Rafters Restaurant, Ozanköy
A Night of Celebrations
By Margaret Sheard..
An entertainment evening at Rafters Restaurant in Ozanköy turned out to be a triple celebration so it was a brilliant evening wi
th a packed house and entertainment provided by Andrew Sings…..
Not being able to attend many of Andrew’s gigs, I was pleased to have the opportunity of a “girls’ night out” on the occasion of a visit by my niece, Lesley, to her mum and also a visit by Molly Taskiran who used to run Molly’s Place in Girne and had come over from the Isle of Wight where she now lives, for a week’s holiday with Carole Lloyd (NCCCT), so we had a lovely get-together.
The courtyard at the rear of the restaurant was full to capacity, not a spare seat to be found, and Abbas and his staff had their work cut out to deal with all of the people present, but they did a marvellous job. Andrew and Glen set up their equipment and Andrew treated us to some easy listening music while we dined. It wasn’t long however before people were up dancing,
Andrew and Glen were also pleased to welcome some of their friends from Fetiye in Turkey, one of the places they spent time in when they lived in Turkey.
We were aware that there was a birthday celebration that evening, with a party of 25 people to celebrate the birthday of Jan Ammann and then we were told there was another birthday celebration and also congratulations to a newly married couple who were spending 
their honeymoon in North Cyprus. It really was a triple celebration and it made the evening so enjoyable for everyone present.
After a short break part way through the evening Andrew and Glen returned to continue with more music, which now that everyone had pretty much finished eating was much more lively and again many people took to the floor to dance the night away. Having not had the opportunity of hearing Glen sing, which he only does when persuaded to do so, I spoke to him when we arrived and said I hoped he would sing that evening, and he did, so I was very pleased to hear him and he was very good.
Then came the moment for Jan’s birthday cake which Abbas presented with candles aflame and a rendition of Happy Birthday from everyone. A lovely way to spend a birthday evenin
g.
The music and dancing continued and I wandered around to find the honeymoon couple. This was Timo and Lucy Pappe who had married 5 days before and were enjoying their honeymoon here in North Cyprus. Lucy is from Pembrokeshire, Wales in the UK and Timo is Estonian and they are living in Norway. They looked so happy and there was a lovely touch later in the evening when Andrew called them to the dance floor for a special song which was “Lady in Red”, so very appropriate as Lucy was wearing a red dress.
A little later Abbas appeared with another birthday cake which was for Sezgin Özkirag Kayabaş who was celebrating her 31st birthday. Sezgin told me she lives in Girne and is a social worker. She was celebrating her birthday with her husband and 2 friends. There was another “Happy Birthday” song from the guests and lots of smiles all round.
This was a lovely evening with good company, good food and good music, what more could you ask for.
