Ah! Spring! The time when the sap rises and a boy’s interest turns to…..concrete! Well a boy probably also has other things on his mind and concrete may not be top of the list but beggars can’t be choosers, so, in the absence of something warm, soft and cuddly, I finally got round to making another major improvement that has been on my mind for a couple of years.
My wooden veranda floor has done well to put up with neglect and the ravages of the weather here, being alternately soaked and baked dry during the winter and brought nearly to spontaneous combustion during the summers. Most of the wood is still in good condition however the fixings suffer more than anything. The constant movement of the wood due to large temperature changes plays hell with the security of nails and also breaks screws with the expansion of the wood when it gets wet. Thus I decided to put phase three into operation. I had planned to employ two of my local friends, Suleyman and Ali, to help me and I had a timeframe at the back of my mind however last Tuesday Suleyman told me to dismantle the veranda on Wednesday as they were coming to bring tractor loads of rock to make a foundation for the new patio.
Forced into action I spent all day Wednesday slaving away painstakingly taking it apart in order to have useful wood rather than a pile of broken bits. In all I spent about 12 hours with only a couple of breaks to eat and managed to get it cleared away enough for the stone to laid. It’s a strange phenomenon that happens here, you can sit around and chew the fat for weeks on end sometimes but once one of the guys makes a decision it means total dedication to the job in hand.
Anyway that sets the scene and frustrated as I was about being catapulted into all this back-breaking labour I was pleased that it was being done. Ali had to leave the village here and go up to the yayla in a few days so my thoughts of the three of us mixing concrete by hand and the camaraderie of shared work had to go out of the window to be replaced by a delivery of ready-mix concrete poured into place by boom pump.
I had expected the job to take about three weeks, as I write three days later it is all over bar the shouting, the fat lady has finished the last chorus and I’ve been able to sit around today and recover my wits a bit (not that there are that many to recover anyway) I’ve even had a phone call to talk about “that wood you want to get rid of”!
Here are a couple of pictures, before and after, showing the rock and shuttering (formwork):
and the concrete going off in the evening light. Because the concrete is a base for flat stone being laid on it we didn’t need to smooth it all off to a perfect finish, minor ripples and unevenness are therefore not important.
I have a friend who spends most of her life in the east of the Antalya region in a place called Side. She decided to sell her house there and put it on the market a couple of years ago, since then she has steadily reduced the price until now it is only £53k. For this ridiculously low price some lucky person will get a beautiful villa located in Akdeniz Sitesi just off the Side to Kumkoy road, overlooking a communal swimming pool. Very few foreigners have places on the complex, most are owned by Turkish families – so they are at work all day and the pool is yours! Just a 10 minute walk to the beach and 5 minutes to shops, bars and restaurants. There is a bus stop right outside on the main road by the complex.
Walk along the beach to Old Town Side in 30 minutes or take the dolmus there in 10 minutes for just a couple of Lira.
The villa has 2 bedrooms + 2 bathrooms (one on ground floor and one on first floor) and has planning permission for another 2 bedrooms to be built on the big flat roof however she preferred to use the roof-top as a party area or a romantic place under the stars at night with a glass of wine and someone special.
Both bedrooms and the living room have full air conditioning/heating installed and there are new shutters throughout. Included in the price is a 3-piece suite that doubles up as a double bed and 2 single beds (all with full storage below) a big TV, video, DVD player, microwave, toaster, jug kettle, patio furniture on 3 levels, ground, first floor and roof-top; a little fenced garden all around including pomegranate trees, roses and palm trees. Also included in sale are freestanding wardrobes and kitchen cupboards, gas hob with gas cylinder, water cooler unit, cutlery, glasses, mugs, plates, beach towels, duvets, duvet covers, – – everything you need to move in tomorrow. Here are a couple of pictures:
Seriously people, this is a bargain, I’ve seen it and she is giving it away at this price!
UPDATE 13-6-2011 The house is now sold! Yippeeee!
Went round to my friend Suleyman’s house yesterday for some tea and found he had a few other friends there. We were entertained by an impromptu concert given by Aşık Ahmet and some of his musical instruments. He also sings and usually makes up the words as he goes along, includıng the names of those present in the verses. There were a few people peering over the fence to see what the occasion was. In the last of the warmth of the late afternoon and sitting amongst the almond trees it was quite a magical moment. He plays the Saz,
the Sipsi, a shepherd’s flute
and the Kaval.
It was interesting that the sipsi and the kaval appeared to be a set and the sipsi fitted inside the kaval for easy storage.
Another musical thing happened while I was sitting outside this morning a cuckoo (guguk in Turkish ) was calling over and over. It was constant for about twenty five minutes.
Everything in the valley is so green now and flowers are opening all over the place, it’s a lovely time of year.
