Sunday is always a lovely day for me and today was no exception. A friend and I had plans to go out to lunch and chose what used to be called, RJ’s Restaurant, but is now known as 19 Beach Road Restaurant. But what you will know it as, is the same place where I always have my cappuccino after tenpin bowling each Tuesday.
As the Tenpin Girls sit and enjoy our coffee and snacks, we quite often have wondered how the establishment keeps going as most of the time there are only a handful of people around.
However, today was different. Being a Sunday, it was absolutely packed. The section downstairs was pumping with the sounds of all the slot machines and other arcade games and I was grateful to know that this sound would not carry upstairs into the seating area of the restaurant.
I was right – but what I didn’t know was that there were a couple of children’s parties taking place in the upstairs section. Oh my word how times have changed. I can remember when we took children anywhere in “the olden days”, one made sure that one controlled the volume and the way in which the kids behaved around others.
This is no longer the case. The one table must have had approximately twenty pre teens around it. Each one shouting as loudly as they could, parents sitting around them, totally oblivious to the ruckus, nor the trouble it was causing to the other patrons at the restaurant.
Both Priscilla and I agreed that we would have preferred to have been at Lords and Legends where the music is played loudly but there were breaks in-between.
The food was a little overcooked as well, but the wine, a Robertson, was absolutely delicious and made us both feel a little more relaxed!
In Turkey we did get to see the Topkapi Palace and Hareem. It was nowhere as impressive as the Dolmabahce Palace. It had not been kept in its original state and was more like a museum.
All the plates and dishes in one huge section, the gold and jewelry in another, cooking pots in another etc. A few of the items that stood out from the rest were:
The Topkapi Dagger, a most beautiful work of art with an emerald the size of an egg in it’s hilt. This was a present from Murat 1 to Nadis Shah, which was waylaid and brought back when the news of the Shah’s death reached Topkapi. The dagger is decorated with three enormous emeralds, one of which conceals a watch, suggesting rather different attitudes to time and mortality than those you’ll find in modern day fiction, where watches are more likely to conceal weapons than vice versa! This item was displayed on its own, in a case of black velvet with a spot light showing it’s splendor.
The other item of interest was the Spoonmaker Diamond. This is the 5th biggest diamond in the world. It was first shown on Mehmet IV’s turban at his coronation in 1648. The golden ceremonial throne, which was presented by the governor of Egypt to Murat III on his accession in 1574, was also in the same room.
Across the courtyard from the treasury, the Pavilion of the Holy Mantle houses the holy relics brought home by Selim the Grim after his conquest of Egypt in 1517. These relics were originally only viewed by the sultan, his family and immediate entourage on days of special religious significance, but were opened to the public in 1962.
They include the footprint, hair and tooth of the Prophet Mohammed, as well as his mantle and standard, swords of the first four caliphs and a letter from the Prophet to the leader of the Coptic tribe. The most precious of these relics are kept behind glass, attractively arranged and lit up for all to see.
In the inner section of this pavilion, they have a priest singing out of the Koran throughout the day. They requested that as little noise as possible be made.
Fred was so impressed by one of the other exhibits, the sword of Mohammed, that he took a photo of it to take back to his Muslim friends in South Africa.
It was a decidedly cold day and I only had my shorts and blouse on. In the afternoon we had to stand in line to buy tickets to see the Harem at the Topkapi palace. They only allowed 60 people in at a time and then just closed the ticket office until those people came out, then the next lot were permitted to enter. We waited in line for over an hour.
This harem was also impressive. The word, Harem means “forbidden” in Arabic – while in Turkish it refers to a suite of apartments in a palace or private residence where the head of the household lived with his wives, female slaves and children. One of the Sultans, Murat III fathered a total of 103 children, 54 of whom survived him.
One of the most unusual sights that I remember was the one bedroom which was used by the Sultan. On the left hand wall as one entered the room were four or five slabs of marble jutting out of the wall at different heights. Water used to flow over those slabs of marble like a waterfall. The carried on all day and night so that anyone outside the room could never hear the conversations taking place inside the room. On the right hand side, in the two corners, were low cushions which were used for seating. High above these cushions were two very elaborate gold surrounds which we were told, were the actual beds that the sultan slept in.
They must have been at least 7 foot off the ground and he had to use a ladder to climb up onto them, to sleep.
And speaking of sleeping, I will be ending off for tonight. Till next time….
Blessings and love 💕
