The picturesque bay at Marmaris

I RETIRED to Turkey for my summer holidays this year and found myself in some scenic spots outside the belly-dancing and sports bar hubbub of Marmaris.

Different country, but the winding back lanes in the old town make you feel like you are walking through the set of Mamma Mia! – and is on much too high ground for the Newcastle United fans to reach.

A strange experience to report came midway through our stay: all of a sudden the villa began to wobble from side to side, the table and chairs rattled. It felt like we had imagined it and everybody in Harrington’s party made sure to check: Did you just feel that?

It turned out the shake had been a low-grade earthquake, which had the uninitiated worrying about secondary tremors and shocks.

Outside, however, nobody seemed bothered at all.

The hotel staff, the tavern owners, the people in the shops responded as if nothing had happened. And in the grand scheme of things nothing had really happened.

This is a country where parts are still in a long recovery from the earthquake close to the Syrian border which killed more than 50,000 people in February.

Sadly the response to the disaster and devastation has slipped down the news agenda in a world where it sometimes feels like one tragedy is always on the heels of the previous one.