Cam's Day

When the children and I returned to Turkey in August we had to purchase 90 day Visitor's Visas at the airport because our Residence Permits could not be renewed before we left. Between the Gazi Park Riots, and influx of Syrian refugees, the Police, who handle such things were very busy last spring.

Cam has had few days off in the last four months, so our trip to Ankara to apply for new Residence Visas was postponed until the day before our Visitor's Visas expired. This is my take on his day:

7:30 a.m. Makes himself breakfast and coffee.  Tries to help me find a reasonably priced hotel in Istanbul for the weekend.

8:15 a.m. Walks to the highway to catch a ride to the lease because our car is in the shop

8:15 - 12:30 p.m. Supervises operations on location

12:30 Drives home in the rental car that has been dropped off at the lease for our use.

1:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. Lunch with us

1:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.  Packs for Ankara and changes from work clothes to travel clothes

2:00 - 5:30 p.m. Drives from home to Ataturk Airport Istanbul

5:30 - 6:30 p.m. Eats a stale muffin and a drinks a bottle of water. Answers a "Where are you?" phone call from work.

6:30 p.m. Takes a bus across the tarmac and boards plane

7:15 - 8:30 p.m. Eats airplane food (eggplant and tomatoes, 1/2 turkey sandwich, vanilla pudding, water)

8:30 p.m. Answers second "Where are you?" phone call from Ankara manager while we are waiting to get off the plane.

8:30 - 9:30 p.m. Collects luggage, connects us to the company driver who is waiting outside the terminal to take us to the hotel, checks into hotel, ensures the kids are settled in their room, prays with them.

9:30 - 10:40 p.m. Writes daily report (work), answers emails (work), and talks to his Canadian boss on the phone (work)

10:40 p.m. Sets alarm for tomorrow 7:30 a.m. and goes to bed.

Baby it's cold inside

We've been enjoying some lovely fall weather.  The sun shines and though the wind is cool; we haven't had much rain. I usually walk every day and most days I come home with my jacket tied around my waist!

We have power outages everyday. Often it's out for five minutes or less, but it's not unusual to have five to ten of these outages each day.  It can be frustrating if laundry or computer work is a priority. Cam's work supplied him with an external power supply which is a big battery you can plug things into.  It gives us a couple of hours of wifi and in a pinch will run the kettle.

Yesterday and today our power was out from about 9:30 a.m until 5:00 p.m. Those were two very long very cold days, because we rely on electricity for heat.  My walk warmed me up temporarily, but I resorted to blankets and mittens at one point in the house! Thankfully our cook top is fuelled with bottled propane so we managed a hot lunch and got supper started on top of the stove.  Now that the power is on, laundry is restarted and all the heaters are running taking the chill off the house.