I’d took the liberty of booking appointments at BC Spa on Thursday 7th April. It’s always nice for the first day of the holiday to get a Turkish hamam where they scrub you down. I’d booked Louisa, Linda and Alex in for the Classic package while I had decided to book in for waxing. I’d opted for 10.30am as I thought that my friends might need a bit of a lay in on their first full day in Dalyan. I had been greeted by the kittens knocking off and smashing a small bowl as I came out of my bedroom this morning. I put it on the side and took a photo to show Kate in case it was important, or she wanted to fix or replace it. I cycled over to Captain Caveman’s apartment on Kate’s whizzy electric bicycle and parked it up inside the complex.
When we got to the spa the owner was pleased to see us and she even gave me a hug. We each got ready and she said to me that I would also have the classic package because it would be better for my skin for the waxing. Our first experience was the steam room, the sauna was not working so we spent quite a while in the steam room which was nice. There was just the 4 of us there and the hamam ladies came to get 2 of us. I offered to go with Alex so that Louisa and Linda could go together but it’s just as well that I didn’t. When it was my turn to go in with Louisa we realised it was a naked one. We did have a chuckle at that, as Alex and Linda didn’t mention that to us when they went first. It felt great but I really had to tell her to stop when she touched my sunburned belly. After steaming, scrubbing and a mud face mask we had a lovely back massage and I fell asleep. Next I had the thrilling experience of having a leg and bikini wax while wearing a rather tight, and still wet, swimming costume. The lady didn’t want me to remove it but I’d already got it half way down. Embarrassingly, she had to stand and wait while I had the awkward situation of trying to get back in to a wet swimsuit. I then had to endure a wedgie and pull my cozzie to the sides while stretching the skin on my thighs – it was thorough but rather more participation that I had imagined. When we came out of the changing rooms I noticed I had lost Mark and Kate’s house keys. I couldn’t think where I had left them but in the morning I had been to several places on my way to meet for the spa, all of which didn’t have my keys.
We decided on Okyanus for lunch, which is near to BC Spa and on the way back to mine. We had a nice sunny table by the river and ordered food and drinks as we were all hungry. Louisa and I left Linda and Alex to pop our bags back home, get a hoodie for when the sun went in and I could check for Mark and Kate’s house keys. The keys were still missing and I could now only hope that I had managed to leave them in their house when I left. I had a cherry juice and a chicken wrap for lunch but then decided I would cycle back to try to locate the keys.
This was my first ‘issue’ in the house sitting stint and they were due home tomorrow!

As I approached the door to Mark and Kate’s house, I really hoped that my keys would be there. Luckily, I had been able to get the emergency key so that I could still access the house. I was so relieved to see they were on the dining table, I’d obviously forgot them that morning when I was rushing to go out. I fed the cats early and went back to town again because I’d arranged to meet Louisa, Linda and Alex at the Rum Bar at 6pm for pre-dinner cocktails.
I was the first to arrive, surprisingly I was 5 minutes early, so I ordered a Pina Colada cocktail while I waited. I also found the yoga class timetable for Linda who had mentioned she might like to do some while she was here. Linda is more of a morning person than Louisa and likes to have something to do so I thought it might be a nice idea. My friends arrived a bit later, by which time I was ready for my second cocktail which was a Hurricane, Louisa had a Mermaid Water, Linda a G&T, and Alex a Strawberry Kiss (mocktail). For dinner that evening we had decided to go to Kebapçı Yusuf because I’d said that my mom loves the lamb there.
I ordered meatballs for my meal, but the lamb shish that the others wanted wasn’t available. Of course they were disappointed but instead, Linda had the lamb chops, Louisa a chicken shish and Alex just had Lahmacun as a main course. Lahmacun is a round, thin piece of dough topped with minced meat, minced vegetables, and herbs including onions, garlic, tomatoes, red peppers, and parsley, flavoured with spices such as chillies and paprika, then baked. The food was nice and we ended up having a dessert; I had künefe which is made with string pastry (shredded wheat or kadayıf) soaked in sweet sugar syrup and creamy, unsalted goat’s cheese inside. Mostly popular in the Arab world, the Turkish version hails from Hatay, a region that borders Syria. My friends shared a Katmer which is also known as ‘Groom Katmer,’ the groom’s father would send a helping of katmer to the house of the newlyweds and the bride’s father on the first morning of the wedding. Although it’s known to be prepared in a similar manner to a börek or baklava, this pastry is made via the lamination of the dough. It has that same flaky, buttery feel of a croissant but far sweeter and with a pistachio coat.
It was a good evening and I got my taxi back ‘home’ around 11pm. Tomorrow marked the end of my cat sitting 10 days as Mark and Kate were due back, as long as the flight still went ahead. Due to staff shortages lots of flights from the UK were being cancelled so I was already on standby to stay longer if needed. This was no problem for me as Captain Caveman had a friend staying at his apartment and it would be doing me a favour too.

