Market day. Over in the morning to pick up a few things. Small aubergines three Turkish lira a kilo ($0.60 CAD, £0.34, €0.38). I put five in a bag and ask the price and the man holds up one finger and then makes a sign that I take to be a half. Hand him two one lira coins. He smiles patiently aa one might to a small child, comes round to my side of the counter, puts one more small aubergine in my bag, and hands me back one of my two coins.
Stop in again at the market close to seven PM on our way back from the mobile telephone shop. Expecting it to be less busy late in the day but not a bit of it. Those who work during the day are filling the stadium sized market building. Really crowded and while the sides are all open airflow I’m not comfortable despite our masks and say to J that all we really wanted was a melon and we can get one from one of the little trucks outside. As we leave a man tries to sell us some of his plums. There’s no one else around his stall, which is fine but we’re a bit slow to buy. They’re not quite ripe and there are better buys. He’s anxious for us to taste. We are not about to, of course. So he carefully polishes one plum at length on his shirt tails and offers it to me. I decline, obviously, but - forced into some show of reciprocal politeness - buy a kilo of plums. They will ripen.
Outside to the melon trucks, and head for one that has mostly honeydews. How many do we want? Three the man suggests. No, one. Think we’ve succeeded and ask how much. Five lira. Fine. Pay and discover there are two melons in the bag. For five lira ($0.98 CAD, £0.57, €0.63) it’s hard to argue. Can see why he wasn’t eager to cut the sale in half. But will we be able to finish them?