Funny haha

A sense of humour.  Good job I have one. Needed it and a spare today.  Awake at a cruel and unusual hour for a Saturday in order to wash hair and eat an egg before leaving home at 09.40 for 10.00 rendezvous with 22 teenagers and a colleague, my mission - to take said kids to Sultanahmet (old town Istanbul) to visit Topkapi palace, the Seraglio,  home of the Ottoman Sultan for 400 years until mid C19th. Ready with cameras, snack and water bottle, we left nearly fifteen minutes late (compulsory delay when trying to herd teenagers), with the earlier sunshine now hidden by cloud. As the bus moved ever nearer to our destination, the heavens opened.  Apparently, our mini bus was unable to get closer than about half a mile to our destination. On reflection, it felt more like five miles, as leading 22 kids at teenager group walking pace (= slow) through the fjords that are Istanbul's side streets when ever it rains meant that by the time we got to the palace entrance, everyone was drenched. And yet, curiously good humoured. I love them for that. So, they huddled in puddles against the main entrance gate whilst I stood in the ramrod rain at the ticket booth and dealt, efficiently as it turns out,  with Ms Jobs-Worth, to negotiate tickets for school children who yes, are Turkish, even though yes, I am not, so they don't pay for their tickets, thank you. No, it's fine really, I am quite content to stand here in the rain explaining it all multiple times. No worries. Turkish style though, I pushed to the head of the queue the third time, armed (and feeling dangerous) with ID cards and money.  We must have looked a sorry sight by the time we finally made it through the ticket barrier and walked the final stretch of path from Palace gate through the gardens and at last, inside Topkapi Palace, where upon the rain stopped. 

Squeaky and damp is not the ideal condition for Ottoman Seraglio palace viewing, so very few photos were taken, much was not looked at, but coffee was drunk. Jolly good job I'd snapped a pic from the mini bus window earlier, just as the rain was introducing itself. 

We drove home in sunshine.