Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Kuwait City, Kuwait on March 31st.

Saturday, March 26, 2022

Planning our travels around the weather

Sunshine one minute and showers the next. That's been the story the last two days, and it looks like it's continuing today. It kind of makes it hard to do anything, and of course it makes it difficult for the laundry to dry!

It seems like we've been dealing with on and off weather issues since we arrived back in Europe last October 1st. Sure, there have been some nice days mixed in there as well, but we sure do miss the perfect weather that we would get every winter we spent in Mexico.

For the most part, the temperature itself has been not that bad all winter. Certainly not tropical by any means though! We can deal with having to put a sweater on, even though in a perfect world we would like it to be warmer. However having said that, next winter we will go somewhere warmer, even if we have to fly there and leave Max parked for a month or two!

But, spring is in the air! The weather forecast for next week has temperatures increasing into the mid 20C's (70F's) with lots of sun. And things are warming up in the interior of Turkiye as well, so temperatures should be just fine for our visits to Cappadocia and Istanbul during April.

We will spend the last week of April and most of May transiting our way back up to Germany, and then June and July in Norway. Should be perfect weather for hiking in Norway!

In between showers, we spent some time with the locals here at the campground. They invited us up for coffee. The Turkish people are always asking if we want tea or coffee!

Yum-yum the dog.
He is only six months old!

Sitting around having coffee.
Kevin, our host Cemal, his mother, and a neighbor.

Cooking chicken bones for the dogs.

Cemal's mother caught a chicken to sell to the neighbor.
I saw him pay 50 lira ($4.20 CAD, $3.40 USD) for the chicken.

When we get back to Canada, we will both need new laptops. Hopefully they will last that long! I bought mine in July of 2017, so while it is still working okay, it's kind of an antique! But it's become slow to do things. At five years old, we will get a replacement then, if it lasts me until August. Overall, I would buy another Asus laptop... this one has been good.

And Ruth's laptop was only bought in July 2019 while we were in Australia. It still works fine, but the case has developed a problem that gets worse every time you open and close it, so we try to leave it open as much as possible. Not sure how much longer it will be serviceable, but again, we hope it lasts until we get back to Canada. The main reason we want to wait until then is to get one in our language with the right keyboard. Would not buy another HP laptop as a result of this problem.

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Nice deal on this modern LED Floor Lamp.

And in Canada...

20 comments:

  1. My computer experience has been much different from yours. I've had nothing but good luck with HP. I have one from 2009 that I keep buying backups for, but it's still going strong, but seems slow. Before that, I bought a Toshiba, on recommendation from a friend, and it died shortly after the warranty ran out. A few years ago I bought an expensive Dell, which expired exactly 3 days after the warranty. Meanwhile the HP keeps chugging along.
    Still expecting this laptop to give out, I bought a Chromebook. It's an HP, but overall, I like it. It's fasterand cheaper than a laptop, but has no CD slot. Overall, I'm pleased with it.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Of course there are probably as many positive stories about HP as there are any other brands. But when you get turned off because of something, it's hard to go back.

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    2. If every thing you do is web-based, there's no reason to pay for anything but a Chromebook.

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    3. But our files are not all web based so we need storage.

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  2. Just in case it helps - my computer is also about 3 years old and has developed a crack in the case near the hinges. It tweaks each time I open and close it, making it worse. I put clear packing tape on it to pull the case shell together. It seems to have stabilized it for now.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, Ruth's laptop has a similar problem, also being held together with tape for the time being. It's a real shame because the electronics work perfectly.

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  3. Whatever laptop you get, make sure it has a SSD hard drive vs the old rotating hard drive. Will be much faster and with no moving parts will last longer and use less power. :-)

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  4. I wouldn't be without our Mac. We have had three, and the first two lasted 10 years but got slow at the end because I overloaded them with pictures. Fraser just bought Mac after having his for about 12 years. He said the new ones are incredible. The one we use now is also a new Mac. They are very expensive but such awesome computers to use.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Brenda. I just can't justify the price. The laptop that I'm currently using cost $385 on sale in July of 2017. It has worked perfectly, and does everything I need it to do. I will probably spend more this time around, but I bet I still spend less than $1,000.

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    2. I used my last Macbook for ten years. I retired it because I wanted the new M1 chip and I needed a larger hard drive. Mac's cost more but I agree with the poster the quality is usually second to none and they don't need replacement as often. I bought my first Mac 1984 and have never looked back.It is like investing in a good pair of hiking boots. You can buy refurbished through Apple and pay a little less with full warranty. I no longer own a desktop and the air is my full time computer. That said it is sometimes difficult for a windows person to move to a mac.

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    3. Gail, I would have no problem making the move. I simply can't justify the original cost.

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  5. My HP cost $179 it does everything. It's four years old and still works fine. I guess I'm cheap. It has a 17" screen and works great for movies. Almost tempted to buy another if I can find it and store it until this one wears out.

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    Replies
    1. I'm cheap too. I'm trying not to be too cheap for my own good, but we are on the same page.

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  6. Hey, I will through in another two cents, and a third monkey wrench. On the laptop that is running slow. Ditch the current OS and check out one of the many flavors of Linux OS. Most of them are very light of system resources and you can find one that runs like Windows or Mac OS, but better.
    I've been playing with Linux for a year or so. If most of what you do is through a browser and something like Office, just get your Browser of choice and install Libre Office - it's free, too, and you will be off and running.
    I'm running Zorin OS Lite on old Laptop that's probably ten years old. It runs great!!

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    Replies
    1. If I had the time (or inclination) to play with it, I would probably do that.

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  7. My laptop got a crack in the casing near the hinge , so it became difficult to close and open and the corner of the screen was popping out. A local computer service shop here in antalya repaired for about $20. Glad I didnt have to replace the whole device.

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    1. This one doesn't actually have a crack but has come completely come apart down in the bottom left hand corner and three screw like pieces have come out. Right now the corner is held together with some duck tape but even that isn't working. We have thought about taking it to a computer repair place and now after hearing your story, I am definitely more inclined to try. They can at least have a look at it and tell us if it is possible or not. I think we may need to wait until we get to a bigger city though.

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  8. Just returned from Puerto Penasco visiting a friend who bought a new patio home there...it's gorgeous (the house and the weather). It was in mid 90's over the weekend, then the wind started followed by light rain on Monday. Loved the heat. I have an Apple laptop, a hand me down from my granddaughter. It still works beautifully...over 10 years old.

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    1. We are glad that you had a good weekend at Puerto Penasco. We certainly have been missing the warm temperatures and blue skies that we are so used to when we visit Mexico and we really are missing their food!

      It was nice of your granddaughter to pass down her laptop to you and that it is still working well.

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