David and Sue in Yesilkent - the beginning (2005 - 2006)

Our visit to UK in April thro' to June 2006

In April we returned to the UK using the new British Airways service from Izmir. We were in the UK for Easter and Andrea's (our daughter) birthday. Good timing as it was also school holidays so we were able to see more of the grand-children as well. It was a frantic three weeks, trying to fit in friends, relatives and work colleagues. We had eight different beds in those 21 days and drove over 1000 miles in our hire car. It was totally exhausting, and although it was lovely to see everyone, we realised that it's impossible to please everyone and that when we return again, we will have to plan a very different itinerary.

When we arrived back, the weather was very good and we spent quite a bit of time on the beach recuperating. Apparently, on the first day we were away, there was a violent thunderstorm. This resulted in several of our electrical items being destroyed, including all the cordless phones, the modem, usb hub, powered speakers and others. It took a while to get all these replaced .... lesson learned; unplug EVERYTHING when we have time away.

Whilst in UK we got the materials to repair the canoe, so that was one of our first jobs. We repaired the hole, then coated it twice in epoxy resin and twice in yaght varnish. It looked as good as new. All we needed now was a trailer to get it to the sea, and that was assembled from bits and pieces we found around the village by our friend Gary, and a very good job he made of it.

Later that month we visited Ted and Margaret who live near Kusadasi. They were old friends of ours who originally lived a few doors away from us in the UK in Wrentham. We lost touch with them after they moved away, so imagine our surprise when nearly 20 years later, we bumped into them in the opticians in Lowestoft and discover that they too were moving to Turkey just two weeks before us and just over an hour down the road.

When Don and Pat, some new friends, arrived in May with their grand-children, they asked if we would accompany them to the aquapark, to take some of the pressure off. We were glad to, and despite Sue's apprehension, she was the one we had to prise from the rides when it was time to leave .... she was worse than Katie and Jack.

In June we were able to make full use of the canoe, and the motorbike as the temperatures are at their most comfortable. so we went exploring locally both by sea and road, taking picnics and friends along with us.













At the end of June, Hayley, our grand-daughter, came over to "chill" after her GCSEs. She brought along two of her friends, Emma and Vicki. That certainly livened us old folks up!! They spent a good part of the week posing on the beach or by friends' pools, or in the evenings surveying the local talent in the night-clubs and bars, with us riding shotgun, fending off the over eager Turkish lads.

posted by David and Sue @ 6:54 pm