Istanbul

Hello - no we are not moving to Istanbul but I dont think I told you about the holiday that Derek won.

We had just come back from a fabulous weekend in Barcelona with loads of people who are in this great business with us. Feeling a bit flat after all the excitement and then Derek gets a call to say he had won a holiday. Oh Yeah - we thought - sure!! So we went to the shop, the local plumbers merchants and sure enough holiday for two flights, four star hotel and transfers in Istanbul. Well............... you could have knocked us down with a feather!!

Within a week we had the tickets in our hands (disgusting flight connections but oh well) and it was all booked for 21st October for one week. Its just as well that we do work for ourselves because we had just had a long weekend in Barcelona and there was no option as to when we took this holiday it was that date or nothing. We took it!!

Istanbul was not a place we had ever thought of going but we certainly were not going to turn it down. The internet is such a fab place isn't it? In the past you would have had to go and get a guide book instead I printed out loads of stuff about sites and shopping and food and shopping and history and shopping and some about shopping or did I already mention that?

So although it was not a place on my list to visit I am so so so happy that we did go. We walked in buildings that had been there for hundreds and hundreds of year - looked at clothes and jewellery that had adorned the bodies of people who ruled a land totally alien to what it is today. It gave you goosebumps! We crossed the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn (all those places that you learn about in school).

As I said it wasn't somewhere we had yearned to go and I am not sure I would go back BUT it was a fabulous holiday (all the better for having it paid) and I am very grateful for it.

Go if you can!