Sunday
I do not like getting up and I do not like laying in bed. So every day starts with a no win. Since our President, a few years ago, stopped putting the clocks forward and put us on Arab Time, it is even harder to rise in winter.
Got up at twenty past eight. No worm for me. Glass of home brewed Kombucha (don’t ask), trackies on and feed the fish. Sneaky the cat usually emerges to watch this fascinating process. She did stick a paw in once but nearly fell in as the sides of our newly installed pond slope viciously. Since then she has remained content to stare transfixed as the gold and black creatures hit the food pellets like frenzied pirhana.
Exercise is next. Could be my mountain circuit on the newly acquired and already loved e-bike (Carrara Kifuka). Or a swim across Kalamar Bay with my Mouse Island Swim buddies. However, this morning it is just exercises on the deck.
It’s an eclectic mix. Yoga involves 42 Dervish whirls amongst other things. I dress minimally to catch the Vitamin D rays. The upward thrust of the posterior for the Downward Dog will often produce a vigorous report as the internal organs lumber in to action. Then a couple of hundred skips, a few pull ups and finish with a naked plunge in my cold-and-getting-colder mountain pool. Good job we are not overlooked.
The Special and I do not break our fast until 1130ish. That way we only eat two meals a day. So there is a couple of hours to write or work on the house. However it is Sunday so I read the Sunday paper on the Kindle (enother ex pat Must Have).
Breakfast is yogurt and granola, boiled eggs, toast with peanut butter and marmalade, freshly ground coffee. We really try to care about what we eat. It has taken a while but we have a good supply chain going on now; Bread is sourdough from Moonstone in Saribelen. Marmalade from same source. We make the peanut butter, yogurt and granola. I grind the coffee from fresh beans. These are sold from the sack at the wonderful organic/health food store round the back of Migros Jet. Their spices are all loose and you can bring your own container.
We try and support the embryonic sıfır attık (zero waste) movement in Turkey, so homemade and package free is good. The Pandemic has delivered a hammer blow to developments though. Let us all keep the flame alive.
The sun is up and it is time for a bit of work. K gets on with the massive job of tending our 2 acres. I start by blowing away the pine needles from the terraces. This is like holding back the sea. Special K has long since abandoned her project of making useful household objects from pine needles. I would not care if I never saw another effing pine needle. But the cordless Bosch leaf blower is my ally here and a dream machine. I am collecting the whole set of Bosch cordless tools. When they bring out a Bosch cordless wife I will be first in the queue.
Next I work on reorganising my shed. My shed just gets better and better. In Version 3 I have removed the pissy little water tank and installed a big boy outside. Water supply is a problem in Islamlar (see previous posts) and you have to have a decent reserve tank. I have also removed the wooden door at the end and had sliding glass doors put in. It is now almost in conservatory territory.
Like, I suspect, a lot of women K has little understanding of the whole tools / shed agenda.
“Why do you need such a big shed?”
“To store all my tools and kit so I can find it.”
“Why do you need all these tools anyway?”
“To renovate, improve and upgrade my shed”
“Aaagh!”
“Shut the door on the way out sweetie.”
Now that there are so many other different genders (147 I read somewhere) life is going to get even more complicated.
Time has marched on and it is The Aperitif Hour. I make a point of drinking every day. It is a very easy point to make.
Vodka T for mon ange and a glass of additive free Gümüşlük Öküzgözü/Shiraz for me. Try saying that when you are sober. Another one with supper. K has prepared her sticky Chinese chicken with rice. It is fab. We do not eat out much. Breakfast at Bel Muar, occasional supper at the Village Cafe or the odd special meal in Kaş or at Korsan on the harbour.
I am aka the Movie Man. I started the Indigo Beach Cinema and ran it for three years before I handed it over to my friends Ruth and Ahmet at Indigo this year. Great to see it going from strength to strength. I hate the way so many things here just do not last.
I fear the Pandemic curfew for 65+ has put paid to the winter version Movies in the Mountains at the Village Cafe though. This year anyway.
So this evening we do as most evenings; pull down a big screen, get out the projector and hey presto! Home cinema. Currently we are watching Babylon Berlin Series 2 on MoreTV. Fantastic.
K went up the little travertine treads before me. I had a zoom call at 11pm to read eight year old grandaughter Daisy her bedtime story. She is a fidgety minx but razor sharp with sackfuls of attitude. I love her
A slightly unusual (in that neither of us went out) but still reasonably typical sort of day.
To sleep perchance to dream! In this world of exciting times ordinary is beautiful.
I really enjoy reading your blogs. I’ve shared this one to Anything Kalkan. I have visions of your baked bum doing downward dog now! Wendy x
sorry about that. Too much of the proverbial