Last night in a fit of unusual sociability, the GF and I went with an artist friend to the opening of a show at a gallery in Cihangir. It was a tiny space, the basement of a building so very arty. The first person met was a European photographer who had just come from giving […]
Weekend tombs
Among the delights of our current way of living is that weekends take on themes and routines that never become stale. Here, in Egypt, living within an easy stroll of the Valley of Kings, what is there to do but to visit tombs of a weekend. We began with a lunch of koshary at a […]
Winter arrives in Istanbul
Winter begins properly today, the temperature has plummeted and the sky was heavy and grey, with the tiny pellet-like light rain that falls like snow. Unfortunately we have had to start reducing our heating temperature, as the underfloor heating must be taken down a degree a day, and we are going away soon. I bought […]
Mall aesthetic
Today we decided to go and explore the Camlica mosque, the immense structure built on a hill on the Asian side, dominating that view. It required a ferry to Uskudar and then a metro and then a climb up a hill past a place where we had lunch (kuru fasulye) and up through a large […]
Shared experiences
I have just returned from the second play that I have left during the interval. The last one was Macbeth in Malaysia, uncut and performed in full, very poorly, with some nods to Chinese opera. It was dire and, at the interval, the GF and I realised that we were only two hours in and […]
The Globe
Met a friend, one repeatedly met, for a post-lunch walk with the GF. He managed to chart a really nice way through Islington and over to Shoreditch. London is a very green city sometimes. It made me quite nostalgic for London, though the warm weather certainly contributed. We ended up in Whitechapel and then got […]
City palaces
In the morning I went to Suan Pakkad, which is the home of a princely family, now turned into a sort of museum of their personal collections. It’s laid out in a series of Thai wooden stilt houses connected by walkways, and the houses were generally the best part of it as the collections themselves […]
Escape to the city
This morning I took the metro into the city to meet someone for brunch. It was in Surry Hills, near the train station. Nice to get out and at least somewhat by myself, and a very great relief to have brunch, as I have eaten nothing but biryani and haleem (and yesterday’s cake) since Sunday. […]
The past
This morning, or rather early afternoon, we rented a car to take us to a pepper farm. In the morning I woke up early as usual, bought some rice and assorted meats from the breakfast woman along with a steamed dumping containing coconut. and then read for a couple of hours. At some point the […]
Story, spectacle
Last night we went to watch the new Punchdrunk production, The Burnt City. They do immersive theatre, so one wanders around rooms, corridors and huge spaces where a story is playing out. The audience wears masks, so there is a feel of ghosts following the only real people in the space, the actors themselves. For […]