Cukurbagli's Blog   My life in Turkey

I think I’ve said before that I had been introduced the conception of a bonus day during the winters here, well today was certainly one of them.

About two years ago I started the process of applying for a Turkish driving licence.

Yes two years ago and I am ashamed to say that although things sometimes move slowly here this time it has been entirely my fault. Anyway three weeks ago I had my mind jogged about it, picked up where I left off and got the rest of the application necessities done in two days. Today I visited the traffic police department with Ayşe a Turkish friend and neighbour of mine in my village who is also a registered translator of English and French helped me through the process. We visited the Court offices to get a certificate that showed that I’m not a criminal, the population office for a certificate showing my address and the Notary’s office to get Passport translations notarised then we submitted the application, to find that it was accepted and the licence printed and issued to me in only a couple of hours!

I will not complain again. Actually while visiting these various offices it became apparent that the transition to computerisation is forging ahead and making a great difference to administrative processes here.

Another bonus to my day occurred later in the day. Aslan, the dog I have mentioned a few times in recent posts, had been conspicuous by his absence for the last week. Previously he had been staying at my place because I was feeding him and treating his Leishmaniasis, I put a folded up carpet on the floor of my woodshed and he slept there in relative comfort. Well I had started thinking that he had succumbed to the disease but this afternoon while outside I noticed a white tail wagging behind my car. Since Minnie’s tail is brown and Molly hasn’t got a tail I looked to see who it was and Aslan came out on three legs holding the fourth up because his paw hurts. Obviously he had found himself somewhere else warm and dry and stayed there during our recent cold wet weather. So I gave him a big bowl of food laced with medicine and a few kind words of encouragement. I’m glad he is (relatively) ok.

The third bonus today was the weather. During a break at lunchtime while we waited for the licence to be printed we had a coffee in the Noel Baba tea garden in the square. We sat at a table in the sun and the and the temperature on the large digital thermometer was reading 19C. It was warmer in the direct sun and it made even the most mundane administrative task a pure pleasure. There were a lot of people out to enjoy the beautiful day and seeing the smiles on peoples faces was a real treat.

Definitely a Bonus Day

HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY AND PEACEFUL NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE, MAY YOUR GODS SMILE UPON YOU.

Unusually the day has started off cloudy here and some rain is forecast for later, first time Christmas Day has been like this since I came here.

Edit, well some sun came out later so can’t complain.

Yeah I know I’ve posted about the Greek island of Meis/Kastellorizo before but this time it’s different. I went over to get my customary bottle of brandy for Christmas, a friend had brought me a bottle of Armagnac but I couldn’t resist it so needed more. I also got a couple of big bars of Cadbury’s Whole Nut chocolate and I met a lady who runs a cat sanctuary on another Greek island and who had helped to organise a clinic to catch and neuter a lot of Meis’s cats.

The vets had only been there since Sunday and had already neutered around a hundred cats! Amazing, there were a lot more to do so I hope they are successful. Sorry about the quality of the photos, just my phone camera again.

Just a quick update on the Robin, here he/she is having a bath this morning. Starting with a Blackbird there was a queue this morning and it was a bit of a surprise to see the Robin waiting patiently for it and then three Sparrows to have a bath before it flew down from the tree.

Next in line was this Blue Tit who was really having a good time.

A couple of weeks ago we had the first proper rain since May, a real downpour that properly soaked the ground and started off all the plants into another growing frenzy. A subtle greening of the landscape so far but you know down in the ground everything is working furiously. Down in Kas there was some flooding, the landscape funnels rain run-off water down into the middle of the town, the drains can’t cope and in a few streets it often floods the shops a bit.

One of my guttering downpipes is positioned to direct rainwater from the roof into a 500 litre plastic tank, the rain was pretty heavy and it overflowed after the 10 minutes or so it took to fill the tank. Wish I had three or four 1,000 litre tanks then a lot more could be saved to water the plants with when it’s dry instead of having to to use water that has to be paid for.

I had taken note of the weather forecast because my supply of logs to heat my house for the winter had only been delivered a few days before and I didn’t want them to get wet. I’d been planning to put a proper roof on the wood-store for some time and, galvanised into action by the impending rain, I got it sufficiently water resistant to keep the logs dry, then it was eventually finished yesterday. A couple of coats of clear preservative makes the old wood look quite attractive. The planks of wood were left over from dismantling my wooden veranda a few years ago, they had to come in handy for something one day eh? They were earmarked to make a chicken coop for a while but that didn’t come to fruition. The tiles were bought new.

Of course creating storage space just creates a vacuum which has to be filled so there is all sorts of stuff in there now from bicycles to bags of compost and soil improver. I’ll have to wait until I’ve used some of the wood in the stove before I can get the outboard motor in there though.

Talking of the firewood this is Atalay, the guy who supplies it. Very happy and helpful chap, charges a reasonable price (120 lira per cubic metre) and makes a folk-art figure (ju-ju) for all his customers. I’m thinking of it as a bringer of good fortune and warmth to the house. If you are in the Kaş area and need some firewood Atalay can be reached on 0538 2856382.

Here also is my buddy Bob, I had helped him barrow and stack his wood delivery a couple of days earlier so he came to help me in return. He also helped me to get some of the wood-store roof finished in time for the rain.

While hanging out some washing the other day Minnie was wagging her tail and looking very interested in something under the old bench. There was a little Robin sitting there looking very sleepy, it didn’t object when I reached under the bench to pick it up and it’s eyes were half closed so obviously there was something wrong with it. My guess was that it had flown into a window pane and stunned itself, so to keep it out of harms way while it recovered I put it in the back of my pick-up and left it alone. About an hour later it seemed much more alert so I put it on the Jasmine at the back of the house and took a few photographs of it.

