Eat, drink and be merry...

Our holiday thus far

Has been interesting to say the least 

Today we went to the spice market

An amazing warren of different streets and alleys

Selling everything you can think 

It was really an onslaught of the sense 

The smell of the spices

The colours

The noise of people and music

The sheer hustle and bustle was enormous 

To get to the spice market

We walked over  the Galatar bridge 

There were fisher men all standing in a row with their rods

I was attracted to one 

Who had live fish in a bucket of water

Of course neither of us spoke one another's language

But from his body language

I'm guessing he wanted me to try fishing

I shook my head no

But asked if I could throw the live fish back in to the river 

He laughed

And told his friend 

His friend called me over 

He pointed at his bucket 

Which had a few small fish

And one big one 

Before I knew what was happening 

He picked up the big fish and handed it to me

I didn't know what to do

So I just grabbed it 

And threw it over the bridge

And it landed in the water with a plop

The fisherman and my family thought this was hilarious

Next we soaked up the atmosphere outside the market

And headed for one of the many mosques 

The photos below with the scarves 

Are us going inside

They ask you to cover your shoulders, head and legs

It was really beautiful there

After that 

I wanted to but my Dad a wallet 

And my sister and Mum also wanted to buy one

We approached one man selling them

He showed us a huge variety of wallets 

And told us he would give us a discount for three

We tried to haggle

But he was having none of it

Oh well 

At least we tried 

We then went for a drink of lemonade at a little cafe

Mum wanted a piece of fruit

And asked for a banana 

The man didn't know what she as saying 

And called another man over 

Next thing there were about five men all around her

Trying to figure out what she meant

Eventually Mum got through to them 

Then we saw one of the men going to the market to buy a bunch of bananas

He came back 

And presented Mum with her banana very proudly

We were all in stitches by this point

It's great here 

The people are friendly

The food is good 

It is nicely warm 

Not too much so

Now we are heading out for dinner

So I will see you on the next post..

..

Sunset in Istanbul

What more could you want?

Cup of tea

Good book

Sunset over a beautiful city

Perfect

Turkey

It's our first proper day in Turkey 

We woke at about 8am

And headed down to the basement kitchen for breakfast

It's kind of self service here 

You just take what you want

And head up to the roof terrace

Which has some spectacular views

I was following the rest upstairs

Trying to balance my tray of beautiful food

I made my way in to the elevator 

And promptly spilled a glass of orange juice everywhere

On the floor 

On my feet 

In the elevator

A woman came and helped me clean up

And I headed up to the roof terrace

What a beautiful place to eat your breakfast 

I just had a slice of toast and an egg

As I want to keep my energy up

But I don't want to feel too full

Last night we went out for dinner

I was sure that I wouldn't like the food here 

But it was really delicious

We ordered lots of little sharing plates

Like stuffed peppers 

And various dips

Then we had two lamb dishes which were so yummy

It's nice to eat like that 

As you can just nibble away at whatever you fancy

After that 

We went back to the hotel for an early night

As we were all pretty wrecked

I've been wondering how to manage my meds while I'm here

So I've kind of been experimenting with where and when to take them 

This morning I took them as prescribed

But half way through breakfast

I was on the nod

And falling asleep

So while the others finished their food

I headed back to the room for a little nap

I slept for about 20mins

Met up with the others 

And we headed out to explore 

Our first port of call

Was the Galtara Tower

Which we climbed to see panoramic views of the city

To be honest though 

I couldn't enjoy it or appreciate it

As I was just too groggy

After about an hour 

I made the decision to go back to the hotel 

To recharge my batteries 

And have a sleep

She that's where I am now

I feel like such a light weight

And lesson learned with my meds

I will now either take them at night

Or not take the tablets at all 

All I can do now is rest

And be fighting fit for tomorrow

It's amazing 

I'm sitting here at the balcony of our room

It's 1pm

And I can hear the call to prayer in the distance 

It happens a few times a day

And there is something enchanting about hearing it

I haven't taken many photos yet 

Below is a small selection

Hopefully I will be back to myself tomorrow

And will take Istanbul by storm....

