellent. We actually ended up staying there for most of the day and even had another couple of drinks while we chatted on about all sorts of topics.

My next appointment was at the new beauty salon, Sisters, right next to the bank. As summer was coming, I decided to treat myself to a pedicure and some waxing. The pedicure was good and I chose a bright orange nail varnish (but not gel). The waxing was quite a treat as the staff carried the massage bed in to a back room which was off the staff kitchen and had a glass window. Strangely, it was positioned with me being legs akimbo facing the window instead of away from it but the girl reassured me no men would be able to see! She was very thorough and I had to help more than usual by holding my thigh flab and tummy.

When I got home, I saw that the pool was now finished, I’d met the occupants of B1, one of who was not able to walk easily and wanted to know where he could get some sun loungers as the plastic ones had no cushions and were uncomfortable.
On my way out to meet Wendy I popped to Waterfall bar, where I thought I was meeting Pamela. I saw Penny, John and Andrea but didn’t stop for a drink because Pamela was still in Rodrigo’s but was not stopping long. When I got there she was with Glynn and Mark so we all had a drink. Afterwards, Mark and I went to Rehab bar, where he’d been playing pool for most of the afternoon. We played pool, Wendy’s flight was delayed so we ended up playing a game with Jason and Dan, a friendly father and son on holiday. Wendy arrived late and was no longer up for a night ‘out out’ but she did call in to Rehab for 1 drink though, just to say hello before going back to her hotel for some much needed sleep. I really should have taken a leaf out of her book but (obviously) I didn’t. Mark and I stayed out playing pool in Rehab bar until 1.30am. I was eating a homemade chicken liver curry with steamed rice at home by 1.50am, promising myself that I would try harder on the diet over the next few days.