Scouse Fitz back in town.

[ScouseFitz]

Day 9.

And with every breath, we get closer to the moment we all dread, when we have to board the plane home to Blighty. The fact is, I don't want to. We're having far too much fun.

So after breakfast, and a quick swim, I've got lots of plans for today. JT's in Maramris with a couple of friends. Steven Gerrards testimonial's on the tele, there's some shopping to do, etc etc. the list is endless. I've got it all meticulously planned and timed and it's gonna be a great day.

At least.....that's what I thought....here's my account of what actually happened....

Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes, Efes

Kebab.

Sleep.

[Sami]

LOL
Yes, some things just don't go to plan!!!

[janeypoos]

Those days are always the best!

Fantastic blogging, I've been laughing along all the way!

Thanks for taking the time and enjoy the rest of your holiday, I look forward to reading about it.

[shelly]

Nothing like a efes with a kebab Be careful though those kebabs are not that good for ya

[ScouseFitz]

Day 10. Oh no.....double figures!!! Aaaaaarrrgh!!!

Well, what better way to quash the hangover of doom than a good old boat trip courtesy of ICR. Oh, just remembered, I'm supposed to be in charge of the bus! To be honest, after last night's exploits, it's a hard enough job to take charge of myself! The word 'rough' would be an understatement. The driver's name is Duran, but I'm seeing two of everything this morning, so I've got Duran Duran driving the bus!!
So, once Simon Le Bon and his mates pick us up, it's off round to Sun Village to pick up Dave(dksbbs) from the forum and his group of 11. Turns out we were all in Moonlight together a couple of years back, so we pretty much all know each other already. Next it's a stop at Vince's to collect another couple and we head to Marmaris to board Cap'n JT's boat. It's an all inclusive job, so the words hair and dog figure highly in today's plan. It's a nice big boat, plenty of room, but only 19 of us on, so it's gonna be a nice relaxing day. We all agree to head to Turunc after lunch. After a couple of lovely swim stops, the gentlemen are eyeing up the bar and wondering when it's a decent time for the first beer. Or is it just me?? Probably. So, by consensus, it looks like 11.22am is the decent time. It's yet another gorgeous day, and the views are as beautiful as they always are. More swim stops. JT jumps in and uses the sea as his office, swimming round giving it the hard sell for next years holiday. He's preaching to the converted, here. We pull up in a quiet little cove for lunch. There's tonnes of it,enough to feed the Turkish navy, and seeing as the only thing that went down my neck yesterday that wasn't liquid was a kebab, I'm starving. I put the Turkish navy to shame and have seconds. And thirds. Delicious.

We pull into Turunc for an hour or so, and me, MrsSF and our girls join JT and a couple of his friends from Scouseland in a bar for a beer in front of an industrial strength. It's well appreciated. And so is the fan! We stroll back to the boat and head off for some peace and quiet and a couple of great swim stops. I nearly sank on a few occasions, cos I was so full of food. Thankfully the gas from the beer keeps me afloat. At one point, JT suggests we may not be drinking enough to get our money's worth! Red rag to a bull, that! He positions himself in his favourite place on the boat, behind the bar, and pours MrsSF and our eldest a Vodka and Tonic, which in typical JT fashion consists of three parts vodka, and one part tonic!!! Wisely, I just stay on the beer!! Well, I say wisely.......
Finally, we pull into icmeler, and the girls and the good lady wait for the bus, while I stroll to ICR to book for the Stella Show the next night. After enjoying the AC in the office for spell, I head off back to the apartments. Sort of. I got as far as the Three Bells, and as you may have noticed, I'm quite partial to their ice cold erm, refreshments! So, after a couple of Efes, and a good laugh with Nial, I head home. There isn't a part of my body that isn't tired from the days swimming, so after a quick 'disco nap' we're off for a meal.

We head down to Waterfall, another place we've not tried. It's packed, but they find us a table quickly, and we sit down. I ordered the pepper steak. Chefs must hate me, cos I'm fussy when it comes to steak, but it was absolutely beautiful. Thick, and cooked rare, just as I like it. Marvellous. And the pepper sauce was nothing if not peppery!!! Really good. I'm stuffed, and exhausted from my exploits, so I manage a small Efes (that's a first!), and we head home. Rather than heading for the bar, we head up to the room and I hit the pillow, and I'm out like a particularly knackered and slightly drunk light.