After a couple of minutes it hopped onto other branches and then flew off altogether. Glad it survived.

And, apropos of nothing, here’s a photograph of Molly in her usual relaxing position with her front legs crossed.

Oh, by the way, the repairs to the front of my brother’s house are stalled in red tape while the insurance company get their act together. Hopefully it will be finished by Easter he says.

Well that didn’t take long and I’m pretty happy about the result. I think it’s probably the smallest patio I’ve ever made but it is certainly the cutest and now I have some pots to put some big plants in and bring some colour in the spring. A trellis or something of the sort would probably make a good addition to go round it in case I do some topless sunbathing. Don’t quite know which flowers to choose yet, I intend to have a lemon tree in the big pot and some night scented Jasmin but they will probably be in troughs if I can find some nice terra cotta ones.

Having finished the patio I got caught up in the spirit of the moment and painted the door onto the porch. In England we would call it a “front door” since it is the main entrance but it is at the back of the house by the porch and this patio so I’m at a loss really. Anyway it is now painted. There is supposed to be a deep psychological meaning to the colour that you paint your front door, what this says about me I have no idea and frankly I don’t really care, I like it and it suits my mood. It’s waiting for the second coat of blue now.

This summer has been cooler than the last few years by a few degrees, it’s still hot but I haven’t seen 40C on the thermometer at all this year, so much for global warming.

I’ve been feeling guilty.

Lately I haven’t been putting much effort into getting my little patio finished and I’ve been feeling bad about it. I’ve been distracted and it’s been too hot to do much but now with cooler mornings I have driven myself to get on with it. There is so little left to do that I should finish it in a week or two if I get up early and work for an hour or so. I’ve got a pile of tiles left over from the house build and some I’ve acquired nefariously from other sources so I decided to include a few so that games could be played. It’s a three by three grid that you can play noughts and crosses or Sudoku upon with chalk.

I’m not a big fan of board or card games but I don’t mind puzzling while sitting in the shade with a beer and guests might like to have a go too. I’ll have to get some coloured chalk next time I’m in town.

Oh yes!…and with a monumental struggle a couple of days ago I wrestled the umbrella base onto the patio so I could have a bit more shade while laying the stone. It took me all afternoon with big baulks of timber and levers and ropes, the appliance of science and a lot of sweat. I sat down the next day and felt very pleased with myself as I rubbed in the muscle relaxant and horse liniment.

Went down to my favourite beach last Saturday. Well it’s not really a beach since you get into the water from rocks, there is no sand but that doesn’t bother me. Nowadays in high season there are about twenty or thirty folk there on a weekend afternoon but it’s less busy at other times. It seems not many people know about this place which suits me perfectly, it’s a nice place for snorkelling. Not really child friendly as there is no space to play games, the water is deep immediately you get in and boats come to anchor here occasionally. I love it though.

Continuing the Kaş Lykia Festival weekend on Saturday night I went again to the theatre and saw the Moliere play “Tartuffe”. I had a very sketchy idea of the story of the play and would have liked my Turkish to be good enough and quick enough to be able to follow the story more effectively since it was all in Turkish but I enjoyed it anyway. I took a cushion this time and was much more comfortable on the stone seats of the theatre than the previous night. The audience were “kindly forbidden” to take photographs so forgetting to take my camera wasn’t the disaster that I thought it would be.

On Sunday morning the swimming race from Meis to Kaş was scheduled. Since the swimmers start in Meis there wasn’t a great rush to get to Kaş early and by the time I turned up the first few had already finished.

For someone who has never been a great swimmer (me) it looks a very long way but everyone seemed happy to have finished as they climbed the ladder out of the water. There were medals for everyone who finished.

This team of girls all finished together and were delighted to have taken part by the look of it.

One hero even had the strength for some Butterfly strokes at the end of it!

Well done to all of you, see you again next year.

Back in January I pruned my vines carefully so that they would grow the most grapes that they could. I do it every year now, I don’t want the vines to extend any more so it seems obvious to go for the most grapes. Well this year it has worked a treat because it looks as though I’m going to have the biggest crop ever.

The annual Kaş Festival started yesterday so I had a look and took a few photographs. It will be continuing for the rest of the weekend so I’ll be taking a lot more.

The opening ceremony included a demonstration of Greek dancing by a troupe from Meis, a couple of the young men were throwing themselves into the air rather spectacularly, made me think back to the time I used to do Zorba’s Dance in Cyprus thirty years ago.

A lot of visitors came over from Meis for the occasion and although we often hear a Greek voice here in the market it is nice to hear so many all at once among the crowd in the square.

Recently there has been a public airing of disapproval at the government attempt to ride roughshod over public opinion regarding lifestyle in Turkey. There have been demonstrations in many cities and towns and Kaş has been no exception. After the dancing and the formal opening ceremony a small group continued to voice their disapproval. In typical Kaş fashion this was done in a very refined and polite way accompanied by gentle applause from the throngs of tourists and locals out for the evening.

A modern dance group from the Turkish State Ballet in Istanbul performed a series of wonderful dance routines at the ancient Greek theater and received a standing ovation at the end.

Hopefully there will be more to post about from this evenings entertainment and tomorrow (Sunday) the annual Meis to Kaş swimming race will take place starting at 8am. Looking forward to seeing that.