Today, we went to Nisantasi with the intent of going on to one of the markets. Unsurprisingly, it was closed, what with it being a lockdown, but on the way we explored some interesting new streets, including one lined with cake shops. Finding the market closed led to a minor crisis as the GF was […]
Big news
You know the death of Prince Philip is big news when it displaces, in short order, from the top of the Guardian’s list of most viewed news articles both ‘Tui plane in “serious incident” after every “Miss” on board was assigned child’s weight’ and ‘A maggot hatched from my head’.
Absurdism
I was so angry I went to my room with my iPad. X told me he is reading a book by Albert Camus. He said Albert Camus writes absurdism. So I looked for an absurdist film to watch on Netflix. Then I fell asleep.
Good neighbours
The (hopefully) final blast of winter is here, cold, grey and wet. Hopefully just till tomorrow and then the forecast says temperatures should climb and the sun should emerge. The relative has rallied a little. He has been conscious throughout, and it must be terrifying to be in that high oxygen room surrounded by PPE. […]
Waiting
This morning news came that the relative by marriage is not doing well. His organs are shutting down. His child sent me a heartbreaking voice message asking me to recite a prayer for him, holding his face and name in my mind. It is the prayer of Jonah in the belly of the whale, a […]
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 […]
Easter quest
This morning, Easter Sunday, the GF woke with a quest in mind. So off we went to Kurtulus, in search of a legendary baker of Greek Easter bread, described as brioche-like, flavoured with mastic and mahlep, and baked by a Turkish family whose patriarch had been apprenticed to an old Rum baker. We went on […]
Sad news
The GF and I stepped out for an early spring stroll, on a pleasantly warm day, and stopped at the flat where they were busy plastering over the electrical wiring and the plumbing. It is really coming together beautifully and now, for the first time, I can imagine living in it. While I was there […]
Day off
A partial day off today, the first in long time. I finished up in the morning, and then the GF and I went for breakfast, after a very long time indeed. The plan was to go to Nisantasi and stock up on bulgur etc from our favourite shop there, but instead we wandered through Cihangir, […]
Close to home
The coronavirus is running rampant in Pakistan, thank heavens my father and grandmother should have their second vaccinations next week, assuming they don’t run out of doses. A pair of relatives by marriage are quite unwell and have only just been diagnosed, so it is many days before they will be safely on the road […]