Another lovely day. Nighty night.

[Sami]

Scouse, you are one funny man. Absolutely fabtastic days blogging. That boat trip sounds brilliant and I wish I'd chosen that one. Or was it a special one?
My bbq bays trip was very good and the beer still flowed well. Enjoy the rest of your holiday and we're awaiting the continued blog until you go home........

[sunlover loch lomond]

You sound like some guy and I am sure anyone in your company will have a great time. Really appreciate your blogs and the time out you take to write them. Keep them coming - they are so enjoyable and full of quips.

[ScouseFitz]

Number 11. Nearly there. Sadly.

I just want to start today's blog by thanking you all for your kind comments. I'm glad you enjoy reading the blog. It's quite hard trying to find things to blog about to be honest, but with the help of Efes Ltd, I usually find something to write/moan about!! So thanks folks. Also wanna take the opportunity to say hi to Dill, who's on here, but I didn't realise was on the boat trip the other day, so hi dill.

So,day 11. A day largely spent around the pool, and the erm, surrounding area! I went out for a stroll round the old village, trying to decide which house I'm going to live in when I refuse to get on the plane home in a few days (I wish!!) and head back to Rhodes for lunch. We've been joined around the pool by the one and only Mr John Toohey and a couple of his friends from Liverpool. They're spending a few days over the road at the highly not recommended Daystar, but using our pool. JT takes up position in the kids pool to cool off. Have you ever heard the joke about the travel agent who forgot to book his ferry to Rhodes to go home in a couple of days?? Hilarious! Frantic calls are made between the office and our apartments, and eventually a solution is found. At one point, someone suggests he hires a pedalo to get there!!! So we retire to the bar for a beer or two before getting changed to go to The Stella Show. We've never been, and are really looking forward to it, tho I must admit, a little anxious over quite what the 12yr old will make of it. We head off to Hanedan for a lovely meal on our way, and the youngun isn't feeling too good, so halfway through the meal, I'm dispatched on emergency Calpol duty. I leg it to the pharmacy and back only to find that she's already feeling better! So, one recovered daughter and one sweaty dad later, it's off to Harmony to catch the show. JT, Michelle and Elaine from ICR, us, JT's friends, dill and her husband Paul get a great table next to the bar, and thankfully NOT near the front. Dave (dksbbs) and his party are also there, so it's got all the makings of a good night.

Let the show begin! And what a great show! Stella asks everyone where they're from. Wow. No shortage of Scousers in tonight. There's a couple of funny Scouser gags, but we're not Stell's only victims. Everyone is. That's the point, I guess. There's one lad from Liverpool down the front who becomes Stella's main victim for the night. He loves it, and gets involved at every opportunity. It's a great show. We all queue to have our pics taken with Stella during the interval. So, the beers flow, and the laughs continue in the second half. It was a great night, but I was shocked to discover at the end of the show, that "Stella" is actually a fella!!!! Well, you could've knocked me down with a feather!!

At the very end, Michael explains that business is slow this year. He'd rather play to four full houses a week, than 6 half busy houses. It makes sense. The show needs a good atmosphere if its going to work. So this year, there's two shows, Stella 1 and Stella 2, playing 4 nights a week. Michael works so hard and puts so much into the show. This is his 10th season, he absolutely deserves the standing ovation he gets, and if you haven't been before, you should, it's a great night out, and he needs your/our support. And £7 incl a free drink is a bargain. A brilliant night.

We head home, still laughing, in a cab. Me and JT enjoy a couple of nightcaps and it's sleep time.

Sound.

[ScouseFitz]

12.

And now, the end is near, and so I face the final curtain.

So, it's up early for some more hard graft around the pool. Phew. Exhausting work this. We have a nice spot of lunch at the apartments, and after a brief trip to the barbers for a shave, which DIDN'T, REPEAT, DIDN'T include a trip to the Three Bells this time, I've promised the youngun a Segway. Another fantastic opportunity to embarrass myself and the eldest. We head off to book our hour of motorised laughs for later on in the afternoon, when it's cooled a little, she pops up to the room for a quick kip under the AC, and I pull up a bar stool, armed with a beer and the iPad to catch up on the blog to wait for her. An hr or so later, we head round to collect the segways and head off back to the apartments to show them off and so she can have a quick practice. This time, they've given me one with a seat on, which I decide not use after Mrs SF points out, rather unhelpfully, that I look like Madge from Benidorm!!!

