Saturday brunch

We continued our exploration of nice Istanbul neighbourhoods, this time taking the ferry over to Kadikoy (and establishing along the way that the smaller pier has the better and more direct ferries) and walking through to Yeldeğirmeni, which I had just skirted a few weeks ago when I went to get my computer fixed and […]

Unexpected

This afternoon I had a call with a potential client to discuss the work and found, to my surprise, it was actually a job interview complete with questions beginning ‘Could you describe a time when…’. Maybe I am more confident than I used to be, or I don’t need the work as much as I […]

In the flow

This week’s tai chi lesson opened up today and managed to revive my interest in it after a slow start. This is the fourth week and for the first time we had a sequence of moves, in a flow. A pleasant change from week 1 (standing), week 2 (swinging arms) and week 3 (standing). At […]

Old fashioned salesmanship

In the morning our tiles arrived, terribly exciting to see them finally here, though heaven knows when they’ll be installed. Our architect was there and assured us that everything would kick into high gear next week. I am rather doubtful as the tone from her and from the contractor has had a tinge of the […]

Back to the markets

Today, Saturday, and the organic market in Ferikoy was on, so we strolled there. We took the route through Dolapdere, with its vertiginous stairs, crumbling churches and beautiful neighbourhoods, and up to Ferikoy itself. It is yet another of the parts of Istanbul with truly lovely old houses, easily the equal of Balat, but very […]

Missions

With lockdown due to start tomorrow, and yesterday’s mission being devoted to pleasure at the expense of the practical, this afternoon I went out with a detailed shopping list and a pre-planned itinerary. The first stop was the chemist, followed by a walk down Istiklal to the mobile phone shop where I topped up my […]

Lights

Our day’s excursion was to the lighting shops. We went to a place which makes bronze and copper lights, including to any design you specify, and seemed to have good quality and workmanship. Later, we found a few sites with stylish lights, and have a much better sense of what we might eventually use in […]

Delightful extravagance

This morning I looked out of the window and everything was snow covered. There was a strong flurry yesterday, which had been quite a shock – very large flakes and swirling like a snow globe – but nothing stuck. Clearly overnight it was cold enough that it did stick, at least for a few hours. […]