Just hanging with the locals

Well that's exactly what we have been doing - just hanging out. We are pretty well known round town now as the average stay of tourists in this area is around 2-3 days and when we leave we will have been here 26. The pool remains a daily essential to cope with the heat and revive those small people. Our pool family are as attentive as ever, fussing round after the kids smothering them with kisses at any chance. Holly and Toby are picking up a few Turkish words both can greet and farewell, count to 10, ask how are you? and reply very good thank-you. They are enjoying the food and becoming very adventurous. Biscuits, chips and muesli bars are but a thing of the past. It's not that they are not available it's more that there are many other foods that taste much better and are much healthier. Bellie almost goes spare every time she sees a watermelon. We visited a Kuruyemis which is a shop that sells bulk dried fruit, nuts and spices. We went to buy dried apricots and after a taste of about 20 different items came out with a bag of goodies. In apricots alone there were about 5 different types. We went for the sun dried, sulphate free ones which don't look that flash but a absolutely beautiful. It amazes me that they are just dried out in the sun on big verandahs and roofs. We also bought roasted apricot kernels, cranberries, sesame covered peanuts, dried salted corn ( it is the best) and some potato snacks. The kids have gone mad on them. When we first arrived they were not that keen on eating all the new foods and it's fair to say that caused me some angst, especially with Bellie who is usually our best eater. However that phrase bandied around by every child expert "A healthy child will never starve themselves" popped into my head and I decided to let it slide and see what happened - sure enough after a few days of fussing it all fell in to place and they are now thoroughly enjoying the culinary experience.

Man check out the change in Bellie - thought she was getting heavy!

Yesterday we went to the local Saturday market. It was busy, noisy, and colourful. We bought 2kg of strawberries for $5 shovelled into a bag with a plastic shovel. 1 kg of grapes for $2, and nectarines, tomatoes and zucchini all for $2. We also saw a man selling leeches, and another selling brightly dyed chicks and ducklings. It was lots of fun just wandering many of the stall holders tried to get us to buy clothes for the kids but they were funny old fashioned looking Lacy dresses. The strawberries we last night's dessert treat though they were almost jam by the time we got home after Bellie sitting on to them. We stopped for lunch on the way home and Bellie was up to her usual tricks of befriending another family and trying on their kids sunglasses and hats. They were a Turkish family who lived in England and they appeared to be quite wealthy. It caused me some anxiety that the boys sunglasses that Bellie was wearing were Ray Bans - I was relieved when she finally returned them in one piece. Poor old Bell was genuinely upset when they left and she had to go home with her boring old family.

Check out the Strawberries

.....and leeches

Bellie and her Ray Bans

Today's outing was meant to be a double decker bus ride around the surrounding countryside so we scooted through breakfast to get down town by 8.45am for a 9.00am departure. First we were told to come back at 10.00am as the bus was being cleaned so we wandered the streets to fill in time and found a playground. Only to return to be told the cleaning was taking longer than expected and they wouldn't be leaving till 1.00pm - ahhh Turkey time! Needless to say we will give it another go tomorrow morning.

Monday 9th August
Well the bus was there this morning and we had a great personalised 2 hour tour with the whole of the double decker bus to ourselves. Made up for yesterdays mucking around and gave us the opportunity to have a good look around the area at our kind of speed and without the kids getting bored.

The town of Uchisar

Oh and pleased to report - no more sightings of "school-pens"