Holiday

Welcome to 2016

Monday 18th January 2016Tuesday 19th January 2016Baggie

I began this first post of the New Year while the house was still in its clinquant finery, unfortunately for you dear readers life has got in the way and I now post it a couple of weeks into January. However as usual this post is where I sit like the personification of Janus with one eye on the future and one on the year just gone.

I do not think that I can go any further without mentioning the defining family event of the year. It is always difficult when someone we love passes away; when that person is a much loved husband, father, grandfather, uncle, friend then even more so. John passed away on Monday 19th October from pleomorphic cell sarcoma, a form of bone cancer. He had been diagnosed in April after months of investigations into the pain in his shoulder and a loss of control of his arm, and was told it was terminal in September. So, although not unexpected the relative swiftness of his passing was a shock to us all; a shock that we are all still coming to terms with and no doubt will do for many years to come.

It goes without saying that Granddad’s death has left an enormous hole in our lives and it has also made us think of our own mortality. It was a testament to the man to see so many people at his funeral; he had touched so many people’s lives and all wanted to pay respect to him. He was an extremely practical man and although it is right and fitting that we are grieving he would not want us moping around.

This was the first time that the children had to deal with grief. Indeed it was the first time that Lucinda had to really face bereavement, especially of someone so close. Thus, it was me that told the girls (Ezra is too young) about their Granddad. I explained that Granddad had died and asked them if they understood and whether they wanted to ask any questions and I answered them as truthfully as I could. I assured them that it was fine to cry and to be upset and we sat in a huddle and hugged each other while crying. I let them see me cry to illustrate that I, too, was upset that Granddad had died and thus there was no shame in crying.

The questions that the girls asked, illustrates the difference between them. The scientific questions from Éowyn, (‘How do you catch cancer?’, ‘What happens to your body?’ etc.) to the practical from Amélie (‘Who is going to cook me pancakes? ‘Who is going to fix my toys when I break them?’). I answered them as honestly as I could, without going into any dark details, then came the question ‘Is Granddad in heaven?’ ‘Can we go and visit him?’

Now, I may not believe in Heaven, but then again neither do I believe in Father Christmas. Like Father Christmas I am not going to crush the girls’ belief with my adult logic (flawed or otherwise), it is more important for them to believe in the magic. In the same way that the belief in the magic of Christmas is embodied in the personification of Father Christmas then Heaven is a belief in the enduring love of those we have lost.

Please feel free to click here to read my tribute to Granddad, and here if you want to read my ramblings on life and death. I have also set up a tribute page to John that you can reach by clicking here, you will see that we have raised over £500 for the Sam Beare hospice that looked after John so well.

It is difficult to follow the memory of Granddad’s passing but 2015 has many good memories too and it has been very important year in the life of our second born. September saw Amélie start full time education. This is an important step in everybody’s life and so it was for Amélie. Indeed she has now completed a full term at school and is still enjoying herself. She gets on well with her teacher, Miss Snow, and as seemingly made some friends. This was something, that Amélie had put great importance on when she first went to school, and became upset when the other children didn’t seem interested in becoming her friend. We spoke to miss Snow about this and she said that it was no slight on Amélie moreover it was the fact that Amélie was emotionally more mature that the average reception pupil and so although Amélie was putting great store on building a special relationship, none of the other children were ready for such a commitment. Notwithstanding the lack of a best friend Amélie is progressing very well and hopefully she can continue this through 2016.

Éowyn continued her journey through the education system moving from Year 1 to Year 2. She has settled in well to changing school at such a delicate age and has made a number of very good friends, however she has still not forgot her best friend Aaliyah from her previous school. She has enjoy her extra-curricula activities especially drama. Indeed Sense Theatre the third party company that taught the after school drama club filmed their summer performance and then arranged a premiere showing where the actors were treated as V.I.P.s. It was a difficult watch (imagine a school play 2 hours long) but Éowyn thoroughly enjoyed it and we purchased a DVD recording for prosperity, if ever you are suffering from insomnia.

