Dalyan – 1st & 2nd December

I didn’t know it on Friday 1st December but it would turn out to be an interesting yet challenging month. I started the day with Captain Caveman bringing me a cup of Yorkshire tea in bed. When he went to Bridge club I had my overnight oats with raspberries, orange and pear for breakfast. Carol from Fat Club popped by for me to hand back the scales and her books as I’d been holding the fort for her while she was away for 3 weeks. When I got peckish around noon, I had lentil soup and made the remaining chicken casserole in to pasties made from wraps. I had one and saved 2 for Captain Caveman, which he loved.
I’d been trying to get hold of my parents to see if they wanted to pick up the books for Dad, they both had a cold and weren’t feeling well so they had gone for a walk and some fresh air. At 1.30pm my mom messaged from Okyanus to say they had stopped off for some lunch but they might pop to ours for the books in a while. At 3.30pm they were at Tapa with some of the pool gang and wondered if we fancied joining. We had already gone to Waterfall to meet Jamie, Drew, Norman and Edna for a beer.
My parents had moved on to Tez bar so when we got back Captain Caveman dropped the books there. I got on with reheating the chicken and leek pasta bake for dinner.
At 7.30pm we went for a walk down the river and saw my parents were in River House. We called in to check they were ok and found them both wolfing down Singapore noodles, they were pretty merry having managed quite an afternoon pub crawl. We didn’t join them and went home as we were saving ourselves for tomorrow’s shenanigans.

Originally the Dalyan Winter Fayre had been scheduled for last week but had been postponed to today, Saturday 2nd December, due to the rain. Captain Caveman brought me my usual cup of Yorkshire tea in bed and we decided not to have any breakfast at home as we would have a Turkish pancake (gözleme) at the market. By 10.30am we were ready for the day but not before we had been to the market, obviously! Here’s what we bought and the prices in lira;

Stall 1
Garlic & (lots of) shallots 25

Stall 2
Potatoes & onions 55

Stall 3
Cauliflower, red cabbage, carrots, & sweet potatoes 150

Stall 4
Mushrooms, leeks & peppers 105

Stall 5
Persimmon 25

Stall 6
Bananas 25

Stall 7
Tangerines 10

Stall 8
1 spinach and 1 cheese & mushroom gözleme 110

Total Market spend 505 lira (£13.84).

This was one of the bigger spends at the market in a while but I was really trying to be healthy and cook everything from scratch so it would definitely last us. We rarely buy ready made meals to cook at home as frozen food here can be expensive and the choice is limited.

My parents came to call for us and, after dropping off some DVDs for a friend’s stall, our first stop had to be the mulled wine stall. None of us are shoppers so we mainly spent money on food and drink – ‘Quelle surprise’!
Here’s what we bought and prices in lira
1 jar homemade tahini 90
1 Dalyan Spor mug 100
Spice Garden Indian food 200
1 Dalyan Spor football shirt 500
Total spent 890 lira (£24.38)

We did need a mug as we only owned the one so I was fine with that but the other items seemed a bit frivolous. Having a low income was definitely making me tight with the money I did have!

After a few beers and wines in Bistro Blue and Cafe Ivy we decided we would go to Duble for a meal with my parents and then come back later. We had a fantastic meal but I over-faced myself by ordering a beef casserole which I struggled to finish and had to take half away with me. We also shared potato croquettes and liver & onions which were so good, washed down with more wine. Our bill came to 2,370 lira (£64.93) which was very good. It had been a good day, we left Jamie and Drew in Cafe Ivy at a fairly reasonable hour after me buying 3 pots of homemade baked beans from Natalie and Tom for 60 lira (£1.64).