» Conned

Master Haggler
I had just flown into Istanbul (not Constantinople) and had successfully defended my wallet from a Taxi driver with his meter on Night Rate instead of the cheaper Day Rate and I was feeling like the extremely well-seasoned traveler.

I was dropped off at the Blue Mosque and wanted to take some photos of it. I hadn't bought any film as everything in pounds is hideously expensive and thought I'd haggle my way to some cheap film!

Me: 3 rolls of film please.
Storekeeper: 140 million please (I've forgotten the actual number but Turkish lira was in the millions just to get a plate of rice)
Me: Ha! How about I only pay 100 million
Him: OK

I walked away with the bargain of the century, leveraging my strong currency against his weak currency, until i realised I'd converted it in my head the wrong way and I'd paid £76 for 3 rolls of film.

Best photos I've ever taken though. They had to be for £25 a roll!
(Fri 19th Oct 2007, 15:41, More)

» Guilty Pleasures, part 2

My own guilty pleasure is right now.....
Ok. So I was in a costume store looking for "the right" costume when I overheard a nice looking couple walk in and ask the costume assistant for help.

"We're looking for star wars costumes" they ask.
The assistant responds "Well we have a Princess Leia costume for you "(the girl).

The guy asks "What do have for me?"

The assistanct replies "We have an Obe wan kenobe costume... umm we have a Han solo... oh no.. he's rented out already... I'm sure we've got a Luke Skywalker.. no i'm afraid we've only got a childrens Luke skywalker left. We've not much else!"

The nice couple look at each other trying to decide what to do when I could help but interject with "It looks like Obe Wan Kenobe is your only hope."

So what's my guilty pleasure? Cheating at the B3ta comp and answering last weeks question with an answer I thought of too late... oh yeah that feels good.
(Fri 14th Mar 2008, 23:51, More)