Dalyan – 30th & 31st August

On the morning of Wednesday 30th August I got weighed at home to find I had put on 0.25kg (half a pound). Although this was a bit of a step backwards, I was grateful it wasn’t more as I’d been eating and drinking my way round Dalyan without a care in the world – and there was still Carol’s official scales this afternoon at Fat Club. I’d also lost 3cm from my bust but put 1cm on my waist and 3cm on my hips.
Captain Caveman and I popped to pay the council tax but the nice man in the office explained that it can’t be paid after the 28th of the month so we would have to come back on the 1st! He told us it would be 1219.35 lira (£35.75) for the year, which included a late payment fee – what a bargain.
I popped to BC Spa Hotel to see Kelly who had booked in some more spa treatments to alleviate her ‘being stuck in Dalyan’ stresses – there was definitely worse places to be stuck! A cat there took a shine to my porter sandals so I had a lay on a sun lounger, in another one of my new dresses, by the pool. I left to walk over to Fat Club and the sun was shining so I was a bit warm and sweaty when I arrived. Amazingly I had only put on 0.1kg on Carol’s scales!
It was Janice’s 70th birthday so we celebrated after Fat Club with a trip to Kefal tea gardens where I’m advised they sell a decent measure of gin for a reasonable price. I had a burger and a glass of wine to help celebrate with Janice, Tina and Brigette – they had G&Ts and shared some nuts as they were being good. After, I walked up to Rehab bar where all the pool players but Mark and Tayfur had already left. Captain Caveman, Kelly and Linda joined and Kelly ordered a few different dishes from Sosyete next door including salad items in sauce I didn’t recognise, a wrap and some onion rings. They went well with one of Tay’s cocktails too. I’d had the sense to sling a Mediterranean chicken in the slow cooker for our late dinner when we got home. It was diet friendly and very tasty.

Thursday 31st August was Kelly’s actual last day, seeing as her original return flight had been cancelled. While she had a morning of relaxing and packing, Captain Caveman and I had a morning appointment booked to go with Sonuç and Hüseyin, the translator, to the notary in Ortaca. We were officially changing my address and I was ‘moving in’ with Captain Caveman on a rental agreement. The process was straight forward but costly;
Hüseyin’s fee 2,000 lira (£58.84)
Sonuç’s fee 1,000 lira (£29.42)
Notary fee 400 lira (£11.77)
I paid the total of 3,400 lira (£100) out and asked Sonuç if it would be a good idea, while we were in Ortaca, to get the electric bill put in to my name. I’d heard from a few friends, who were doing residency renewals recently, and had been asked for this so I didn’t want to risk me being declined my renewal. I was conscious that we only had 1 more working day with Captain Caveman being in Turkey for signing anything so it might be a good idea. Sonuç firmly told me that we did not need to do that, I had a rental agreement now, Captain Caveman was my official landlord and therefore the bills should (quite rightly) remain in his name. Captain Caveman was happy with this too, I was still dubious, so we left it and returned back to Dalyan.
When we got home, I was hungry so we had the leftover Mediterranean Chicken for lunch then I sat out on the balcony. In the late afternoon, we decided to call for a drink at Tez bar and I wore my new red dress and had my hair down. When I went round the corner, I saw a waiter I knew at Taste of Heaven bar. He’d been drinking and came out to give me a hug and invited me to join him for a drink. I said no and waved over to where Captain Caveman was sat to say I was meeting my husband. We sat with Penny & Phil and a few others but then the drunk guy sent over a red rose with Ismail, the flower seller. As we were leaving Tez bar, I gave my rose to Kelly and the guy shouted me back to say he had bought it for me, not her. It was all a bit odd.
We decided to eat at Eylül restaurant which always gets good reviews. We arrived early as we were thinking Kelly might be better to eat dinner then get a bit of sleep before her 2.15am departure tomorrow. I ordered a glass of white wine, Captain Caveman had a beer and Kelly had a beer and a Sprite to make a shandy.
We shared a mixed meze and lavaş (balloon bread) starter which was really nice. For mains, Captain Caveman and I ordered traditional Turkish dishes while Kelly surprised us by ordering Bombay Chicken. My ottoman kebab was a large portion so I took half home but Kelly’s was a dish I’d never heard of or tasted before – it had banana in and looked awful. Captain Caveman ate most of his Hünkar Beğendi (a beef and aubergine dish) but Kelly couldn’t manage much of her’s. It wasn’t as cheap as I thought it would be either.

Here’s what we paid at Eylül:
1 Efes Malt 100
1 Efes normal 100
1 white wine 100
1 Sprite 50
1 Shared meze plate with lavaş 220
1 Bombay Chicken 240
1 Hünkar Beğendi 350
1 Ottoman Kebab 350
Total spent 1510 lira (£44.23)

By 8.15pm we were in Bistro Blue having our last night drinks for Kelly, with me trying to get Captain Caveman to put his phone down, join in the conversation and have a photo.
Our goodbye was emotional, it had been so lovely having the girls over to Dalyan but it had definitely made me miss them, and my other friends back in England, more.