Dalyan, Turkey

It is everything I imagined it would be and more!

I love living here, its an adjustment but a really good one!

We have a lovely apartment and have recently adopted a cat that we have called Mavis (it means blue as she has the most beautiful baby blue eyes). We think she is pregnant which is very exciting as I will be her birthing partner when the time comes! The pace of life is really slow here and thats what I have really been craving. I have unfortunately gotten sick twice but now am fighting fit again, taking Barre classes and daily yoga practises with the most beautiful views!

The weather has just started heating up now so soon I will be able to visit the pool and laze around in the sun, my body is two tone, the front half is going a lovely toasted brown colour but the back of remains a light brown colour as I can't lie down. Our balcony is full of plants and vegetables, which I love, the strawberries are delicious and plentiful.

My days are spent reading, cuddling Mavis, listening to music, sitting in the sun on our balcony, playing with the plants (Ramazan is more of the gardener than me), and working.

The best day of the week for me is Saturday as its market day and I love walking around looking at the amazing fruit and vegetables ( I tend to skip the tacky fake watches and handbag section of the market). I love visiting the plant lady and this weekend we are going to take a trip and some of our plants are having a new home so I will be looking to fill their space with some new green friends.

I am in the stages of trying to sort out the balcony for the evenings, soon the evenings will become unbearably hot and not of our windows have mosquito guards. So I have just ordered a large mosquito net that I am hoping to put out on the balcony so that I can sit under it and relax in the knowledge that I am not going to look like a Smallpox sufferer the next morning!

Things I've been into:

Gardening, reading, trying to cook

Things I miss:

My smoothie maker, my coffee machine

Things I'm over:

sweeping up Mavis's hair 

Things I haven't been doing:

stressing 

1 week to gooooo

I have a week left in Cardiff before I up and move to Turkey to start a new chapter of my life and I am so excited!

I have been culling clothes and my stuff, packing and re-packing, and buying bikinis as that is what I will be living in for the next 6 months.

I am super excited to be attending my friends boot camp tomorrow morning, she has just qualified as a fitness trainer and she runs a women only class so I am going to try it...I am going to be wearing a bikini for the next few months... :)

Things I've been into:

Yoga, gymming, fitness trainer theory, reading, Game of Thrones

Things I miss:

Turkish Apple croissant, smoothies

Things I'm over:

Packing, 

Things I haven't been doing:

learning Turkish, cooking, 

Warning

Clothes should come with a warning when you buy them "do you really want this dress, its very similar to other dresses you have and when you have to up and move your life to X you will probably regret this purchase"

I REGRET ALL THE PURCHASES!!

I am slowly going through my belongings and culling where I can and its actually very cathartic. Moving abroad really helps one to focus the mind and what you need V what you want or think you need/want. Its been hard on the shoe department but most of my shoes are cheap things from Primark that I have looked after and its therefore hard to part with shoes in good nick. However, most of them are suede with a fringe (I sense a theme) and are not practical for this terrible Welsh weather. Nor are they practical for hot weather (sweaty feet is not a good move)

I am keeping a selection of warm clothes and shoes for when I eventually return but the majority of my winter wear is heading to a charity shop near you...SO LONG 6 MONTHS OF GREY SKIES AND RAIN AND WIND...

Sorry despite how exciting it is to start a new chapter of my life, I am probably most excited about leaving this awful weather that I am really not made for. I think I should have been born in 1970s San Fran...just sayin'  ;-D

Breakfast- Eat like a King

I am a fat girl in a thin girl's body. I am.
I love food and I have a big appetite that I have managed to curb because frankly it was greedy.

Breakfast time is always hard because I wake up and I want FOOD NOW ALL THE FOOD.

This morning was no different, I woke up starving, but once I had dressed and taken Mollie out for a walk, by the time I had got back, I was out of the STARVING mode. I decided to make granola this morning for a healthy breakfast as I am at my parents and I don't have access to my normal breakfast routine.

