blog

Cut from a carnivore

I returned to the hairdresser who gave me my last cut, once again an embarrassing length of time since the last one (though slightly less embarrassing than the last). I went there largely because I’d been putting off going to the GF’s good hairdresser for a few weeks as they take bookings on the phone […]

Angry Americans

At coffee in Cihangir today we sat next to an American on the phone and, of course, eavesdropped with great interest. He was talking to some sort of helpline in the US, to find out if he could get his first dose of the vaccine here in Turkey and then the second dose in the […]

Grief receding

I wonder if others are relieved when the intensity of grief fades? I find it sad in itself, this receding of grief. There were years when 15 June was almost unbearable, once I even left work early because I couldn’t bear the date. This year was not like that, the least like that. Even the […]

Chief mourners

Every bereavement has a chief mourner, I think, for whom the others give their own grief second place, and who becomes the symbol of having lost for those outside an inner circle. The one whose grief overwhelms all others like a wave. Is it simply the one whose grief is most visible? I think that’s […]

Struggling for a jab

We learned that we might well be eligible, or nearly eligible, for a vaccination here in Turkey, but had to go through a fairly long registration process. This entailed, first, going to the post office for a government website password to be texted to us, then return to the computer to register on the website, […]