Meanwhile our third born has become a cheeky young man. He has two older sisters and therefore he has to stick up for himself and that he does rather well; he will not be taken for a fool. His speech is coming along very well and he will have to look forward to joining his sisters in going to school (or pre-school in his case) in the coming year. One of Ezra’s biggest steps this last year was his first taste of foreign travel. Indeed a big step for all of our children. The Bagnall family holiday (one of two – the other was no less exotic: The Lake District) in 2015 was to visit Sarigerme in Turkey. This was Ezra’s first flight (which he loved) and the first time that the Baguettes had visited another continent, for although Turkey straddles both Europe and Asia and we were most certainly in Asia. We feel fortunate that we decided to go to Turkey last year, as although we all loved Turkey and felt safe in the region, with the current sociopolitical situation in Turkey I am not sure that I would want to be taking my family there this summer.

The Baguettes are not the only members of the Bagnall family that have had seen big changes. 2015 saw Lucinda give up her career at the airport, retrain and become a full time Ofsted registered child minder. It can not be understated how much of a big decision this was and how well Lucinda has adjusted to the change. You may recall that Lucinda used to work for Air Canada, as ground staff at Heathrow Airport. However, as is the want in our modern world Air Canada found it too expensive to employ staff at Heathrow but with flights still terminating and originating from such a busy hub they turned to a handling agency to provide this service. Lucinda took redundancy and took a job with the handling agency. She worked for ASIG for a year but realised that the job she has done for the previous sixteen years no longer existed and the job was interfering with being there for her children. Hence the retraining and the child minding. Child minding is not the easiest of jobs as you are working with children constantly without any adult interaction, but she has got good feedback from the parents of the children thatch looks after which is some comfort that she is doing things right.

This is the last time I will mention it but last year (my twentieth at IMG) was a very good year for winning things. There has been the Emmy, NBC won the Emmy for Outstanding Technical Team Studio at the 36th Sports Emmy award and were gracious not only to recognise the fact that my department assist them in their technological endeavours but to include me and a number of other IMG staff members on the official list of winners. I was very touched by this kind gesture and NBC had no obligation to include us in their win nevertheless it means that I am an Emmy winner and entitled to say so in perpetuity (although I promise not to mention it on this website again!); a signed Rugby World Cup ball (thanks England for being the first host team to be eliminated at the group stage heavily deflating any value that it has) but the first, and arguably the best, was the trip to Vienna.

For those of you that can’t quite remember the details: IMG provided facilities to the BBC to produce the 60^th Eurovision Song Contest for transmission on BBC 1. The 2015 contest was hosted in Vienna due to the previous year’s win by the Bearded Lady: Conchita Wurst. Apparently this hasn’t happened before but it is in the spirit of the competition the Austrian Ambassador hosted a send-off party for the UK entry at the Austrian Embassy. Invitations were strictly ‘invite only’ and along with the BBC personnel, four of us from IMG were invited to attend. As we entered the Embassy we were given a raffle ticket. Never say no to a free raffle ticket: the top prize being two return flights to Vienna on Austrian Airways and two nights in Das Triest Hotel (and a 1 metre inflatable Austrian Airways jet). This is what I won.

We decided that we would like to visit Vienna as the winter drew in and the Christmas markets begun, unfortunately weekends in December were filled booked and so we headed to Central Europe mid November. It came at a good time, a month after Granddad’s passing and allowed us to relax as a couple without trying to make the weekend something more because it has cost us money. Nevertheless we did managed to take a lot in int he 48 hours or so that we were there including the early Christmas markets. We thoroughly enjoyed Vienna and would recommend a visit there, and indeed would love to go back.

