Lunch with Kids- number 3

Went to lunch/dinner with Geri and Catrina had to come too of course. See quite a lot of Geri since I got back from Turkey but wanted to tell her what a good mother she is to Catrina and how well she is doing with looking after Danielle and all.

We had a lovely time Geri as ever is very easy to talk to and Catrina is sooo lovely she was one on Saturday but is still so tiny.

Only Ellen left to go to lunch with but we have agreed to make it dinner as she is working mosts days.

Dye Hair Blue

Have been trying to do this for a long time so Geri put the colour on me today when I was visiting her at Dan's house. Catrina has had a little bit too.

Will post a picture here soon not sure if I feel brave enough to go out with it but will take a picture in pub if I do.

Have a lot of posts to catch up on have not been too goood since returning from Turkey but will try and catch up with both blogs soon

Learning Turkish

Arrived in Turkey with two phrase books and various tracks on my ipod.

I had been listening for some time to Turkish songs and some Turkish Cd's but had found it quite difficult to get my head round the language.

I also had a small card from a restaurant with a few helpful phrases so decided to just jump in and have a go using the few ords that I knew.

Turkish people are very friendly and love it if you make even the slightest effort to use Turkish and also like to practice a bit of English on you.

My first challenge was to try to get my small garden done by local Beche- or watchmen.

At one point there were three Turkish ladies all trying to help me at once and only two phrase books between us.
The watchman- called Ramazan came to see me and with much pointing, holding up earth and smiling we worked out that he would come in the morning and put in earth and I think he said flowers too- cheeeckeks. He also said in Turkish you are my neighbour no need to pay. Wow.
The next day he arrived with his wife and thet went with pickaxes to the field infront of us until they could find soil and brought it over to us in wheelbarrows along a wooden structure he had made to get it up my steps. My goodness they both worked so hard I gave Ramazan water and made his wife sit and have tea with me and we got out the phrasebooks and "talked" about our children.
Had a bit of debate over what to pay with brother an d sister-inlaw and settled on 100tl although probably a lot to us it was worth it not to dig in the heat find garden cenre and flowers.
Over the course of the day Ramazan came with lots of flowers and just rammed them into the earth and of course if you have a knack like that they all take. So there I had instant garden.
Dorsun his wife brought me dinner the next night- stuiffed vine leaves-from my own vine- how dumb am I not to work out that is where vine leaves come from and we then went back and forth over the next few weeks with stuffed vegetables, cakes, scones and fruits. My favourite being eric the plum. Its easy to remember a word in Turkish if it has an English name

Sewing Dress and Saresses

Suzanne tried to help me make a saress before I went to Turkey but unless you were very tiny it wouldn't have fitted anyone. Oops I think I made the seams too wide.
I took a small sewing machine with me to Turkey and had a go at making some saresses and a dress.

Unfortunately the cotton I took with me was very fragile and kept breaking which was very frustrating.

I abandoned the saresses and started making some beach coveralls using a selection of mine and Linda's to make an easy pattern but again was hsampered by the cotton.

I then made a very simple dress strapless with elasticated waist using the best cotton that I had.

So will have to make sure take better cotton to Turkey or find local dress-making shop.

Have bought home my favourite dress from Turkey which is very simple and comfortable to wear with a view to making some more to wear when I am in Turkey again in September.

So I am saying yes I made a dress but not saresses as they proved too difficult and will make beach coveralls instead

Listening to Ipod songs

Found this was much easier to do if I was swimming along at the same time. Dooing one helped the other so to speak. of course not only was i swimming mostly I was singing along too.

Was happily singing to myself when a Turkish workman came to see what all the noise was about but gave me a smile and a thumbs up so hopefully he didn't think it was too bad.
Was on B when I arrived- breaking uo is hard to do then went through Christmas ia all around- bit strange to listen to that in 30 degrees in Turkey.
on to Crazy Love with Van Morrison then do you love me.
heard on a song with the word- discombobulated in it - wish I could remember which one it was now.
Went through E with El Divo and have stopped on Fernando with Abba.

When I had family staying with me they were not keen on listening A to Z so had to have a few breaks but still managed to get up to 900 songs listened to from 347 when I arrived in Turkey.

Can't count the singing as karoake but can say it is a bit of practice for it.

Am back from Turkey - Swimming targets

Hi All
I have been back from Turkey for about a week now but was unable to post as have been a bit poorly but I have updated my list to show more of the ones I have completed. I had a lovely time in Turkey and made full use of the pool to help complete some of my targets.

So i was able to swim every other day and in fact probably swam most days as when the pool is just there outside your door and it is so hot , we,, it is just so inviting.

I got into a bit of a muddle about swimming the channel in a pool as I had made my target in yards them measured the pool in metres and then someone convinced me that the channel must be 380,000 yards.

Well this seemend very daunting so I set myself smaller targets starting with 1000 metres then 2 then 4, 5 and so-on.
In the end I managed to swim 15,000 metres over the six weeks.
I was really happy when I came home to find that the channel at its smallest point is 21 miles or 34,000 metres so hope that I will be able to achieve this within the two year period. Yippee.

I also went a little better than riding a tandem as i was feeling fairly well so bought a bike and was able to go round the block on it wowee

POTTING PLANTS

At the weekend I finally managed to plant my herbs altogether in a large pot. I have some mint, chives, rosemary and ..... I had planted my potatoes some weeks ago and as you can see (in the far back) they are doing really well , also at the front are some broad beans whcih my brother gave me and I ahve repotted in a larger pot, just need to get some sticks for them now. Unfortunately my tomatoes came to nothing . Not in this my picture my beetroots are also doing really well.

I also planted some geraniums and verbena in my flower beds this weekend.