I fed all the cats and checked that last night’s Manchester to Dalaman flight had landed on Wednesday 6th April. Although it had been delayed slightly, I worked out that my friends from Sheffield would have arrived at about 3am. My friend Louisa and her mom, Linda, who I had been on holiday with several times before, were visiting Dalyan for a week. I was really excited as I’d not been able to see them at Christmas due to the Corona virus and it was 2018 when I last saw them. Louisa’s nephew, Alex, would be joining us on this first trip to Dalyan so I hoped there would be enough for them to do to keep a teenager entertained. I cycled over to Captain Caveman’s apartment where I had my breakfast, a Turkish bread with jam which I bought at Merhaba cafe yesterday.
At 11.15 Louisa had messaged to say she had arrived, they were shattered and had been cold in the night. I’d arranged to meet them at Lukka bar after my Turkish class but the lesson was cancelled. Instead, I waited in Lukka with a cider for the 3 of them to join me. It was great to see Louisa, Linda and Alex and they were lucky to have got nice weather as we sat out at Lukka and ordered food. Linda and Alex ordered breakfast meals, Louisa a crispy chicken dish and I had a chicken caesar salad. All the food was very nice but Linda didn’t have a big enough appetite to eat the chips which came with her sausage, bacon and egg sandwich.
After lunch we went for a short walk around Dalyan so I could show my friends where the essential places were; the bank, pharmacy, supermarkets, bakery, my favourite bars and restaurants. I pointed out a few key places then we ended up at Tez bar for an afternoon drink before I had to get back to Mark and Kate’s to feed the cats and water the plants.

That evening I had organised for us to go for a Chinese meal at China Town and had invited some friends to join us. I got a taxi in to town and was outside the restaurant just before the arranged meeting time of 7.30pm. Andrea was the first to arrive and had come without her husband who was suffering with a cold at home. We waited outside for a bit but then decided to go in to wait as the mosquitos were starting to come out. Andrea and I sat opposite each other at the end of the table, away from the window, to allow my friends to sit next to the window where there was a view of the river. Sarah was the next to arrive and sat next to me. By the time Louisa, Linda and Alex arrived it was too dark to see the view anyway so it didn’t really matter about the seating. I shared a special fried rice with Andrea, ordered sweet and sour chicken and prawn toast. Andrea ordered a chicken dish, Linda opted for Szechuan chicken, Louisa got introduced to half portion ordering by Sarah. I enjoyed my food and took some home, it was a nice first evening and Andrea was giving some ideas of things Linda and Alex might like to do while they are here. It was a long day and I was certainly ready for bed – we had a very chilled day planned for tomorrow.

Tuesday 5th April was the day I got my 5th Corona vaccine! I got up, fed the cats, had buttered toast for breakfast then cycled to the doctor’s. It was good to be able to cycle all the way there on the new road and without having to walk on a building site. I had to wait only 5 minutes and I was done. My first 2 vaccines were in Vietnam but were over 7 months ago so no longer valid for returning to Vietnam. My next 2 vaccines were in Turkey 6 and 5 months ago so I hoped that this booster would enable me to travel to Vietnam. It was possible that I may even need to have had another one to be able to go to another country outside of Vietnam so I was taking no chances.
I managed today’s Worldle game in one guess and went back to Captain Caveman’s to check on things. That afternoon I cycled to Singing group and ordered a kiwi cheesecake for lunch. It was a small gathering today and I was hoping to pick some good songs to sing. Unfortunately, the group were not all as happy with my ambitious choices. ‘Labelled with Love’ by Squeeze was more difficult than I bargained for and when I chose ‘Hotel California’ people weren’t as excited as I hoped. By the time my last requested song of ‘House of the Rising Sun’ was underway I thought some members weren’t too pleased with my song choices. At one point Richard started playing ‘Losing my Religion’ by REM and I sang along a bit as I’m a fan of it. We didn’t sing much of it, though, because the protocol for a new song submission had not been followed – maybe next week!
At 4pm I cycled over to Captain Caveman’s apartment, parked up the bicycle and walked to meet Ann at River House. When I arrived she was sat on a bench outside the restaurant, waiting for me. We ate complimentary mezes, Ann ordered the halloumi chicken and I had a chicken shish. I had a beer, she had a wine and we chatted about her forthcoming trip to see her daughter in England. The meal was very nice and we were full when we got given complimentary cake.
I was home in time for cat feeding and was still not feeling any side effects of the vaccine, compared to what I had done on the previous 4. By 8pm the Life fits into Home app was updated with my booster vaccine information. I was feeling sleepy, my friends were on their flight from Manchester to Dalaman and I was excited to be seeing them tomorrow after several years apart.