2015 also saw the Bagnall family grow by two more members. Chez Bagnall welcomed its first pets in the shape of two guinea pigs: Toffee and Frazzle. As this only happened at the end of December we will see how 2016 progresses how the novelty of pet ownership continues with the Baguettes. Early indicators are favourable but let us revisit this in June.

2015 also saw an additional to the structure of the house itself in the shape of a fireplace and a multi-fuel stove. The house is big and old and lacks the insulation of modern homes and therefore can sometimes feel quite cold. Rather than turn the central heating on to heat the entire house when during the day we are all spending time in the lounge the stove should come into its own. That is the theory anyway and if we are being completely honest the look and feel of a real fire is much more that just the heat it gives off, plus you get to burnt things!

So what will 2016 bring our family. Hopefully it will be a little more boring. The last few years have been manic with huge emotional earthquakes. I think the family could do with just a year that just plods along nothing too stressful or life changing. That is off course if we survive yet another end of the world prophecy (if you want to read my thoughts on the 2012 prophecy read this). Apparently we survived the authors own 2015 prophecy and so it is now being pushed to 2016. I think I am safe to say that you will still be able to read this post in 2017 (if you choose to do so).

So as we leap into 2016 with precious few longterm plans (we have a couple of holidays booked) we hold our heads up high and face the future as a family and I leave you with this thought:

“May Light always surround you;
Hope kindle and rebound you.
May your Hurts turn to Healing;
Your Heart embrace Feeling.
May Wounds become Wisdom;
Every Kindness a Prism.
May Laughter infect you;
Your Passion resurrect you.
May Goodness inspire
your Deepest Desires.
Through all that you Reach For,
May your arms Never Tire.”
― D. Simone

Peace and Love

Baggie

And another year over

That’s what I think of posing with my sisters

Looking to the future

A week in The Lake District

Sunday 2nd August 2015Sunday 2nd August 2015Baggie

The start of the summer holiday that marks the boundary between the end of one academic year and the start of the next saw the Bagnall family decide to take a week break before the football season starts and daddy gets busy at work. We decided to go somewhere new to the family and so headed north rather than south, which is our usual wont for our UK based holidays. A caravan park in Flookburgh, Cumbria was the destination. Situated on the Cartmel peninsular on the Northern shore of Morecambe bay Lakeland Caravan Park lies just outside of the largest National Park in England and Wales: The Lake District and thus made it an ideal base to explore the area.

It is quite a journey from Staines Upon Thames to South Cumbria, and the direct route via the M6 motorway takes us passed Nanny Fran’s. Fortuitously the girls’ schools both broke up early on the Friday and our caravan wasn’t booked until Saturday afternoon therefore it seemed like a non-brainer to get ahead of the traffic and spend the night in West Bromwich. The Baguettes could therefore spend some time with Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz and we could cut the journey into a more manageable chunk.

After taking advantage of Nanny Fran’s hospitality we headed north on the M6. A couple of stops for convenience breaks and a bite to eat and we arrived in good time to pick up the keys to the caravan. The caravan was not quite as luxurious as our previous caravan hires, however it did have 3 bedrooms so that Ezra could have a bedroom of his own. The trouble with the third bedroom was the space that it inevitably takes from the footprint of the living space. However this was no excuse for the size of the television that they had decided to supply in the lounge area, I have seen laptop screens that are bigger!

The caravan site was pleasant with a 350 metre long lake however there was no easy path to the sea. This is in no small part to the £4 million pounds that has been spend on sea defences to protect the caravan park from flooding. On balance I would rather have my path to the sea blocked than wake up floating across the caravan park.

We woke up on the first day, Sunday, and decided to take it easy. We stopped off at a local car boot sale before popping out to the ‘local’ supermarket for supplies. When I say local it was in Barrow-in-Furness and was a 30 minute car drive away! At least we decided to take the scenic route along the coast road to Barrow and enjoy the trip out. We also took a bit of time to explore the area and popped in to Haverthwaite train station to inquire about train times for a trip to Lakeside (not the big shopping complex in Essex) and a boat journey across Windermere. We were told that the first train in the morning was looking quite empty but you could only books tickets on the day of travel so best to come back 30 minutes before departure tomorrow morning.

