We were out of groceries and it was a sunny, if chilly, afternoon, so we decided to go out for lunch. It turned out to be very pleasant: we went to Cihangir, to a little hipster street food place. Under the new regulations there is no dining in, so we took our food to the […]
Despairing attempt
I made a despairing attempt at desi food last night. Without suitable spices etc it was quite poor. Generally my desi food game is not strong – it’s a lot of effort and when there is no one else to enjoy it it rarely feels worth the hassle. The GF quite likes it but would […]
Assassins we have known
A curious dinner party last night, replete with tales of assassins we have known told by one of the other guests, advice on where to buy ‘illegal meat’ (i.e. not slaughtered in an abattoir), and the best duck in Turkey which, it appears, is available at Ikea. All this over a rather spectacular dinner of […]
A beginning
Today – or, correctly, tomorrow – a magazine that I’d been working on with some others goes live. Admittedly, with only one story as the plan is to publish a story every few weeks and for 4 or 5 to comprise an issue. I think it’s a really interesting idea if we can keep it […]
Things that are keeping me up at night
Will there be an earthquake and the flat fall down? Will something go terribly wrong with the renovation? Will it go over budget? Will there be a problem with our visa application? Will someone in my family get COVID and I won’t be able to travel to them? Will there be a hard lockdown here […]
Man with a pickaxe
Today was the day work was to begin. We arrived at 8.30 to hand over the keys, waited for about 20 minutes sipping tea, and at last a van arrived full of men with a distressing number of pickaxes. They took the pickaxes to the flat, taking up the rotting floors and removing the kitchen […]
Two more mosques
Today was a funny, dissatisfied sort of day, though a pleasant one. Soon after the GF woke we went back to the Syrian place for a chickpea-based meal, again very delicious and this time there was no wait. Sadly they were out of the fatteh or rather, out of nuts to put on the fatteh […]
Ne plus ultra
A fairly satisfying sort of day today as we did a fair number of errands. First, we met our old estate agent at the new flat to look for electricity and water bills so they could be transferred over to us. We dutifully started by having a cup of Turkish cay each at the tea […]
No phones
Both of our phones have turned over and died due to various tedious reasons. Ah well, we did without mobile phones for half my life, and without data for three-quarters, so I daresay we’ll manage. It was a working day for me, though the GF ran a few errands and then I met him in […]
Three mosque day
It was a working day for me, though not for the GF, but when he said he was planning a tour of the mosques of Fatih, I of course joined him. So we took the metro to near the Istanbul University with its startling metro station, and went first to the Kalendarhane mosque. This is […]