Well, I've got to do it sooner or later ... the cases are unpacked, washing done and clothes ironed for work tomorrow

so here goes .....
We arrived on the early hours on Friday 22nd June and it was scorching hot, no delays from Manchester to
Dalaman and the
transfer was there to pick us up. At first, we were surprised how quiet it seemed to be in the resort but luckily it seemed to pick up.
We spent most of our days on the Deniz Kapisi beach and had some great lunches in there and the staff couldnt do enough for you, we dont generally like the beach but found ourselves drawn back there, particularly because of the staff (although we didnt go there at night as we were staying on the opposite side of Icmeler).
We went to the market and as has been said before, there wasnt much new and because it was so hot, we couldnt stand the hassle when we stopped and looked at things so decided to buy our goods from the bazaar and on the canal and to be honest, if you shop around the prices are so/so - Nick found a great place for t-shirts, De-javu, opposite waterfall restaurant, they see to be very good quality.
We ate in our usual haunts, travellers, venice, titanic, masala and chef to name the favourites and it was all good as expected but I went on a mission this year to check out the vegetarian options (I'm off meat at the moment since watching the F-Word) and the Menemen in the titanic is to die for and by far the best meal I had ..... its primarily eggs, veggies and cheese .... mmm delicious.
For drinks we got around a bit but I was really impressed with the old kitchen, its changed quite a bit and all the staff were lovelly and took time to chat. Met Tracey and Debbie from
ICR in there (hi Tracey & Debbie) and it was lovelly to have a chat with them and put faces to names. We also spent some time in the Sports bar (wouldnt you know it, especially when the grand prix was on), they've also had a bit of a refurb but its a nice cool bar being on the corner so it was a welcome relief to the heat.
We got a decent exchange rate of 2.6 in a couple of the bars we visited and the average price of a bottle was between 3 and 3.5 but we couldnt complain, meals around 12 - 14 for pasta dishes and 18 - 20 for chicken and meat dishes. Despite the rate being down on what we got last year, we still came back with a bit of money which has been furried away for our next visit on 29th September.
Message for Colette - you should see Mehmets nephew, 15 years old and making his appearance at the Venice ..... ah bless, if I could have got him in my case I would have done.
Another happy holiday with some fabulous memories, roll on September and please dont make tomorrow morning come too quickly - I'm not ready to go back to work just yet.
Bye for now .....