An easier way to keep track of our spending

Ruth and I keep track of every penny we spend. We were doing that even when we had "normal" lives. We found that it was easier to see where frivolous spending was going, and where we could cut back. And doing it daily meant that we could easily see if we were overspending, and when it was time to cut back.

In the old days, it was a simple piece of paper... adding everything up by hand. Then it the late 1990's we got a computer and that made things a little easier. As time went on, I made myself an Excel spreadsheet that keeps annual track of our spending.

Strange to go out for a walk during lockdown

On Saturday, we contacted our Airbnb host here in Antalya and once again extended our stay. Because of our eye surgery and the weekend lockdowns, we haven't had a chance to explore the area nearly as much as we wanted to. So rather than moving on just for the sake of moving on, we decided to stay put.

We thought about getting another place further east of here, and driving back for our eye doctor appointments, but we are really happy with the apartment. It's got a comfortable bed, and fast, consistent WiFi... and it's only 125 lira ($21.50 CAD, $16.85 USD) per night. 

And yesterday at dinner time, a new season began!

When we were traveling in our motorhome and it was just the two of us, playing Backgammon while having a drink at happy hour became a regular thing. And then at dinner time we would play a couple of games of Yahtzee while eating dinner.

But when you travel as light as we normally do, it's not easy to travel with a Backgammon board! However, it's very easy to bring along five dice to play Yahtzee.

December Expenses - Yikes! And 2020 financial review...

Well at first glance, it looks like we had a really expensive month. In fact, our most expensive month ever.

We spent a total of $8,847 CAD ($6,943 USD).

However, a more detailed look reveals that it wasn't too bad. A big chunk of that expense was to have our eye surgery done. And we consider that an investment, not an expense. (I will talk a little more about that another day.) So we could remove $6,097 CAD ($4,785 USD) right there.

We will soon be back to exploring...without glasses!

I know that this eye surgery stuff has been taking up a lot of our daily activities for the past two weeks. But it's almost over! By next Monday we will be back to our normal programming showing you some more of the sights of Turkey.

An interesting thing has happened since we stopped posting to Facebook. Now, maybe it's a combination of factors, since it seems that many of you have been interested our progress with this eye surgery, but our daily readership has actually increased since stopping the Facebook posts.

Eye Surgery #2... no more glasses!

My first new eye... the one that was done last Friday, is now at about 90%. It will still improve a little more over the coming days. But it was time to get the second new eye!

Yesterday, Tuesday, was a total write off. It poured with rain all day and we just stayed inside. So it felt great to do the 8.2 km (5.1 mile) walk to the hospital this morning. Our appointment was at 9:00am, so we left the apartment at 7:30am... it was still dark out.

Our highs and lows of 2020

Most of the world is happy to be leaving 2020 behind and watching it disappear in the rear view mirror. 2021 just has to be better. But while there were some challenges for us in 2020, we certainly wouldn't call it a disastrous year, as it has been for many people!

The first three months of 2020 were fantastic. January, February, and March we were in Mexico leading a group of other motorhomes on a four and a half month tour. It was a great group of people and we enjoyed the trip as much as we think the participants did. It was a lot of fun!

Things continue to improve

Yesterday was another lock down day and we didn't leave the apartment. But, we have our freedom back for the next three days until the four day New Years lockdown happens here in Turkey. While Christmas is not a big deal here, New Year's Eve normally is. It's going to be tough to get out and do anything though over the next three days. We have an eye doctor appointment at 11:00am today, and then it's supposed to rain for almost 24 hours through to Tuesday afternoon.

And then of course Wednesday is eye surgery number two! Of course Wednesday is supposed to be a beautiful day. We don't know at what time yet though, so we're hoping it will be in the afternoon so that we can get out and do something Wednesday morning.

Eye report... the day after surgery

Woke up Saturday morning with a 9:30am appointment at the eye doctor ahead of us. 

The first thing I wanted to do was to remove the patch to see if I could see! The doctor had said it was okay for me to remove it in order to confirm that I would be okay to drive.

Christmas Day eye surgery

Christmas Day morning, we got out and went for a walk in the big park across the road from our apartment. We figured we had better get some exercise since Saturday and Sunday we are back to weekend lockdown.

The park across the road is huge... in fact I read that it is the 9th largest park in the world that is located in a suburban city area. For comparison, Vancouver's Stanley Park is 405 hectares, New York's Central Park is 340 hectares, and here in Antalya, Zeytin Park is 263 hectares.

Merry Christmas from Antalya, Turkey!

By the time most of you read this, we will be at the hospital having our Christmas Day eye surgery done. It's being performed at 4:00pm this afternoon Turkish time, so that's about 8am Eastern time in Canada and the U.S..

The eye surgery is our Christmas present to each other! They are only doing the one eye today... the second eye will be done next Wednesday.

Got our new car, and time in Turkey extended

At about 11:30am Wednesday, only 14 hours or so after the car accident happened, another car was sitting outside our apartment building delivered by the car rental company from 200 kms (125 miles) away. I don't know what to say except that I am amazed by the great service!

We had to drive the two men (one was the owner of the company) who brought the new car back to the place where our damaged car was sitting. I had to pay the owner 5,000 lira ($850 CAD, $650 USD) in cash. No paperwork, and no receipt. I'm confident it's all good though. And if he's putting it in his pocket, well then it's none of my business.

Killing Time on Long Train Journeys: 4 Excellent Tips

 Killing Time on Long Train Journeys: 4 Excellent Tips

Train journeys can be very frustrating. Unless you’ve prepared well, you’re usually stuck staring out of the window for hours, waiting to arrive at your destination. It’s even worse when there are delays! Fortunately, there are lots of ways to start enjoying your train journeys more. The trick is to realise that by not driving you're actually giving yourself some time. That time can be spent on work or play, but sitting and staring out of the window does not have to be your only option. Here are the best ways to kill time on even the longest of train journeys.

This car accident story takes up a whole blog post!

This is part two of yesterday's events. If you missed part one, you should read it first...

https://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2020/12/hiking-eye-doctor-and-fairly-major-car.html

So we're driving home from the eye doctor's appointment at around 6:30pm. It's dark out by this time, and I don't enjoy driving at night to begin with. And we had a bunch of tests done to our eyes, and they maybe haven't totally recovered. But, they are probably 95%. However, none of that had anything to do with the accident.

Hiking, eye doctor... and a fairly major car accident!

Well, what a day we had. As Ruth says, our life is never boring! But as you'll see, sometimes boring might actually be a bit better.

There is so much to tell you that I think we will break this into two blog posts!

Let's start at the beginning. As I explained in yesterday's blog post, I woke up feeling quite a bit better. Almost totally normal. And, we had been cooped up in the apartment for three full days. It was time to get outside and get some exercise.