The Foreign Residents in the TRNC (TFR)

TFR Christmas Dinner 2014

by Ralph Kratzer

More than 100 members of the association The Foreign Residents in the TRNC (TFR) accepted the invitation of the Committee for the Christmas Dinner 2014.

The festive event was held last Sunday at the newly opened Merit Royal Premium Hotel in Alsancak.

To get to the point at the beginning of this post – it should have been a great evening, but there were things that pressed a little bit on the mood of some guests. However, one after the other.

The access road and the hotel itself were festively lit and the room, which hosted the dinner was beautifully decorated, including two tables with numerous prizes for the evening’s raffle. This was, not least, thanks to the strenuous efforts of a few members of the TFR.

At the entrance, the guests were welcomed by the members of the Board, Brad and Ralph, and most took their first welcome drink. In addition, lots of tickets were already sold for the charity raffle.

At 7pm every table was occupied and the festive evening began with a speech by the chairman Heinz. Then Brad and his efficient assistants Kath and Sarah began with the raffle.

The dinner itself was served as a buffet. I know many people love this because they have bigger choice of different dishes, but some people, myself included, are not fans of buffets.  Generally I do not like standing in line somewhere. But as the guests were invited to the buffet table by table, too long queues and crowds were successfully avoided.

The buffet itself was, as far as it concerned starters and dessert, not a lot to be desired. So I was more surprised by the quality of the main course. It was, in my view, more like canteen food than a Christmas dinner. And this, although chairman Heinz and I had discussed everything in detail in advance with the responsible staff of the hotel. I will not go into details, but sometimes long waiting times until empty bain-maries were refilled and the food itself did not conform to the usual standard of this hotel. However, the main point of criticism was, what had been discussed before with the hotel management by the TFR-Committee and then announced to the members, was simply not served!

After dinner, raffle was continued. Lucky winners picked out their prizes.

Brad acted as the MC or Conférencier of the evening and entertained the guests with his funny sayings. In addition, the 2014 winners of the monthly TFR bowling event “Cup of the Nations” were awarded.

Carolyn and Horst finally gave a repeat of their last year´s well received comedy sketch “Dinner for One”, this time unfortunately on very limited space and for some guests at remote tables not easily seen.

Nevertheless, the mood among the TFR-members remained good, even if there were partial delays in subsequent orders of coffee and brandy. I personally had no problems with it  because I gave up coffee and went straight over to Brandy (which was oddly served in a whisky glass?).

The feedback from the majority of guests directly in the evening and later by email was very positive and the Christmas Dinner all in all a very successful event!

Last but not least: The raffle yielded the fabulous amount of 1855 TL and this money will be donated for the benefit of the Caglayan Orphanage in Lefkosa. Many thanks to all donors!

To view more pictures of the event in a slideshow – click here!