My Life On Deck

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me... Well, not exactly, but a week's holiday on my aunt and uncle's boat is probably about as close as I'm going to get in my lifetime. Now, I can practically feel the cogs turning in your brain: 'Ooooh, get her, with her family boat all la-di-dah,' but before we go any further, let me make clear that my family is about as posh as a daytime TV drama, but hopefully with less annoying cliches; 'What? My sister is actually my mother? OMG!' But anyway, back to the point.

Our 'floating adventure' started in a small marina near Oban, in Scotland. (See, if we were really posh we'd have been in the south of France somewhere) We set off full of energy, ready to take on whatever the sea threw at us, and although it was fairly easy at the start as we went further the wind got more powerful, which missed with the current a bit.At times the boat seemed to tilt so far that I was sure my brother and his girlfriend were going to fall overboard, which may have led to her not accompanying us on holiday again. My aunt and uncle assured me that we were in no danger, and they were probably right, as we never actually went into the open sea, but as I was the one steering the boat I'm sure my sense of panic was not entirely undeserved. Luckily, that was pretty much the worst of the weather, as far as wind goes, we did get a bit rained on later, but as we were in Scotland, it wasn't really a surprise.

As we got used to the constant rocking of the boat, a pattern began to emerge; we would wake up, possibly sail on further or just stay anchored where we were, go out for the obligatory 'holiday activities', come back, and relax, often with a game of cards. Our daytime activities varied from going on a walk up one of the many hills and meeting an old retired hand-doctor, who generated his own electricity with a home-made wind turbine (I kid you not) and was very generous with his wine (of which I had none) and vintage editions of the New Yorker (which are now sitting in my bedroom), to watching puffins flying by on a particularly sunny day on an uninhabited island, to collected mussels and cooking them for lunch (we later discovered that my brother has an allergy to seafood, he proceeded to spend much of the next 24 hours on deck). I evenwent fishing on the last day, and caught two mackerel! It may not seem much, but it was the best fish I'd ever eaten. We also laid anchor at a few fishing villages, including Tobermory, the town which inspired the children's TV show 'Ballamory'. Although they both shared a penchant for brightly coloured buildings, one thing Tobermory had which I'm sure Ballamory does not is a pub near the harbour which sells the biggest burgers I'd had in my life.

I may be a sunshine girl at heart, but I would happily give up another week of summer for another sailing trip around wet, chilly Scotland. I guess L'Oreal says it the best: It's worth it.

Turkey...

First things first, as you readers may all be aware, the Miss B's have both been on holiday over the summer. I travelled to Turkey by plane to visit my family who live in Dikili, near Ismir, a bustling seaside town surrounded by mountains and farms. Here are a few things you should expect to see when you get there, I hope you find this interesting...

What to expect when you first arrive in Turkey if you're in the Ismir/Dikili area

• Terrible driving on all roads: Crates flying off trucks, dangerous overtakes, swerving lorries, need I say any more? 
• General temperatures between 27c (in the mornings) to 38c (by mid afternoon): A bit hot when you first get there, but after a while you get used to it.
• Loads of mopeds: There wasn't a single day that went by when I didn't see at least ten mopeds, Turkey is moped crazy! 
• Horse and carts being driven along the motorway: Weird as it sounds it actually happens quite a lot.   
• Lack of tarmacked road: If you're hiring a car make sure it's one with good suspension because there are a lot of un tarmac ked roads, in fact a few of the main roads are un tarmac ked.  
• Random herds of cows amongst built up housing areas (in Dikili): I could see them from my window, strange it may be but the whole thing works in a crazy way, farmers just graze their livestock on any piece of disused land they can find. 
• Stray animals i.e cats and dogs: The place is crawling with strays, and believe you me, it really gets to you when you see stray puppies and stick thin cats, but most of the time they get on ok because the local restraunts feed them. If not intentionally, but somebody always drops a bit of food. 
• Litter everywhere: The Turks really don't seem to be into their environment, they just throw rubbish out of their car windows and keep driving. 
• People out to rip you off...if they twig you're a tourist: It happened to us so many times when we didn't have a Turkish relative with us, my Aunt ended up paying the equivalent of forty pounds for a bowl of chicken soup. 
• Beautiful scenery: It's absolutely mind blowing especially in the mountains, my advice is take a drive up there, you're bound to see something interesting.
• Amazing architecture: The town of Ayvulikk has some pretty amazing examples, though sadly some buildings are a bit run down. 
• An amazing aray of insects: I am not kidding, it really is amazing, obviously not for those afraid of bugs though...anyhow, I saw many a beautiful butterfly, jewled beatles and even a hummingbird moth! 
• A tan: It's wonderful, normally I just freckle, but I actually managed to get a tan!