In the morning we went to Beşiktaş to the breakfast street, and then strolled through the neighbourhood and up to what was once an Ottoman weekend cottage set in the countryside and today is a pair of baroque houses set in a small park tightly engirdled by busy road. The gardens were pleasant, with residents […]
Golden city
Our flat in Istanbul has the most ridiculous views. One series of windows looks out over the Bosphorus, with the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque in clear view. Another window faces down a narrow old street, at the end of which is the Galata tower. In the evenings, at sunset, the coast of Asia […]
Long day’s travel
We’ve arrived. We left Tainan around noon, a taxi to the HSR and then a train ride to Taoyuan. It was the usual one and a half hour, which seems to be the journey time in Taiwan, regardless of where one is going. At the station we were met by the Boddhisattva and the Woodland […]
Waste of a day
A terrible day and a terrible night before it, much of it awake and in pain. Woke up and got dressed, and threw up out of pain, then felt too drained and weak to even make my tea in the morning. When the GF woke up he made me some tea and a slice of […]
Last weekend in Taiwan
Today was our last Sunday here and we visited a few favourite spots: the Matzu, Confucius, Koxinga and God of War temples, a stop at Kaffun for coffee, and of course collecting our pre-ordered cake from the bakery downstairs. We also popped into the Lady Lishui temple, which is dedicated to childbirth and indeed, in […]
Great disaster
Eid began with leftovers as I ate the daal from a few days ago for breakfast. Rather pitiful, since it was stale and old and not at all Eid fare, but it was what I had that felt like home. Also, two cups of tea instead of my usual rigidly rationed one. When the GF […]
Chaand raat
It’s chaand raat in Pakistan, officially if not actually (it should actually have been last night, but the ongoing spat between the Moonsighting Committee and the Minister for Science and Technology led to Eid being declared for tomorrow in Pakistan instead of today). I ended up with something quite similar to the chaand raat of […]
Tatami afternoon
Our guests left this afternoon, but before that we went to a matcha teahouse in an old Japanese house, very rickety indeed, for lunch and tea. Our plan had been to then get the train to the Chimei museum, a somewhat ridiculous seeming place, part US Capitol and part Versailles, with a collection of Western […]
Finger on the pulse
Last night the Boddhisattva and the Woodland Creature came down for the weekend — lovely to see them, also a pleasant reminder that it is much nicer to see friends when one doesn’t live with them. We went for lunch to the nearby noodle spot, slightly better than adequate this time, and then on to […]
Submarining
A small nod to yesterday as I found an attractive squid, waved it at the GF and brought it home for dinner (to eat, not to host). Also had an extended moment of work-related panic as I had to give a quote for a project and, as usual found myself virtually incapable of calculating how […]