Life Is Good Today

---

Well Wednesday was supposed to be one of those kind of minimal tour activity days to just keep it simple and take it easy in Kalkan and around the villa. Nothing is ever quite as it appears though. The take it easy day was one of the rewards from all the effort that had gone into putting together plans for our last 10 days or so. Heather had spent pretty much a full afternoon on-line securing ferry reservations to Rhodes, our initial accommodations, and return flights to Istanbul for our last few days before flying home.

Robbie Burns, the Scottish poet once wrote, “ The best laid plans gang aft a’glay” , which translates into contemporary English as something like ‘stuff happens’ and what happened was an email from the ferry booking agent. Nearing the end of the season and perhaps the Greek ferry line felt they didn’t have enough paying passengers to make the run from Fethyie to Rhodes worthwhile so they just cancelled the days sailing. When BC Ferries cancel a sailing it may be inconvenient, but when one of these sailings is cancelled it is a major disruption. Not just like waiting in the parking lot for the next one. Here we have to find where another ferry to Rhodes might sail from, and will it be on the same day? Then there’s the accommodation to be re-booked and that gets tight as everyone else who had planned to leave Fethyie makes similar re-adjustments.

More computer time for Heather but persistence pays and we end up shifting from Fethyie to Marmaris for our Monday morning departure from Turkey to Rhodes. The Marmaris hotel may be a little uncertain, not the same ‘star-rating’ as Fethyie seemed to be, but in any case it’s just a place to sleep for one nite. Who knows, perhaps we may be surprised. The only other challenge, and it should be minimal, is arranging transportation from Fethyie to Marmaris. Besides, what would these little trips be without some unknowns and adventure?

Thursday was the local ‘market day’ in Kalkan for the morning and the afternoon was a short trip to Kas and a bit of what might be called a ‘personal attention’ day for some who ended up the day with newly painted toes, shorter hair, relaxed muscles and sun-washed skin. During our villa terrace dinner, (that is dining on the terrace and BBQ on the terrace) we all learned arrangements had been made for a moonlight dinner cruise Friday nite.

Dinner on the terrace is never complete without our neighborhood friends. Have I told you about the cats? There is a substantial population of cats and dogs here and a number of the felines seem to have developed themselves a ‘survival’ circuit of the villas in the area. According to the guest book in the living room one group at this villa had eleven cats joining them for dinner one evening. We usually have about six and a couple of those have sort of moved into the property and are hanging around most of the day. The fact that one of the girls has taken on the ‘task’ for buying cat food and feeding the critters every night probably has nothing to do with our constant friends. Some have even acquired names from us, and ‘the Lord of the Manor’ as I call him has apparently figured I’m OK and regularly hangs out around me, even visiting my lap for a few moments when the for more attention strikes him. Pretty brave for a near feral cat. My own cat, Max, after five years is just beginning to pass across my lap at home for just a minute or so.

Life slows down here, not every day is adventure and the Zac Brown Band pretty well sums things up around here:

" I got my toes in the water, ass in the sand
Not a worry in the world, a cold beer in my hand
Life is good today. Life is good today "L

---