So today I had heart palpitations and breathing problems

As for yesterday I can’t remember. I think I went for a run, did a twelve hour shift and fell asleep.

This morning I started work far too early, the fingers were going before the brain was engaged, but stuff had to be done. Now I can cope with most things and not get too stressed. Today I had a dev kit that was bricked and needed reflashing and no less than nine people on hip-chat. Conversations ranged from why a singleton constructor shouldn’t access itself, to why a data format was in 32 and not 64 bit. Plus being queried about changes to unsigned int limits. Which are all different across platforms just for fun. I can cope stressful situations without too much of an issue, confrontation, anxiety and depression. I can even cope quite well when Captain James says, “Right, now I’m going to roll back the throttle and go for an auto-rotation. You have control.”. Now that last sentence is a bit confusing, does he mean, “You are perfectly in control of the air-craft.”, or, “You now have the cyclic, collective, pedals and need to scan air-speed, altitude, rate of climb, rotor RPM as well as looking for somewhere to land, and my hand is on the throttle so I can bail out if it all starts to go tits-up.” Somehow I think it’s the latter.

Now the two things that cause my stress level to overflow and my body finally says enough is enough and tries to have a mini heart attack. The first is trying to book any kind of travel on-line. It always fucks up. When I was trying to book a hotel and flight to Japan, Jamie had to take over as it was all going tits up, I was bright red and about to pass out. Booking a flight on one web site and a hotel on another at the same time just doesn’t work, ever. And then if you try and do visa’s as well…The other thing that causes me to have a heart attack is tech support calls from my mother. I know she means well and is just trying to get her laptop to print the inside of her bloody cards, but I’m at the other end of a phone, trying to communicate with a dead dev-kit, nine people and debug a bloody file I/O problem at the same time. I installed OpenOffice somewhere, you only have a trial version of MS Office, it doesn’t support power point anyway. My stress levels are rising, I’m getting frustrated, she’s getting frustrated, I really can’t help. I think if I ever had a job in telephone support I would last about the first phone-call. The person at the other end would still be in the same boat they started with and I’d be dead.

Anyway, I finished off my nine conversations, found my bug and resurrected my dev-kit. I then walked the dogs quickly and finally I was returning back to normal. I went for a run at about 6PM then carried on working. So today apart from a 30 minute run and a quick dog walk I’ve done a 14 hour shift, yesterday was about 13 hours and tomorrow I’ll imagine will be the same.

People think working from home in game-dev is all bed of roses drinking coffee and playing games. That really is far from the reality. Even in the non-crunch times, it’s very long hours and very complicated work which requires a huge amount of concentration. Yes, it’s fun, I get paid a lot of money, I get to fly helicopters but you do actually have to work for it. I think I’ve seen Jamie when I got up and I’ve just seen him again now he’s going to bed. I’m now sat downstairs on the couch with the dog, soon I’ll be off to bed and get the joy of doing it all tomorrow.

The fog tried to defeat me, but it was worth the wait

So alarm went off at 7AM, I let myself and the dogs out for a pee. I had breakfast and a coffee. I was about to get ready and I got a text from captain James saying the airfield was fogged over. He said he could probably do later this afternoon or early evening or any time tomorrow. I checked the weather and plumped for tomorrow. I went back to sleep.

Got up and fed the dogs then cracked on with work. Making reasonable progress on that, although iteration times on the stuff I’m working on our horrendous. I’m got a tricky memory problem to track down and it’s taking ages. I made a sandwich and then went for a decent run. It looked like it was going to piss down, about half hour in though the sky had cleared and the sun had come out. I texted James but he was in Birmingham. So I had a brew and did a bit more work. Then James phoned to say he could get to Staverton by about half five, so I made a quick get away and arrived five minutes before I did.

