Dalyan – 26th to 28th July

On Wednesday 26th July I made a concerted effort to get back in control of the diet and budget. I had a month until my friends from England visited and I wanted to be able to lose a bit of weight and save some money before they arrived. The last few weeks had been very slack in both those departments and I needed to get back on it.

I had strawberries, cherries and quark for breakfast with cinnamon tea then I remembered to take my measurements. I’d put 1cm on my bust, stayed the same on my waist and lost 1cm from my hips.
I had cheese, rice crackers and olives with more cinnamon tea for lunch and I worked until 2.35pm.
At 3pm I was at Fat Club to face Carol’s scales and start again on my weight loss journey. To my absolute amazement, I’d lost 0.3kg this week and was able to rush back to my laptop feeling quite motivated. I finished work at 5.35pm and went to see which reprobates were left at Rehab bar after pool. It was just the hardcore few so I had a couple of pints of Efes with Mark and Kate who I’d not seen properly in ages and I’d missed them. We took a photo of the 3 of us to send to Steve and Michelle, in Rhodes, who were really going through some horrendous fire situations and we wanted them to know we were thinking of them.

I got a lift with Mark and Kate, on the puff truck, round to Jamie’s where I had been invited over for an impromptu BBQ. I tried to be good and only drank half a bottle of red wine, had plain chicken, beef and salad. Unfortunately I found it impossible to resist Drew’s homemade croutons, nan bread, peanuts and Nanny Kay’s brownie. I’d been feeling a little sad, worrying about Steve and Michelle, their friends and all the animals affected by the Rhodes fires. Everyone did their best to cheer me up, Nanny Kay even wore her sandals which she’d got from Rhodes and we sent love to Steve and Michelle to try to show support. Towards the end of the night we even discussed a mini break to Rhodes with my friends.
As we were leaving, Ann suggested a nightcap in town so she and I popped to Cafe Ivy for a drink. I got home and went straight to bed, looking forward to a lazy day tomorrow.

I helped a friend with a holiday itinerary on Thursday 27th July and did a few chores at home. I popped a beef and pumpkin curry in to the slow cooker for dinner too. It was far too hot to go out but I did need some provisions. I made a shopping list for when the sun had gone down. Steve and Michelle were back home but there was still a chance of resurgence as the winds were unpredictable in Rhodes. I had fruit for lunch and drank lots of water and herbal tea.
By 7pm I’d been to the bank and was swanning round Migros getting some shopping in. They didn’t have all that I had on my list so I also had to go to Şok, here’s what I bought and the prices in lira;

Migros supermarket

2 Quark 23.80
1 Tupperware box 25.37
1 pack Linden tea 27.50
Blueberries 29.90
Bananas 34.44
Rice 41.50
Kitchen roll 48.77
575g mince beef 109.00
Total spent 340.28 lira (£10.23)

Şok supermarket

Chicken meatballs 27.50
Jasmin rice 29.50
Chicken burgers 33.50
Oats 34.00
Cheese balls 42.50
Basmati rice 44.50
Pizza wraps 44.90
Total spent 256.40 (£7.71)

My beef curry was lovely, I had plenty left for the freezer and I was ready for another early night.

On Friday 28th July my friend, Annie, let us know that she was on her way to Dalyan. As I ate my breakfast, she suggested that her and I join a boat trip tomorrow as the weather forecast for the next few days was scorching hot with very little breeze. Of course, what kind of a friend would I be if I didn’t go one better than joining an existing boat trip. Before lunch I’d arranged a private boat trip with Princess of Ekincik and invited a few friends to join us.
I had fruit for breakfast, and a pizza wrap in the airfryer for lunch because the AC man was due over. I’d asked Leanne at King Emlak if we could get a workman round to service the units as they didn’t seem to be working properly. She’d just messaged me to say he would have to come over the weekend, when he arrived. He proceeded to drag the TV, which is directly beneath the living room AC unit, from the wall. This ripped the wires out of situ and disrupted the small DVD cupboard as it’s all attached. He was not careful at all so I rushed in to help, wearing what can only be described as beachwear. In the end, I had to go and sit on the balcony as he was making a bit of a mess and I was annoyed that he’d pulled all the wires out for the TV and internet out when I had no idea how to put them back.
He took a while, had to replace two broken capacitors and I still wasn’t sure how much more than a service it was going to cost me. When he left he didn’t even clean the floors and told me to get the mop out! Luckily, he did fix the cupboard and TV, making sure that and the internet worked, so I was relieved. I tried to get Leanne to send a cleaner but she was busy so it looked like I’d have to do it. On a more positive note, the AC was working much better and it was pretty chilly. Leanne even gave me a great AC tip; put it on to dehumidifier around 25°C and it will do it’s thing!
I ate leftover beef curry, with nan bread warmed in the airfryer, for dinner. I’d had trouble getting the remaining curry in to the freezer so I took a random box of Tupperware out with pineapple in so that I could finish that off.