Having consumed a massive amount of calories in the previous week, it was good to see the scales had been kind to me on Friday 1st April. I had lost 1kg, I still had to lose at least 3kg but I had friends and family visiting this month so I wasn’t optimistic. My legs were back to having 1cm difference in the good and bad legs again, but I wasn’t sure why.
I didn’t bother with breakfast because I needed to get the cats fed and do some work before my lunch appointment. I had said I would meet Vanessa and Matt in town. When I arrived Vanessa and Matt’s bikes were outside Rehab bar but it was closed, so I walked over to meet them at nearby Rodrigo bar. They were sat on a building site, Matt with a beer and Vanessa with a soft drink. I had a coke and a few of their nibbles before Vanessa and I decided to go for some lunch. Matt had got word from the pool fellas that they had an alternative venue and he would move my (Kate’s) bicycle for me. A couple of concrete lorries had arrived on bar street so we were concerned the bikes may get stuck in. Vanessa and I decided to eat at River House, where she had a burger and chips and I had a Turkish sausage pide. The food was nice and we enjoyed sitting in the sun before walking back to Rehab to collect our bikes, pop to Migros for a few provisions then cycle to Mark and Kate’s for a bit of relaxing. We had a lovely afternoon chatting and we had intended to have a bubble bath as Mark and Kate have 2 jacuzzi baths. We had a few wines and a sandwich but the night ended with a power cut. It was the whole area, not just the house and we were lucky that Kate had lots of strategically placed tea-lights about the place. Vanessa and I moved outside by the pool with our drinks and sat ‘romantically’ in the candlelight. It wasn’t too long before we realised we were pretty tired and were going to have an early night!

When I woke up on Saturday 2nd April, it was before my alarm to feed the cats. Vanessa was fast asleep and snoring so I crept out of bed to check on the pets. All were pleased to see me and couldn’t wait to get some food. When Vanessa got up she decided to make us some toast and because the toaster burned all of the slices she put in, I thought we might need a new toaster. I was on the phone to Captain Caveman who was out of the cave but going straight back in again and was doing a lot of tours without breaks. I had burnt toast and a croissant for my breakfast with a Yorkshire tea then we decided to sit by the pool and enjoy the sunshine. I put on factor 50 suncream and we lay on the sunbeds for quite a while. We sat chatting for hours and then decided a wine would be a good idea. When we eventually got to Rehab bar to join the pool group we were a little bit sunburned. We sat outside with Tayfur, who ordered us a pide from Pamukkale restaurant, and we met some nice Dutch people. We ate our lunch, which came with a mixed salad and pomegranate sauce – it was very nice. I cycled home at a reasonable hour, after just a couple of shandies, so that I could feed the cats and water the plants. My sunburn was really bad so I slathered moisturiser on my stomach and ordered a taxi with Fikri. I’d invited Ann, Penny, Phil, Sarah, Rach and Vanessa to River Terrace for dinner at 7.30pm with live music. Unfortunately Penny and Phil had declined, with them having plans to go to Fethiye early the next morning. Sarah was unsure if she would make it as she had to work this weekend. I got there early and was surprised to see that Penny and Phil were there, but they weren’t stopping. Vanessa arrived on time and it was filling up nicely. By 7.45pm there was still no sign of Ann or Rach and a big group had just arrived so Vanessa and I ordered food. On Penny’s recommendation we both went for the Carbonara, Ann and Rach arrived and they ordered but were told there would be a wait for food. Vanessa and I had eaten our food by the time Ann got her casserole and Rach her burger. Vanessa and I also started to feel like we may have sunstroke and my belly was very burnt. I finished off Vanessa’s carbonara and had chocolate brownie with ice-cream for afters. Rach had a lovely cheesecake which I tried a bit of. Penny and Phil were still there when we all left around 10pm and the band were still playing some good songs. It was clear that Vanessa and I had overdone the sun and the boozing so we were glad to be going home. On the way out I bumped in to friends who asked how I was getting on with the house sitting. I told them I’d enjoyed the sex swing and was pleased that all plants and cats were still alive thus far. Tonight was the 5th night of Mark and Kate being away so half way through, hopefully things would continue to go well.