Live aboard life continues apace! People coming and going, drinks and dinners - and it's not even Christmas quite yet. A lot of people are travelling abroad quite safely and without too much Covid trouble still. People at the marina here with us have come and gone from a Rhine river cruise, Switzerland, Holland and to Portugal and even Australia. It may all change at any moment and that is the main worry, being trapped away from home or your boat. We got a 12 month residency permit and that allowed us to register with the Turkish health system and we have received our Phizer booster here. We had to go to the hospital carpark and line up outside a container in the freezing cold with masks on and all 1 metre apart. Then we got ushered into the container where in stifling heat with 6 other people and three nurses almost on top of each other you rolled up your sleeve/took of your shirt/lifted your robe or whatever applied and got needled, paper worked and thrown out the door without anything so wussy as a plaster. Still, we do feel safer.

The weather this week came out all sunny for a change and we've been for a few bike rides into Didim and about. However the temperature has dipped to lows of 7 to highs of 11! You don't stand still too long outside. The boat is toasty warm with the reverse air con keeping us comfy. it is strange to be in a country where their rainfall is in the winter.

Peter wanted to get me some perfume for Christmas but we found that there are none of those sorts of shops that stock brand names. Then we came across a shop in the middle of Ataturk St (main street) that was full of knock off hand bags (LV, Gucci Chanel etc) quite happily and openly displayed so we went in. They had lots of indeterminate perfume bottles all numbered. What you did was look in their catalogue and the numbers corresponded with all the top end designer labels. Anyway we got some as there was no other option. The last time I got this sort of perfume I came out in a horrible rash………

Now, you might from reading this that everything is easy peasy and hassle free here but in reality without the excellent help of Atilla (immigration, vaccines, customs etc) Izzet (all things boat related) and Halil (all things Lagoon related) it would have been really quite hard. Many people speak very good English but just as many don't and the writing and language is hard for us used to the Romantic languages such and French, Spanish and Italian. I mean, really, walking around the streets and shops you might as well be in Turkey for all the sense it makes - oh, that's right we are!

More of this after Christmas - wishing you all the best and cheers from us for the day. We will drink a toast to absent friend and family.

EEEEk - it was 1 degree last night.