back to life

The highlight of our historical tour of the area for me was Cnidos, or Knidos, I’ve seen both spellings everywhere. This ruin of an ancient city is situated at the end of a peninsula about 18 miles from the seaside town of Datca.

It was a Dorian city of Greek Asia Minor and at it’s height was renowned the most beautiful city in ancient Greece. It was first founded in 4th century as a centre for art, but rebuilt in 360 bc as a port specialising mostly in the export of wine. Due to it’s position at the end of the peninsula it has 2 ports one on the Aegean and one on the Mediterranean. In the city there is a circular temple dedicated to Aphrodite the goddess of love where there was once a naked statue of the goddess watching over the 2 harbours. The city was so large and important that it had 2 amphitheatres, although we didn’t walk far enough to see the smaller one because the site was just so vast.

When we first got there we balked at the entrance fee of 8 lira each, but once we got in there we could see that it was worth every kurus!  The site was well sign posted with information boards in Turkish and English. But sturdy walking shoes are needed as there is a heck of a lot of ground to cover to see it all. As with many ancient sites a certain amount of imagination is also needed, apart from the large amphitheatre, which is very well preserved, there was not a lot of structures left except the foundations and a few steps, partial walls and columns.

It was well worth the long drive from Marmaris and I would definitely go back again because we didn’t see it all.

I’ve just come home from a lovely 10 days away in Turkey with my husband Hasan. He is a Turk and we have been married for 3 years, he is younger than me and despite warnings from “Take a break” magazine about Turkish love rats, I decided to take the plunge and marry him anyway. Hasan is certainly no love rat and is simply lovely.

I have known him for 4 years and have been going over to Turkey whenever health and money allowed. So we have sort of a part time marriage as I have spent a lot of the time in the UK. He needs a visa to come over here, even for just a visit. So we are working on that at the moment.

He needs to have paid at least 6 months of work based insurance and some money in the bank. To make his application easier I need to be working and financially supporting myself without the aid of the government.

So to this end I am attempting to rejoin the work force and Hasan has changed from working for himself as a builder to working for a travel agency in the resort of Icmeler, for regular pay and insurance contributions paid for by his employer. He is very hard working so I have no doubt that I will be seeing him walk through the arrival gates at Bristol Airport shortly after seasons end in November.

Before his move to Marmaris and Icmeler, Hasan lived in Kusadasi about 3 hours north of Marmaris. Although I did a lot of coming and going, at times living the life of a nomad, I think the slow pace of life and the hot sunny weather really helped me get over my illness and feel better.

But most importantly I got better because of the love of a very good man!

Good news on the return to nursing course front. I had an email from my ex manager, the Children’s hospital and Bone Marrow Transplant unit (my old place of work), will support me through the course and offer me a placement.

So all I need to do now is get another reference, apply for the course, get accepted and pay for it…. not too much!!!

But most importantly I need to get my brain back into gear to start academic work, it’s been a bit sleepy in that department for too many years…. apart from helping my sons with their college assignments.

Hopefully it’ll be like riding a bike and it won’t be too taxing.