I have noticed more and more people around my age – or younger – talking about how free children used to be when we were all young, and how sad it is that children today don’t have the same liberties that we did. Certainly, times have changed; there was a single state TV channel until […]
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Flamingo wall
Our architect has annoyed me. I asked her to provide the electrical wiring plan so we can approve it, and instead she has sent a photo of a custom-printed wallpaper of giant flamingos.
Liverish
I was feeling a little short of iron today, so ordered in a plate of liver with pomegranate molasses. It came with a selection of mezze and some naan, so I made a rather delicious little wrap with tabbouleh and baba ghanoush and a drizzle of tahini. A delicious lunch, but it has made it […]
Plans, plans
The architect has sent a floor plan, all tremendously exciting. This one shows the final structure, though I will make some changes in the bathroom configuration. Otherwise it is very close to final. The GF and I, during our stroll yesterday, also thought about colours etc, and decided we definitely didn’t want the beige hotel […]
Stopped at the gates
Our plan, to visit a graffitied house in Kadikoy, was thwarted this morning as the city has decreed that all travel cards should be linked to the HES codes allocated to track the virus. We all have HES codes as they were needed for inter-city travel and – more relevantly for us – to enter […]
A few errands
This morning I finished up the bulk of the report I was working on – due tonight – and then the cleaners arrived so the GF and I left so they could do their work. We went off for a fairly extended stroll, peeping into some of the Cukurcuma antique shops, stopping for a Thai […]
A happy chance
We had to go to the flat today to discuss with the contractor and architect some decisions and instead of being the usual thing where we stared foolishly as the contractor tried to explain in Turkish, it turned out to be a very useful session indeed. This is because I overheard two of his workers […]
Weight lifted
Trump is gone, and a weight is lifted. Now America can go back to being its usual bad self, instead of this weird bad self. Though I doubt it will ever be the exact bad self it was. While I see the value of reinforcing the national narrative, there did seem something hubristic about the […]
Voice
I had occasion to listen to a recording of myself leading a meeting on Zoom, and was quite shocked at my voice and speaking style. For one, in my own ears my voice is quite harsh and I must constantly try to moderate it and file down its edges, but in the recording it seemed […]
A nickname
I had an early jolt this morning when I woke up to a conversation between my siblings wondering what a particular word referred to. This was a nickname given to me by our grandfather who died nearly 30 years ago; no one else uses it other than one of his children, very occasionally. It was […]