Buying a Turkey? Don't Forget Your Measuring Tape!

I went to the store to buy our Thanksgiving turkey. Of course, they don't really celebrate Thanksgiving here. After Halloween, it is Christmas, Christmas, Christmas. But our neighborhood has a lot of Americans, so the local merchants have adapted - urging us to order our turkeys early, stocking cranberries early, advertising the right wine to go with our turkeys. Since we don't have a car the shopping has to be done in stages. I can only carry home so much on the bus! Adding to the degree of difficulty is my oven. We have a smaller oven on top and only a slightly larger oven on the bottom. The top oven has worked but only can fit an 11 X 7 pan - hardly large enough for a chicken let alone a turkey. The larger oven has a broken temperature dial which I have been after our building repair man to fix since we moved here but although he is very kind, he seems to have lost our address because he hasn't made it here yet. I think I can get the oven up to 425 degrees so I am going to cross my fingers on Thanksgiving that it will all work out okay. So off I went to the grocery store. When I got there, the turkey bin was completely empty!!! Had all the Americans scurried down here and gobbled up all the turkeys? Did the early Americans get the birds? I spoke to the manager, with a slight shrill to my voice, I admit. No, not all the turkeys were gone but the refrigeration was broken in that bin. So he had to go to the back to get a turkey. So what size did I want? Well, I told him, pulling out my measuring tape - it could be no bigger than 38 cm because that was the biggest pan I could get in my oven. I showed him on the measuring tape. We looked at several turkeys, my friend Tony & I, measuring each turkey to see if it would fit. Tony took it all in stride. He confided he had alot of American customers but none had asked him up to this point to measure their turkeys. Finally we agreed that the fourth turkey was the perfect size and I brought it home. I wonder why Martha and Williams Sonoma don't have a measuring tape on their Thanksgiving checklists? Now I have to try and fit the turkey in my tiny, tiny fridge. Oh the glamour of an international life!