We found a helicopter with some fuel in and got it out the hanger. I cranked it up (okay I went through the check list and did it all properly). James taxied out, we got clearance and up we went. I took over when we levelled out. Today we were doing ascents and descents, which is actually more complex than it sounds. To ascend to set the attitude first with the cyclic, and go for an airspeed of about 60, then lift the collective to increase the power to about 24 inches of manifold pressure, while applying left peddle to counter the torque. Then to level off, about 50ft before, set the attitude to an air speed of about 75 knots and then reduce the power to about 21.5 inches, trim to get back to level flight. Descents are more fun. Drop the power first with the collective add right pedal to keep it straight, go down to about 15 inches of manifold pressure. Then adjust attitude to reduce airspeed for a descent of about 500ft a minute, which is again about 60 knots. At this point the whole thing is vibrating like an old washing machine as the rotor is going so slowly. So I did a few ascents and descents, plus some cruises. I then flew it back to the airport and transitioned into a hover. Then spent the next half hour doing hovering practice. It was going okay, we were pretty lucky with the lack of wind, all too soon it was over again, so I flew back to the hanger. My hover taxing is actually pretty good. We did have some lovely views, the sun was setting just over the horizon, it was a good time to be above the clouds.

Drove home and then hunted for my memory problem again with no luck. Still, good fun day.

And now, almost normality

So today was about to start early then the shopping turned up, still got it out the way.

Oh, to finish the Turkey story off, on the Saturday I think I had breakfast, ate yet another pizza for lunch and drank far too much beer. In the evening we went to the Italian again and I had yet more sea-bass. We had a nice chat to a couple, then sat at a bar and listened to a band then another bar. It’s all a bit of a blur really, I drank so much that week I’m still feeling bloated now. I put on about seven pounds in weight, most of it I’m sure is liquid.

So worked all the way up to a late lunch when I picked the dogs up. Sasha was mega excited to see me, Dillon on the other hand wanted to stay behind and play with his new mates. He seems to have grown, mind you they got through 6Kg of food in ten days, which is a hell of a lot. They travelled home fine and got settled right back in.

I did some more work then went on to Combat, I could feel my stomach jump up and down. It was still great fun though. Came back and did a bit more work, then practised some more hovering.

No watching the Singapore GP, think I’ll have an early night tonight and do some helicopter reading. Tomorrow will be an ordinary day, except for the bit where I fly the helicopter.

Where was I, ah yes, trying to type in the dark after about 20 shots

So as I was saying (badly reading by the last post), Turkey once again met all expectations. I’ll write a bit more about our last day tomorrow, although it wasn’t particularly special. We did have a fun chat with a couple in the evening though.

Flew home today. Took a while but over all very uneventful. Which I guess is nice. Unpacked everything, got the washing on, done the accounts.

Bath (wine free I think), pizza and bed. Back to work tomorrow. Fun week ahead.

Okay, So this is why I like Turkey so much

This morning started off pretty much the same as the others, I woke up, had a pee then made it down to breakfast. It was only about 10:15 today. I had two cups of tea, croissants, cereal and yoghurt. I think I even managed orange juice. Towels were placed.

I tried to sort out the airport transfer but they said call back tomorrow, even if it said confirm 48 hours before. We then went to the sun-beds, I managed about three pages of ‘Air Law’, before descending to my Kindle and starting on the ‘Hunger Games Pt2’, chasing fire or something I think it’s called. It’s a bit of a slow burner (pun intended), but I’m about 60% through and not a great deal has happened yet. Still I will polish it off tomorrow.

I spent all day drinking beer, which now means my guts want to explode with excessive wind. What I need is a really good burp and a massive poo.

