Cloudy Skies and Exictement

I can't believe its been a week since I last posted. Where has the time gone ? How can someone who doesn't work be able to fill so much time doing nothing ?? Two someone's actually - as Mr Y is on a long sabbatical at the moment as well.

Great news on that front - Captain Yarnold takes to the skies on 22nd October. He's had his roster and they are flying him hard from Day 1. In the last 9 days of the month he will be flying 8 of them - and we have no clue what will happen in November yet. Its a long time to wait - but we've been advised to enjoy every minute as he isn't going to have any minutes from 22nd Oct.

Great news on another front too - our long awaited shipment arrives TODAY ! Whohoo. My excitement is uncontainable. We can have more than 4 plates in the cupboard, have extra settees to sit on, a dining table to sit at, bedside lamps, more than 4 towels, a bed to sleep on ............. the list goes on. (It does make me a bit sad to write this though - I feel so selfish being so excited when there are so many people out there who would give their right arm to live with what we have had for the past 3 months.)

What a journey to get here. We have been delayed firstly by the Singapore 50th Birthday holiday, then by the Turkish Sacrifice Festival holiday (I estimate a 10-14 day delay due to the two), then the Customs computer system broke down and the release authorization wasn't getting signed off. Luckily Gunes in the Istanbul shipping company has been extremely helpful and has pushed it through as quickly as she can. I bet she will miss our daily chats :-). And we have incurred additional storage costs as a result of other people's holidays - but lets not dwell on that !

So - what's been happening in the last week ? Well, I can't let it pass. I tried, and I managed 4 paragraphs, but, well, I did enjoy watching the rugby last weekend. A little victory to my home nation. Thankfully I have a very magnanimous English husband who took the result on the chin - and I didn't gloat (too much). It's so great to be able to watch live events from home with just a 2 hour time difference now. No longer do we have to watch games at midnight, or catch the highlights the next day. Being so much closer to home makes me feel as if I'm not even away from home these days. We still have a lot of catching up to do with people though. And that's already started - Ffion is here at the moment (about to be put to good use unpacking boxes for the next few days), my parents have booked their flight - next Thursday for a week, Colin And Vaila overlap with them, and then stay  for 10 days (in between travelling around), and Catrin arrives the day that C&V leave. And I might plan a little trip to Aberdeen in November as I hear there is an ladies night out planned - I don't have to miss out any more !

Oh, and in October I have the first Book Club meeting, I'm off to an International Women of Istanbul (IWI) events meeting to help plan their Christmas Fair, and I have my first IWI Board meeting. I'm up and running !

We have been having a lovely time with Ffion, but I do feel sorry for her in that the sun went in a few hours before she arrived on Monday night and hasn't been seen since. And the temperature has sunk to 21 deg. And its very cold at night now - there's quite a cold wind lingers around Istanbul - its like being back in Aberdeen (love it !). To add insult to injury, the UK has been experiencing a mini heatwave which Ffion has left behind. Never mind - she can wear er new Raybans next year.

We hung around the flat all day on Tuesday, waiting for the plumber to install the new shower - you've guessed it - he still hasn't appeared.  Then we went off into Istanbul on Wednesday. We went to the Grand Bazaar first - just for a look. Ended up being stuck in a lamp shop for half an hour. After a nice chat with the owner and a cup of cay (tea), we are now the proud owners of two lovely lamps - thanks to Ffion and Catrin for buying them as our birthday presents this year.

After that we ventured next door to a carpet shop. We did explain that we weren't going to buy anything - but still managed to pass the time for another half an hour being shown a lovely array of rugs. Starting price 3500 USD. We think we can work with that when the time comes ! Its got to come down a long long way before we will consider buying one. But at least we have some ideas and a benchmark now. And it was good fun. The Grand Bazaar is huge- we barely scratched the surface. You could be in there for days wandering the streets. You have to be good at bargaining though. One seller offered me a backgammon set for 350 lira. Within 3 minutes it was on offer for 100 ! How did that happen ? Not that I bought it - there's plenty of opportunity to go back - once the bank has some money in it again. That will be 2016 then !

The it was off to Topkapi Palace. Nice enough place, with great gardens, and a lovely cafe overlooking the Bosphorous (well we think it did - it was too misty to see much ! ) - but we really aren't top tourists in Istanbul. But it was great to wander around in cooler weather, with less tourists than normal.

Yesterday we stayed closer to home and went to the aquarium at Aqua Florya - just a 2km walk along the beach from us. Now that was more up our street than 16th century palaces and mosques ( I know - we aren't culture vultures ! ). A very well presented aquarium right on our doorstep.

Last night saw us watching the Wales vs Fiji game, at home with 2 Austrian pilot friends - Thomas and Peter. With Paul around it was like having 3 disciples in the room ! Anyway, it was Peter's introduction to Rugby - I spent hours imparting my knowledge of the game onto him ! He's still none the wiser, and probably very misguided now. But he had a great time. Its a bugger that Wales didn't get the bonus point the needed to secure them a place in the next round, but I guess it will make the England vs Australia game all the more exciting now. ( I don't understand why Wales played in blue. Were the red jerseys in the wash ? I think they were at a psychological disadvantage in blue.) We've promised The Disciples a 2 game extravaganza on our bigger screen, with more seats, on Saturday night. Scotland then England.

Well, I'm off to wake up Paul and Ffion now (I've been awake since 5am planning where everything is going to go in the apartment) - they need to be on the ball for this furniture shipment arrival.

A little aside before I sign off though - we've stepped up our Turkish language learning. There's now a whiteboard next to the fridge with key words and phrases. We go around saying as many of them as we can to people, and replace them with new words when we are feeling confident. I think we are driving the bloke in the supermarket next door crazy. The 3 men who work in there often shake their heads when we bound in with enthusiasm !