I returned to the hairdresser who gave me my last cut, once again an embarrassing length of time since the last one (though slightly less embarrassing than the last). I went there largely because I’d been putting off going to the GF’s good hairdresser for a few weeks as they take bookings on the phone […]
Angry Americans
At coffee in Cihangir today we sat next to an American on the phone and, of course, eavesdropped with great interest. He was talking to some sort of helpline in the US, to find out if he could get his first dose of the vaccine here in Turkey and then the second dose in the […]
Chief mourners
Every bereavement has a chief mourner, I think, for whom the others give their own grief second place, and who becomes the symbol of having lost for those outside an inner circle. The one whose grief overwhelms all others like a wave. Is it simply the one whose grief is most visible? I think that’s […]
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 […]
Another day lost
It was a pleasant sort of day, but felt like another day lost, largely because I was trying to draw a short comic and didn’t get anywhere. I’m in charge of the magazine’s social media this week and have no idea whatsoever what to post. I had one post on Middlemarch on Monday, then today […]
Over the hill
The GF had today off, and I had finished my work on Sunday, aside from the social media posts for the week. I finished up Monday’s lot and sent them off, and then got asked to look at the layout for a document I’d edited, and was appalled at the number of errors – it […]
A very long blink
The city has truly unfurled in the sun and with many lockdown restrictions gone. There is a different feel to the streets, it’s like there has been a very long blink, and what was before was Istanbul in September or October, and then there is now. There are many more people in the streets, there […]
Another island
It was a bank holiday for the GF and I had arranged my work so I didn’t have anything today, so we took a ferry to another of the Princes Islands, this time to Kinaliada. It was a less sunny day than the last time we went over, and in fact it pelted with rain […]
A moderate success
The workshop is over, and it was a moderate success. The timing was very poorly managed, and my technical skills were not up to managing breakout rooms etc so that was a fiasco, but my bit of the presentation was ok, and I think most people appreciated the one-on-one discussions (other than the time issue). […]
Back to the grind
Though it was Sunday I had a rather hardworking day, not that weekends mean much in pandemic life (or, truthfully, in my non-pandemic life). I felt a little better for most of the day, well enough to work but not so well as to stand or walk much, so finished some long-pending work, started on […]