 

Quick Update

Just a short and sweet post to let you know that we arrived safe and sound in Turkey

It was nothing short of a marathon of a journey

Which started at 4am this morning 

When we had to get up to catch the bus to Dublin airport at 5 20am

I had been pre warned by my sister not to go mad with my meds the day we were travelling

So I was very good 

And just took my methadone as prescribed

I decided not to take any tablets for today

The bus journey was stressful 

As we got caught in traffic 

And made it to the airport half an hour late 

So we had to rush to check in

Going through security

I had the usual rig-ma-role of explaining about my meds 

Showing my doctors letter and so on

There's never a problem with it

They just check it because methadone is in liquid form 

We met up with my brother and his partner then

And headed to the gate 

We boarded the plane at 11am

It was a four hour flight

During which I watched two movies

Had something to eat

And also had a little drinky-poo

Ssshhh

Don't tell anyone

We had a taxi prebooked

So when we landed 

We just had to find it

And off we went to the hotel

Where we arrived just before 8pm

I swear the driver drove up the steepest hill I have ever seen 

Scary stuff!

So we are here 

It's our first night

We are wrecked tired but excited to be here 

We are going to get something to eat 

And crash for the night

Here are some photos from today....

Prior preparation prevents poor performance

So it's Monday again

Start of another week

It's hard to believe that it's almost October 

Next thing will be Halloween 

And then 

Well you know what's next after that

I won't say the word 

As I know a lot of people hate that time of year

I love holidays 

Especially Halloween

And the C word

So it's a great time of year for me in that respect

And speaking of holidays 

Tomorrow we are off to Turkey!

We depart at precisely 5 20am tomorrow morning 

I love getting up at an unGodly hour

Getting the bus

Going to the airport

I love it all 

Airports are such interesting places

Especially for people watching 

Packing started earlier this week

I threw everything in to my case

But when I saw how neatly my Mum and sister packed 

I took everything out again

And started fresh

I also did a cull of my clothes

As I had everything but the kitchen sink in there 

I'm a terrible packer

I always bring far too many clothes

I bring clothes I haven't worn in years 

You know 

Just in case 

Better to be safe than sorry I guess

I was in the doctors waiting room this morning 

And there was a girl in there with a really cool hair cut 

Her hair was shaved like mine 

Except on both sides

So the hair in the middle was like a small Mohawk

I am seriously considering getting it done when I come back 

I just have such an urge to do something drastic with my look

Something totally different for me

I guess I am playing around with my lol for a few months now 

I just want to experiment 

And change my look

For so long 

I concentrated on my weight

It was my be all and end all

But now I want to be defined by something other than my weight 

In a moment sadism 

I went to weigh myself the other day

But to my delight 

My scale wasn't working

Do I have no earthly clue what my weight is 

And you know what?

I have absolutely no shit to give

Not one iota 

And it feels great 

I was trying on clothes for my holiday

Dresses and skirts and tops 

I am slowly but surely finding out how to dress my shape in the best way

And developing my own style

It's great the way you can play around with clothes 

And find out what suits 

For Turkey

I am bringing lots of skirts and light trousers 

As well as a couple of dresses

While trying on clothes 

I was able to see what looks good on me

What is not so good 

And was able to do all this without having a major meltdown about how I look

That my friends 

Is progress

I had to get a letter from my doctor this morning

To say that I will be carrying 448mls of methadone

It's a controlled drug

And it's also in liquid forms so they always check it

But I have been all around the world with my meds

And have never had a problem

I was home

And putting my letter in my hand bag

When I found a letter from last when I went to the UK

I was surprised to see that I was on ten mls less of methadone back then

That is a distinct lack of progress 

And is in fact going backwards

It makes me wonder will I ever come off this drug

And the thing is

I would be perfectly happy to stay on it for the rest of my life

Once an addict

Always an addict 

I'm assuming I can blog from Turkey 

I will keep you all updated 

And of course supply you with many many photos 

Summer 2015

I I was looking back over photos of the past summer

And I thought I would share some of them with you

You have probably seen them before 

But it's nice to look back and remember

Here goes....

Darkness to Light walk May

I break the stigma campaign for Healthline

New glasses June

Queen Maeve's trail

Shells cafe

Heading to the theatre

The Blues sisters

Our for dinner in Derry

Mocktails in Belfast

View from Stormont

Cuddles

Hanging out in Bundoran

Mums retirement

On the road

Ouch!!!

Happy Birthday!