So, last Thursday was my inaugural Book Group meeting. I held it at our place - there were 5 of us. Just as well there weren't any more people - there's nowhere to sit !! It took everyone (apart from Tanja who lives around the corner) a long time to get here. Addresses in Turkey are convoluted and difficult to pronounce - and taxi drivers don't generally speak English - so you are lucky to get anywhere really ! Issue number 1 with the new Book Group I think. People will have to set aside at least an hour to get to the venue, and I can imagine that most will be late ! I won't be able to be the stern Convenor that Pam Stephenson was in Singapore that's for sure. But a great meeting - met 2 new people - and still not one person in their 40's !!!
It was a full-on night as the Book Group went on 'til 10pm, when Paul turned up from the pub with a guy who was on his 5 day interview with THY in April - Phil - along with his Russian wife Alex. Lovely couple. More friends made, but she's in her late twenties too. Do I look young ????? Or do I behave young ??? I know the answer, but the mis-behaving is starting to tell in the looks department now ! So, that was another late night - which was silly really as our first visitors were turning up the next day.
Cue Sally and Brian - BFFs from Aberdeen. We met them at the airport early Friday evening, after a long trek into Istanbul in the afternoon - somewhere in one of the many centres. It is such a busy busy city. And it was far too hot - around 34deg. We had to go to a police station to register for my residence permit. That costs 1000 TL, and only lasts for as long as Paul's work permit - July 2016 - after which we pay the same amount again for another year, and so it goes on !!! Added to that, we have to cross the palms of our Turkish "guide" (Vahap) with lots of Lira for the privilege of processing our paperwork, getting us to the front of the very long queues, and translating for us. Without Vahap we would still have been there now I think, or in the local nut-house. But this place is bleeding us dry. (But some good news to follow on that front.)
So - Sally and Brian - we met them at the airport, as we will need to do with all our visitors ! There is no way people will be able to get to us on their own, and for the fair amount of money ! We need to be there to provide directions, and tell the taxi drivers how much we will be paying them !!! Funnily enough - remember day 1 when that taxi-driving mercenary ripped us off big time to transport our bikes ? We think we might have saw him again - he was wearing one big F.O. watch - wonder who helped to fund that ???
We had a lovely night out with The Coghills at a local fish restaurant on Friday night. I couldn't introduce them to raki though - they wouldn't even taste it. Wish they had - there would have been less for me to drink then ! Paul was being extra well behaved for once as the first of his 5 simulator sessions was on Saturday. Hence the title of this post - once he placed his backside in the SIM for the first time his salary tripled - so he his now on full pay (not that we see it until October). We can start to re-fill the bank accounts again.
Another issue - the Lira is plummeting at the moment. When we moved here 1000 TL was about £250. Six weeks later its worth £189. Great news for those of you who want to come and visit us - a cheap holiday all round - but not so good when we want to put some back into the UK bank accounts. Looks like we will have to keep it over here for a while - and keep on travelling :-).
Anyway - back to Sally and Brian. They brought us lots of goodies - including stuff we had had posted to their address - but they also brought the Aberdeen weather. The temperature has dropped nearly 10 deg in the last 2 days - and we saw our first rain since we arrived at the end of July. Torrential it was. We are loving the temperature though - so good to be cool again. A cool 25 deg today. But its set to rise again tomorrow. So what was there to do in the rain but nip into the nearest bar ! A nice afternoon out.
Paul meanwhile has been missing out on the fun as he had another SIM today, with 3 more scheduled between now and his test on Friday. Saturday will be hangover day methinks !!! With The Coghills now in their luxury 5 star hotel in Antalya (they will do anything to get out of sleeping on a mattress on the floor!) we have a quiet week ahead. I wonder if we can manage to go 5 nights without socialising ? What do you reckon the chances are ?
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