Sunday 7th October
Lots of things contrived to make a disturbed night for us both – late new arrivals the night before were still clattering around in the early hours in their excitement, too much itching from the bites left by the bugs that always seem to take much more of a liking to Debrah than to me, too much noise from me and my snoring (perhaps it frightens the bugs).
At the risk of sounding monotonous, it was a glorious sunrise. This morning, though, I wasn’t the only one watching – several of the new arrivals were up to see their first – the girl in the next room along a little surprised to see me there as she wandered out onto the terrace to take a photo dressed only in a t-shirt.
One week on from our first morning here and it was a bit strange to be the ones who know where everything is and how it works and where to sit and what’s available for breakfast – it felt a bit like being at college – an old hand welcoming the freshers on their first day.
Down at the beach it was a bit breezier than it has been. Ideal for yachting in fact and this being Sunday there were far more yachts than usual out on the water and far more than usual under full sail rather than motoring along and there is no scene more splendid to look at than a beautiful blue sea filled with white sails all moving in different directions because it is a constantly changing one that can keep you enthralled for hours.
I finished my second book of the holiday – if finishing an unfinished book can count as finishing – I can never finish it because ‘Suite Francaise’ by Irene Nemirovsky was never finished by the author who was shipped off to a concentration camp by the Nazis and, sadly, died there. Everyone I know has read this book and praised it to high heaven whereas I just felt extremely frustrated when I got to the end not knowing, and never ever being able to know, what happens to all the characters and their lives.
At least we don’t miss the bus after lunch today and spend the afternoon as before in a mixture of sleeping, reading, swimming and a bit of work on the computer – today I had to re-send all the photos to i-escape for our Carcassonne apartments web page and send some information to the bookkeeper of my London job.
We had an impromptu pre-dinner on the terrace outside our room consisting of some rather piquant stuffed olives and some very sweet and tasty gherkins washed down by the final glass of red from the bottle we opened last night.
We were both hungry and looking forward to dinner, especially the lamb shanks on today’s menu, but because we don’t follow the herd at 8.00pm on the dot and tend to meander in for dinner a bit later, even though we are hungry, we suffer the consequences – meaning that everyone else had ordered the lamb shanks and there were none left – bugger. I have to say though, that the chargrilled spatchcocked chicken and mash that I had instead was delicious.
From hunger to dinner to tiredness seemed to happen very quickly and so, with an unfinished bottle of wine (!) we headed to bed.
It’s funny how the second week of a holiday always seems to go much faster than the first – today just seemed to disappear in a blur.
Showing posts with label turkish cuisine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label turkish cuisine. Show all posts
Monday, 8 October 2007
Friday, 5 October 2007
Quiet Day
Wednesday 3rd October
After the tiring journey here and a bit of rushing about and getting our bearings in the last few days, it was inevitable that we would have a non-event day and so it proved to be today.
In the morning, we mooched around the hotel pool and read our books, we idled in the library and checked our emails and played a bit of pool and we had a simple salad lunch at the bar. In the afternoon we went down to the Beach Club and mooched about on the beach and read our books and had a swim and fell asleep.
It was the first day that we had seen any cloud and in the evening it started to build into a more angry looking and meaningful mass. Some thunder rebounded around the mountainsides and far off lightning high up in the clouds continued to briefly light the horizon, but in the end we only had a brief and light shower to contend with at ground level.
We ate in the separate Nar restaurant, where a Turkish tasting menu was being prepared for a fixed number of guests. The idea was to introduce Turkish cuisine from all areas of the country.
We expected a Turkish themed night with the room dressed in traditional Turkish manner with carpets and cushions and lamps and music. We arrived to find a sort of open barn with a harsh tile floor and plastic canopy sides, lights on full beam and a distinct lack of atmosphere. We persuaded them to turn down the lights, which were fortunately controlled by a dimmer switch, and to light the candles on each table and someone put a wailing Turk on the music system. It was better, but it could have been so, so much better.
The food was very good and well cooked and we had the accompanying wine that was recommended. It was hard to tell, though, what was local produce and what was from further afield as it all seemed to be along the same theme as everything we had eaten so far on this trip – and a lack of any notes or information on the menu didn’t help either. Likewise more information on the wine and its origin would have been good but maybe we are an exception in wanting to know all this and most people aren’t really concerned.
At the end of the dinner, we chatted briefly with some new guests, who had just arrived from 4 days in Istanbul. They were an elderly couple and she turned out to be a reviewer with ‘House and Garden’ magazine. After, we retired to the bar for a Turkish coffee and almond liqueur, but we were tired and the company was annoying, so we took our drinks with us to bed.
GUEST BLOGSPOT
candidate no 6: Peter Andre and Jordan
Bizarrely misplaced Antipodean couple. Both shiny and glossy in that Southern Hemisphere kind of a way - both crashingly dull and misinformed and very very loud. Way too over-friendly and opinionated for most of the Middle England lot here - they just stand and look dazed and out-gunned as the antips bang on about the beauty of life and second time relationships.
verdict: CHAFF - should have stayed in Marmaris NB - he is actually called Peter, astonishingly
After the tiring journey here and a bit of rushing about and getting our bearings in the last few days, it was inevitable that we would have a non-event day and so it proved to be today.
In the morning, we mooched around the hotel pool and read our books, we idled in the library and checked our emails and played a bit of pool and we had a simple salad lunch at the bar. In the afternoon we went down to the Beach Club and mooched about on the beach and read our books and had a swim and fell asleep.
It was the first day that we had seen any cloud and in the evening it started to build into a more angry looking and meaningful mass. Some thunder rebounded around the mountainsides and far off lightning high up in the clouds continued to briefly light the horizon, but in the end we only had a brief and light shower to contend with at ground level.
We ate in the separate Nar restaurant, where a Turkish tasting menu was being prepared for a fixed number of guests. The idea was to introduce Turkish cuisine from all areas of the country.
We expected a Turkish themed night with the room dressed in traditional Turkish manner with carpets and cushions and lamps and music. We arrived to find a sort of open barn with a harsh tile floor and plastic canopy sides, lights on full beam and a distinct lack of atmosphere. We persuaded them to turn down the lights, which were fortunately controlled by a dimmer switch, and to light the candles on each table and someone put a wailing Turk on the music system. It was better, but it could have been so, so much better.
The food was very good and well cooked and we had the accompanying wine that was recommended. It was hard to tell, though, what was local produce and what was from further afield as it all seemed to be along the same theme as everything we had eaten so far on this trip – and a lack of any notes or information on the menu didn’t help either. Likewise more information on the wine and its origin would have been good but maybe we are an exception in wanting to know all this and most people aren’t really concerned.
At the end of the dinner, we chatted briefly with some new guests, who had just arrived from 4 days in Istanbul. They were an elderly couple and she turned out to be a reviewer with ‘House and Garden’ magazine. After, we retired to the bar for a Turkish coffee and almond liqueur, but we were tired and the company was annoying, so we took our drinks with us to bed.
GUEST BLOGSPOT
candidate no 6: Peter Andre and Jordan
Bizarrely misplaced Antipodean couple. Both shiny and glossy in that Southern Hemisphere kind of a way - both crashingly dull and misinformed and very very loud. Way too over-friendly and opinionated for most of the Middle England lot here - they just stand and look dazed and out-gunned as the antips bang on about the beauty of life and second time relationships.
verdict: CHAFF - should have stayed in Marmaris NB - he is actually called Peter, astonishingly
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