It’s hard in the moment to make sense of the significance. I see online the shock and horror people are feeling, and some of the images are as memorable as the grainy ones seared into my memory of soldiers climbing like rats over the walls of the PTV building, the state broadcaster in Pakistan. After […]
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Beastman
Startled to glance at the news to see a photo of a bare chested beastman brandishing a spear storming the US Capitol. Moved over to the CNN website to see what was going on, and saw the headline: ‘House members in chamber told they may need to duck under their chairs’. Remarkable times we live […]
Silent admiration
A moment of silent admiration for the person who sent me an edited document and carefully used font colours and strike-through formatting to replicate the appearance of track changes.
Bad egg
One of the eggs we bought from the farm yesterday was bad, so the poor GF had to redo all of lunch. Today we are both back to work, at least the GF is back to work and I never really stopped. Other than that, the only notable thing to report from today is that […]
Important people
In the morning we went off to the northern Bosphorus to visit a friend who has a house there at a rather pretty spot which opens up towards the Black Sea. We arrived in time for brunch and a TV show the friend had been awaiting, featuring an important person they knew. So they propped […]
Scutari to Chalcedon
We took the ferry to Uskudar today, after some hemming and hawing and backing and forthing about what to do, where to go, etc etc. Eventually we went to Uskudar, Scutari as was, partly because of a relative of mine who often sings a Turkish song that goes Üsküdar’a gider iken. As usual the ferry […]
Closing up
Good morning, happy new year all. It poured with rain this morning. Last night, at midnight, the church bells rang out and I could hear the sound of fireworks and people cheering. For myself, I clicked send on a particularly troublesome document, so celebrated in style. I was asleep for what was truly on my […]
New year
Couldn’t put it better than Samuel Beckett:
Punching octopuses
There was a social media flurry a few days ago about octopuses that punch fish, seemingly for no reason. Sometimes, it appears, there is a reason. This fascinating article is about octopus hunting parties, where the octopus is a hunter and is accompanied by a motley band of fish who act something like hunting dogs […]
Nearly the end
Nearly the end of the year. An artificial marker, perhaps, but I am rather tired and I hope the next year is less tiring. I don’t think it will be. There is a lot of worry and weariness to come – pandemic, work, this bloody flat, etc. And those are just the ones I can […]