It’s so easy to get carried away. Here we are, researching camper options, dreaming of a future living the life of digital nomads. A Mercedes Vito here, a Fiat Ducato there. Stealth van vs motor home. Only, reality strikes. Before that we must buy a first car for our eldest. Next university fees, books and …
“You’re visiting Antalya? Then you must drop in to see us in Adana.” But that’s 600km away! “No, no, I insist. I’ll be expecting you.” And just like that, all of our plans unfurl.
I shouldn’t have complained, for guests arrived laden with food, which they shared with us, knowing we are soon to depart. Keeping their visit brief, they left with dua for our household. These were model guests.
Our day of trying to pack up and mothball the house always ends with a crowd of guests turning up unannounced, when we have nothing to offer them, nor anywhere for them to sit. We brace ourselves for the expected unexpected.
Today, I visited my wife’s home village for the first time in six years. Buried deep in a valley inland, I’d forgotten how hot it gets there midsummer. How fortunate we are that our hillside house is so cool by comparison. A blessing to return to in the afternoon.
Hazelnuts from the garden beneath our house.
How embarrassing to order a meal at a restaurant and recognise it as a product from your local budget supermarket. It might be okay if it was a cheap fast-food shack offering convenience to passing travellers. Not so forgivable at a venue presenting itself as an upmarket restaurant with prices to match. The kids ordered …
Unfortunately, in Karadeniz, the tourist industry is chasing Gulf Arab money, and so prices follow in kind. A family meal out, which might once have seemed a bargain, now costs more than it would back home, and for a very small portion at that.
Another day trip to the highlands.
There’s nothing like the crunch of the steel tracks of the council’s 10 tonne backhoe excavator on the road you personally paid for to wake you up in the morning. As soon as we’ve worked out the source of the thunderous clamour, we race outside to inspect the damage. The caterpillar tracks have scraped a …
The drawback of building a house amidst hazelnut groves is that in the weeks before harvest, the valley is filled with the monotonous sound of two stroke engines, strimming the ground clear of brambles and ferns from first light.
