September 30, 2006

An Evening With The Turkish Ambassador

Right: El-Branden Brazil with the Turkish Ambassador to Japan.

Photography by Peter Fujiyama

Last night, I had the pleasure and honour of attending a party at the Turkish Embassy in Tokyo, arranged by Her Excellency, Ambassador Solmaz Unaydin.

We were continually supplied with Turkish wine, which was surprisingly good, as well as a delicious buffet of traditional Turkish dishes.

There was an unintentionally amusing moment in the evening, when a presentation about Turkey became a farce, due to failure of the powerpoint projector. A poor assistant to the ambassador was placed in the uncomfortable position of having to read out the driest of notes, reeling out statistics and figures that became nothing but noise, without visual aids.

Towards the end of the evening, a belly dancer entertained us. Madam Ambassador was quite a dancer herself, when she was called up by the performer.

I also managed to win a lovely Turkish china pot in a raffle. I had hoped to win the free airline tickets to Turkey! A very lucky woman went away with "my" prize. I did wonder that may be she would like a swap!!!

It was an extremely pleasant evening, and an honour to spend time with such fine company.

7 comments:

Alexander said...

I bet the Ambassador's assistant wished the floor would just swallow him up that fatefull evening.

samsarajade said...

I wondered who that lady reminded me of, and I think it's captain Janeway! I don't really watch Startrek, but do you know who I mean!
Shame you didn't get the travel tickets, we could have followed you! But still nice you got something!

oldladybird's garden said...

Look at you all spiffed up!

Unknown said...

Hi All!

Yes, it was great night. The Ambassador was lovely, even though there's a touch of Captain Janeway/Thatcher in her choice of hairstyle. She was very, very charming.

Alexander, the Ambassador's assistant was a lady, and she seemed absolutely distraught by the task. Especially when many of the guests started ignoring her and began chatting. I cringed for her.

Brenda, it is nice to dress up once in a while. Hope you are well over the Pacific Pond.

Best wishes,

El-Branden

Alexander said...

Captain Janeway

LOL Something about her seemed familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on what it was, until now.

Kim Ayres said...

Turkish Wine? I thought Turkey was a Muslim country

Unknown said...

Turkey is a moderate Muslim nation. The Ambassador was imbibing like the rest of us.

 
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