Holly's granola

100g oats
50g sunflower seed/gofi/raisin mix
15g chia seeds
3 tablespoons honey
a handful of raisins

- Mix all together until the oats are covered in honey.
- Pop into oven at around 220c for about 10 mins

VOILA

My friend very helpfully said it looks like his cats litter tray...LIES. It looks amazing and super healthy. I had mine with soya yogurt! 

When life gives you lemons

Make hot water and lemon drinks!


I have just recently started drinking this every morning and throughout the day and I have really noticed a change in my energy levels. Having gotten sick last week with a head cold I have been really struggling to try to get healthy again and this has really helped.

Its an acquired taste for sure but its actually a really easy way of drastically improving your digestion on the cheap.

Team this with a gentle yoga practice first thing and you are on to a winning day!! 

Spice of Life

yay yay yay

This glorious shop now has a super functioning website where you can even order online and click and collect!!

Every student must be aware of this fantastic, Cardiff's version of "Whole Foods" found in Roath, just off Albany Road. The shop is family run and has been going for 35 years! They sell all manner of healthy delights including spices and dried soya for us veggies (yay).  I went in there looking for ingredients for Vegan Bacon using coconut (yes I know, its not actually bacon) and whilst there was a super friendly greeting and offer of help, I was actually really happy just wandering around on my own in amazement at how cheap everything was (I still mentally live in London ok....!)

I didn't find everything I needed, and due to a human till error I was almost charged £2,340 for some coconut and brazil nuts, we had a good ole giggle and I was on my way.

This is such excellent news especially as the only day I was free whilst freelancing was a Monday and they were closed *cries*  and they are also closed Sunday, but they have their own stall at the Riverside Market which is open from 9.30-2 every Sunday :)

Cardiff is truly acting up!

In my quest for an injection of delicious culture before I move over to Turkey and not understand a word anyone says (true story) a few weeks ago I began looking for some theatre productions to attend.

A first glance and I was disappointed, Wales Millennium Centre, New Theatre and Sherman Theatre (I hasten to add I was not disappointed with these beautiful places but in the capital of Wales I could only find 3 theatres!). But, and this is a big BUT this is why I love Cardiff, there are loads of theatres you just have to take a bit of time, like Carole King said. Cardiff is like the friend we all want, quiet, polite but a total catch who we want to hang out with everyday but we need to give them a bit of time to warm to us. London is the loud, boisterous friend who is the life and soul, who is our instant friend but sometimes is a bit "too" much. Cardiff has taken me a little time to adjust, having lived in London for so long where everything is at my fingertips, I lost my Cardiff mojo, but its back!

Anyway, I digress. So for anyone who is looking for some culture in Cardiff, I present the following after a painstaking afternoon of googling, twitter stalking and Facebook hunting.

1) New Theatre Cardiff
The New Theatre is located just off Queens Street and is the place to go for Christmas Panto and jolly musicals. I was lucky enough to watch Hamlet by the Clwyd Theatr Cymru there on a matinee performance. It hosts a wide range of performances, I personally don't enjoy musicals so I do get disappointed when I cycle past and see some cheesy cast is taking up valuable Shakespeare space, but they do overall put on a good range. I saw Alfie Allen in Equus here (and yes he did get naked but I was sat right up top and couldn't see much...)

2) Wales Millennium Centre
This glorious building has only been with us since 2009. Its an amazing venue for a whole range of offerings, I have since musicals, opera and plays there and have never been disappointed. This statuesque building is found in the charming Cardiff Bay.

3) Sherman Theatre
The Sherman Theatre was the thing you did when I was growing up (I didn't obviously) and I always admired people who did belong to the theatre group. The theatre can be found in Cathays, right in the heart of student land. It had a refurb whilst I was in London but now its open and its lovely, a cool little cafe and restaurant as well as looking a lot smarter than it used to.

