Dalyan – 26th December

It was the day that Josh and Martha had to go home on Tuesday 26th December and I was going to miss them a lot. We had laughed so much this last week and had done some really nice things together; mainly eating and drinking! It had also got me through the depressing fiasco of having not been paid and took my mind off being skint. My Christmas Day this year had been one of the best I’d had abroad and we’d spent less than £120 between the two of us. I wondered how much the average Christmas Day spend had been amongst my friends in the UK!
I cut up an apple and some of the Köyceğiz cheese and fanned it out all posh on a plate so that Martha could have a nibble or two before we had to leave the apartment. Josh was on ‘provisions for the airport’ duty and I helped by giving him spare food. I had my overnight oats with persimmon for breakfast, I was going to have to get back on the Slimming World plan as the weigh in on Wednesday was probably going to be quite enlightening. When Martha had packed she asked me if I would like her hair straighteners, as she was buying new ones when she got home. What a lovely thing to do and it was my first set of hair straighteners in years.
I’m not sure what on earth was going on in Captain Caveman’s head because what happened next was awkward! We’d mentioned previously that we would be getting the bus to Bill and Jaxx’s, who were on the same flight as Josh and Martha. Jaxx had said to get to Villa Infinity, between Marmarlı and Okçular, for about noon and we could go through the final dog requirements and have a wee drink before the taxi came at 1pm. Captain Caveman and I were sharing the dog sitting while they went back to the UK to visit Bill’s mom. I’d mentioned the bus several times, we’d toyed with the idea of getting a taxi but had discounted it as we would have 4 of us, plus bags meaning not enough room for a regular taxi.
We were ready and about to put our shoes on when Captain Caveman said he was cycling and would see us there. I was confused, I didn’t have internet on my phone so I couldn’t call or find it if we got lost and, if there had only been 3 of us we would have ordered a taxi. I was fuming with him, why hadn’t he said this earlier? I knew he’d probably done it to force me to learn how to find my way to places as he hates that I don’t use maps and I get lost easily. It was embarrassing and I could tell that Josh and Martha were doing the looks to say this was one of ‘those moments’. I didn’t even say bye to Captain Caveman as I was so annoyed that he would be so rude and the rest of us went to the bus stop. We got off the bus and Captain Caveman was waiting at the side of the road a bit further up to point out the turning to us. I was even more mad now that he probably thought we couldn’t manage to find it without him. I knew in his head he wanted to make sure he had his bicycle with him because he probably wanted to go Dogging tomorrow, after missing it yesterday – but he could have communicated it. Josh and Martha could see I was mad and couldn’t understand what was going on either, they didn’t even laugh at the situation this time.
Big Boy, the big black dog, and Lucy, the Airedale terrier, were pleased to see us and were friendly. They really liked Martha and tried to encourage her to share her pack-up for at the airport.
Bill took Captain Caveman in to the kitchen to show him how to work the TV, coffee machine and fire, show him what was what with the dogs, etc. I sat outside with Jaxx, Josh and Martha and had a wine.
The taxi arrived and we all said our goodbyes, with plans to visit Josh and Martha in July 2024.
The dogs were a little sad that their parents had gone and I tried to speak to Captain Caveman about what was going on with the bike v bus palaver earlier. He didn’t think he was wrong, obviously, and he got more wine and some pastries out of the kitchen. Bill and Jaxx had told us to help ourself to wine and food but I didn’t want to take advantage, I never do.
Captain Caveman was on fire duty and we both cuddled and stroked Big Boy. Lucy was a bit more free spirited and quite vocal. When it came to the dogs’ dinner time, they wolfed it down and enjoyed it, they also had some home made dog biscuits which looked great. Captain Caveman cooked us some veggie pasta for dinner and we had a cosy night in our new temporary home.
I still totted up my syns for the week and was on 426, 4 times the allowance! I was bound to have put weight on but I’m sure anyone who had said ‘well, it is Christmas’, would be in the same boat.