So we're off, we go hurtling down by the old canal, cut through the hotels at the end of the beach and onto the beach path. We fly along the path beeping people out of the way like roadrunner! There's Russians flying left right and centre to avoid us. Great laugh. We make it to Cafe Del Mar, and park up. We're eating into valuable Easy Rider time though, so we only stop for one, take some more lovely pics, and head off in the direction of Marmaris. Before we know it, it's time to turn around and start heading back towards the apartments. So it's back along the gap each path as far as the far end of the beach and we turn right back towards the dry canal.

Then, the inevitable happens. It could only happen to me! The battery dies on me. Kaput! Finito! Daughter finds this hilarious, so just keeps on buzzing along. I can tell you, these things are heavier than they look when you find yourself pushing on in these temperatures!!!! I soon discover that pushing them for 20 metres or so charges them enough to ride for 10 metres, so I use this method to get it back to the hire place. He sees me pushing it back, and he's already on the phone to complain to someone. Obviously, this has happened before. We limp there, and he gives me half my money back. At HIS insistence. I didn't even ask. But I'm grateful, so I thank him, and we head back, her refreshed, me exhausted, to the apartments.

JTs sat in the bar, and he's heading home tomorrow on his pedalo, so he asks Tango if we can have a bit of a party tonight. Anyone for Karaoke? He heads round to Sun Village to rally some of the ICR troops, and I go and do the same at CSV. This should be a laugh. We've got about 30/40 people together. Tango's over the moon with this news. I'm not surprised. It's been a little quiet until now, so his till needs the exercise.

After a quick beer or two we all head up to get changed and nip out to Sidik's for another lovely meal. They're great people, the atmosphere is always great, and it's an absolute pleasure to be here again. Sami, Eddie says "hello chicken". Then it's back to base. When we arrive, the place is packed. Happy as ever to make a fool of myself, I grab the mic, give them a bit of Elvis, a touch of Sinatra, and a spot of Patsy Cline. We had a fantastic time, everyone happy, singing along, dancing, lighters in the air, and Tango's till is worn out!!! At the end, Tango scurries downstairs to switch the pool lights on. It's midnight. He tells everyone they can get in if they want. My eldest informs me that there is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY I'm getting in. Hmm. A challenge, methinks.

Less than 60 seconds later I fine myself fully clothed and in the pool. She's furious. I'm laughing like the fool I probably am. The pool fills up quickly with fully dressed Dads. A great end to another great day and a another fantastic night. Nightcap time, then off to bed for us. Brilliant.

[Lindam]

Well you certainly seem to be enjoying yourself.It will be our first time to Icmeler in September so started reading your blog I feel I know the place a bit better now ,knowing where to eat ,drink ,find wifi etc I'm really looking forward to it .Do you know anyone who does electric bikes not disability but bikes with a battery so you don't have to pedal? I would like to hire a couple when we get there to look around but hubby not good on legs. Carry on the good blogs

[shelly]

AWWWW your not the only one who does not want you too leave , Your blogging is better than Corrie Glad you had a great time , And the party night sounds great fun, i would of been in the pool too .
Thanks Scouse for your time and your family too . Hope John got home eventually
Save journey home

[sharon1960]

scouse fitz you are one funny funny man, i have so enjoyed reading your blogs, 6 weeks till we get there and you have made that time feel much shorter, i think we should all club together to keep you there all season just for the updates, im sure i speak for us all in saying thanks

[Keith]

fantastic blog scouse fitz, I tried last year and gave up after day 3 I think. Sounds like you have all had a great time, that's why we all love coming back, and I am like you hate going back home. Still we will be there from 19th and I might try and have ago with the blog again. Not in the same league as you though!!

[Sami]

Scouse, as always 2 fantastic days blogs. Makes me wanna get out there to meet up with you all. Thanks for my greeting from Eddie. I just love Sidik's, I could eat there every night if there weren't so many to chose from. The Stella show is brilliant isn't it, glad you liked it as much as I did. Found myself belly laughing at Michael's antics on stage and I agree with his comments about his shows and the frequency of them.
You got any more journeys planned for the year Scouse? As I've said, I'll be heading out October so will do another blog then and I'm taking a Icmeler virgin with me so should be good. Safe flight home.