A nice day here after a week of cold and wet so I was outside pruning the grape vines at the back of the house. I want a big crop of grapes this year after the surprise success of my my wine last year. I made the wine three years ago but it wasn’t nice so I left it thinking I might distil it at some later date, tried it before Christmas and it had matured very nicely so I’m going to try again.
My finger is continuing to heal but is very painful these days because the nail, which had been wrenched to a crooked position, is now trying to grow straight again. This is putting quite a lot of strain on the nail bed so it’s a pain like I’ve hit it with a hammer but it won’t go away. Methinks alcohol applied internally will be a good idea this evening.
Hope I’m not boring you with an update on my finger. There are a couple of photos of it this time so if you’re eating don’t click on them to see the larger version until you’ve finished. They’re not particularly gory though.
As I said before the bit that was sewn back on had gone black like frostbite, it was probably my fault for having put it directly on ice instead of just keeping it cool on the way down to Kas. Anyway, as it has been healing it has been re-attaching itself and most of it has come to life again. Just the outer skin remained dead. Around the edges it has been curling up and I’ve been trimming it off and putting antiseptic ointment on it. Well now I just have a scab with a tiny piece of the original skin left and it’s obvious that I am losing only a very small part of the tip of the finger. I’m very pleased and relieved although I’ll be glad when the pain stops, I had to take some painkillers to be able to sleep last night.
So here are the pictures, looking at them now you would probably wonder why I made all the fuss! As you can see the nail is now at an angle, don’t know whether it will straighten up or not and I’m wondering whether I will grow a new fingerprint or will it stay smooth? Any ideas anyone?
I’ve been really fed up with with the injury to the fingers of my left hand but, surprise surprise, I can report that most of the detached piece that was sewn back on has re-attached itself. I was convinced that it was going to work so I’m glad that my thoughts have been confounded. There is still quite a bit of discomfort from it but when I hold the hand palm upwards it looks as if I’ve got a black button balanced on the end of the middle finger. As it heals and the black part separates I’m gently trimming it off with a sharp knife, it’s now covering about one third of the original wound area and there is sensation through the black bit. It’s never going to look too good but I won’t have to lose the end of the finger that is now for sure. It still looks pretty awful though so to save turning your stomachs over I’m not going to post any photographs of it yet, after all one or two of you might be eating while looking at this.
It’s now three weeks since the accident with my fingers and it seems that one is OK and one is not. The third finger of my left hand that was cut has healed, the village doctor here in France has taken the stitches out and apart from looking a bit red now it seems to be doing fine. I suppose it will take some time for the nerves to heal and the sensation to come back in it but that was to be expected. Stitching the piece back on the other finger hasn’t gone so well, it has turned black and it’s pretty obvious that it is dead. I’m only waiting to get back to Turkey to have the surgeon look at it and I’m expecting to lose the last joint of that finger. Bugger!
There is a lovely bed and breakfast / chambre d’hote place here in Normandy called Le Grand Mesnil in a place called St Bomer les Forges. If you’re ever in or around Normandy it’s well worth staying at.
There are plenty of places to go and see here, one of the most visited is Mont St Michel, a monastery situated on an island just off the coast at the mouth of the Cousenon river near the town of Avranches. Apparently it is the most visited tourist place in France. In summer it is extremely busy but at this time of year there are no crowds.
We visited the abbey at Lonlay L’Abbaye, I was intrigued by the carvings under the pew seats. Some of the pews had a high back and a lift up seat so that people could stand and lean on a ledge sticking out from the bottom of the seat. This ledge was supported by a carved wooden wedge, the carvings depict various designs and faces, this one is a smiling village woman, possibly the woman who used that particular pew?
One of the things Normandy is best known for in England and America are the D Day landings of World War 2. The landing beaches. Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha, Point du Hoc and Utah are interesting places to go and see, it is easy to imagine the hundreds of ships discharging the troops in the effort to bring the war to an end. There were thousands of casualties too and this photograph of the American cemetery overlooking Omaha beach is where a small percentage of them lie.
Very upsetting and painful couple of days just passed. The goatherder’s dogs came into the garden on Wednesday morning and of course my two wanted to go and see them. Minnie was no problem because she wasn’t on a lead anyway but when I took off Wilf’s choke chain he lunged forward and started to run off. Unfortunately just about the time he reached top speed I realised that he had the rope around his chest and was pulling hard at it, two of the fingers of my left hand were still in the loop of the choke chain which inevitably tightened ripping off part of my middle finger and causing a cut down to the bone on my third finger. After dancing around in agony for about fifteen seconds I noticed the ripped off part of my finger lying on the veranda so I picked it up and phoned a friend who very kindly came and took me down to Kaş to the doctor. I spent an hour or so getting my third finger stitched up there and then we went to the hospital about five hundred yards away and got the other finger repaired with the bit I’d picked up.