We, therefore, had a plan for our first day trip. We were among the first to arrive at Haverthwaite station. We booked a return ticket on the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway and combined it with a return ticket to Bowness onboard a Windermere Steamer. Since we were a little early we could have a look around (and take photos of) some of the stock that they have. Interestingly there were two engines out on the track, one was called Princess and the other Victor and they were both made by W.G. Bagnall, so it seemed apt to visit and enjoy the ride. Éowyn had brought her camera along and enjoyed taking photos of the stock, including steam rollers (and diesel rollers), there are a number of her photos on our Flickr site and see what you think of her first efforts.

Ezra was quite excited about going on a choo-choo train and couldn’t wait to climb onboard, however was a little nervous sitting in the carriage before the journey began. Lucinda and I sat with Ezra while the girls sat at another table so that they could feel a little independence and Éowyn could take some photos through the window. However Amélie came running to us as the train went through a tunnel. The darkness and the fact that the steam swirled around the carriage windows freaked her out a little and she needed the comfort of her parents to tell her that everything was going to be fine.

The train pulled into Lakeside and we jumped off the train and onto the steamer Swan for our trip across Windermere. Windermere is the largest natural lake in England formed after the glacial retreat at the end of the last ice age. Technically it is not a lake but a mere. Indeed there is only one lake in the Lake District: Bassenthwaite Lake, now don’t say I never teach you anything.

We got off the Swan at Bowness-on-Windermere and straight into a heavy downpour. The Lake District isn’t a green and pleasant land without help from the plentiful rain that falls in this corner of the land. Except for the first couple of days in July (when the warmest July day was recorded) the weather in the UK hasn’t been very good, with some parts of the country receiving 2.5 times of the average rainfall and temperatures below normal throughout the land, indeed by the end of the month the record had been broken for the coldest July night!

Therefore it wasn’t a surprise that it was raining, however in fairness it was the only time that we got caught in the rain. Indeed some of the days were quite pleasant and although sun block wasn’t required neither were heavy coats. The weather at Bowness-on-Windermere however curtailed our exploration of the town and we decided to return after a couple of hours.

So after a trip that was more interesting for Mommy and Daddy than the children we decided on a different venue for our next trip. We headed west along the A590 toward Dalton-in-Furness and the South Lakes Safari Zoo. Not sure what to expect of a zoo away from major population centres, we were pleasantly surprised. For a little extra money you were given a bad of feed and allowed to join in with all the feeding times. We used the feed for the ducks and geese, the wallabies and the Emus (one of which gave Éowyn a little nip when she wasn’t quick enough with the food) and then were allowed to feed lemurs and giraffes at the organised feeding times but gave feeding the penguins a miss.

The zoo holds many of the Bagnalls’ favourite animals. Éowyn loves jaguars and they had two. Amélie likes Snow Leopards and they do have a breeding pair, however the female hasn’t ventured out with her progeny leaving the male to amuse the visitors. Unfortunately there were no Ooo-wees for little Ezra. What is a 000-wee I hear you ask, it is an elephant of course. It is the sound an elephant makes when you are 2 years old especially while you pretend to use your right arm as an elephant truck while you are making the sound. However they did have tortoises, which probably edge the ooo-wees ever so slightly.

We thoroughly enjoyed our day at the South Lake Safari Zoo, it is a magnificent zoo and would recommend it to anyone in the area. It is not that often that you can get so close to so many animals as you do there.

The next day we decided to return to Bowness-on-Windermere, this time by road, to further explore the area and primarily to visit a tribute to the Lake District’s most famous daughter. The World of Beatrix Potter Attraction is, as the name suggests, an attraction based around the books of Beatrix Potter. Sadly, and perhaps somewhat ashamedly, we have none read the works of Beatrix Potter, I think I read some them as a child but we haven’t read any to the children. Nevertheless there is still something about her work that naturally appeals to all children and our three were no exception.

