Four Candles

One of Didim's  "I know I've got one somewhere" shops - like a hardware store or ironmongers, only even more so, where the merchandise spills out on to the street to catch your eye with colourful plastic stuff, and buckets of bolts - selling everything from candles to bill hooks and beyond.  These stores are very common here - do we even still have them in the UK? Where you can buy six nails that aren't prepackaged in plastic - or, four candles?  The ironmonger didn't look like he was doing much trade, and was having a quiet smoke while watching the world go by. 

I  was in Didim on this warm but not particularly sunny day for.a few shopping errands. The journey both ways was out of the ordinary.  Outbound, a local truck driver, stopping at the mini market (by the bus stop), offered me a lift in to Didim. Turns out we both lived in Istanbul for 22 years before living here!!  I disembarked with my ears full of his offers to repeat the favour anytime I wanted to go to Didim. His kindness compared most favorably with the mini bus (dolmuş) ride home which was very uncomfortable. Standing room only, the driver was on a mission to share his hangry temper with us all on this fourth day of Ramadan, by playıng skittles wıth hıs passengers, and wearing out his brake pads and my tolerance long before I got home. 

The famous and fabulous, legendary even, Two Ronnies 'four candles' sketch (1976)  here - ooh they don't write 'em like that any more. In fact, I've just discovered through Google, that four candles were placed on the alter at Ronnie Corbett's funeral service in London in 2016. Truly, legendary. Two Ronnies, Morecombe and Wise, Ab Fab, really, DO they make 'em like that anymore?