The Honeymoon

Our bonkers but lovely friends got married a couple of weeks ago in Southampton. It was a lovely romantic occasion and we enjoyed the day very much. Then we were invited to go away on honeymoon with them to Gocek in Turkey. Hil and I went ahead a week before for our girl's week in Datca. Then we drove down to Gocek on Thursday after lunch. Matt flew out to meet us that evening along with the honeymooners.
I've never been on anyone else's honeymoon before so Hil and I decided we should enter fully into the spirit of the occasion. We bought as many decorative items as we could think of to adorn their honeymoon room. Amazon failed miserably with the star item, a hand book for newly weds 1894 which was to be positioned on their pillow. They sent the wrong book and 'Working from home' was not appropriate. However Hil found a heart shaped potato in Migros and that went down well. We filled their bed with confetti, and sprinkled it into wine glasses and all around the bathroom. The Mr and Mrs Wedding Ducks were placed in the bathroom along with heart shaped soap from the honey shop in Datca and pretty pink heart hair items from the market. Hil found a just married banner to go over the door and bed and a silver bow on the door handle. There were also cake shaped bubbles to blow, just married rock and of course love hearts sweets. Over the bed we hung white paper wedding bells and streamers. Finally we positioned just married flip flops - his and hers and a bottle of sensual massage oil. The hotel manager loved it and wanted to help. He added a bottle of wine and some flowers. I think they were pleased and amused by it all especially after they emptied the bed of confetti and cleaned up. They sat down for a glass of wine, pulled the serviettes from the wine glasses and more confetti billowed out (tee hee).
We didn't spend all of their 25 day honeymoon with them, just the first 3. It was loads of fun with cocktails, boat trip, nice dinners and a lovely hotel stay. Here are a few photos of our smashing honeymoon with Rob and Melanie.

There were 4 large packets of confetti hidden in that bed!

The hotel breakfast

Kybele Otel

Who ordered the pretty pink drink?

100 lira a day to sit here!

A Grand Day Out!

Hilary and I are having a sneaky girl's week in Datca before we set off later today to meet Matt, Melanie and Rob in Gocek about 4 hours drive away to help Melanie and Rob celebrate their honeymoon. Anyway we thought it might be nice to splash out and do something different this week. So with the help of Metin our Mr Fix It, we negotiated a passage to the Greek island of Symi on the Archipel gulet. Considering we can see Symi from our garden and it is only about 12 miles away, it is an expensive trip at 75 euros return each, taking about an hour and a half. However we thought never mind we will go anyway because Hil was hoping for a Shirley Valentine moment over there what with it being Greece and full of men called Costas. Also we had a long shopping list from friends in Datca for duty free items and bacon!
We were up early last Monday and hot footed it down to the harbour for 9am and waited to board the boat. The boat boy brought us coffee and finally we were away with our six fellow passengers. There was a German couple, an American /Turkish couple, a Turkish girl and a Datca gentleman. The trip over was smooth and convivial with lashings of free tea and coffee.
We sailed into the beautiful port with Italian influenced architecture. The island was Italian until it was handed back to Greece in 1945. During the sail over we agreed to an island taxi trip with the German couple and so on arrival we located the taxi rank and Constantinos who loved his family, his island, his country, his taxi, his customers and his job. He was bit of a joker as he told us he didn't speak the English but soon we found he was the most fluent English speaking taxi driver on the island and we couldn't shut him up. He did however give us plenty of information about the island and set an exam at the end!
There is only one road on the island leading to a stunningly beautiful monastery. The mountain road leading to it was narrow and winding with many hair pin bends. We spent a while at the monastery which is quite big but only two monks live there with quite a few workers.
On return Constantinos, who by the way wasn't suitable for Hilary's Shirley Valentine moment, said he had a good idea and that he could drop us off at the top of the hill behind the main town and then we could just stroll down hundreds of old steps and take in the beautiful view of the harbour. He said it would take ten minutes. Well the view was indeed beautiful but it took us half an hour to negotiate the wobbly old steps. At the bottom my knees were like jelly so we had to revive ourselves in the bar. Then of course we had to do the shopping and it was getting late. We failed miserably in sourcing the bacon but just about managed to get the whisky and vodka.
The trip back was not as smooth as the one going over, we were warned it would be wavy. Well wavy it was, with rather large ones crashing over us. I couldn't see the life jackets which was concerning and the young Turkish girl turned green.
You'll be pleased to know we survived and all in all had a grand day out.

