The inventor of the cassette tape has died, having outlived his invention by decades. How odd it must have been to invent something so important at the time, to have it entirely superseded by another of your inventions (he was also involved in developing the CD) and then blown away completely by electronic vibrations in […]
End of Buddhism
I read an interesting article today, an academic history about the fading away of Buddhism in South Asia. It was a bit of a surprise to me, as it was about how the claims that Buddhism was eradicated by the coming of Islam – whether by outright temple destruction or simply by conversion from an […]
Terrible people
The newspapers, the internet, all available social media and I daresay a good bit of English language television and radio as well is plastered with the Oprah interview with Prince Harry and Meghan. I gave in and watched the clip where Meghan reveals that a member of the royal family had muttered something about the […]
Twice burnt
We went to the flat this afternoon and were surprised and pleased to see that the plumbing has begun, with sloping drainage pipes running through the walls. We stood in the kitchen to see if yesterday’s decisions were the right ones. They were, I think. Then we came back and I put on the beans, […]
Harrowing day
The morning started with a phone call: my grandmother is not well again. We left for our Ikea appointment to order our kitchen. It was not a good journey: the day had turned cold and grey, with a bit of rain. It was also the first weekend day after the lifting of lockdown and the […]
Vitiating
A soul draining start to the afternoon. We had a nice stroll up to Nisantasi, and on the way got a call about progress on our flat which was very reassuring. With the language barrier it is very hard to work out what exactly is going on sometimes. We were going to the Vitra showroom, […]
Red carpet
This afternoon, as the cleaners came, we popped by the flat to meet the architect and give her a small payment for windows, show her the basement, and measure the wall where the projector screen will come. Then we walked through Galata’s light shops to get a sense of what is available – light switches, […]
Tile decisions
After lunch, the GF and I took a ferry to Uskudar – I will never grow tired of the ferry – and then a taxi about 10km inland to Ataşehir, a satellite town full of skyscrapers. I understand it’s a fairly desirable place to live, but felt rather grotesque, with huge glassy skyscrapers and massive […]
For great justice
Twenty years ago, give or take a few days, one of the original memes spread across college computers. It was everywhere for a while, partly it was novelty as there were not so many other memes competing with it. Strange to think this was before even 9/11. In honour of the days when a meme […]
End of an age
An elderly relative of the GF died last night, the last of her generation. So they are all gone now, the ones who grew up on pre-war country estates in an imperial age. She was one of those who flourished in the war, going from those country estates and palace receptions to intelligence work wartime […]