This morning I came up with what seemed to me a very clear way to decide whether we should buy the fixer upper flat. This was: to imagine oneself living in it, doing the days of day to day life, and then considering whether it was right. If not, to consider it as an investment […]
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Looking back
There is a bit of this-ing and that-ing about the Caliphate podcast which I listened to a couple of years ago. Curious to see my brief notes from that listen and how they completely miss the controversies of both then and now.
Abort, abort
Yesterday afternoon we went to Eyup, an old mosque and graveyard which lies further up the Golden Horn than we’ve been to date. We got a ride to the foot of the cable car that takes one up to the top, to find a really, really long queue. We waited about 30 minutes, during which […]
Witches of Scutari
We took our second trip to Asia, this time by walking along the coast (a bit inland to avoid the dust and traffic) to Kabataş, through quiet streets lined with little old blocks of flats and past the place we are moving to next week. It’s a far more residential bit than the beautiful Galata […]
Don’t buy it
Yesterday, after work, the GF and I went down to Taksim Square where we were going to see a flat that had been renovated by an architect we’d met, to see how we liked the work. It turned out that she hadn’t actually done the renovation at all, just her company had, so that made […]
Aptly named
Since the GF and I went our separate ways for lunch I took the opportunity to try what is supposed to be one of the best purveyors of kokoreç, a Greek/ Turkish/ Balkan speciality of grilled lamb intestines stuffed with sweetbreads here, in Turkey, usually eaten as a sandwich. it is rather well-named since the […]
Faulty defence
Read an interview with someone arguing for court packing the US Supreme Court. I have to say, it has rather convinced me the other way, though admittedly I already had a somewhat regressive fondness for norms and steering ships slowly rather than running through and breaking (other people’s) things. Though the argument that climate change […]
Incentives for childbearing
Shared by a Facebook friend who works in Silicon Valley: Someone told me once that becoming a mother can make you a better employee because it increases your ability to prioritise what is important and manage your time. I think there is some truth in that. – Lauren Freeman, some other woman who works in […]
Camels in the sea
Read a fascinating article today about seafaring camels in Kutch. I wonder if there are some in Badin, where my family has some lands but where I’ve never been.
Rushed
Our flat buying proceeds apace, but suffered a bit of a setback today. We are more or less settled on our fixer-upper, assuming it goes through – if not, whatevs – but the GF went today with a contractor to see what needed to be done, and was basically ambushed by a lot of men […]