I Have a Message for the Queen

I've had many adventures in my life, this particular one happened to have been filmed.

Video  I come in at 36:35

I used to work for a wealthy Turkish businessman who had a huge personality and incredible insight and vision.

One day as we were sitting in the office, he turned off his blaring music and said, "Hocam, invite the Queen of England to the opening of our yacht club." It didn't matter at all that our "yacht club" was only in name- we had no club location, no boats, no team- nothing. It really was just an idea. But that never stopped Mehmet- if he had an idea, the rest would work itself out.

And so I set to the task of inviting royalty to our yacht club opening. The first thing I did was to Google "how to address royalty in an invitation". I found some sites and crafted the invitation. Next, I called the palace to find out how to hand deliver an invitation to the queen. [Mehmet had me print out the invite on heavy, fancy paper and then he sealed it with sealing wax; yes, that is a glimpse into the enormity that was Mehmet.]

After being hung up on many times by Buckingham Palace's switchboard, I was finally directed to the Queen's personal secretary. He assured me that I could send the invite via DHL or Fedex, but I told him that my boss insisted it be hand delivered. I obtained the name, address, and phone number of Her secretary and proceeded to board a flight to London.

When I got to passport control, the young woman working there asked my purpose for visiting England. I told her that I had to drop off an invitation to the Queen and then I planned on light shopping and then back to Istanbul. At the mention of the Queen, things began to go south.

I was taken to a back room and questioned for hours. The clincher? They told me that they were filming the interaction for training purposes and would I mind so much if they kept the cameras rolling? Of course, I told them it wouldn't be a problem, and I told myself that I would have to be on my best behavior.

The thing that irked me in this whole interaction is the fact that I was truly expected by the Queen's personal secretary. All they had to do was to call him, confirm, and then let me on my way. Later, when I watched the video, I realized that they did exactly that right away, but still kept me there answering questions for hours. No shopping for me that day!

Mehmet passed away before the yacht club could be completed, but he left me with a lot of memories, this being the only one that was filmed.