4) The Gate
The Gate is one of those secret only locals know about it and I love it! You can find The Gate in Cathays, off City Road. Here you can do dance, theatre, music, and it has a beautiful cafe in the original schoolroom (yes it used to be a church)

5) Chapter Arts Centre
Chapter Arts Centre is located in Canton and it hosts films, theatre and talks. If I am being completely honest, I find this place to be a little pretentious and I don't go that often. I find the box office staff to be snooty and unfriendly, that being said, the production team are super nice. The cafe is always busy here and the cinemas are uber comfortable, just a shame about the staff. I did see a superb production of Measure for Measure by the Everyman Theatre group, who were great.

6) YMCA Roath
This place is a precious find! It hosts the Act One theatre group which is Cardiff Universities theatre group and its fantastic! The Theatre is located about a 10 min walk out of the city centre in the Roath area. The acting by the group is always top notch and the space is cute and traditional. I watched Pride and Prejudice there a few years back and I still have such fond memories of it.

7) The Other Room
This is a new theatre which is part of Porters Cardiff, a bar, cinema, a host for cabaret (found next to the Motorpoint Arena in the city centre). I haven't yet visited the theatre but its been added to my mental list to visit at some point before I depart.

Have I missed any? There are a number of amateur dramatic theatre groups but all their websites are out of date so its hard to tell who is still going!

Cardiff Life

What a busy week! I have been so busy with students and nights out I haven't been getting enough sleep and its finally caught up with me as today I got sick. Thankfully a punnet of the strawberries at 9pm this evening has totally perked me up as I have a busy week coming up and I am house sitting for my parents which will mean long cycles in the beautiful Spring Cardiff air.

I was so lucky to attend an event my friend was involved in at this really cute bar off Churchill Way, called Gwdihw. The event was organised by staff from the Atrium, which is the arts and media school of the University of South Wales and it was a busy night. Gwdihw is so cute and cosy, its always busy but it never feels like its jammed. The perfect balance between calm and busy. Anyway I got there late and almost missed his performance, I caught the last 3 songs of his set and I loved it. I love folk music, and in that venue it was just perfect. We stayed for a bit to see the next act, the "main" act but I actually thought my friend's band was better, but maybe i'm biased.

I did have a date at the theatre but was just so tired I skipped, but I don't feel so guilty as I have been to the theatre a lot in the last week. I saw Man to Man in the Wales Millennium Centre last Thursday which was chilling and amazing. The story was of a woman who took on her husbands identity after he died and she was Jewish in 1940s Germany, it was based on the play my Manfred Karge and I was fortunate to score tickets to see Measure for Measure over at Chapter Arts Centre, which was a light hearted Shakespeare production by Everyman Theatre.

I am also trying to go to the cinema more, the last film I saw was the Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, so am hoping to see Suite Francaise this week if I have time.

I have eaten badly this week, not sure what is wrong with me, I feel like I don't care about my health and thats so stupid, so have started running and now that I have a date for Turkey, I don't think theres any point in joining a gym but hopefully will find somewhere in Turkey.

Chapters beginning and ending

The countdown has begun. 

Ramazan has left, after tears, sadness, shocking levels of chocolate consumption and a lot of moping, I am excited now. Its a month until I move over to Turkey to begin a very exciting new chapter of my life. 

There is so much to do, I have to box everything up, sort out shipping, tie up all my students here, book flights, arrange insurance, breath and remind myself that although its scary, its going to be an amazing experience. 

I have been slurping up the culture that Cardiff has before I leave for Turkey as where I am heading is severely lacking in any sort of culture, and no, not British culture, Turkish culture. I am going to move to a small coastal town, one that is quiet but is popular with tourists, there isn't a lot to do. 

I have been reading a lot lately and some seriously good books, and I love getting recommendations for books.

