Merhaba from the Culveys - Feb 2007
Merhaba!
There you have it our complete vocabulary in Turkish and it means hello! It’s not really the only word we know but the lessons start soon!
It’s been a tough couple of months since we last wrote, the move and living in a hotel for a month was pretty hard going. You’d think we’d have got the hang of it now but we hadn’t allowed enough for the kiddie factor!!
To be fair they were really good, but they still made the whole process slower and harder!!
Our last week in Prague was a mix of house packing and saying good bye to places and friends. Compared to leaving Korea, this was much harder. Again I think the kids were a big factor, watching India with all her friends at our last get together really made us think of just how settled we had become in Prague.
Still early morning on Sunday 7th Jan the journey began! I left the hotel at 06:00 to head back to Pruhonice one last time to pick up the cats and meet Jed who had kindly offered to drop me at the airport. Half way there Lyra called me to tell me the vet had got the paperwork wrong for one of the cats and I would have to try and wake him up and get it changed!! Thankfully after the 6th call he picked up and was happy for me to come round and redo the paperwork!
We all met back up at the airport and began the process of check in... 5 people. 2 cats. and 10 bags! So began the next issue, the plane being used was only allowed to carry one animal! After a lot of fretting they called the captain and he said it would be ok.....Next Lyra realised that I had checked in her hand luggage, not a big disaster you’d think but all her jewellery was in it! Another 30 mins went by and finally the baggage guys appeared with the bag, disaster averted!!
Thankfully from here on everything went like a dream!
A fleet of cars awaited us in Izmir, anxiously waiting to see whether we’d get the cats through without problems, and to our amazement we sailed straight through with only the briefest check of their paperwork! We’d made it, we were all in Turkey!!
The Crown Plaza was to be our home for the next few weeks and we settled in to our adjoining rooms on the 7th floor, Tan & the kids in one, Ly & me in the other. The cats went to the house straight away but unfortunately they were petrified the whole time as it was cold (no gas for heating), dark (no lights fitted), and dirty (not lived in for 6 years!). All the promises to have it ready by the time we arrived had not been delivered, the place was a mess!
Three days after arriving, the cats joined us in the hotel after a bit of negotiation between Lyra and the hotel management! That made seven of us!
I started work straight away and picked up where I’d left off before Christmas, building the Supply Chain team ready for the DC opening in April.
Lyra spent her days meeting people over at the house and pushing to get things cleaned and switched on etc. Alongside this she did her best to keep everyone happy in our cramped surroundings! Thankfully we were blessed with great weather so Tan was able to take the kids out along the sea front to play and wasn’t stuck in the hotel.
It was the last week in January when we finally got the call we were waiting for, our shipment would be through customs and at the house by midday the following day!
Of course that turned out to be about 6pm the next day but at least it was here and we could start to move in! Day one was just emptying the trucks, then the next 3 days were opening boxes and putting the furniture together. Sadly we had a fair few breakage's and my camera went missing but insurance should cover that
By day five the house was cleaned by a great team from work and we were finally ready to leave the hotel! I think just about all of the staff were there to say good bye to the kids (or was it to make sure we really were leaving!!
Since then it has been a few weeks of hard graft sorting everything out! We are just about there and most boxes have been emptied. It is feeling like home already and all the neighbours seem really nice (and thankfully speak English!).
A sure sign of getting settled in of course is parties, we’ve managed two so far! First one was a few friends for dinner, then games and karaoke until 4am!! the other was of course our Princess’s 3rd birthday!!
Indi had two parties, on the Sunday before she shared the festivities with our new friends Mel and Mentes’ daughter Leah, who was two. It was at one of the local shopping malls that has a great creche. It was a fab couple of hours of diving into pools of coloured balls, sliding down slides and scoffing lots of birthday cake! India had a great ‘Lightening McQueen’ cake and Leah a very cute cake with an amazing icing model of her favourite doll.
Party number two was on India’s birthday at home with her new friends from the complex and Penny who is Sally and Marks daughter who are also over here with Tesco.
Lots more cake of course and presents!!
It is hard to imagine that our little girl is 3 years old! Although when you listen to what comes out of her mouth you might think she’s thirteen!
Well that brings us up to date, we are looking forward to our first visitors, Mum Peck will be first next week, followed by Mum and Dad C a few weeks later. We are really looking forward to exploring what is already proving to be a fascinating Country with some of the friendliest people you could imagine, Turks love foreigners, it’s like being guest in their home, they truly want to do all they can to make you feel comfortable.
Come on over and see for yourselves......soon!
Lots of love,
Dan, Lyra, India, Kai, & Tan.
Xxxxxxxxxxx