So we spent all day by the pool. This is why I like Turkey, there must have been about what thirty people round it in total. There was an old German woman about 60, with no top on, very saggy tits. If she didn’t keep her chin up her nips would have caught in the cracks in the tiles. There was another old German women, coughing her remaining lung up as she lit up a fag. A French couple, she sat there in something that I can only describe as ‘a salad’ and he sat there doing Suduko in a very ill fitting pair of speedos. There was quite a cute looking guy who had some sort of patchy skin complaint, he spent all day dabbing himself with what looked like typex. There were various Russian’s with small children bursting out of ill fitting shorts. There was an old Belgian man who spent all day drinking Turkish tea out of small glasses while he showed off his rather large penis in a very baggy pair of budgie smugglers. There were no stunners, no supermodels, no porn stars. And the best part about it…no one gave a shit. I sat there slightly bulging over my ‘Aussie Bums’ catching the rays. Jamie sat there in a pair of shorts. Nobody really cast an eye, there were no stares, no one commented that a 70 year old probably could wear something more age appropriate, well if they did it wasn’t in English. Everyone just gave each other just a little bit of personal space and a lot of respect. It’s obvious that the total crowd there couldn’t ever have an in depth discussion, we spoke about five different languages and this wasn’t the United Nations. The closest you got to a translator was the barman. Speaking of which, there was a very proud man. I had a brief chat to him. He works seven days a week during ‘the season’, he starts at 7AM and finishes at 7PM, he has no breaks, he grabs something to eat from the bar during the day. He is in charge of the whole bar at that pool, he also has to monitor the toilets every hour. I doubt he’s particularly highly paid, but he’s pretty happy with his little empire. Every time I saw or spoke to him he was always polite, always had a smile. If he wasn’t busy at the bar he’d walk round with bottles of water and take drink orders around the pool. I was never short of a beer. It must be very difficult to feel content, but I have a feeling that this man was, he was happy with his lot, happy with what he did, enjoyed it even. You do have to admire that in a person. I did speak about the occupancy, it appears we are currently at about 400 with a max of 700, so just over half full. Apparently it’s been like this all summer, which is a shame, it’s a nice hotel. Probably a bit on pricey side, but at least it keeps the Thomas Cooke Essex brigade somewhere else. I’d much rather spend the day next to a old Belgian with a giant penis than a man from Essex and his bronzed wife who was a giant penis.

Jamie went back to the room, I finished off my chapter. We ended up in the bath, no sex, too much the beginning of the week, plus I think I may have exploded.

We went to dinner, I had a couple of rather nice pasta dishes, okay it was a Friday, but I’d already had pizza at the pool bar. Couple of nice desserts as well, nothing too excessive.

Entertainment this evening was a couples thing in the amphitheatre, this is normally some sort of ‘Mr & Mrs’ interpretation and normally in German so we gave it a miss. Oddly we we sat down on a small jetty by the sea on a couple of sun-beds. We had the most amazing view of the moon. I started discussing the moon landings and if they were faked or not. We got on to lots of deep conversation, a security guard popped down and probably wondered what the hell we were up to, after he decided we were just into some very serious philosophical discussion and not about to set the fridge on fire he left us to it. Jamie wants to join a gym and may be get a bit fitter. That’s great, I always enjoy exercise, certainly after a good combat class I really feel good. But he needs to do it for himself, not for me or for anyone else. Physical fitness is a great boost to the self. Would I object if he had a six pack and could bang all night? Of course I wouldn’t, but as I say, he needs to do it for himself and I’ll support him all the way, if that means having to actively ignore him, then so be it, as I fear that may be the case. Any encouragement may just be seen as negativity.

Anyway, after deep thought we retired to the room and had a bit of a slurp, well it wasn’t a slurp, we just kind of laid around for an hour. I then changed into some shorts and off we popped to the ‘Rosebud’ bar. I must say, my mother would approve but every night I have actually put on long trousers, okay skinny jeans, to eat, as everyone, or practically everyone was sticking to the dress code. This is fine providing we could eat outside, but anywhere inside was far too hot. Certainly afterwards I enjoyed changing into something slightly less formal so I could cool down.

Alas, we are now almost at an end. Seven days of fun and relaxation is almost at an end. It looks like everyone at home has suffered from ‘freshers flu’ I’m sure it will strike us when we are back. I’m now on my third ‘Long Island Ice Tea’. I don’t really know whats in them, but what I do know is that it’s at least five spirits that aren’t measured and then topped up with a minimal amount of coke.

Turkey, once again you have lived up to all expectations, you’ve failed to disappoint. You may cost about about two and a half grand, but I always consider it money well spent. I’ve never come away from here not feeling relaxed and if you have as many mental problems and instabilities as I have then thats one hell of a good thing.

Turkey, please make friends with Syria, just treat it like a Belgian with a giant penis and like the current song in the background which couldn’t be more apt ‘Let it be.’.

