Cukurbagli's Blog   My life in Turkey

After a couple of busy weeks I was looking forward to a restful day yesterday. I picked up a cold virus last weekend and although it hadn’t developed into much I’d had a sore throat, cough and was now left feeling not quite 100%. I hadn’t got anything planned and expected to just cruise through the day as the mood took me. As everybody who lives here knows, that is a very dangerous frame of mind to be in because things tend to happen that you weren’t expecting, a bit like the old sayings that nature abhors a vacuum and stuff expands to fill empty spaces.

So… at around ten in the morning when the dogs started barking to signal someone coming up the drive I should not have been as surprised as I was. One glance out of the window told me all I needed to know. The new windows that I had ordered some time ago were going to be fitted this morning.

Two guys, (L-R) Arif and Osman, leapt from their truck and, as full of bonhomie and enthusiasm as only young, capable, optimistic working men can be, started ripping out the old windows. I was pleased that they had come to do the job of course, you could see the sky through the gaps between the old windows and the frame and I didn’t like the breeze on my face when I was in bed during windy weather.

The reticence I have when craftsmen come to do things here is caused by the fact that all their tools and equipment are chosen for working on houses made of stone, concrete and brick, consequently they have large hammer-drills, blunt chisels, big hammers and masonry drills. Well these things tend to be too rough on woodwork and getting out the old window frames is a very noisy and splintering kind of task. Anyway I left them to it, made a coffee and tried not to get too  stressed at hearing my house being physically abused.

The work took nearly all day, they didn’t leave till after four in the afternoon. They worked well and the finished job looks fine. This summer I’ll be able to have the windows open at night and allow the fitted screens to keep out the mosquitoes. The breeze coming through the gaps in the bedroom windows has been eliminated. I had two windows done previously and there are a further four to have replaced and probably two doors as well so I’ll look forward to that with bated breath. I’ll wait for a while until the weather is warmer and may even take the remaining windows out myself so that I don’t get so wound up next time.

I was having a look around the Taşlıca peninsula just to the west of Marmaris last weekend with a friend and came across some delightful little bays and villages that are very unspoilt. At this time of year the only things going on there are repairs and maintenance to boats, houses and tourist equipment like sunbeds and small jetties, most places seem practically deserted. These places are so small that there can’t be too much of a crowd in the height of summer and some places are not accessible by car, only by boat which makes them very special in my opinion. I’ve always been drawn to boats, boatyards and harbours. I first learnt to sail in Cyprus in 1980 during my RAF days then had a boat of my own that I sailed around the Poole area of the south coast of UK with. The places and coast we found last weekend would be wonderful to wander around in a small sailing boat, no rush to hurry anywhere, plenty of sheltered anchorages and welcoming locals to swap stories with.

And here’s a picture of my two dogs, Molly (on the floor), Minnie (on the sofa) and the little white one is a friend’s dog, Lucky who I was looking after for a weekend a few months ago.

Aslan has been coming every day to get some food, I hide his tablets in the tinned meat that I put on top of the dried food, he wolfs it down so fast that I’m sure it doesn’t even touch the sides on it’s way down to his stomach. He’s in for a surprise tomorrow, I’ll be clipping his claws, what fun!