Dalyan – 27th & 28th August

It was a bit of an admin day on Tuesday 27th August. I put the rest of the money to make sure I had deposited enough in to my Turkish bank account for residency purposes. I asked the Health insurer for my renewal premium and I had a response from Nationwide about my complaint to the CEO, it was still ongoing. For breakfast I had overnight oats with berries, peach and grapes. Lunch was cheese spread on wholemeal toast and some strawberries. I managed to catch up on some work and not spend any money or drink any alcohol so I was pleased with that.
Dinner was a chicken and chickpea curry with steamed rice although I was missing my rice cooker. Before bed, I totted up my syns and the weekly total was only 102 – under target for the first time in months!!!
I had gone 1 whole week without a drop of alcohol and was very proud of myself. If I had not lost any weight when I got on Carol’s scales tomorrow, I would be very upset.

Before I’d even eaten breakfast on Wednesday 28th August, Captain Caveman was on a video call to me from Victory Road Villas. He was back from Dong Hoi and had a good time catching up with some friends to start saying his goodbyes as he prepared to leave Vietnam. Veronika was there with her husband so I got to speak to her briefly and we hoped we would be catching up somewhere in the world soon.
After the call, I took my measurements and found that I had put 1cm on my bust but I had lost 2cm from both my waist and hips, which was good. I was looking forward to getting to Fat Club at 3pm so that I could check if I had lost the weight I was hoping to have. I checked my emails to find I’d had a reply from the insurance broker who had increased my premium from 1,900 lira (£44) per annum to almost 50,000 lira (£1,163) which was completely ludicrous. I wrote back to challenge it and was told, that is how much I have to pay as a foreigner if I want to keep my policy. I wrote on the To Do list to find another provider which would insure me on continuous terms.
I just had fruit and a Yorkshire tea for breakfast and got on with a couple of hours of work. At 12.30pm friends came to pick me up as we were off to the prison for lunch. The prison is not far from Dalaman airport and has a café, a restaurant and a shop. One of the ladies hadn’t before so it was a bit of a treat but I needed to be back for 2pm, ideally for work, but definitely by 3pm for Fat Club.
I ordered chicken soup, we all had a soft drink as, with it being a Turkish establishment, they didn’t sell alcohol. I wanted to order the half chicken for main as I had to get weighed but they didn’t have any chicken dishes left. I had to opt for a pide but I decided to take most of it away so that I didn’t weigh too heavy. When it came, it was huge and I only managed 3 pieces of it before it was time to go.
Here are the prices, in lira, of some of the items (including mine);

Water 10.00
Soda Water 10.00
Mezes 25.00
Diet coke 30.00
Chicken Soup with bread 50.00
Lahmacun 60.00
Half a chicken 90.00
Pide with sucuk 160.00

My 2 soda waters, soup and a pide came to a very reasonable 230 lira (£5.35) and I paid 250 lira (£5.81) to include a tip. It was already 2.05pm when my pide came so I would be going straight to Fat Club. I had no internet to be able to let anyone know, should I be late. After a browse round the shop where my friend bought a necklace, we were ready for off. It was already 3.45pm as we got to town and I had to rush in to Fat Club, pide in hand. I had made it only 6 minutes before the meeting finished. To my delight I had lost 1.45kg (2.9lb) and I was happy with that. I still had and paid for the 25 lira (58p) water, so not to be cheeky and then went straight home.
That evening, I joined Jamie on the dog walk and we met Ann & Stuart and their family at Ela’s Kitchen. I was determined to continue to not drink alcohol for the rest of the month so I just had a big water for 60 lira (£1.40) which Jamie paid for. The 5-7pm happy hour offers did look good though, for future reference. We found an escaped dog, which the taxi driver owner came to collect, and the grandchildren got a stuffed cat as a gift – that would certainly surprise them when they woke up. Meanwhile in the UK, Oasis (the band) were performing a comeback tour and lots of people I knew on Facebook were about to pay a fortune to see them or be disappointed they couldn’t get tickets.
Back home, I finished off the pide and ended up taking the rest of the sucuk off it, to reduce the amount of syns and so that I didn’t eat as much processed food. I was trying my best to lose the weight I had put back on in England.