Since we were the east side of Windermere we decided to go for a drive and headed as far as Grasmere, marking the furthest North the Baguettes have ever travelled, not that they were too impressed with that. To finish the day off we decided to go for cream tea at one of the country’s finest tea-houses: Gilliam’s tearoom in Ulverstone. Well, we were on holiday!

The following day we ventured further into the national park and came across Muncaster Castle. It was one of the attractions that we had considered but we weren’t specifically heading there. However, when we saw the castle from the road we decided that was going to be the destination for the day. There was so much to do at the castle that we didn’t have to time to do all of it. Muncastle Castle isn’t just a castle, it has a hawk and owl centre, with daily bird of prey shows, has a meadow vole maze and a children’s playground.

We enjoyed the bird of prey display. Éowyn and Amélie sat at the front to get a better view while Lucinda and I sat with Ezra somewhere near the back. Unfortunately Ezra was a little tired and so he wanted the display to be over quite quickly and quite loudly kept repeating “Good night owls, good-bye!” Éowyn and Amélie enjoyed the show though, with Éowyn taking photos throughout. Indeed it wasn’t until the hooded vultures were released and one decided to sit next to her that she decided that she wanted to sit with mommy and daddy.

In addition to the bird of prey display there was also the feeding of the herons. With Scarfell as the backdrop wild herons head for a snack by the castle’s cannons at 4pm each day and as Éowyn’s new class when she returns to school in September will be Herons we decided to stick around and watch them fly in.

The meadow vole maze was an attraction were you had to pretend that you were a meadow vole avoiding all their many predators. Every dead end ran into another predator in the shape of a floor to ceiling face of the predator with glowing eyes. This freaked out poor little Ezra who squeezed me tight saying, ‘Daddy, I’m scared!‘ The poor little mite.

With so much to explore in the grounds (and the baguettes got their money’s worth just on the playground!) we never got a chance to explore the castle itself. Lucinda and Éowyn had a quick look around, but we will have to go back to explore it properly. it is claimed to be one of the most haunted buildings in the UK and to take advantage of this claim they often run all night vigils, perhaps the Baguettes are a little young for that!

This update is a little belated due to a medical affliction that stuck me down at the end of the holiday. On the drive back from Muncaster Castle my eyes started to feel a little itchy and I put it down to the air conditioning in the car and thought not a lot about it. When we got back to the caravan I thought that perhaps I was succumbing to the conjunctivitis that was going through the family and that would be it. Friday morning however, I woke up and physically couldn’t open my eyes, they were glued together with discharge. I washed it out but still couldn’t open my eyes wide, they felt extremely painful and were constantly watering. Lucinda took the kids to their usual swimming lesson that they had had all week and on return saw how painful they were looking. As she said there was no white left of my eyes they were just red. I was now having problems opening my eyes and the refraction caused by the water in my eyes was causing me problems with light. So Lucinda drove off to the nearest pharmacy to see if she could get some drops for me.

The pharmacist wouldn’t sell Lucinda drops without seeing me, which is fair enough however this being the country they were going to close at 12:30 on Friday for a couple of hours for lunch. So Lucinda drove back to the caravan picked me up and we headed back to the pharmacy with only seconds to spare. The pharmacist took one look at me and her eyes started to water with sympathy. She quickly diagnosed acute bacterial conjunctivitis, indeed more accurately acute bacterial keratoconjunctivitis (conjunctivitis with keratitis – inflammation of the cornea) and said that it was probably the worst case she had seen and gave me some antibiotic eye-drops to be taken every 2 hours while awake and some cream to use at night. Not a pleasant experience and one that prevented me from not only driving back the next day (poor Lucinda had to drive the whole way back) but even returning to work on the following Monday. If you want to see a photo click here. Thankfully the drops and cream did their job and all is back to normal.

