A little taste of nightlife

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Geo: 37.0391, 27.4302

Sometimes you don't know what fun surprises the day will hold. Yesterday we didn't have any special plans. We went to the pool where I talked the kids into doing a raft relay with their French friend Leia. That worked very well until one child decided the game was over. Oh well. Later we headed down to the beach. It was pretty windy and things got even windier while we were there. The kids snorkelled until someone decided that blowing water through the snorkels at other people was more fun and that became a game for a while. Amishay's family ended up leaving a little early from the beach because of all the wind and a tired baby. I asked if we could come by and show Amishay a couple games that we brought with us. Both have simple rules and don't require any language. One is called Blink and the other is called Blockus. Amishay's mother agreed and we set 8pm as the time. They keep later hours than we generally do. In the meantime, we hung out at the beach for a while longer. We met a British dad and his kids out at the raft. One of the kids was a boy Alex's age named Harrison. Alex went all shy on me, so they didn't say much to each other, but he did ride around with Harrison in his inflatible boat for a little while. They are here for two weeks, maybe Alex will loosen up.
We made our way home and I made chicken picatta (no capers though) and bulghur for dinner. And watermelon, of course. There is watermelon with just about every meal.

We headed over to Amishay's house, ring pops and games in hand. Amishay and his family and another friend really enjoyed learning the games and we shared the pops with the kids and they brought out tea. So it was game time for a while. They surprised us with the gift of an inexpensive kilim that we could take home. It was a very nice gesture and I was very touched. Then Eileen asked if we would like to go hear some music. One of the areas here has a poolside band every weekend. So we all walked over to check it out. I think the highlight for the kids was trying out the funincular (kind of a hybrid between an elevator and an escalator). The band was good. Eileen asked me if I knew a Turkish musician named Tarcan. I said, regretfully, no. I didn't have the heart to tell her that American radio stations almost never play any artists that don't record in English. We didn't get to stay long because the kids were tired let us know it. Despite that, I think I was in bed and asleep before they were. They lack focus and efficiency sometimes.

Looking forward to the arrival of Nanny, Grandpa and Harry tonight!

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