Phase 2 - The Fat Lady Sings

Yesterday we packed up our stuff into the nine pieces of luggage, left it in the apartment room and went off at 8:30am to meet our new landlord at the other side of Istanbul in a posh lawyers office. Both Caglan and his mother (Manyola - think Magnolia) came with us - Caglan to work with the lawyer and Manyola to charm the landlord - seemed to work ! The landlord is a lovely old white-faired gentleman with a a considerable Rolex ornament on his wrist and very expensive clothes - even I could see that ! This guy is loaded. He couldn't speak English but we did have a great conversation in ........ French !!! Amazing how comfortable I felt conversing in a language I last used in school. Paul, as ever, managed to have a great conversation with him. Apparently we won him over.

What won him over I don't know - our charming personalities or the many thousands of Lira we counted out for him - one month's rent and the same as a deposit. Anyway - we now have a signed rental contract. The Fat Lady has started singing. Hurdle number 1 complete. But its not over until Paul has a signed contract from THY. More later.

Then we went to our new home - which will be ours from 15th Aug. The current tenant wanted to show us all the soft furnishings he was prepared to sell us. Rental in Turkey is so different to Singapore. Our contract says that we can do anything to the property as long as we don't knock down any walls !!!That's great as I never liked living in a place I couldn't so anything to without the wrath of the landlord. Now we can paint rooms, and do what we want - I just need to find a husband who likes DIY :-).

So - after several thousand more Lira, we are now the proud owners of all the curtains and blinds, 2 cream sofas (one is a sofa bed so we have somewhere to sleep before our own furniture arrives), a fridge, washing machine, gas hob, and kitchen table and chairs. We will now have somewhere to sit, eat and sleep when we move in. And - the old tenants (Bircan and Senna - think beer-can ! ) will be moving to their own apartment in the same block and have offered help whenever we need it. He is also the owner and chef at a fish restaurant in town - oh its all starting to come together so well. And Bircan has now offered us the last 5 months of his Sky TV contract - he was going to lose it when he moved anyway, so we might as well have it. I keep telling you how lovely the people here are :-).

Then Phase 2 started. We took a large taxi (to include the bikes which haven't seen the light of day for 2 weeks, and might not for several months - more of that in a later post perhaps) to Esenyurt which is a large area on the west of Istanbul - about 30km west. Paul gets put up in a small Ibis hotel here for 3 nights until his contract is signed. Then on Monday - when being a THY employee starts to have some merit - we get moved to a better hotel near the airport. We have to live there for 2 weeks - or at least he does ! And it is small too - like living in a box - but a clean one - and some lovely staff.

Learned a few more words from the staff :
- serefe  - cheers  ( I think carafe - as in wine)
- kadeh bezay serap lutfen - a glass of white wine please
- kadeh kirmizi serap lutfen  - a glass of red wine please

So my Turkish is coming along nicely now.

Anyway - great news - Paul has just sent me some pictures - see below. The Fat Lady has sung !!!! Yeahhhhhhh - we (he) is now officially recognised as an employee in Turkey. Getting me recognised as a trailing spouse is apparently a lot more difficult - I need to get an id card before my 90 days is up otherwise I'm not allowed back into the country for 3 months !!! And the fines are very high if I stay longer. Caglan will be set on the case next week.

So I'm going out to enjoy myself for a few hours. There's nothing but buildings in this part of town - but one of them happens to be a big shopping mall. I haven't bought any clothes since we sent our packing off in a crate at the end of May. We needed to keep the weight down in the suitcases. But that doesn't matter any more. And clothes seem to be so cheap here. I can't wait to find out. More later.

..............................  back from my shopping. I can confirm - there are a lot of bargins to be found in Turkish shopping malls. For the £30 off my parents for my birthday I got a dress, a pair of jeans and a shirt !! (Thanks Mam & Dad). Looks like we will have to buy a few more wardrobes than I thought.

Paul back from work - a real admin day. Seems we are taking a few newbies into Yesilkoy tomorrow to show them around. Think Caglan might be a busy man from now on !!