Apart from the above we thoroughly enjoyed our trip to the Lake District and will be returning. If you want to see photographic evidence of our holiday there are just shy of five hundred photos here.

Until the next time

Peace and love
Baggie

C&A pose

I can see the sea

I see no ships!

Rock climbing in the Lake District

And jump!

Whee!

Wave for the camera

The Baguettes

Picnic along the road

The Menu

The decisions

The aftermath

Now you see it…

And it’s gone!

Celebration dance

Mr Tod

Who’s at our window?

Tortoise!

Amélie

Like father, like daughter

Checking my balance

Ready for the journey to begin

And we are off

Where is the station going?

Heron in flight

How does this work?

The sea at Flookburgh

Ezra’s first trip to Foreign Lands

Saturday 13th June 2015Sunday 14th June 2015Baggie

It is that time of year: Half term coinciding with the end of the football season (and the Eurovision Song Contest) and thus the perfect opportunity for a Bagnall family holiday. Obviously the decision of where we were going was made some months ago. We wanted somewhere warm, that ruled out the UK! We wanted all-inclusive and as we were only going away for a week we wanted somewhere relatively close – but affordable. Not too much to ask you would think. You would be mistaken!

Yes, that would be true for a family of four not vacating at half term. Firstly, the profiteering (and it is profiteering from families) that is allowed to happen is outrageous, the week before and the week after half term can be a third of the price (not a third off the price, a third OF the price) and it priced us out of many of the European countries. Secondly, holiday lets are geared around families of four or less. Two parents, two children is the norm and woe betide the families that fall outside of this socially acceptable quota, thou shalt be financially penalised and forced to buy two rooms for your outsized brood.

Hence we effectively had a choice of one resort, the First Choice Holiday Village in Sarigerme, Turkey. More than we wanted to pay it was nevertheless by far the cheapest available, partly because it also had a number of rooms that slept 5, a double bed and three singles, perfect! No need to book two rooms! Turkey had never been on our radar as a destination, it is a country with a great history (which the Baguettes are too young to appreciate) however it has made the news in 2015 for negative reasons as a gateway to its neighbour to the East, Syria. However, Turkey is a big country (the 37th apparently – larger than either France or Ukraine) and Syria is a long way from Sarigerme.

The resort looked good in the glossy brochures but nevertheless it was with an air of trepidation that we begun or journey at 04:00 on a Monday morning. Although 04:00 is a ridiculous time to start a holiday I was still alert enough to avert a potential diplomatic incident. At last year’s Staines Upon Thames day, the local estate agents were giving away free ‘bags in a pouch’. Designed to sit at the bottom of a bag they can expand out to a shopping bag when one is caught short. I placed mine on my camera bag strap as it is useful as a makeshift weatherproofing during inclement weather, and hadn’t given it much thought during the past year. Only as I was packing my camera bag in the car did I realise that a purple bag with the word ISIS emblazoned on it was perhaps not the wisest of moves. ISIS have changed their name to Oasis for the same reason.

The journey to the airport was uneventful and the first experience of valet parking means we will probably pay the premium for this service in the future. This was Ezra’s first trip to foreign climes (I don’t think I am allowed to count last year’s trip to Wales!) and his first journey on a plane. Did we need to be concerned about our boy? Or for that matter our girls, who, although have been on flights before, had not travelled this way for three years. No, we did not. The iPads kept them distracted on take off and Ezra was fast asleep on the decent and landing.

There we were: in Turkey, in Asia. Yes, the Baguettes received their first stamp in their passport (and second on exit) and stepped foot, for the first time, on another continent. As you are probably aware Turkey straddles Europe and Asia however the majority of the country is in Asia and we were a considerable distance from the Bosphorus. Ezra may have taken his first flight over 6 month older than his sisters (as you may recall Amélie was a week younger than Éowyn when she took her first flight) he holds the distinction for being the youngest to leave his birth continent and receive a stamp in his passport! Interestingly although Sarigerme is on another continent the flight to Tenerife Sur was 72 miles longer than the flight to Dalaman.

