Literally! We had another sirocco storm last night, which temporarily took out the leccy. I know that because it switched the aircon off and I woke drenched in sweat!
Getting up this morn, we were greeted by the sight or rather the lack of, of the top of the Babadag Mountain, which is partially obscured by haze. As is the bottom of the normally crystal clear swimming pool. I think it must have been a dust storm as well last night.
They’ve had the Babadag cable car closed for the last few days due to the high winds, and there are definitely no signs of anyone paragliding at present. You’d have to be even more bonkers than normal to give that a go at present, as we suspect anyone trying to launch would immediately find themselves on the back side of the mountain heading down towards Antalya at a rapid rate of knots.
At midday, it was a marginally cooler 38C, with todays temps peaking at 40C by mid afternoon. Still no sign of water, but reserves still reasonable so no real impact again.
It does make you realise how much water you can avoid using with a little planning & thought. Storing & then using grey water for flushing, being one of the more obvious ones, put the plug in when you shower & save that for the loo, or dipping toothpaste-laden toothbrush into a small cup of drinking water, and then using that to rinse, rather than being one of those weirdos that has the tap running for the whole time teeth are being cleaned?!
Todays brunch selection was a variety classic. “Ham-like slices”, vine-ripened tomato, Wensleydale cheese & lovely bread. Seven possible classic sandwich topping combinations on one plate!
Just before we headed down to the pool, I clocked the fellas working on the development that’s going on down the hill from us. I believe there’s a rule that limits construction work when it’s ‘tourist season’, but these lads are like the SAS of construction. They sneak in, work tirelessly and relentlessly, almost invisibly, and put a shift in. Good grief, they put a shift in! Bravo, fellas! Bravo!
In the following photo, the grey house on the right looked like the house on the left on Friday afternoon. It’s now fully ‘first coat’ rendered on all sides. Workforce? Two fellas on the scaffolding, one mixing & then throwing the wet mix up to his mate, who then applied it to the brickwork. Heavy going, right? Especially as it’s been 40-46C and no cooler than 34C whilst they’ve been working!
Jane & I headed to the pool, where we both had a cooling dip, but then split – Jane sunbathing, and me swimming around and clearing the more obvious detritus from the pool.
Done, and then the same pattern as yesterday, despite the big drop-off in temps today (only 40C at this point), with 20/30 mins of lying in the sun, then a dip required.
Definitely some dust in the air by the way. Both Jane & I had sniffles and sneezes in the earlier part of the day, but that tailed off as the day wore on and it was visibly clearer up the top of Babadag by this point. And I said that, after what those builders are up to! What a wuss!
Back up to the apartment, and military planning of the low, but at least existent flow of water. Jane plus long hair first. Then Lurchio, so he has time to do his hair. Then the hairless one.
All washed & fresh, we did ‘the dance’. You know, the one that goes “what we doing then? What does anyone fancy?”. That’s then followed by a five minute shout out to places we could go, but all without commitment. That’s followed by a repeat of the first question. Then eventually we go with the initially suggested placez. All good, just after the ‘dance’. I’m a short dancer the older I get – “here’s what I want to do, which I think you will all like”.
We dolmused (bussed) it down into Hisaronu and walked down to Hidden Gem Restaurant. It’s top notch food (again, see last years blog for details) with really welcoming service.
Had a bit of a chinwag with the fella who seemed to be the owner, or al least in charge. “Yes, quieter. But picking up. Just worried about fires now, as if we had one here, well…”. Not quite comic timing, but as that sentence ended a fire truck sirened its way past the end of the street.
Moving on! Jane got all “Lairy Airey” again with her one solitary drink of the evening, a frozen strawberry daiquiri (seemingly her version of mothers ruin). I’d love to tell you the angle is making it look bigger/her smaller, but it did seem to be twice the size of her head…
Lurchio hit the Corona again, and I risked the least bad choice and had Efes Pilsner, which I may live to regret. I’ve a feeling they use half brewers yeast and half laxative in the brewing process.
Food-wise, it was easy. “Ballon bread and mixed mezze to start and uç (as in rabbit hutch but I only thought that and didn’t say it out loud), lamb chop, please”.
What a cracking spread! The mezze was lovely (I do like a bit of non-pickled beetroot) and the lamb chops were divine!
No apologies for food pictures incoming:
Cooked & seasoned perfectly, in my humble…
Even the ‘chips’ were more like roast potatoes, which is a good thing. Jane wasn’t overly impressed by her sprout-biased selection of veg, but we worked around that & I did the decent thing and ate a few.
Bill paid, we headed back towards the top end where the dolmas & taxi rank is. Which just so happens to be next to a chemist.
What to do…pay £14 for a 2 month supply of Lisinopril (I’m old, fat and as such have high blood pressure) back home or buy a 6 month supply of the same for 175Tlr – divide that by 34 to see the Sterling price.
Drug dealing over, we headed home on the dolmus. 45Tl (£1.32 for 3) later we headed back up the hill & settled in on the balcony.
Well, we tried! Holy moley! The winds had picked up and boy was it exciting out there! The chairs (and anything else loose) we’re taken in! Big gusts that rattled the glass panes, and the scaffolding on the houses on the site below!
And so there ended todays instalment of nonsense!
Much love to the berks reading this!
Chris
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