Thank you ‘Dan Howell’, I went with your book choice, it made me cry

This morning I woke up, whic if you read yesterdays entry you will know is always a bit of a miracle. Actually I woke at 6AM and went for a pee. I then woke again at 8:30. Then at 9:30 for some odd reason I thought it was time to get up as there was only 30 minutes of breakfast left. I got up. I went to breakfast. Cereal, croissants, yogurt, some of that tarmac they call coffee. Then i realised just before 10 that I was actually an hour early and that breakfast didn’t in fact finish until 11. Bollocks.

I then went in search of ‘Guest Relations’, I started at reception, she pointed me across the concourse to a desk with a lady behind it. I wanted to book the Italian, I requested 7:30, she said she had a space at 7:20, I took it. I then asked where it was, as with everything else in this place it’s a voyage of discovery. It’s actually located just off the main restaurant, you could never bloody tell.

I picked up towels and placed them by the kiddie pool. I had a good oggle at the main pool, many fine specimens. I then decided to have a coffee at the kiddie pool, they have a decent machine there. By the time I’d finished I was drowning, fuck me it was hot. I went back to the room.

I picked up Jamie, actually I didn’t he was still dallying. I went to the sun-bed. I just couldn’t face ‘Aviation Law’, so I decided to get the Kindle out and read a novel. I happend upon one I picked up on recommendation by an internet blogger called ‘Dan Howell’, now he’s a very cute guy that does vlogging and I’d bang him harder than the beginning of the universe. The book is called, “The Fault in our stars”. I’m 41, and in 41 years I don’t think I’ve ever read a book in one day. I read this book in one day. Yes it’s a work of fiction, but by god is it powerful. If you get the chance to read one book this year, make it this one. You can get it for your Kindle or even in paperback. You will laugh, and by fuck you will cry.

We ate at the bar again, I went for a pee, Jamie ordered, so we ended up with two cheeseburgers and a pizza. I returned back to the sun-bed and mainly slept. That book really quite took it out of me. I ventured into the pool, it was certainly colder than it looked. At least I’d got that far. Eventually we retired to the room, I had a shower.

We had a booking for the Italian, so we turned up on time expecting it to be packed. We were the only ones there. We had crab cakes to start. I had the ravioli, it was okay but not memorable. The whole meal was pretty good. We then popped back to the room for a bit then sat at the Xanadu bar. This was because there was an ‘act’ on, who according to the blurb was fairly famous. We settled down and got some drinks. I must admits the next couple of hours was very good. I had no idea who this bloke and his band were, but they were very professional and knew their stuff. I had a really good evening, including some very bad singing according to Jamie.

Still, the holiday is almost at an end. I’m not doing any juxtaposing tonight, but I do have a couple of thoughts for the next couple of nights. But for the meantime, I’m just going to disappear into my cocktails and get fairly assholed.

Okay, a couple of queries that keep coming up. I write this blog instantaneously. I have no prerequisites, I start with thinking up the tag title line then waffle on. None of it is pre-produced, not much of it is thought of before hand. What you get is raw me, it’s my state of mind at the time. If you enjoy it, then please post, if it offends you then just fuck off. I’m me, and at the moment I’m pretty happy to be alive, this changes at regular intervals. I’m not ashamed to say I love my husband dearly, even if he thinks he’s ugly, I’ll love him to the end of time, to put up with me takes some kind of miracle. We’ve been together for seven years about, we have two children (okay dogs), I’m very comfortable with me family, they all mean the world to me. Without them I am nothing.

Okay so this place may have a bit of an ‘Olivia Newton John’ fetish

This morning I woke, which is quite a good thing I suppose, I’m sure there were quite a few people this morning whole failed at this feat.

I went back to sleep, and woke again at a sensible time. I walked over to breakfast, I couldn’t face the bloody awful coffee again so went for tea. Had cereal. Ate croissants. Walked back to room, on the way found two very scantily clad boys, so found a good hiding spot and took photographs. Place towels on sun-beds. Went back to room, change. Came out with Jamie, moved towels on to different sun-beds as the first lot weren’t approved. I then finished off Clarkson. I tried to get into ‘Air law’ but I fell asleep.