I have just started My Brilliant Friend

 But those I have read in the last few weeks

- Station Eleven <- this is up for the Baileys prize and it was AMAZING

- Mrs Hemingway

- Not without my daughter

- Travelling to infinity

- The Girl on the Train

We have a rough plan of what we want to do, Turkey in the summer, hopefully Thailand for the winter where I will be working there. So ramadan will work for 6 months of the year and I'll work for 6 months of the year and we will support and love each other whilst the other relaxes :)

I am really hoping that I can find the odd student in Turkey, to prevent my mind being numbed by the sun :))))

Fringe benefits

After a lot of uhming and ahhing, I decided to get myself a shiny new fringe. I have had a fringe a few times in the past but have always looked back and thought "yuck". I think thats a lot to being overly critical to myself, but also because sometimes I did have a fat face :P

But I poured over pictures of gorgeous boho hippy spritely beauties and I thought sod it, I am going to join you. I decided on a thick fringe, a bowl cut fringe all the way across the face (you know the kind that someone put a bowl over your head and cut). Yep thats right, I look like I put a bowl on my head and cut.

I had it cut in a cheap salon in Cardiff and I am seriously impressed. For £4.50 I have the best fringe I have ever had, because she listened to what I wanted, "are you sure you want to do this"? "YES".

I LOVE the results

Whirlwind

Its been a whirlwind three weeks as Ramazan surprised me with a visit whilst I was sick with a 24hr bug. One minute I am watching Call the Midwife, the next he is sending me pictures of his plane at the airport and he's taking off and coming to me.

I have been giving him a tour of my lovely city. We have been cycling, walking, eating, sipping coffee, laughing, cooking and basically having what everyone else gets everyday, a real life. The teeny tiny room we have been living too has not been easy at times, its fine for me and smallest but add an extra human into the mix and it becomes a little...erm...cramp. But we have managed, looking forward to having a nice apartment to move into next month :))))

Its really re-affirmed my desire to move to a new country with him, its been hard to say the least and I have been worrying about whether I am ready to do it, but him being here, making the effort to come to me despite what he is dealing with at home, well it just helps me see things clearly.

I have been working lots whilst he has been here, which in a way has been good, because when I am over there in the summer, he will be working massive amounts, hopefully I will be. But if not, we'll be heading to Istanbul in September for work for me. I basically have an amazing 6 months coming up. Which doesn't even include coming to London for Fleetwood Mac with my parents :)

Yoga has suffered, but I shall double my efforts to get my certificates all signed off before I head off.

JOY

Teaching- Past Simple

Business is booming as they say, well I say.

I am a full time freelance English as a Second language teacher in Cardiff. Private one to one tuition for students whose first language is not English is HARD.  Every student is different and considering my students ages range from 6 to late 40s, it's hard to know who likes what etc.

Its been a particularly challenging learning curve because my mind has been so distracted with Ramazan and his loss.

I have recently been overhauling my teaching approaches and trying to become much more streamlined when it comes to lesson plans etc.

I teach a lot using my Mac, and by that I mean using it as a writing and reading tool, part of me thinks this works and part of me doesn't. I don't need to stand up in front of a class so notes don't seem to make much sense, as I think I look ill-prepared but then using a mac makes it look like I can't be bothered to print...

Anyway, I taught a great past simple lesson last week and wanted to share it.


So I started by writing the past tense in Turkish in the board (they are Turkish) so that they understood that today was about the past...how ironic.

Next I wrote the 4 endings they need to learn:

1) talk + ed = talked
2) smile + ed = smiled
3) cry - y + ed = cried
4) hop + per = hopped

Then I went on to explain the above,

If a verb ends in an e, just add d
If a verb ends in a consonant and a y, take off y and add ied
If a verb ends in a vowel and consonant , the consonant is usually doubled and add ed
If a verb ends in a vowel and a y, add ed

Next we used flash cards, where I held up a verb in its infinitive form and asked them which one 1-4 we used to convert it to the past. I had such a good experience with them.
I currently have regular and irregular verb flash cards, but I feel like using them ALL the time

We then practised converting the infinitive into the past simple and making examples using verbs that they came up!

