My sister with M and LI made a last minute surprise trip back to Melbourne on 16 August. I had told mum and some other people that I would be in town, but I didn't tell my sis. I figured if anyone could do with some excitement and happiness in their day, it would be her! I told her I was going to London for work so she didn't suspect anything different.
So there she stood at my mum's front door on Saturday 16th August with M and L. All of them were shocked, especially K who said "how come I didn't know about this?", "I know everything". Well not this time! It was so great to surprise her. She cried and I'm sure was pleased with the surprise I had pulled off.
Although the trip was quick it was nice to have the chance to spend some quality time with her and my mum. Although I saw them at the wedding in April, not much time was spent sitting around and really catching up propers over a cup of tea. April was rushed, full of time restraints and Ken and I both wanted to enable people to do and see everything they wanted in this great city. So we spent much of our time making sure people were happy and ensuring they got to see all that Istanbul has to offer.
This trip was also nice for me to see some people who have been amazing friends to me since I left Australia in 2005. Friends tend to drop off a bit once you leave and keeping in touch becomes harder for some which is normal. That said, there have been a select few who have really kept in touch and always made an effort which has enabled those friendships to flourish and become things of great value to me.
My sister and I had some lovely time together. We went to Italy I for dinner shortly after I arrived and also had a great dinner at Trunk. I had been dying to go there since it opened to see the work B had done on the place. B brother is one of the owners and while I worked for Liquid Lines last year, the work on the restaurant had just started so it was nice to see the final product. We ate lovely food and then went off to see a movie; The Visitor. Great film so if you haven't seen it, I definitely recommend it.
I had some great times with the kids too. I went to watch them at their swimming class on a Sunday and it was great to see M's improvement since I last watched him. L is like a fish and loves the water and is less fearful than M at the same age.
B with M and L at swimmingI also had the chance to go to their Montessori school and see them at work. M really enjoys geography and made some flags from different countries and then learnt the countries by heart from recognising the flags. He even made a Turkish flag!
Off to school
I managed to squeeze in a dinner at Dumpling King, my old fave with some old work friends which was great. They had surprisingly arranged for a birthday cake and lovely gift for my 30th which was the week before. I miss the ease of eating out in Melbourne where you can head to Box Hill for Chinese, Victoria Street for Vietnamese, Lygon Street for Italian and Sydney Road for middle eastern!
All in all it was a great trip home, even if tiring and a long flight (17 hours!) I look forward to doing more trips like that in the future and of course for our next trip in January for our Austrlian wedding celebration!! It will be nice to enjoy the warm weather in Melbourne while it will be freezing in Istanbul. Melbourne was really cold this time around and you can never imagine how cold it is somewhere else when you are in the grips of summer!!
Mum and me
Me and my mates!
5 comments:
Renai, I read about your visit on your sister's blog site. What a wonderful surprise.
I am interested to read what you found remarkably different about the two countries on your return home.
Regards,
nice post oids, it was great to have you here. Bring on more trips like that in the future, a suprise every now and then is great!!
what a nice surprise! My mom thinks that I`ll be in the States for 2 more weeks but I`m going back to Turkey one week later, It`ll be a wonderful surprise for her. :)
Ardent, i just found home so much more quieter. almost silent, even with my noisy nephews. certainly less people, less cars and less traffic. that was the thing i noticed most. and the price of things are higher.
On that note, I heard fellow Australian Harry Kewell being interviewed and he was saying how much he was enjoying his new city and he was telling all his friends to come to visit him here, but he simply could not get over the traffic, it was a real shock!
I went to DJ's for some shopping and was amazed to hear on the PA system that the shop was closing in 10 minutes on a Wednesday! then I remembered that things close at 5.30pm, unlike here where the shops are open until 10pm every day of the week.
The general pace feels faster here and you have to keep up unlike home, you can go at your own pace.
Regardless of any of that, it was lovely to be there.
Vedat,
Your mum is going to be so happy to see you! She may be shocked, but so happy, I'm sure. I look forward to reading about the surprise!
Safe travels :)
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