We had lunch at the bar, I had pizza, Jamie had pizza. We then went back to the sun-beds where I failed to make any ingress with ‘Air law’ and fell asleep again. At about 4:30 it had clouded over so we decided to go back to the room, Jamie had a bath and I fell asleep. I then had a bath I fell asleep in followed by a shower (which I didn’t). We never had sex, which made quite a nice change, my bits can heal.

We headed out for dinner earlier tonight so we could get a table outside as inside it’s just frighteningly hot. I couldn’t decided on roasted chicken or grilled sea-bass, so I had both. It was very good.

We then went back to the room for a poo. After we ventured out for the show which was ‘Grease’ performed by the entertainment team again. To be honest they put on a bloody good show, they are all professional dancers by far, yet during the day these are the same annoying people who no doubt want you to play water polo. By god have they got some fit bodies, stomach muscles yes all over, but one guy had more definition on his back than most models on their fronts. It’s all badly lip-synced of course as they are all Turkish and ‘Grease’ is very much American, well Sandy is Australian. Which brings us back to the name of the place again ‘Xanadu’, Bloody Olivia Newton John, she’s only been in two things and this hotel has managed both.

So once again, Jamie sat beside me on a sun-bed and played with his phone listening to ‘Willam’ some weird drag queen act. So would I replace him with someone else? Juxtaposition time….today I pick…mmm…how about Margaret Thatcher?

So I get the old dead up in the morning and bring her to a sun bed and place her down.

“I’m not keen on these people after I had to blow up the ‘General Belgrano'”

“That was the Argentinions.”

“Aren’t they Turkish?”

“No.”

“Well I was a little bit insane about 40 years ago.”

“So you are saying you were insane before you entered government?”

“Look young man you our having a pretend conversation with a dead women and you are questioning my sanity?”

She’s got a fair point. Don’t know who it will be tomorrow. Anyway, time to hit the bar.

So today we really did do sod all.

I woke up at about 9:30 decided it was far too early to be awake so went back to sleep. I woke again at about 10:30 which was an ideal time to sample breakfast. I found the cereal the croissants and the coffee machine. It still produced something resembling tarmac, it’s still sitting heavy on my stomach twelve hours later.

Picked up a couple of towels, did the German thing and put them on a couple of sunbeds. Went back to our room, woke Jamie up then ventured to the kiddie pool, no particular reason other than it was a) empty and b) had no kiddies. There is a main pool as well, but there would be likely the dreaded animation team. If I wanted to have fun I wouldn’t have come here, I don’t want to play football with a Belgian who will probably stop halfway through and get cards out. I have no desire to play a pool game with three fat Muscovite shot putters.

I got a beer in and then sat there, reading a book. Until it was time to get another beer in and sit there. At lunch time we walked from one side of the pool to the other and ordered lunch at the bar. I had pizza, Jamie had chicken nuggets. More beer was drunk. We returned to the pool side. I read more and continued to drink beer. At six it was time to go in. The mini bar had still not been refilled.

