Last month we reported on the new Turkish Car Visa system (equivalent to MOT) when the Fethiye Times scooter passed on first attempt.

Now read the much more harrowing account of the village wing’s gas-fired Kartal going through its visa process.

Regular readers may recall the last time the village wing’s car gained its visa in January 2007.

It took a couple of days and was fairly easy - as easy as anything can be in Turkey.

Two years later, January 2009, it’s visa time again and having seen the new testing facilities at TÜV, we knew it wasn’t going to be easy.

So a whole working week was set aside to go through the visa process – and this is what happened on Day 1, Monday 26th January.

The car is delivered to our favourite mechanic, Sakip, for a thorough visa workup.

This writer retires to the Gar Lokanta for a Turkish breakfast followed by no less than 13 teas over the six hours I spend there.

The six hours were needed though as new headlights, rear lights, various suspension items, brakes and other things needed to be replaced or adjusted. Even the heater, which wasn't working, was repaired as this was a requirement for the test.

At the end of that time I am assured the car is ready and the gas experts have checked the LPG system and that is also in fine shape.

I did spend the six-hour wait working: translating using pen and paper rather than a computer keyboard, but it was still a long day…………little did I know what was yet to come.