Bowie in Bodrum

Advert from 1982

As I walked with Jake through the streets of Bodrum yesterday I heard David Bowie singing from many of the shops.  A fitting tribute to a hero who provided the sound track to my teenage life and beyond.  The opening bars of "Jean Genie" take me back to school and the wonderful feeling of first rebellion at listening to a strictly illegal radio on the edge of the hockey pitch.  I wondered if any of those working in the shops had been born when Bowie walked the streets of Bodrum in the flesh.  In 1981 and 82, Theseus of Attica, a beautiful old school Motor Yacht was based in Rhodes and thus frequently visited Bodrum.  Oona Chaplin was a regular charterer, and we yachties often came across her caftan draped figure in the local bays.  The crew of Theseus would tip us off when David Bowie was her guest and about to dock in Bodrum, so those in the know could sit in Raşit's Cafe and watch (at a respectful distance) their musical hero.  Sounds like stalking I know but the strange thing now is that we never took even one photo.  I've just googled David Bowie and Oona Chaplin and there seems doubt about the relationship between them but I well remember the crew of Theseus saying that they were having an affair and sharing a 91 feet of space, they would know. How different things would be today - we'd have been snapping photos left, right and centre on our phones and plastering them over the internet - But the crew would have signed water-tight confidentiality contracts so they wouldn't have been able to tip us off.   I prefer the former.