Gülsüm Balcony 2001 by Di Jennings
Mustapha’s
Tale
The sundowner
drink is one that we take at the Hera bar at the end of the day. It gives
people a chance to reflect on the day and talk leisurely about everything and
nothing. It’s also a chance for visitors to chat to local people who have
ventured to the bar for a quiet drink.
It was on one
such evening I found myself talking to Mustapha who runs a local business; he
and his family have lived in and around Gumusluk all their lives.
He told me a story his father had told him, this is Mustapha’s Tale.......
A wealthy
American visited Gumusluk in the 1960’s. He moored his boat in the harbour and
wandered along the bay. On his walk he came across an old man sitting on a
rock, sipping a Raki and lazily staring at the sun setting into the sea. The
American noticed that there were olive trees growing in a field behind the old
man but they were untended, with olives dropping here and there onto the
ground. He asked the old man who the trees belonged to.
‘They’re mine’
the old man replied
‘Don’t you gather
the olives?’ the American asked
‘I just pick one
when I want one’ the old man replied.
‘Don’t you
realise if you pruned the trees and picked the olives at their peak you could
sell them? In America everyone is crazy about virgin olive oil, and they
would pay a damned good price for it.’
‘What would I do
with the money?’ the old man asked.
‘Why you could
buy yourself a big house and hire servants to do everything for you.’
‘And then what
would I do?’
‘You could do anything
you want’
‘You mean, like
sit outside and sip Raki at sunset?’
To see a typical Gümüşlük sunset at
‘sundowner drinking time’ please go to:
Hera Music
One balmy Gumusluk evening during
late September 2016. Customers and residents of the Hera Restaurant, were
treated to a Jam session, courtesy of visiting musicians Toygun Soyzen and Bora
Duran.
A sample of their talent to
entertain can be found at:
Advertising
They say that whilst you might not seek fame,
fame sometimes finds you. As so it is with Dave and me. Never ones to push
ourselves forward to be in a photo, to us “selfie” is a dirty word.
So when a film making friend of ours (without
our consent, I might add) decided to include our image in an advertisement, you
might ask why we are promoting it… let’s just say if the product involved
becomes successful and made freely available to us in recompense for our
appearance, it might be worth putting up with the
publicity.
To
see the advertisment :
Beach Music
Gümüşlük over the years has been party to all forms
of musical evenings:
Çesel restaurant in the mid 90’s had an impromptu Turkish
dance band formed using up-turned buckets and other assorted metal objects, in
order that Raki fuelled tourists could sample Turkish dancing, not, I remember
of the highest standard, but certainly a great party atmosphere.
Also at Çesel a friend of ours
serenaded his wife on her Birthday singing a Saw Doctors song ‘Only one girl’
With the two Turkish brothers who owned Çesel, singing in close
harmony with the rest of us the Chorus line ‘Only one girl for me’, in
retrospect a rather surreal moment.
At the same restaurant in 2006 (the owners had changed, it had undergone
a complete refurb and was called Amavi) on its opening
night the World renowned Turkish jazz pianist Kerem
Gorsev and his trio played a memorable set to a packed restaurant and beach.
It must be pointed out that Çesel resembled a working
man’s club. In comparison Amavi was Claridge’s.
Late one night, on the beach outside the Hera restaurant in the mid to
late 90’s. Yilmos the Turkish waiter had, after one
or three Rakis, persuaded an English visitor who had a guitar, to play the only
English song Yilmos said he knew the words to, ‘Hotel California’. As the song
was played it became very clear that the only lyric Yilmos knew was ‘Hotel
California’. Which, he proceeded to sing at the correct moment in the song,
each time louder with added Raki.
During the later part of 2000, more Turkish people from Istanbul have
made Gümüşlük their summer destination. Quite a few of the Istanbulian musicians and acting fraternity come
for holidays, with some musicians working at the restaurants and clubs on the
beach front.
The Jazz Cafe just down
from the Hera hold regular sets by different artists , sometimes
including guest performances by visiting musicians. One such
session in September 2014, had, as a guest musician, someone we had got to know
over the past few years as he had been staying at Hera, a session musician by
the name of Toygun Sözen. He normally plays saxophone, but on this particular evening he played
the clarinet. A little flavour of the performance that evening can be
seen on:
Over the years we have seen many waiters
come and go at Hera restaurant. All have been memorable in many ways, but one
stands out, Yilmos.
If someone had a stills camera, he was
anxious to be in the shot, if someone produced a video camera, it was as if
someone had turned on the lights and shouted action. He was a natural performer
with impromptu dialogue that could have been scripted by the wackiest writers.
When
you are a waiter in a sleepy fishing village in a small Turkish tourist resort,
as Yilmos was. Talking to people who vary in nationality by the hour certainly
increases your knowledge of other languages, but how do you use it? Well that’s
where Yilmos was unique. To try and describe him a little more, let me take you
back to the late 90’s when our stay at the Hera coincided with his
Birthday.........