[bobbysgirl]

Once again thoroughly enjoyed the latest blogs - you have such humour and a way with words!! I feel I am almost there with yoiu and your family enjoying the expriences. Hope all goes well for the rest of your hols

[stevew]

Well Scouse,
What can I say about your blogs thats different to what everyone else has said..................Nothing,,,,,, all I can do is repeat it.. . Absolutley Great Blogs......and will certainly look you up when I'm around Liverpool one.
Steve

[ScouseFitz]

13.

Unlucky for some. You're telling me. The fact we're goin home tomorrow isn't just unlucky. It's downright wrong!!

We decided to spend the day wringing as much out of what sunshine we have left here, by spending most of the day round the pool. There was a little last minute shopping to be done, gifts to buy, and later, our final evening meal in Icmeler before being dragged kicking and screaming onto an Easyjet plane tomorrow night. And I mean kicking and screaming. There'll be tears. And they'll be mine!

After lunch, I take a quick stroll around the village, and down along the beach. I stop in what I think was called Golmar, and had the worst chips I've ever tasted in nearly half a century of chip eating. They were hollow!!! Hollow chips!! I've no idea what kind of black magic has been performed on these potato-less snacks, but whoever did it needs hunting down and shooting. Hollow chips, indeed! And only 6 lira for a plate the size of my Mum's sewing thimble! For 2, yes, 2 pound!! Now, I'm not stingy in any way, shape or form, but if I'm to pay £2 for six or seven chips, the least I expect is for them to contain some bloody potato! It's not much to ask!

I hang around the beach for a spell, toying with the idea of hiring a small speedboat, and eventually start my wander back to the apartments. I picked up a couple of peaches on my way back, and ate them on the way. Lovely juicy peaches here. Not like the kind we find in British supermarkets, which look for all the world like peaches, but are the same texture as a pebble. Anyway, the whole process of downing these juicy wonders has meant that I've now got sticky hands. This means I'm going to have to stop somewhere to wash them. Now, I wonder where, I hear you ask! Well, you know me too well. So lets just not go there, eh? Anyway, two clean hands, and one cold pint later, Im on my way back. I practically fall into the pool, this time appropriately dressed, and spend the rest of the afternoon in the bar area talking with a great couple we've met over here, Sheila and Mike. Lovely people, and a right good laugh was had in there company this year. Some of you will know Sheila as biddy on the forum. I mention the speedboat to Mrs SF, and she talks me out of it. This year. Rest assured Ill be like James Bond next year though! That things got my name on it. £60 per hour tho, so not exactly cheap, but Im sure Ill look more like Daniel Craig than Daniel Craig. I'll be him. But without the physique. Or the talent. Or the money. Or the looks.

Off upstairs to get changed for dinner. It's our last evening meal, as I said, so I'm feeling a little like a prisoner on death row. So I get to choose... Bi Bim Bap!! Hoorah!! Once again it's fantastic. The Three Bells is absolutely heaving with people, and they struggle to find us a table for a few minutes. I don't mind. In fact, I'm really happy for them that they're this busy. We had a lovely meal, and I tell the boys I'll call in to see them before our pick up. Well, it'd be rude not to, wouldn't it??

Back to the apartments, and there's still a few people up, so I teach Tango how to make a Whisky Sour, and enjoy a couple before calling it a day, and heading off for a sleep.

The clock ticks...tick-tock-tick-tock. Our last day tomorrow.

Oh. Quick correction. My eldest has informed me that I've made a mistake in the other days write up. Dill, is actually a man. Called Paul. And it was him and his wife who were on the boat trip, and joined us for the Stella Show. I got the wrong end of the stick there, then, didn't I? Apologies folks..

Nearly there, JT, nearly there...

[JT]

Yes Bridewell you are nearly there but you were nearly there last year and finished it this year

If it is not done in the next few days then I will be down to see you and have a free bar tab

I did arrive home safely but after a little travelling and threatening to flatten a rip off taxi driver when getting out at Rhodes airport and funnily enough as Franny and Paula turned up in a different cab I watched the same antics and he too was stung for 8 euro more.

I do see a few things left out of the blog (probably for the best) but as long as it is completed it will be ok

[ivano]

Really going to miss reading your blogs . Have enjoyed reading your holiday adventures. Big thank you for taking the time to write them.
;

[redrhino12]

Excellent blog,it made very interesting and funny reading.It takes an effort to write a blog when on holiday,well done.

Gene