Today was the day work was to begin. We arrived at 8.30 to hand over the keys, waited for about 20 minutes sipping tea, and at last a van arrived full of men with a distressing number of pickaxes. They took the pickaxes to the flat, taking up the rotting floors and removing the kitchen cabinets etc. It was all rather distressing, if necessary, to watch our single most valuable possession being knocked into rubble. Amongst the discoveries was that under the floor boards was a thick layer of rubbish and beneath the rubbish the ceiling of the downstairs flat, meaning that we will have to lay down a metal mesh to support our floor once it is a little more substantial than the light wooden planks, and the downstairs neighbour had complained about the noise (understandably), also the doorframes would have to be ripped out as they were termite-ridden, so another expense, plus there was something that needed to be done with the municipality. All this conveyed to us in Turkish of course, and my Turkish remains non-existent, though I plan to take lessons this winter.
I found it all rather difficult, to be honest, though I think about 70% of my stress was due to the difficulty in communication, and another 10% due to feeling under the weather. At any rate I came back and found myself shaking a little and telling myself this was the first day, and later days would become easier especially when we had found someone (as we planned) to serve as a sort of intermediary. It reminded me, though, of that horrible feeling of being perpetually weighed down during my mother’s last illness, and I wished that I had been responsible for 100% of the cost of the place so I could just walk away from it. After the last two years of freedom, it is a hideous return to earth.