Life in our new apartment

Friends and family have asked how life is in our new apartment, and since it hasn't so far involved sitting down to write emails, I'll explain here. We've not really had an 'average day' here yet. So far, Tim has only spent 1 1/2 nights here, Reuben was ill for two days and we've had 3 days away at the beach. , However, we have been able to get an idea of how it will be in more normal weeks.

Location was the key for choosing our apartment - being able to walk to school and travel to work and back. We're about 15 minutes walk from school . Slightly nearer than in Whitchurch I guess, but a rather more challenging walk. If I take the pushchair I shoehorn it into the lift and bump down about a dozen steps to get out of the building. We then either go down a VERY steep driveway or, if we don't have the pushchair, 70 more steps.  After a bit of walking on the flat, dodging lamp posts etc. and crossing a tricky road, the school is up a pretty steep hill. If I take the pushchair (the jury is still out over whether it's worth it) I have to cross the road opposite the school to avoid 17 steps. Doing this three times on the first day was utterly exhausting. The theory is that Tim will drop the kids at school in the morning, but not when he's in Rome, Marmaris , etc. etc. Hopefully, Tim shouldn't be travelling much for the coming month. From September Miriam will be doing full days so it will be just one or at the most two trips. If I wanted to give myself an easy time I could send them on the school bus (and without even paying the bill ourselves). However, I like to be engaged with their teachers, other parents, their friends and to go with them to the library so I'm not planning to take the easy option.

Tim's trip to work from here was, errr, even more interesting. He missed the bus stop and ended up jumping off at a metro station further away than where he started! On the way back traffic is practically stationary so Tim caught the metro and walked from the nearest stop, which seemed to make sense but unfortunately doesn't involve many pavements. We'll have to work on that one.

We have a little children's play area and a swimming pool in our compound.  Turkish people still think it's a bit chilly for kids to play outside, so we're yet to see anyone else playing. There's another play area 5 minutes walk away which has more of a range of stuff, plus a tennis court (normally used as a football pitch). The biggest bonus from my perspective when we explored it yesterday was that of the 8 other families there, 7 were French! Reuben talked to the other kids a bit, but said there was a lot that he couldn't understand. We chatted in French on the way back too. Miriam understood what we were saying but joined in with a wordless babble in a French accent, which was a bit sad but not surprising. She's quite keen on babbling with a Turkish accent too and has started picking up words. Playing with the French kids in the playground could be enough to keep Reuben just about speaking French and Miriam understanding it. We'll see. One of the French women asked me if I was French. I hadn't said very much at that point (as would be clear to those of my friends who speak proper French). My time of sitting chatting to Mums at the playground might be limited for a while though - Naomi has discovered a love for slides, swings and seesaws.

There are loads of other things within a couple of minutes walk of our house - lots of friends, bible study, an indoor swimming pool and gym with a crèche, ten pin bowling, a supermarket, a fruit, veg and fish market, a flea market. In the weekdays, I think the children and I will rarely make it beyond those places. At the weekends and in the holidays we'll be able to explore more. The Bosphorus is about 15 minutes walk. From our apartment we look out over the beginning of the first bridge across to the Asian side. It sounds quite romantic, and it is fun to see the cars and busses heading to Asia and back.  However, we don't get the view you see on the photos if you google Ortakoy. We can't see the Bosphorus, so in a practical sense it's a bit like overlooking the A34!

If Reuben and Miriam will have their French lessons in the playground, I'm having my Turkish lessons at home. We've got a cleaner working for us one day a week who only speaks Turkish. I think I used just about every word I knew last week. At one point we had a go at typing sentences in to online translation programmes, but they are so rubbish with Turkish that I was managing better without. We had some fun, and laughed a lot. I used the word "yok" a lot ("There isn't one/we don't have any etc") because the rest of our stuff hasn't even left the UK yet.

So, daily life is enjoyable but does take lots of energy, especially when Tim's away and at the beginning as we figure out our routines. There are so many more things out there to do. We could do different things each weekend for years without exhausting the options. Tomorrow we're off to the biggest themed aquarium in Europe.

Tim may blog at some point. His job is keeping him extremely busy, mostly with travel. However, he's really enjoying it so it gives him lots of energy and enthusiasm. He works with a deputy who he recruited when he was here in November. They get on very well, and split the work quite naturally between them.