Dalyan – 24th & 25th February

Unfortunately, there was a full power outage, from 7am, in Dalyan on Saturday 24th February but Jamie had sent me a warning about it. This gave me a good excuse that I would have to have breakfast from the market today. I got up and sorted out Norman and Edna, then made a cup of Yorkshire tea with Jamie’s whistling kettle on the gas hob! It seemed a bit cold so I got on the sofa with the dogs and a blanket while I drank my tea and caught up with a few online chores. I went to the weekly market and here’s what I bought (prices in lira);

Mushrooms 15
Potatoes 18
Bananas 55
Strawberries 100
Apples and Chestnuts 125
1 cheese and mushroom gözleme 75
Total spent 388 lira (£9.95)

I’d got talking to Cath and Keith while I was picking bananas out and unfortunately instead of the 5 I wanted to buy going in to my bag, I got a whole bunch of them. The gözleme had increased in price a bit more too, but I didn’t think 75 lira (£1.92) for breakfast was unreasonable. The walk home was sweaty and my bag was heavy. I had cucumber water and rose tea, some strawberries and the gözleme when I got back to Jamie’s. For lunch I just had a red apple and a litre of cucumber water. I sunbathed outside for a bit and even had to pop on some suncream as it was warm. By 4pm we were all back indoors cooling down and I was going to have a shower before the dog walk. I got in the shower but the water was cold and it turned out that, because of the power outage earlier, the boiler was off. I messaged Jamie so he could get the plumber out. I could’ve gone over to our apartment for a shower but I didn’t bother. We did the dog walk, avoided the pub or any alcohol and I had a sweet and sour chicken with rice for dinner.
On the sofa I caught up with The Apprentice on TV and even Edna couldn’t believe how stupid some of the candidates were.

There was a bit of activity on Sunday 25th February; I was joining the Sunday walk which Carol (from Fat Club) had organised, the plumber was coming to fix the boiler and I was joining an online launch party with Lisa Johnson later.
I didn’t have a cup of tea this morning as I needed to get Norman and Edna sorted and fed before I left for the Sunday walk. Norman knew it was a Sunday and was stood at the bottom of the stairs trying to get me to take him back to bobos. I nearly didn’t go on the walk because the plumber was coming at 1pm and I wasn’t sure we’d be back in time, given we were walking to the Sultaniye mud baths. Carol had confirmed we should be back in time so I’d agreed to meet at the Denizkızı ferry. I met Tina (from Fat Club) and her hubby, Paddy, at Tez bar at 9.30am and we walked the 20 minutes to the meeting point together. It was quite a turn out and I said hello to a few of the walkers as we got on the ferry to cross the river. The ferry was just 10 lira (26p) each way for a foot passenger which was a bargain for the short trip. Ghislaine loaned me the use of Honey, her 13 year old spaniel, who could certainly motor but did like to pee a lot. It was quite a hard walk for me and unfortunately we didn’t get to the mud baths until gone 11.30am. This meant that, because I had insisted that I be back by 1pm, the group couldn’t enjoy any time at the mudbaths. We all had a quick pee, I was the only woman to brave the squat toilet, as I was in practice for my travels next month.

The walk back was hard and we stopped off for a drink at Pirates and Skulls, a nice little cafe. I just had an orange juice and tried to get the correct information on the times of the ferries. I had a panic on as I possibly wouldn’t be back in time for the plumber or to let the dogs out after them being alone after almost 4 hours. I messaged Jamie to see if he could delay the plumber, paid the 70 lira (£1.79) for my orange juice and decided to go for the ferry anyway. Ausaf, Lyn, Debbie and Christine came too, leaving some of the group having a few bevvies. The ferry turned out to go back and forth without a timetable so we were in luck, as well as Christine coming to the rescue with her hubby, Jez, picking us up at the other side and dropping me at Jamie’s.
I was more concerned with being late to let the dogs out but they were fine and snoozing away. I’d just let them out on the back garden when the plumber turned up and he fixed the boiler really quickly. Norman and Edna knew him so, of course, Edna had to get some male attention from the nice man!
For lunch I had a chicken pasta dish while Norman wanted to know why I’d been on a walk with another dog! I felt a bit guilty and even worse when I had to do only a short dog walk with them because I could hardly walk myself.
For dinner I had miso soup with egg noodles and lots of fruit salad. At 11pm I joined the launch party Facebook live with Lisa Johnson and a massive number of other people. It was really motivating and encouraged me to get on and start taking some action. I was really excited for next week’s free course and was glad my friend, Heather, had prompted me to get involved. Finding a job with my unique requirements and talents was going to prove difficult, but setting up in business might just suit me better. By bedtime I was still hungry and had to have a buttered crumpet with cheese and olives. This meant I was already on 174 syns for the week. I’d had a great day and had only spent 90 lira (£2.31) but tomorrow was my last full day with Norman and Edna.