I got fined for speeding recently. The policeman was really nice, and I should have known better – he is always stationed in the same place and I have often marvelled at people I see pulled up at the side of the road, for being daft enough to miss seeing him - then I did the same thing. But it wasn’t a bad experience; None of this being told to get in the back of the car, like they tell you to do in England now. It makes you feel like a cross between arch criminal Ernst Blofeld and one of the Kray twins. My policeman was very charming and said I didn’t look as old as my passport said I was. He told me that as I was doing over 100kph, the fine was 115 ytl. I didn’t have that – but I had a 50Euro note so he took that as payment and gave me a discount – all done very correctly and the speeding ticket, actually shows the reduction !
There are a few more police around at the moment it seems. Perhaps because the fleet is in, well one American battleship , or just more security because it’s the start of the tourist season. I know it’s the season because my boat dances to the beat of the music from Bar street. Now I like Bar street; it’s brash, it’s noisy, it’s fun and it’s not at all seedy or threatening in the way that places like London’s Soho or Amsterdam’s Rembrandtplein are. But, big BUT, disco music is fine in discos, or in music festival fields. It is very un-fine at 4.00am when your teeth vibrate, and you can hear the shouting from, presumably, megaphone hailers. There must be a way to confine or control the decibel count, so that the revellers can revel and the citizens, and more sedate visitors, in Marmaris can get some sleep.
At the other end of the ‘cultural’ life of Marmaris I went to a classical music concert – Vivaldi’s four seasons. It was lovely, and there was a packed house, though it was slightly marred by the sound of whirring air conditioning units. Hope they get that right next time. I was interviewed for the TV afterwards. I don’t think It’s the start of a film career though. The interviewer gave me the mike, then he said “lower please” so I stooped down, and he filmed the top of my head. He seemed a bit bemused by my posture – he meant I should hold the mike lower, I realised later.
The Russians are here as well as the Americans. About 250 of them are racing in yachts around the bay: And crashing into other yachts in the marina. The bay is ringing to shouts of правый борт судна*, in deep baritones. I have been rather hoping that one or two of them might crash into the American warship, that would be fun. They could battle it out in Bar street and no-one would hear them.
I always thought Boris Johnson, the newly elected Mayor of London, had a Russianness about him. Apart from his name, he has that careless enthusiasm, mixed with his upper class twitiness. I was surprised though to see a CNN report about his winning the election, and beating the evil Ken. It reported that Boris has in the past caused deep offense after labeling members of the Commonwealth "piccaninnies," referred to Africans as having "watermelon smiles"; and likened his party's internal conflicts "to Papua New Guinea-style orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing." It also mentioned that Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (to give him his full name), although born in New York, is actually the great grandson of Turkish journalist and government minister Ali Kemal. Guess we can look forward to lots of Borisisms as the Olympics near, and a few more Kebab houses in North London .
I get CNN emailing snippets to me because I entered a key-word in their news site. To begin with I got lots about Bernard Matthews and I was deluged with emails at Christmas, then I change the t to T, and now I get the ones I want, which are about about Turkey. I got one last week showing police hosing demonstrators down at an illegal march in Istanbul. There are a few noisy DJ’s I would like to see hosed down but, it all seems a long way away from my nice policeman, giving me a discount on my speeding fine.
*starboard
