Le Visiteur

I am one for trends. Changes in the zeitgist. Shifts in the cultural tectonic plates. I watch with fascination and speculate wildly as ideas come and go. Victor Hugo said “Rien n’est plus puissant qu’une idée dont l’heure est venue”.

If my readers were not widely educated this would need translating, so I should add one “There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come”. Only pulling your leg.

The Time of Corona is a specfest for someone like me; online shopping? working from home? friendship bubbles? Will these become the New Normal? And now I am spotting early signs of another new trend.

There are currently no less than three (!!!) Kalkan resident couples on the road, vacationing in camper vans. In the Old World these sturdy souls were all big flyers, blazing vapour trails across the skys. Now they are surfing the turf in cut down Winnebagos? Is this a coincidink or a trend?

Watch out for travel reports from Solar Sue and T pimping their ride Izmir way, born again Plains Indians “Three Feathers” and partner “Makes Good Jams” larging it on the Anatolian hinterland and Mr and Mrs Peaky Rice, who started the whole ball rolling, cruisin’ easy on the M4.

Sell Virgin Atlantic Buy Winnebago Industies Inc. Remember! You heard it here first.

Meanwhile on more solid ground, Islamlar awaits. Yes, arriving tomorrow will be Steppy and Partner with golden boy Sebastian, 11 months, coming for his first trip to the Near East. The Towers is in a lather of anticipation. Special K has put away the pine needles and gone into hyper grandma mode, amassing kit and childproofing our estate.

Leto Towers with its pools, ponds, precipitate drops, cactuses and concrete steps is not the most child friendly environment. But in a moment of inspiration K hit on a brilliant idea.

We have a pentagonal (this means it has five s… sorry! Sorry! K has recently taken me to task about speaking down to people) shaped deck. It sits below and directly abuts the swimming pool. It is balustraded all around apart from a gap either side for entry and egress. So we simply close these to create a secure kind of open prison

Speaking of open prisons can anybody recommend the chicken restaurant attached to the Dalaman open prison? The liberal part of me is keen to support rehabilitating offenders. However I am concerned that as the secure prisons are stuffed with the more desperate and dangerous criminals (journalists, academics, lawyers, opposition politicians) the lesser villains – murderers, rapists, arsonists and gangsters – will be the ones making my tavuk döner. Kind of off putting. What do others think?

Anyway the deck conversion is a great idea. We have visions of sipping Margaritas in the shade of the trees whilst Young Seb hurtles around exploring his iroko haven.

Like all healthy, loved one year olds, Seb abounds with curiosity about the world round him. He moves like lightening exploring everything in his unpredictable path. The fly in the hummus is that the young primate, until the development of language extends the options, has a somewhat narrow range of tools to deploy in satisfying this deep reservoir of curiosity, namely; bite it, hit it or grab it. All three moves are usually accompanied with loud and sudden shrieks.

This is unlikely to render the infant sapiens a welcome visitor to the feline world. While most cats will make themselves scarce at first sign, if they are caught napping the result can be traumatic to both parties. A labrador will be fine. To a labrador any attention is better than no attention. However, this is so not the case for the cat. A cat’s ideal playmate is a snoozing septuagenarian (this means a person of s….sorry. So sorry again!) with a large, well padded lap.

We have taken the difficult decision to put Sneaky, the little black cat, on furlough for the whole period.

So we are now fully prepared. The water is warming in the paddling pool. The pureed sweet potato is in the fridge and we will soon make some food for Seb. Haha!

Enjoy the late summer and let’s watch with interest and humanity where the world is heading. “May you live in interesting times!” as the Chinese curse goes.

And to those of you out there blazing a trail in your caravanettes and winnebagos

Şerefe