This is as far as we got as we like to chat and discuss things, and grammar is tough for these guys so I didn't want to overwhelm them. Am hoping to look at irregular verbs but need some ideas to help with using them in the past :/

Any suggestions?
x 

Yoga EVERY day

We lost Ramazan's father and it was the saddest day of 2015.

Ramazan will stay in Turkey for 40 days as per traditions to stay with his mother. After that I hope he comes here but I just don't know and thats ok. I am in a good place right now, I am busy, work is good. I have lots of students now and I love them all!! I also have my first private yoga student and she is a total doll.

Things are good, I feel good and I feel strong. I need to be strong for Ramazan.

Finally this blog sounds like its name 

Super smoothies

 In the real world (i.e. not the internet) I am a smoothie queen. I will try and blend anything, making concoctions in order to get my fruit and veg and generally feel healthier. 

When I moved house, I had been using an Argos £10 blender which gave up the ghost mysteriously when someone else in the house had been using it. So I decided to look around and see what else was out there. It was a faithful servant but it was clunky and hard to clean and didn't blend nuts :(

As I shall be moving on from Cardiff in a few months I decided to go for something cheap and small. I want the nutri bullet but I can't justify the money to be honest. 

I decided on the Breville VBL062 Blend Active and I am not disappointed! Its amazing!

It blends in the bottle so you can change the lid and take it with you, it makes a huge amount so you can split it so you can be lazy like me and not make it fresh everyday (I do make it fresh everyday...sometimes I will just blend up a load of fruit and veg for dinner when I can't be bothered to cook). 

Here she is!

I 100% recommend the Breville, its cheap, easy to use and blends frozen veggies and nuts really well. 

A pod of bother

So since I moved back from London, into my folks and then back out again I am away from my mums beloved state of the art, fancy pants coffee machine that can do everything and anything...and I was devastated. Where would I get my fresh coffee from now? Would I...have to buy it? 

One of the first things I unpacked was my cafeteria, and whilst its great, its not a coffee machine is it. 

My delightful friend Andrew pointed out on the second day that I moved in that...gasp...he had a Tassimo and I could use it whenever I wished. 

My heart beat an extra beat, once again we would be reunited with our dear friend caffeine. I then had to ask myself what on earth is a Tassimo?!

TASSIMOS ARE THE GREATEST THINGS ALIVE.

They work by inserting a pod of coffee at the top, and pushing a button...THAT IS IT.

I am not a coffee connoisseur, I do like starbucks (I know) and I am not a fan of a flat white (I know) but I won't drink instant coffee and would rather go without (so there!). The Tassimo is amazing, the price of the pods are all secretly controlled by Tassimo (its a very complicated story that my housemate did try and explain but I zoned out once I heard "coffee") 

You buy the pods online and in bulk and they are dirt cheap. 

I still love shop bought coffee, but hot, fresh coffee in the mornings, nothing beats it.

Holly luvs Tassimo 4 eva <3 

.

We had some bad news and Ramazan couldn't come over, he is still in Turkey.

I feel so selfish because I find this so hard, being here, not being able to help him, to comfort him, I can't do anything to help him. I feel so lost and not being able to be in control is so difficult. Ramazan is such a positive man, but he is wavering. We need it to get to a month since it happened, after a month he is out of the danger zone and then we focus on how to get him to wake up.

I don't know if Ramazan will ever understand thats its been hard for me being here, imagining what if this were my dad, what if this were my husband. I can't imagine it because I can't do anything, I can't work and I can't concentrate. This is such a horrible thing for him to have to go through, it just doesn't seem fair. I try and and be positive and ultimately I am positive, but sometimes I feel such despair.

I pray everyday for his dad to wake up, so his family don't have to grieve, so that they don't have to feel sadness.

namaste x