Leaving Datca harbour

Arriving at Symi

Interesting shops

Hil with the taxi driver

At the monastery

Monastery courtyard

Poor old Bruiser

Hil and I love the cats that visit us in Datca. Matt says he isn't keen but I think he quite likes them really. Over the years there have been many - Squeaky, Aphrodite, Sultan (who actually was Sultana), Princess Beyaz of Ozbel (my favourite), Black face, White face, Bella and loads more. The life of a street cat is free and easy but sometimes short. Anyway there are some old favourites that we see each year and they seem to remember us. We feed them a bit but not enough for them to depend on us and I leave bowls of water out. The gardener loves cats too so he fills the bowls when we are not there. There is a lady living nearby who feeds about 30 of them all year round. I know there are one or two friends who get cross about me feeding them saying that when I leave they feel abandoned but I discussed this with the vet who feels we should feed them when we are here, it helps to build them up ready for the winter.
About 7 years ago Black Face gave birth to three adorable little kittens in our garden. We watched them take their first steps and play on our terrace in the moonlight. They entertained us, falling over their own feet and each other. Well we think one of these cute little kittens grew up to be a real rough old Tom cat who goes by the name of Bruiser. Hilary adores him because as we know she has a soft spot for naughty old boys! He has such a sweet nature though and if we put food out he lets all the lady cats eat first before he finishes up their left overs. We suspect he is probably the father of many of the black and white cats in the neighbourhood - he is a very big boy. He also fights a lot and from the looks of it he never wins. He is covered in scars and wounds.
This week though he was the worst we have ever seen him. It was so sad, he limped up to us with weeping, bleeding wounds, mange and lifted his sore paw up and cried. So something had to be done for him. We called the vet and sped up to collect a basket. This was at 17.30 and the vet closes at 18.00 although he did say he would wait a while. We don't usually touch Bruiser so we were worried about trying to catch him. So we put some food at the back of the basket and he looked in. Without any further hesitation and wearing the gardening gloves I shoved him in before he had chance to protest. Hil snapped the door shut - job done! We felt quite pleased with ourselves especially as the situation was complicated by Beyaz the white cat becoming quite distressed at the plight of her friend and kept getting in the way. Also another cat decided to chose that moment to pass by with a huge, live lizard in her mouth! It was all getting somewhat frantic. Anyway with 10 minutes to spare we made the mercy dash to the vet.
They let Bruiser out onto the examination table and the vet's assistant was wearing her massive leather gauntlets. However Bruiser was a model patient and let Ali the vet examine him without any fuss. They said they knew him and had seen him around as their friend is the lady who feeds the street cats in our area. The diagnosis was mange, ear mites and bites. So Ali kept him at his clinic for three nights and treated him for all of his ailments. We were amazed that the bill was only 40 Lira ( 12 pounds) and that included his medicines, injections and food. Ali said that he could take the money from the street animal fund that the expats had raised from various charity nights but we felt happy to pay for it.
Now Bruiser isn't exactly owned by anyone but the lady who feeds him  had missed him and thought maybe as he is an old cat he may have died. So when she called into the vets and saw him there, she was very happy.
The call came after his three nights in the clinic and we returned to collect him. Ali and Lori said he was a lovely old boy and he had eaten lots of food. We discussed neutering as so many of my Facebook friends thought he should be done but the vet said he was too old now and it wouldn't be kind to him, so he remains intact. We did wonder what he had been thinking during all of this. He enjoyed all the food though and didn't make any fuss about the injections and stuff in his ears. We drove him home and released him on the park land by our house which is his usual territory. He came out cautiously and ate some of the food we put down for him and then trotted off down the road without so much as a backwards glance or a thank you!! He looked so much better, his wounds were healing, coat was already looking glossier, no more limping and there was a spring in his step.
That was yesterday and we haven't seen him since. I fancy he is thinking he will give those two mad English ladies with the big basket a wide berth in future.

Bye Bruiser 

Footnote - having written this Bruiser has just come round the corner and is sitting on our terrace miaowing loudly. As far as I can tell he is either saying - 'Thanks very much nice English ladies' or 'I want food' - probably the latter and we have given in.