All this entire time Jamie had sat beside me not really saying a word, he played with his phone and probably listened to something ghastly. Did I like this? Well what would I prefer? Lets just try a little juxtaposition here and replace Jamie with someone else…..Dillon Samuels, nah wouldn’t work, okay how about my mother. Let’s take it back to the beginning, I got up, she would have got up four hours earlier to start the work on her face. I would have gone to breakfast and come back to find her creaking getting off the bed. She would then mention that her knee was stuck, probably somewhere in Bristol and that she never had this problem last week. Look at her ankle, it’s twice the size of the other two. She would become vertical, although you couldn’t really tell, then hobble into the lift carrying a bag weighing approximately two tons. We’d meander to the sun bed, before we got there of course she would decide she needed a pee, although she only left the room 45 seconds ago. “I couldn’t get the tap to work.”, but that’s okay because inside her magic bag she would have a bag of wet-wipes a sink and Wessex Water. She would collapse on the sun bed, stating that she would never be able to get up again. She’d get a book out, probably ’50 shades of grey’ or some other god awful tome. “You really should read this Tim it’s got a queer in it” For the same reason I don’t really like fucking Elton John, I don’t really like his music (and I don’t mean I want to fuck EJ, David Furnish may have issues, do you think Elton is a top or a bottom?) I’m going off track. Just because I’m gay doesn’t mean I spend all day eating quiche and listenting to show tunes, I like heavy house, techno, dub step as well show tunes. Anyway back to the sun bed. Three pages would be read, then I’d get the “I need a drink” request, I’ll ask “What do you want?”, to which I’ll always get the reply, “Well what are you having?”. Now considering it’s only about 11AM I’ll probably stay off the hard stuff and just stick to the beer. It must be stated that Effes beer is rather weak, you could drink it solidly all day then drive home without worrying a breathaliser. So anyway she’d go for a lager top, or a shandy as it’s better known, and I’m the gay one. I would get beer and said puff drink. I’d then settle down to my heavy intellectual reading, which currently is either Jeremey Clarkson or Aviation Law. I’d manage three pages before the shandy had gone to her head but more importantly it would have gone to her bladder. So she would have to be air lifted off the sun bed and would hobble away to the bog. “I couldn’t get the tap to work.” We’ve been here before. Several more pages would have beed consumed before you would get the inevitable, “You see that lady over there, the one in the blue dust sheet. That’s Kim & Co.” I’d die with the excitement. “Aren’t all these hedges nice, before I came out I trimmed all my bushes, I had everything on charge for three weeks, I used more power than Jodrell Bank.” Then you would try and start a conversation, “Do you know the front of a Rover 200 looks like a snatch, didn’t you used to have one of those?”
“Patrick came up the other day and tightened the wires up again, he reckons the wall has come all the way back now…..oww my toe.” Another couple of minutes would pass. “So what are we doing this afternoon then?”
“Exactly what we are doing now.”
“So when do you go shopping?”
“You don’t.”
“Oh my poor knee is swollen again.” So am I pleased that Jamie just sits there and twiddles with his phone? Yeah, I’m kinda quite happy with that.

I had a shower. Got out and Jamie was gagging for sex again, dressed in a rather fun jock strap. I made him go on top, which meant that I could have a rest and he’d have to do all the work. After he was covered in sweat and got me as excited as a visit to an accountant I flipped him over and showed him how it should be done. We got changed and went to dinner. I was still somewhat stuffed from lunchtime so took it easy and only had three main dishes. I also had a cup of tea. Went back to the room and changed into something less sweaty. Now sat in the upstairs bar overlooking the bay. There is a musical girl singing type act going on in the bar below, I said to Jamie “It’s all a bit low tempo”, to which he shot back with, “It’s lounge music not a rave.” He did have a bit of a point.

Tomorrow will probably be a bit of a repeat of today. More reading, more beer and probably more sex.

No I don’t want to go on a ‘bumming boat trip’, okay, may be I do

So today started in the afternoon, well actually I got up t 6AM wondered well the hell I was and wondered if the dogs needed letting out. After reality struck I went for a pee then went back to bed.

As I hadn’t slept for about 48 hours I finally woke up at 12:45, too late for breakfast, but late enough for lunch. So we washed and put on something appropriate then headed to the restaurant. Now I’ve never really found lunchtime menus to be appealing, but I was in for a bit of a surprise. I managed to find clay baked seabass, this together with a portion of rice made a really nice lunchtime meal. It was accompanied by two cups of coffee, which can best be described as molton tar and therefore best forgotton. We retired back to the room and changed into our beach wear. We decided to head to the childrens pool, as it contained no children, it also contained very little else, no bloody euro-pop and no bloody annoying animation team. All there was was a selection of baggy skinned German’s and one rather fit one.

Towels were obtained and I decended into 150 pages of Clarkson. It’s easy reading, it’s in big type and contains no words longer than eight letters. The afternoon went through nicely, had a couple of beers, a couple of oggles at fit Germans but mainly just lieing in the sun and reading, very relaxing. I ‘forgot’ about the meeting with the rep from the transport company.

