Dalyan – 29th April

Before my alarm went off at 7am on Wednesday 29th April, I checked where I was against the weekly and monthly budget. In the last week of the month I had spent £85, of which £65 was on a preplanned boat trip where I had paid £45 in English cash. I decided that it meant I still had £30 of the weekly budget left, plus £20 for the last 2 days of April.
I had started to feel better so I went to meet a friend for a walk and talk at 8am.

We finished our morning walk at Kefal tea gardens, for a cheese toastie and a cup of tea. At only 175 lira (£2.92) for breakfast it was very enjoyable but then I realised I should’ve got weighed earlier. I was in charge of the Fat Club scales as Carol had to make an unplanned trip to the UK so this was my 3rd week in charge. My home scales had said I’d stayed the same as last week and I’d lost 2cm off my bust and waist, my hips were the same.
I was just logging in to my emails when I noticed an important announcement about Turkish residency. As this affected me I went to read and check the information. The authorities had decided to significantly increase the fees for both new and renewal of residency permit fees. There was also not much in the way of notice as it was effective from the 1st of May!!! I currently have a 2 year residency permit expiring in 2027 which I had paid 6,523 lira (£133 at the time). In the next 2 days it would increase to 57,000 lira (£950) – an increase of 873%.
As you can imagine this was quite a shock for people who were about to renew imminently and without much warning. It did also make me question if it would be worth me saving up £950 just to renew my residency next year when I might not be in Dalyan as much as previous years. I messaged Captain Caveman who told me not to worry about it and it was still cheaper than moving back to the UK. There were lots of people on Facebook up in arms about it, with plenty of expats wondering if foreigners were no longer being made to feel welcome staying in Turkey. I googled how much it would be for a Turk to get a similar permit to reside in the UK and it was just over £3000 for 2026, so by comparison it was cheap!
I worked for the rest of the day and ate loquats for lunch, before heading out to Fat Club. I’d already arranged with Ma & Pa to meet them at Ren Garden after the group meeting at 4pm.

I’d put on 0.25kg (0.6lb) on Carol’s scales and was about to over indulge too. I had a pot of tea for 100 lira (£1.67) while behaving at Fat Club but it wouldn’t last long. I ordered a white wine and soda while my parents arrived and when they got there Dad ordered an Efes Malt beer and Mom a lemonade. They apologised for not making it over to mine after being in Jiks last night but Ma’s phone battery was dead. They had ended up giving the ball a right kick so Ma was off the booze today.
Eva, the waitress had made fresh chocolate cake and chocolate chip cookies so I ditched the Slimming World plan for a cookie and another white wine and soda. We all enjoyed the cookies which are so good and not diet friendly at all.
I’d decided to finish work today at 3pm but, as I’m never really off duty, I always have my work phone on me. I got a message from one of the Resort Expert owners which simply said ‘call Jenny asap’.
I excused myself from my parents and went in to the garden room area and called the mobile number. I use Rebel app while in Turkey as it’s free/cheaper than using my UK phone package. What happened next was great as Jenny told me I was going on a work trip next month. Even though it overlapped with other trips/birthday celebrations, I obviously said yes and she asked me if I would be able to respond to her email with some credentials as soon as possible today. Unfortunately, this meant that I had to bring my catch up with my parents to a bit of an abrupt end so that I could go back home and sort it out and look at changing my flights. As we went to pay our bill at Ren Garden my mom, who had already given me English cash to refund me for her shopping and putting her internet on, paid for my drinks and cookie, which was very kind and meant that I’d only actually spent just under £5 today, with tomorrow being the last day of the month and a £300 monthly budget.
Back home, I started rejigging my travel plans for next month. I called Captain Caveman to let him know and he helped me plan. I had a very late dinner as I was still trying to work out the best way to change my flights.

Gratitude List
1. Captain Caveman putting the new residency renewal cost in to perspective
2. Spending time with Ma & Pa
3. Planning a work related trip.