Did something to my back this morning and am now feeling quite miserable. It’s hard to stand up, especially from sitting. It’s sure to be temporary, but very dispiriting and it was truly unsettling to try to stand up and feel that my lower body is unable to support me. We had someone over for […]
Working hours
Had a meeting and have changed my work plans for the first half of this year to make them more reliable but also more restrictive. A bit of a hassle since we’re off to Egypt soon, but necessary if I’m to take a long break in the summer. What I’ll be working on is moderately […]
Beyond Balat
Yesterday was a sunny cold day so we went to Balat, walking down the new pathway along the Golden Horn which is a genuine delight. Such a change from when we first arrived, when there were countless immense roads with high-speed traffic to cross, and later, the never-ending construction zones. Now we can walk across […]
Spa day
Yesterday was spa day, and thus very hectic. First, my hour with the personal trainer, then a quick shower and dashing off to a salon to get my arms and legs waxed as the spa would require bare limbs. Then dash back to find the GF in the shower, so made my tea. Then took […]
Sun and rain
The morning was sunny after several days of living under a steel bowl. We went to Postane, the neighbourhood community centre and vegetarian cafe (which also provides our weekly vegetable box, yoghurt and, when available, fresh milk) for lunch. Postane can be hit and miss but is generally wholesome and today they had yayla corba, […]
Winter arrives in Istanbul
Winter begins properly today, the temperature has plummeted and the sky was heavy and grey, with the tiny pellet-like light rain that falls like snow. Unfortunately we have had to start reducing our heating temperature, as the underfloor heating must be taken down a degree a day, and we are going away soon. I bought […]
Pill bugs
Also known, according to Wikipedia, as roly polies, woodlice, slater bugs, cheesy bugs, sowbugs, doodlebugs, butcher boys, cellar bugs, carpenters, bed pissers, closed pork, parson’s pigs, bench biters, chiggy pigs, chuckie pigs, little pigs, potato bugs and gramersows, a list which one might reasonably be sceptical about, but in any event the scientific name for […]
Bus bhai bus
This morning we caught a bus, unusually, but something we has tried last weekend, and we’ve been rather slow in using the city’s bus system. There are a lot of buses, but there is also a lot of traffic and the buses are often crowded and their routes are not the clearest. The morning’s bus […]
Last sunny day
Today was the last sunny day in what has been a very warm winter thus far. From tomorrow onwards the clouds will come, and then next week the temperatures are due to drop to zero. I spent the day working, finishing up the final edit of a very interesting monograph, quite gripping as these things […]
Crack in the pan
I remember now why I stopped writing this blog. The day to day was too tedious to record, while the interesting was too interesting to bother with opening up my laptop and writing about it. So, today, a cracked earthenware oven dish. It didn’t even crack today, that was a few weeks ago, but today […]