It’s been a very wet May in the UK (with an average daily temperature of around 7, brr), I hear, and we got a little taste of it in Istanbul today as it rained and rained and rained. Our contractor’s son popped by to collect a payment, over an hour late as the Metro was […]
Out into the world
I made my first real trip out into the world today, as I had a doctor’s appointment at a hospital near Taksim Square. I took the Metro which was, happily, not too crowded (though on the escalator at Taksim someone kept crowding against me, and I felt too feeble to walk up to begin with, […]
Hard at work
The flat across the road is a source of constant entertainment. Right now a very hardworking influencer is filming herself (or being filmed by her boyfriend), walking towards the camera, the Bosphorus in the background, pause, ruffle hair, fling to side, extend 1 leg from little black dress, lean forward, turn, walk. And repeat. And […]
Restless
Lockdown comes to an end quite soon – tomorrow is the final day, and the government has said it will announce what comes next on Monday. So I daresay Monday itself will be a sort of free for all. The GF is quite restless and fed up. I’m fed up too, but also I feel […]
On duty
A brief excursion today, to the chemist on duty about 15 minutes away. The chemists here take turns to remain open on weekends and public holidays, a rather good system as you can always find out where to go. Of course it was a little crowded and there was a queue, and once inside I […]
Slapstick
This morning, I was idly looking out of the window when I saw what appeared to be a very large duvet walking across the terrace of one of the flats opposite. It soon resolved itself into a large man bundled in a duvet. From this a hand emerged and dragged over a seat. This is […]
Happy endings
Yesterday, Saturday, was the day the government had decided, somewhat belated, to allow farmers to bring their produce to sell at Istanbul’s street markets. Why supermarkets are allowed to function in a lockdown but open air street markets are not remains a mystery for the ages – but so little of the pandemic response has […]
A small tumult
News from Lahore, of a marriage planned. It was not unexpected at all, but both very pleasing and very sad as the intended is the offspring of a dead parent’s dearest childhood friend, and she would have been very happy indeed. Although also, undeniably, the tumult would be a large one, not small. Also, I […]
Ups and downs
I woke up with a headache after a disturbed sleep and had the sort of day where I kept drinking water hoping to wash away the headache to no avail. I did get started on work at least, and did a few chaptres of the book I am to finalise, and also learned that a […]
Missing landlords past
This evening we got a message in Turkish on the WhatsApp group for our building – there was water leaking from our flat, it was urgent. We dashed over, and of course were completely incapable of understanding where the water was coming from, or of understanding the neighbour who reported it. Fortunately it was the […]