mamahog 'n the lets

oh god... i so miss my camera. the day after i last posted, the lets (who had so missed their toys while holidaying at the beach) built from wooden blocks, their wooden railway and assorted plastic animals, an incredible four legged city.
it came with a gorilla railway, a crocodile ride, a kebab-skewer gated swimming bath, assorted cow-topped towers and a marvelous municipal fountain. (which actually worked with the aid of drinking straws and sprite)

and i can't bloody prove it!

so i'll just have to show you what loveday was capable of doing completely alone almost 2 years ago. she built this incredible structure while i was in the bath aged 2 and a bit.



now do you believe me?

she's less ummmm 'ordered' nowadays. she's in a more postmodern space architecturally. but i for one think sprite fountains is a marvelous idea.

though a new camera is an even better one!

today we went out to go to our helpers wedding. she told me when she came to work for me over a year ago that she was married. and i've met her 'husband' on more than one occasion. lovely man he is too... brought wine for me and sweets for the lets the first time he visited. that man knows his shit :)
they are both african (she from ethiopia and he from nigeria) and go to a mostly african frequented church every sunday. they've even taken the girls a couple of times.
anyway....
she's currently VERY pregnant, and so has recently been slowing down understandably. we don't however seem to have any real idea how pregnant exactly.. i usually get a vague "um 7 or maybe 18months...?" whenever i ask.
finally last week she came to a complete stop and she informed me on wednesday morning when we got home from gumusluk that she would not be working for us anymore and invited me to her wedding on sunday (today) before she left 2.5 minutes later.
luckily we had been prepared for this so the lets baba had already lined up a lovely young moldovian girl who the lets adore already.

so off we trundled this afternoon to sarah's 'wedding'.
i wanted to avoid the church bit and she had been typically vague about the address of the church anyway so i assumed she just wanted us to do the reception bit.
her husband (to be?) called me at 8 am to tell me it had been postponed until 3 from 1pm, so we climbed the 7 flights of stairs at 4.30.

to find a room filled with rows of chairs all facing the front where there were 2 more chairs facing back and 2 blokes sitting up a little band in the corner. apparently it would be another 30mins before they arrived... at least.

so we hung about for a bit until the wigglets got bored and called a friend to go for a coffee and ice cream down the road. i'm not very good at being early for anything really as i've had virtually no practice.

so during a lovely coffee outside an old passage in tunel i saw the most beautiful sight in a side street at the end. two open windows on a building with lovely old cracked paint. a line was strung across each window with assorted greyscale socks. behind them could be seen the back of a great old 70's swirly printed orange and brown sofa. gorgeous..

but i can't bloody prove it.

anyway after ice cream, tea, coffee and cake, the lets and i and our lovely friend ayla headed of to the wedding. ayla the lovely kindly offered to help carry a lazilet up a few of the flights.

and in we went.
the whole room smelled sweetly of curried lamb. and everyone was brightly dressed and sitting in their rows of stackchairs. except for a lively group at the front with arms raised in jesus name. singing and organ abounded. and we could just make out through the throng our lovely sarah dressed in white satin at the very end. the lets didn't recognise her. i hardly did. but as we were the only white people in the room everyone quickly turned to look at us and she waved, making it easy for the lets to accept her shiny flowery, bejeweled and be-satined form.

and we were quickly bustled to the front row. the lets were in awe. sarah was a 'princess'. the lady behind us had pink hair and a satin turban. the woman behind ayla had orange braided/dreadlocked 'caterpillars' in her hair, and the choir consisted of her and a lady in at least 5inch white heels and hair braids to her knees. and the music was fabulous. wonderful, joyous, african and reggae hymns.
it was marvelous. and hot. and the food rocked.

and though the shylets were too scared to really speak to the transformed princess sarah, we all had a wonderful time.

we are going to miss her. though she rarely smiled, or talked, or did anything if she could help it really, she is an old friend now. and though i babble here like nobodies business, i'm pretty quiet at home. so her silence fitted this fairly calm household. and she bloomin called me 'mrs keda'... silly i know but that shit grows on you :#)

i hope she is happier in her new life without having to trudge over here 5 days a week. and that she finds comfort caring for her own new baby instead of having to make my two endless apple juices and worry about whether or not to throw out the 2 toilet rolls with orange painted cotton wool and toothpicks stuck to them in case they are actually a truck or not.

and i look forward to having them all come visit as a real 'married' family, with a dribbly little bubbins of their own. and then i'll make her tea. i'm sure she'll smile more.

the party today seemed very much like a good beginning.

but i can't bloody prove it.

Labels: istanbulundercover, the wonderlets