This afternoon, as the cleaners came, we popped by the flat to meet the architect and give her a small payment for windows, show her the basement, and measure the wall where the projector screen will come. Then we walked through Galata’s light shops to get a sense of what is available – light switches, sockets, sconces, etc. Rather dismal, especially the light switches and sockets. I find it hard to get enthused about them, and they go in for very large ones in this country whereas I would rather something virtually invisible but with a good click. I was rather taken by some retro ceramic ones with a sort of copper key that had to be turned, but they were even more massive than the rest, and didn’t have a dimmer at all. The lights were slightly more promising as there was one shop which made copper or brsas lights to order.
It was definitely a tedious business though. When we parted from her we walked through some of the more boutiquey streets of Galata where we had seen lighting and similar shops, including one which turned out to deal in imported bathroom fittings, such as showers costing 4000 euros, well outside our budget. Nevertheless we did our best to impersonate people who were in the market for 4000 euro showers. Then to the Arcelik store, the Turkish brand of housewares where we looked at hobs, fridges etc. I don’t like the hobs but everything else looked quite acceptable. We’ll see.
The GF returned and I went on to Cihangir to buy some tarama for my breakfast. It was a sunny afternoon so I took a winding way back. On the way, my sister called and we had a pleasant chat (albeit with rather awful news about some relatives) and I walked along in that unseeing way where one is aware of immediate surroundings for navigation but not much more. SO I was surprised to find myself on a red carpet running down Istiklal street, with immense cameras and guns pointed at me, and seemingly thousands of people (about half in military attire) straining at metal barriers.
I eventually deduced that I had walked into the opening of a new museum, but there seemed rather a lot of firepower. There were even a couple of armed vehicles parked, with uniformed women holding Glocks or something equally lethal and opaque to me.
In any case, the street was very crowded indeed, and it made me think, truly the pandemic restrictions will not survive the coming of spring.