We checked in and were pleasantly surprised by our room. Not much of a view but there was a balcony. The large room could be divided in two by sliding doors. The bathroom/ corridor side housed a super king bed (unfortunately with a king duvet) the wardrobes and television. The balcony side of the sliding doors housed two single beds, a second television and a blackboard. The girls chose a bed each but where was Ezra going to sleep? There was supposed to be another bed. Under Éowyn’s bed there was a full length drawer that pulled out to reveal a third single bed. However, there had also left a travel cot and although Ezra sleeps in a toddler bed at home we thought that perhaps the cot was the better option and so all three had their beds.

The resort was excellent: seven pools, three of them aimed at small children; a children’s playground with slides, swings and climbing frames. The resort backed onto the beach where all kinds of watersport activities were available. Indeed there were a number of resorts that backed onto the beach and it was only later that I found out that the name of the beach is Sarigerme and hence why the resorts and thus called. The nearby town is called Osmaniye Village and has a few shops and a couple of bars, however we never walked that far, only leaving the resort once during our stay, but more of that later.

Days at the resort followed a similar pattern: up for breakfast, back to the room to collect all we need for a day at the pool; relax by the pool, interspersed with lunch and trips to the free ice-cream booth and pancake lady; before getting ready for dinner and the evening’s festivities. When I say, ‘relax by the pool‘ that is not strictly true. As a parent it is impossible to relax by a pool when you have three small children playing near large bodies of water. It needed both of us to be alert as they would often split up and disappear in three different directions. To our great shame none of our children are strong swimmers. Therefore, although they were adorned with inflatable armbands and assorted toys, and did not play in the pools in which they could not stand up the parental guilt and fear of accidental drowning was never too far from our minds.

We quickly learned that if we wanted a sunlounger by the poolside then we would need to leave our towels and claim our land before the designated 0800 curfew set by the resort. Although we never succumbed to the tactics of others in the resort and leaving our towels at 0300, the advantage of early rising children was not lost upon the Bagnall parents and a detour on the way to early breakfasts helped us acquire the necessary positions.

The resort, as these places often do, had other facilities to add to its repertoire including a Turkish hamam. While looking through the treatments on offer the owner talked us into a family experience of steam rooms, exfoliation, bubble massage, chocolate face mask and massage for the adults and steam room, bubble massage and chocolate face mask for the children.

The first stage was to relax in the sauna. Only myself and Éowyn took advantage of this section, then it was on to the exfoliation. Myself and Lucinda lay on a large marble slab (the göbek taşı – the navel stone) under a traditional style dome, while the Baguettes watched from the sidelines. Now when I say exfoliation, it was closer to sandpapering I don’t think there was much dead skin left on my body by the time he had finished. Then it was time for the bubble massage. The Baguettes were allowed to come and lie next to us as we were covered in bubbles. I would have thought that the kids would have liked this but I think they were so out of their comfort zone, that only Éowyn allowed them to cover her in bubbles, while Amélie let them cover her legs and Ezra just lay still on the göbek taşı holding my hand, with a handful of bubbles on his legs.

After the bubbles were rinsed off it was time for the chocolate face mask. Now considering all three of them usually have a Nutella facemask at breakfast each morning only Éowyn indulged in the face mask, along with her parents. Then it was time for the massage. Lucinda and I had our massages separately, and when I say massage, it could only not be described as torture because we were paying for it and we could have walked out at any time. I was pummelled, stretched, kneaded and at one point, mounted by a large Turkish man who kept asking, ‘Good?‘ It was far from good at the time, and indeed for a couple of days later but once the bruising (joking) had subsided I could definitely feel the benefits.