I agonised overnight and decided that Wilf would have to go to the animal shelter in Ağullu and took him there yesterday. I’m really upset about doing this because I love him but he’s now caused three serious injuries and shows no sign of calming down. He rushes down to the gate and scares all of the locals who walk past my house, sooner or later someone is going to complain to the Jandarma (village police) and they will have him shot. He’s already been poisoned a couple of times but I managed to get some yoghurt into him and neutralise it before it killed him so I think he is now in the safest place for him.
Minnie is still with me but I’m sad about Wilf and hope that my injury heals well although I doubt that I’m going to be able to play the guitar for a long time if ever. Having said that Jango Rheinhart did alright with only two and a half fingers didn’t he?
Here’s a picture of Minnie enjoying some warm sunshine on New Year’s Eve.
Happy New Year to everybody, I hope it brings everything you wish for. I was surprised today when a friend phoned me to say that there was a solar eclipse occurring, just goes to show how far off the pulse my finger gets sometimes eh? So I went out have a look with my sunglasses and camera. Of course the sun was still far too strong for me to be able to look directly at it even with the sunglasses so I tried to take some photographs. Nope that was no good either but I’ll post one of them here because a lot of people have said nice things about my photography and I just want to show that I do have some failures.
But one of the photos turned into a rather pleasing abstract what with the lens flare and the colours.
I was walking at the back of the house on the penultimate day of 2010 and heard a buzzing sound. In spring you can often hear it if you are anywhere near the almond trees because of the number of bees around the blossoms, looking up I found that it was bees this time too. There are a couple of young eucalyptus trees that had their little white flowers open and the bees were having a fine old time buzzing around collecting the pollen.
I’m going on a trip to France next week so look out for very different pictures before long.
I hope everyone had a Happy Christmas and is now looking forward to making (and keeping) some New Year’s resolutions, I’ve made some but I’ll only tell you one of them. I’ve resolved to have more fun and adventure in 2011.
Christmas dinner was nice this year, I was invited to Joe and Tricia’s house here in the village along with other friends and we had a lovely meal. That’s Joe and Tricia at this end of the table.
The tone of the party was set by the ‘Party Angels’
In the traditional manner dinner was rounded off by ‘flaming’ the pudding
and then we had played Trivial Pursuit in which both teams knew the answers to each other’s questions but struggled with their own, is it ever thus?
Best wishes to everyone for a happy, peaceful and healthy 2011.
Two major upgrades to my house to report today. A few weeks ago I went over to Izmir to pick up a dishwasher machine that I was given. It was also during the first rains of the season and when I got into the middle of Izmir it started raining. Naturally I turned on my windscreen wipers just to see the business edge of the rubber blades stay stuck to the windscreen while the metal carriers screeched across the windscreen like a fingernail down a blackboard (you have to be a certain age to appreciate that). It happens every year because the sun rots the rubber during the summer. Luckily it was only a light shower (unusual here) and I was able to carry on although a bit more careful than usual. I had been looking forward to having a beer and a chat with the guys I was picking up the dishwasher from but unfortunately that was not to be. Anyway suffice to say I got the machine back home cleaned it up and temporarily connected it to give it a test and find out how it works, I’d never used one before you see. The supermarkets in Kaş had lots of different detergent options, I had no idea which one to use but I’d seen a little compartment in the door of the machine so opened a box with tablets in it. They seemed very small but were exactly the size of the compartment so I took them. Well it was a revelation to me, I’ve never seen my washing up so clean before. Yes it’s a bit of childlike excitement, it’s pitiful really but I love getting new things, or even old things that are new to me and I’m treating it like the 21st Birthday present I never got. I won’t be using it all the time, I don’t generate enough washing up for that but when I cook up a few things to freeze for the coming month I use every pot and utensil in the house and I hate washing up after myself then. I’m not going to bother with a photograph of it, it’s a white cubiod thing just like a million others.
Every autumn for the last five years I’ve made weather resistant panels to keep the rain out of the porch with some 2×2 and polythene sheeting. It has worked well and kept the porch dry and surprisingly warm as the sun is low in the sky and the porch faces south. Sometimes it gets up to 35C in there, it’s lovely to sit in there in January wearing shorts and tee-shirt with a cold beer and read a book or do a crossword or two. The trouble with it was it looked terrible and I wasn’t proud of it. Anyway I was tidying up a few weeks ago and came across a brochure that someone gave me a couple of years ago advertising custom made screens which zip together. I decided to give them a call to find out how much it would cost to have some made and they came to measure up and give me a quote. A couple of days later I got an email with the quote , I replied asking them to go ahead and a couple of weeks later they turned up in the late afternoon to fit them.
It took a while and the guys weren’t finished until late afternoon but it was a good job and I’m happy with the result. The screens look a great deal smarter than my polythene ones, you can see clearly through the windows and the material is stronger than the polythene too.
Because it gets so warm in there with the screens it tends to keep the house warmer in the winter meaning that I don’t have to use so so much wood in the stove and the dogs have somewhere warm and dry too. All in all a good addition.
Cukurbagli's Blog 
You must be logged in to post a comment.