Word had got around that it was Yilmos’s
Birthday, no doubt fuelled by Yilmos. I met him on the way to my early morning
swim.
‘Good morning Yilmos, happy birthday.
‘Why good morning good buddy, and
remember günaydin is good morning in Turkish if you should want to
speak as me fluent in other lingo. Don’t forget, have a slice of my cake tonight
you and your good lady wife’
‘Sure Yilmos thank you’
‘No problem, and please, thank you in
Turkish is teşekkür ederim, but please is lutven, not German but sounds same.
My body is already hitting the water as
he finishes. Being spoken to by Yilmos in his staccato style is like having
words fired at you from a machine gun, and not always in the right order.
My wife and I were the first to arrive
in the restaurant on the evening. A
couple of drinks and a cigar for Yilmos.
‘How old is the Birthday boy then? My
wife asks.
‘Is still nineteen my lovely Diane’
‘I bet we could double that’ we retort. Just
then a family of four from the rear apartments arrive. A boy and a girl run
round Yilmos saying in broken English happy birthday. From Norway I thought.
‘Where are they from?’ my wife asks
Yilmos.
‘Why Sweden’ he replied. I am wrong.
The couple introduce themselves’
‘I am Theo from Norway and this is my
wife Anna from Sweden.’ Half right Yilmos.
Then what looks like a retired couple
from the same apartments enter, he has a head of white hair and very striking
white moustache. They sit at the table next to us and he introduces himself.
‘Good evening my name is Eric.’ It is
the perceived voice of every retired English Colonel heard on stage and screen.
‘This is my wife Elaine, but they call
us Eric and Ernie, she’s the one with the fat hairy legs’ he chortled. I look down at her legs like a fool before
returning the introduction. Eric then
moves to the Norway Sweden amalgamation and introduces himself as before. As he gets to the fat hairy legs bit I notice
Theo looks down. Yilmos who has been
taking all this information in, turns to Eric and asks.
‘What would Mr and Mrs Ernie like to
drink?’ and I swear he looked at her legs.
An American party arrives, three girls
and a married couple. Across the restaurant Sweden and Norway have made Yilmos
a crown of flowers. My wife thinks he looks like the queen of the fairies from
A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The family
then sing to Yilmos Happy Birthday in their own Language. Yilmos is taken by surprise,
but by swiftly looking at all of them in turn he manages to sing along using
their words.
The couple in the American party
introduce themselves as Nancy and Matt. The rest of the evening, for some
unknown reason Yilmos refers to them as Mercy and Max.
Gulum Ken
If you would like to
see some snippets of the evening on film, please go to the following:
Yilmos was also always
keen to send a message to anyone he knew who hadn’t turned up that particular
summer. Two of these messages can also be savoured by going to the following:
One Enchanted Evening
It started out as the type of evening Gümüşlük delivers on a regular basis. Hardly a
breeze was blowing from the sea, which was bathed in moonlight. The only sounds
that could be heard were the soft lap of the waves landing on the beach just a
few steps from Hera restaurant, soft music wafting from the jazz cafe down the
beach, and the murmur of people talking while enjoying their meals and drinks.
After visiting for nearly 20 years we try very hard not to take these evenings
for granted.
Hera regularly set tables on the
beach next to the sea, which makes for a more secluded meal and for some people
it’s very romantic.
We had just finished our meals in
Hera when Güven the waiter came past carrying a menu for
a couple who had been seated at a table by the sea.
‘I am bringing romantic news with a
meal tonight’ said Güven
‘What’s the news?’ we asked.
‘It is a secret, please do not
tell’ Güven said. ‘After their meal he will
ask her to marry him, I shall take him their drinks with a box that contains a
ring’
Discretely, my wife and I, along
with Dave who had joined us sat waiting for the romantic news.
The couple’s meal was coming to its
romantic conclusion, dishes had been taken away and Güven
passed us carrying a tray of drinks and a small box. The box was opened and, as
the question was being asked, Güven pointed
overhead, we all looked up into the night sky.
A fireball of immense size had
suddenly appeared, streaming behind it a fan like tail. It made its way across
the sky toward the horizon before disappearing as if into the sea. Those who
saw it that night had never seen anything so huge and so clear. Some of us
wondered if it was a disaster involving an aeroplane.
During that night, and the next day
we enquired if anyone else other than those at Hera had seen it, no one had. We
looked into all the local and national media, nothing. To this day we have
never been able to find out what it was we had seen that night. All we know is
that some couple had the most marvellous romantic evening, and I would guess,
that no woman since has had such a cosmic display of light appearing in the
night sky as she was being proposed to.
Gulsum
Ken
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