The expatriate mostly retired community of Kalkan are a fractious crew. Normal people retire in their country of birth and dedicate their life to keeping heritage railways running, helping the National Trust, looking after their grandchildren, playing golf, decorating and so on.
None of these are available here (except decorating and it is too hot and unpleasant to do that) so we retirees have to content ourselves with partying, gossip, boat trips, walking, swimming, jaunts away and looking on Facebook to check who is doing what with who.
En brèf the sort of people who retire abroad are a bit edgier. The result is more fractious and transient communities. We cannot even agree that we are ex pats. The more woke amongst us self identify as immigrants. This seems to fly in the face of the fact that most immigrants spend an awful lot of time working.
There are however two traits that we do share
- We do not like cliquey people (as in “Oh they are so cliquey!”)
- We all belong to cliques
Yes! You are right. Well spotted. There is a tension here. But this is about to be resolved because in the New Normal cliques are good! Formed with a small number of close and trusted friends or family they are the best way of socialising and staying safe. We do not of course call them cliques. They are bubbles or kissing bubbles.
Outside the bubble it is strict social distance. Inside the bubble as Cole Porter put it Anything Goes.
These are indeed strange times! A rare trip in to Kalkan to shop yesterday was a slightly disturbing experience. Still shut, neglected restaurants side by side with manicured, open empty ones. Masked people float by trapped in their bubbles. You nod in case you know them as you cannot see enough to be sure.
The New Normal feels as normal as a pajama party at a Temperance convention.
Meanwhile back at Leto Towers the Special and I crack on trying to make sense of it all, adjusting to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune as we go. We have now stocked our Corona Pond with seven wee goldfish which give hours of innocent pleasure as we wait, generally without success, to catch sight of them.
Fish are reputed to have memory spans of about 3 seconds. This is why they are happy in aquaria. They glide from one end to the other thinking.
“What a lovely new plant!”
“What a lovely new stone. I will swim around it!”
“What a lovely new plant!”
“Look at that new stone. Just right to swim around”
“Look at that lovely plant. Not seen that before.”
“Ooh another fish! What a shock!”
And so on… Never a dull moment
At this age and stage in life it may be the shared bond of that 3 second memory that underpins the strong fellow feeling I have for them. Whatever, they are a welcome new addition to The Towers.
The whole shielding strategy in Turkey is now beginning to take on a Hokey Cokey aspect
Today’s diary looks like this
08.00 – 10.00 Over 65s curfew
10.00 – 15.00 National Lockdown
15.00 – 20.00 Exeat. To Kaş for early supper at Oburus Momus
20.00 – 00.00 Over 65s curfew
In out! In out! Shake it all about!
But we are excited to be going for a romantic assignation to Kaş’ vegetarian and vegan restaurant again. Now located on the harbour it serves amazing fresh samosas, wraps and all manner of spicy platters. The name is whacky too. Oburus is Turkish for greedy and Momus was the ancient Greek god of Satire and Mockery. It is full of right on, cool, woke Young Turks so we blend in perfectly.
Seriously I love the fact that age is not a barrier in Turkey. You never feel invisible. That is beautiful.
Good luck to all the Turkish gençler who are taking exminations today (the National Lockdown is to keep them safe).
And to citizens everywhere, enjoy your weekend. Float free, masked in your bubble! May it burst on a new tomorrow. Stay safe. Be positive
Şerefe
Agreed Chris, you have hit the nail on its’ head… And btw it’s so similar here… No hokey cokey though
Had me chortling.