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 […]

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 […]

Poison for dinner

Last night I nearly poisoned us both. I was experimenting with mahlep, a Turkish spice and misread a Google Translate version of a recipe and put in 2 tb instead of what I assume was supposed to be 2 tsp. It tasted rather strongly of bitter almonds, so I looked it up online to learn […]

Day 1

it is Day 1 of Turkey’s Ramazan lockdown. While the streets feel fairly deserted, it’s by no means the ghost town we heard of last year, with dolphins swimming in the Golden Horn etc. Was it like this then, and am I just used to this business of shutting down a city of millions for […]

Missions

With lockdown due to start tomorrow, and yesterday’s mission being devoted to pleasure at the expense of the practical, this afternoon I went out with a detailed shopping list and a pre-planned itinerary. The first stop was the chemist, followed by a walk down Istiklal to the mobile phone shop where I topped up my […]

Tulips and hyacinths

With lockdown due to start on Thursday, the GF and I decided to go out this afternoon for supplies that may become harder to get hold of in the days to come. But first we walked across the Galata Bridge for a cup of coffee in the pleasant square between the Yeni mosque and the […]