One thing I admired, there was an old German man, in a very large pair of Speedos. He was bold, with a gut the size of Alaska with saggy skin. But he just walked around quite proud and happy with the way he was. I thought I’d be quite happy if I reached that age and could wear and be relaxed in Speedo’s, but just not be German.

We retired to the room at just after six. I took some photo’s and read a magazine. I went for a poo, which was successful, it was the first one I’d had in a couple of days. This is what happens when yoy don’t eat enough salad. Then the phone rang. The bloke we managed to miss earlier had finally cought up with us. We were due to have sex, but this was now interrupted by a greasy Turk in reception.

He got his maps out, he got his speal out. He banged on about how for only £15 each we would be picked up and transported to Gumbet and have a great night out and go to some clubs and transported home. He asked if we were friends, I said we were married. He then said he would take us to the greatest gay club in Gumbet. Now I’ve been on these things before, it all sounds rosey, but here is the reality. You will be picked up half an hour late by a disgruntled coach driver who can’t be arsed to acknowledge you as he’s too busy on his mobile. You will be crammed in with forty other people, usually all aged about twelve who have been sold the same concept. You’ll eventually be shipped to some tacky restaurant in the middle of Gumbet, who’s best advertisment is that they serve ‘real HP sauce’. You will be served something that once resembled chicken. It will then be explained to you that the ‘all inclusive alcohol’ actually means half a glass of diluted wine. You will then be dragged round various tacky bars, which force feed you raw meths. Eventually at the end of the evening when you are bored shitless you will be forced on to the same coach again, where the driver still on a mobile is shouting at his wife after consuming half a bottle of scotch. He will then drive erratically round very steep turns while complaining about how all the bloody English just vomit everywhere. Then ‘Sharon’ from Essex will suddenly demand he stops as she needs to pee. She will get off the coach escorted by ‘Tracey’ and find a bush. Unfortunetley this will be next to a cliff top. ‘Sharon’ will then trip over her own 14 inch stilleto heel and break her ankle. The next four hours will involve the coach driver trying to arrange an ambulance while the rest of the coach slowly gets covered in piss and vomit.

We didn’t take the trip. But we did thank Mr Turk for his persistence and give him 40 Lira for his troubles (about £12), I think he’d earnt it. Then he said, ‘Hey do you two like to play around? I can get you on a great bumming boat.’, Now I must admit I was quite tempted by this. Jamie was giving me the evils, but I don’t think monogamy is all it’s cracked up to be. I don’t mind putting my thing anywhere for a bit of fun, I don’t want a relationship with you, I don’t want to here your life story, but do bend over as I think your cute. But I must be resigned to the fact that like I’m never going to be an astronaut or a lesbien, this is never going to happen.

We retired back to the room and had sex. While I thought about what could have been…..I had a shower. We then went to dinner. All the outside tables were taken, so we ended up inside and boy was it hot and stuffy. But we were near the food. This hotel by far has the smallest buffet, but probably by far the best quality of food. I ordered a bottle of white wine, a single glass turned up. I moaned and eventually she brought another glass and just left the bottle. It wasn’t bad local plonk, I finished it off in about ten minutes. Food tonight was great, I didn’t have a starter I just went for two mains. I had Japanese steak, two chinese dishes and rice. It was lovely. Then afterwards I had Turkish flatbread and chips, which was also great. I really do have no complaints about the food here.

After dinner we went to the ampitheatre where there was a ‘musical’ show. Which was basically the animation team (which thankfully hadn’t made an appearance all day) acting out various musical numbers. Now call me an old queen but I realy enjoyed it, I was tapping my foot and clapping along, I was alone. It wasn’t a massive audience, probably about a hundred people, but I think there was only about ten with functioning limbs. They did a good job, put on a fun show. And at the end of it they performed ‘Xanadu’ by ONJ together with a whole set of dance moves (the fit German bloke knew them all). We then went back to the room and changed into something less sweaty. We are now at the bar, it’s rained a little bit but it’s still bloody warm. Now drinking beer and cocktails.

Let’s see what tomorrow brings, more Clarkson I expect, a shame when I’d really like the sound of that ‘bumming boat party’.