Christmas with Near East Bank

On 13th December, the Near East Bank in Karaoĝlanoĝlu held a Christmas cheer get-together for its customers which is a nice gesture.

We arrived at the bank just after 4pm to find a very festive atmosphere with beverages being served and lovely plates of nibbles dotted around.   There were beautiful festive decorations on the coffee tables and when talking to David Hillier, who has recently left the bank to pursue another career and was there to lend a helping hand, he said he had done the catering and I was told he made the table decorations as well.   I must say his mince pies were out of this world.

We managed to say hello to the Manager, Naci Karanlık and Customer Representative, Tyra Abdullah as well as some of the familiar faces amongst the customers.

We had been made aware of a new pet insurance scheme which Near East Bank are offering to cover dogs and cats.  Basically the cover is for pets over 8 weeks old and in the case of death of a pet the maximum ages are 10 years old for dogs and 9 years old for cats.   Certain breeds of dogs are not accepted for cover.  The cover also includes overseas travel and quarantine costs.  We were given documentation about the scheme but it is too comprehensive to list everything here so if you are interested in taking out insurance for your pet, contact Near East Bank for more information.

Unfortunately we were not able to stay very long for the Christmas get-together as our Turkish class was beckoning so we had to say our farewells to the staff of a very nice friendly bank.   On the way out we were given 2 lovely presentation boxes, each containing a delicious cake festively decorated and I understand this was again the handiwork of David Hillier.   I have since sampled them and I must say they were mouth-wateringly good.

By Margaret Sheard