At one time, while my wife and I were running the bar, she was serving two men who at the time were our only customers, while I was acting barman. As she came back to the bar, I noticed she had a big smile on her face. On asking what was so funny, she said, “One of those two men I just served asked how many camels you would accept for me!” I laughed, thinking she was joking, but she said, “No, he was serious.” I called down to the men “Not less than 25.” One of the men laughed as he replied, “Sorry, but that’s too much for me.”
Another incident at the bar was when we had a couple come in to celebrate the woman's birthday. As we knew they were coming, we had bought them a cake. After our waiter welcomed them, he came to the bar saying they would like a bottle of Champagne. When the couple later asked for their bill, I could see there was a problem. On asking the waiter what the problem was, he replied, “They are refusing to pay for the Champagne, they said I had asked if they would like champagne when they first came in.” I thought for a minute then asked the waiter if the couple were regulars. On his saying yes, I said, “OK, although the man s being crafty and knew he was not being offered a free bottle, we will pay for it.” Sometimes one had to think of the long term, and not the short.
On the positive side, if when shopping in the open market, you forgot to take your change, the stall holder would hand it to you, or if you had walked away, would either call out or chase after you to hand it back.
Another incident occurred at work At work, I had made some good friends both in the office and on-site. One was a Turkish colleague named Hussein. I was working in the office one day when he walked in to ask me something. As we were talking, he turned and asked Graham if he had seen me last night.
“No!” Graham replied.
“Why! Don’t you like Mr. Colin?” This seemed quite funny at first. Then the inquisitive look on Hussein’s face changed to one of bristling anger. Although he was only about 5ft 6ins, he suddenly seemed to grow in stature. His eyes flared as he spat out;
“I have a gun, if you don't like Mr. Colin I will shoot you!” Graham like me was quite amused at this statement. His face lit up with a big smile. However, this soon turned to one of shock when he realised Hussein meant what he said. We quickly explained we were good friends, but did not see one another every night. On hearing this, we were relieved when Hussein relaxed and said,
“That’s OK then.”
These are some incidents not mentioned in my book, which I may later include. In general I have loved living in Turkey. One thing is certain, I have never regretted moving from England to live here.