Back in The 'Bul

It's been a while. Sorry to all our dear readers, but we have been snowed under here in Sultanahmet. Snow is so pretty.

Although the last rambling post (the one that goes on about moses or summat) covers our last days in Dahab, it doesn't cover the football, the last supper at Seabride, our farewell to the boys (waaaaaahhhhhhh!!!), our lift back from the border to Tel Aviv, or our last days in Tel Aviv (phew). So we will have to backtrack yet again, and the story will be told, albeit jumbled and out of order. Really, how else could it be? When the camera has batteries and no helpful friendly people are hovering around distracting us or wanting to use the computer, we will put up photos etc. Probably in the next few days when we are hanging out with Deniz.

True to her name, the Recidivist has quit again. Yes, Ashley has been a non-smoker now for a whole week. Look'n good, and pulling it off with only the very occasional complaint or homicidal moodswing. What a woman. She has been enjoying the odd glass of red wine, having found 1ltr bottles available at the supermarket for a very reasonable 8YL (that's 8 yeni lira, or new lira, for the uninitiated. They came up with some new money when they heard Ash was coming back with her old lira). Ash is reading a ginormous Beatles bio that makes her wrists ache.

Leon, you ask? Well, Leon is living large in a very swish new winter coat that makes him look just like Kemal Attaturk. Women swoon in the streets as he walks past, waggling his cigar [thats no cigar- Ed.]. Seriously, it is a very nice coat. Ash too has purchased a new long black cardi with a hood, and a hot pink trackie jacket with a hood, and a hood...it was only 1C the other day and snowing hard, so we felt the need to build up our wardrobes a bit.

It is soooo wonderful to be back in Istanbul. I love it here, and happily Leon is also enamoured of the place and suggested we come live here for a while after our exit from UK. This long-term forward-thinking is unprecedented and called for a bottle of wine post-haste. Things have gone up a little in price (like, some things have actually tripled!) since I was here last, but my 5 Turkish phrases are standing me in good stead, and slowly growing. It is truly excellent to see Deniz again, she is giving us the royal treatment, arranging free tours for us to all the must-see things in Sultanahmet (Aya Sofia, Topkapi) and we are going to spend the weekend with her family, then the plan is to stay with her in Kadikoy for our last week here.

The Sultan Hostel has been very comfortable since we upgraded out of the dorm room to avoid the pervy man who was masturbating [no, not me - Ed.] and causing all the bunk beds to rattle against each other. Pervy also had a penchant for collecting people's email addresses and phone numbers. Yuck. Thankfully Pervy checked out, and soon so will we. Stay tuned.