Genuine fakes

Monday 8th October

In total contrast with the previous night, we both had a good sleep, only partly ruined by Debrah getting up to go the loo, asking me what time it was, me saying seven o’clock, us reading and then me realising, on second glance at my watch that it was actually only five o’clock.

I really must get some reading glasses soon.

We decided to head into Turunç this morning, it being the nearest town with shops and us having a typical mid-holiday shopping list to deal with – you know the sort of thing, more sun cream, some moisturiser, stop off at the cashpoint, more fags, gifts for the kids and as many ‘genuine fakes’ as we thought we could get away with.

There were the usual mix of shops selling bags, carpets, sunglasses, watches, jewellery and turkish delight. There were the usual odd mix of amusing signs and sights – the not entirely convincing barbers with ‘Let’s take care of your beauty hair’ or the gift shop proudly listing ‘onyx, ceramik, crystal, leather mask(!)’ – we weren’t quite sure what that meant and didn’t venture in to find out.

Turunç is clearly not totally off the beaten path in all fields of endeavour. The Turunç International Open Darts Championship 2007 was taking place, one sporting event that hadn’t previously crossed my radar.

Several of the bars are decorated with English and Scottish football shirts. As they were such an eclectic mix (Cardiff City, Gillingham, Portsmouth, Barnsley, Glasgow Celtic), it gives you some idea of the clientele – as did the West Ham shirt with ‘SHIT” written across it in felt tip pen. How smug and clever he must have thought he was when he penned that witticism for posterity and how much it says about the average British tourist abroad.

At the second jewellery store Debrah found herself some lovely silver necklaces, which we bought after I’d managed to get 25% of the label prices. She had found a lovely necklace at the first but the owner kept thrusting his thigh into her when ‘helping’ her try on various things, so we politely fled from there.

Likewise we bought nothing in the first sunglass and watch shop, although I did cheekily get the owner to tighten up my sunglasses, but we bought a watch for me, and a new pair of sunglasses for Debrah, at the second. The owner of this shop explained the difference between a cheap fake and a genuine fake, which was interesting – a cheap fake just looks like the real thing but doesn’t have full working parts and is made from inferior material, whereas a genuine fake works just like an original in every detail and is ‘first rate workmanship’. Hmmm – it’s still a fake though and that isn’t genuine oyster shell in the Rolex oyster is it?

We found most of the things we wanted but couldn’t decide between a fez, a watch or sunglasses for Christian so we will probably go back later in the week.

The afternoon was spent back at the hotel and there were only a couple of things of note worth commenting on. The usefulness of internet access allowed me to sort out the parking ticket that Debrah had picked up the day before we left London. Later, as we climbed the steps back up to our room, the elegant German lady staying at the hotel stopped to let us past claiming she needed a rest and was out of breath - whilst continuing to puff on her cigarette.

We ate at the Sea Club once more. The food was as delicious as ever, the air was very still and a little warmer than two nights ago and the music was very chilled. It was such a romantic evening that we had two bottles of wine and went back to bed very happy together.