Izmit - on the sea of Marmara east of Istanbul - is where my uncle Antony is currently working. I arrived there, at precisely the same moment that the rest of my family came along too, and we stayed several days.
We were all knackered by the travelling, not least my brother Benjamin.
And my father, although he pretended to be reading.
Just outside Antony's flat was the Izmit mosque, where the muezzin was completely tone-deaf.
The whole family enjoys dinner in Antony's flat.
The next day, we went to dine at one of the fish-restaurants on the shoreline. This was one of the few meals where Benjamin did not eat a kebab.
This made my mother happy.
Afterwards, we went to the Izmit funfair - a motley collection of old-fashioned rides. Antony and Benjamin here arrive looking seriously ill from a spinning ride which threatened to make them bring up their dinner.
