i havent been sleeping enough!

weird good week so far. 

new shoes. online. the rubber soles and heels make them comfy.

the huge Taksim construction these days. such a huge hole in the very center of the city. i saw this from the Simit Sarayi balcony when we went for a coffee with my old employer. 

turkey is full of herbs and all kinds of weird stuff that i dont know about. these shops are everywhere.


















Özsüt Cafe and a view to istiklal street. first time i ordered a coffee and got this thing. must be cos i havent ordered many coffees in my life time. anyway i figured it out....  i had a coffee with Hanna in Taksim. 

i bought ginger. no idea what i should do with it.Top Chef just had an episode where they had to make something from ginger, maybe i could go back to that and at least see how they prepared it, did they use is raw or boil it....???


















i had made a note of buying something that i read online was good for health and anti-inflammation (?!). then i was an idiot enough to write the name of the powder in turkish on the jar i put it in. now i dont remember what it is in english or finnish. maybe its not important, if i just remember to add this spice in foods.

flat screens on walls that play the tv channel with the fireplace are pretty common in bars. here's one.  i think this channel is almost as popular as the football channel...

i bought something for my earrings since i ran out of space.  a nice statuesque thing, where u can hang them.  

i met Gürkan tonight. he lost a tooth last night. looked scary. also i told him i think the amalgam fillings are probably not safe, thats the impression i got from finland. i think he is looking into it.

instant coffees is a big business here. many cafe's only have instant coffee. this is the shelf in my every day grocery store, pretty huge, i dont think the less popular filtered coffee fits in this photo. 

i cooked this the other night. it looks ugly! but in fact it was super tasty, spaghetti with minced meat and tomato and onion and mushrooms and...  yeah. of course i added some ketchup.