With such facilities and only at the resort for 6 days (since the first day is taken up by travelling) we felt no great need to leave the resort. However, a colleague mentioned that when he went to the same region of Turkey that he visited the Rock Tombs of Dalyan followed by a turtle sanctuary. That sounded like a nice easy day out and since Ezra is currently fascinated by tortoises it seemed like a perfect day out.

So at 0800 we boarded the coach for our little sojourn to Dalyan (‘Fishing Weir’ in Turkish). The journey down the Dalyan river was excellent, we saw the Lycian rock tombs (which date to 400 b.c.), dancing dragonflies and Caspian turtles basking in the sun. the Dalyan river was reminiscent of the reed-filled rivers in the ‘African Queen’ and indeed there is a rumour that the ‘African Queen’ was indeed filmed in Dalyan. Unfortunately, it is but a myth the African Queen is famous for being shot on location in Uganda and the Congo (and down the road at Shepperton Studios).

After the river trip it was back on the coach and off to Iztuzu beach and the turtle sanctuary. The Turtle Sanctuary certainly do a good job and save many endangered Loggerhead Turtles, however one feels that they are missed a trick. It wasn’t particularly well laid out (basically a large gazebo with some rather large buckets, each containing a sizeable Loggerhead turtle) and considering they rely on donations there could have been more to encourage one to part with one’s lira.

Nevertheless, Ezra enjoyed seeing his tortoises (as he insisted they were called) and the couple of hours on Iztuzu beach were fantastic. A beautiful sandy beach with a nice shallow, warm sea it was definitely worth the trip outside the resort.

One of the other services that the resort offered was a photography service and since it was our first foreign family holiday and a family of five and because we rarely get a portrait of all of us we decided to book a session. This was a perfect excuse for me to try another of the resort’s facilities and have my first cut-throat razor shave from a Turkish barber. When I say ‘shave’ it was another complete beauty treatment. After the cut-throat razor shave, there was the face mask, and the head and shoulder massage, the nasal hair trim and finally burning of one’s tragus (and the tragus on the tragus) – ear hair for those of you that don’t know (or if you speak Greek why the hell I am burning my goat!).

Freshly shaved it was time to get dressed and head for the photoshoot. The photography session lasted 15 minutes but in that time there were 77 reasonable photos and at least 23 really good ones, so we decided to use some of the holiday money that we had to purchase an album as a memento. Unfortunately, although the girls really enjoyed dressing up and pretending to be models, Ezra was not playing ball and refused to cooperate. Nevertheless there are still a number of nice candid shots of the boy!

The remainder of the holiday was relaxing by the pool. Éowyn bored of the pools and spent the last day listening to music and playing with her electronic games. Amélie on the other hand made friends with a pair of sisters Alex and Amber. On the last day Amélie got herself upset because she wasn’t going to see her friends again so before we left we went to say goodbye. Amélie asked them where they lived so that we could visit. Somerset was the reply, number 3 with the orange gate. So Amélie has said that we have to visit them and has put this address into her memory: number 3, Somerset and look for the Orange gate. Not sure that the satnav will be able to resolve this address.

After a long journey back we landed at a cold and windy Gatwick airport. The 12°C temperatures were a far cry from the 32°C we left Dalaman airport. Didn’t the UK read the calendar: it’s June! Again the valet parking proved its worth after a trip around the M25 we were home and back in our own beds. The first Bagnall family trip outside of Europe was over and normality was calling.

The girls returned to school the next day and were obviously asked about their holidays. Amélie informed her teachers that there were lots of Blue Monsters that chase your family. I think I must have been relaxing by the pool when that happened, and please do not let that put you off Turkey!

Apologies for the epic (indeed, this maybe the longest post) and your reward is a selection of photos, if the 24 below has whet your appetite then there are over 450 holiday snaps on our Flickr pages (click here).

Peace and love

Baggie