A Christmassy afternoon out!

Posted on December 20, 2013 by livingtheturkishdream

We all got well and truely into the Christmas spirit yesterday, as after I finished work we all went to see Father Christmas at his grotto in Polhill, Sevenoaks.

Obviously we only went for my little sister (yeah right 😉 ) even if she was scared and refused a photo with Father Christmas, bless. She did sit in his sleigh though, and made Berkay hop in for a photo too!
Personally I loved the cute. but slightly scary talking bears, owl, reindeer and trees… we had to pose for a photo with Rudolph to capture the moment 😉

Father Christmas told us all a little story about a poor tiny Christmas tree that nobody wanted.. bless. He was a little bit scary, I can see why my sister didn’t want to be anywhere near him!
After wandering around the rest of the garden centre (we came away with nothing more than 3 bars of chocolate and a bag of oranges!) we went to a nearby Toby Carvery and had a yummy roast Turkey dinner. It was all very Christmassy!

6 more sleeps til Santa…

One more sleep!!

Posted on December 16, 2013 by livingtheturkishdream

Yes, ONE.MORE.SLEEP.

One more night of star-fishing in my bed alone until Berkay will be here to join me!

It’s been nearly 13 weeks since I saw him, still can’t believe I’ve been back that long. I was looking back at my old posts on here the other day and it seems like a whole different world away to life now.

It was Berkay’s birthday last Friday, unfortunately he wasn’t here to celebrate so I’ve got his presents all wrapped and ready and my little sister informs me she wishes to make cakes as a belated celebration, we’ll see. 🙂

What with it being winter, there are very few direct flights to Dalaman, so he has to fly from Antalya instead, there were also no cheap direct flights either, so it involves a stop over at Istanbul. He starts the long 4 hour journey from Fethiye to Analya tomorrow morning, 2 buses later he’ll be at the airport with a few hours to spare, hopefully, before his 17.15 flight to Istanbul, where he’ll wait for 2.5 hours before boarding the 4 hour flight to London! Poor Berkay will be knackered! Me and my dad will be picking him up from the airport 11pm tomorrow night, less than 24 hours … I can’t wait!!

I’m so excited to see him of course, I just wish I wasn’t juggling two jobs so I could see him more. What a great feeling it will be to have him waiting at home for me when I get in though! 🙂

He’s here for 3 weeks, and most importantly, for Christmas and New Year. Friends will be staying in the hotel and looking after Boncuk, so she won’t be alone, she’ll be well looked after and has a ton of Christmas presents for Berkay to bring back for her! Spoilt doggy.

I apologise for not updating this blog as much as I should, I’m hoping to do daily updates when Berkay is here, time permitting!

Thanks for all the support as always, I’ve had tons of people messaging me saying they’re so excited for me after following my little facebook countdown 😉 I’m off to bed now and the ‘1 more sleep’ is about to become 0!

As I type, the song ‘Driving home for Christmas’ has just come on the music channel, I’ve been playing this song a lot recently, it seems very appropriate. I heard it play when I walked into Tesco the other day, and now on the TV as I was about to press ‘publish’ on this post! It’s a sign, I’m certain ! 🙂
xxx

Turkish food shopping..in London!

Posted on October 22, 2013 by livingtheturkishdream

Today Dad took me to the Turkish Food Centre near us, and we stocked up on a few Turkish goodies. Always on the look out for new blog post ideas, I thought Id take a few photos and share the store for anyone else in London who may be experiencing withdrawal symptoms from their favourite Turkish snacks!

The TFC we went to is in Welling, south east London, but they have branches all over London. Click here to visit their site and see if there’s a store near you!

The shop has a selection of fruit and veg as well as a meat counter and bakery. The bakery sells that fresh Turkish bread we all love, along with all kinds of traditional Turkish cakes and pastries, most importantly there is a good selection of baklava too!

They sell everything else you could want, shampoo, toiletries, snacks, cakes, biscuits, crisps, juice, cheese, butter, all brands that you would find in Turkish shops and that you wouldn’t normally see in the UK. In typical Turkish style, the ‘pickled vegetables’ aisle was the biggest, along with huge jars of olives and bags of cay!

Everything in the shop seemed reasonably priced to me, more expensive than in Turkey, but not by much. We came away with a bag of Turkish tea, apple tea, sunflower seeds, simit bread, sachets of salep, cracker sticks, pop keks and wafer chocolates.

It was so weird seeing all these Turkish brands in the shop, it was like being back home in Fethiye! When you spend 2.5 years in a country you get used to their food and I really quite miss it when its not there anymore. Seeing the shampoo I used to buy in Turkey made me smile, sometimes it’s the small things! In the same way when going abroad you miss home comforts, when returning back after so many years, you miss things you never thought you would. It’s a lot of adapting, even down to the little things like which shampoo you buy!..Perhaps I’m just a little odd and too sentimental (: