Sunday on the peninsula

This afternoon we went for the reverse of a couple of walks we had done before: first to Balat, along the water on a walkway that has only recently opened up and that had nice views over to the Pera/ Kasimpasha shore of the Golden Horn. We had coffee at the usual place, sitting on […]

Lights, lights, lights

Today we went and ordered most (though not all) of the lights for the flat. The place the GF had discovered seemed to have good quality and was certainly a slick operation, very helpful folks. So we have ordered single and double spots for the side lights, rod-shaped hallway lights, pendants for the kitchen, and […]

Despair

The new IPCC report has been released, and the desire to just roll over and close my eyes and pretend to be asleep till I die is very great. The one cheerful thing today was listening to a podcast about Emmy Noether and while I can’t say I really understood her breakthroughs it was a […]

Horrors returning

Afghanistan falls, bit by bit to the Taliban. What was the point of the past 20 years? Pakistan bears so much guilt which will never be acknowledged or accepted. It was a bad situation, yes, but I can’t believe the decisions made were the right ones for anyone – not Pakistan, not Afghanistan. There is […]

56 years

Well, England lost and a nation mourns. The GF is very cast down, a lover of football who has never seen his national team win. I at least saw Pakistan win at cricket when I was 11, so got that out of the way early, when it still mattered. We watched it on a rather […]

Three goddesses

After yesterday’s slightly overwhelming day, today we decided to stay around Selcuk, which is a lovely little town. It’s bisected by a road, with the markets and other things on one side and the sights and old houses (many now turned into guesthouses) on the other side. We started with the museum which was fairly […]

A well-oiled pilgrimage

A fine breakfast this morning and then we took the dolmuş down to Selcuk. It was all very easy – the dolmuş goes every 20 minutes, costs 5 lira per person, making the journey feel smooth and spontaneous. But like and quite unlike our journeys in Beitou about 18 months ago. At the foot of […]

Back to the doctor

After last night’s consultation I caved and returned to the hospital seeking a doctor. It was not easy as walking is difficult and my hands are rather grotesque at the moment. Nevertheless I made it there by taxi, to a nice older woman with an interpreter. She is a dermatologist so was more interested in […]