trip down memory lane

Istanbul trip done. certainly a first world prob but it made me so tired... its the conundrum of wanting to see all my friends but that requires scheduling and makes things busy and exhausting. anyway, met friends, old neighbors, ate some nice foods and enjoyed the sceneries and weather. kadiköy was pretty much the way we left it, it was lovely to be back. Arttu also joined us for 5 days, its not just us who missed istanbul :D

our our home has become a  studio for dance, music etc. i bet the landlady gets much better rent from a business, too.

late high cholesterol lunch with Cansu

 Kadiköy cats = love

the night life of kadiköy... sitting on the terrace at 10pm when its still 25C at least. loooovely. for Arttu's visit, we had an airbnb booked on this street.

turkish breakfast an Zeytin

bought a few nail polishes from istanbul...  

i was surprised the mail depot was open on sunday, i had a note from Royal Mail to pick up a package so i went to get it. my usual mail man was there behind the desk, so he said he knows me, i dont need to show ID. reminded me of turkey, the friendliness. in istanbul, one of my favorite things was the neighboring shops and going and saying hello, and it warmed my heart how excited they were to see me/us. asking how life in 'ingiltere' is and so forth. i missed those people a lot.

istanbul (sultanahmet in the bg) from our friends place. 

a while ago me and doctor were celebrating our month-versary at a nearby turkish-middle eastern restaurant.

at our local Ethiopian restaurant with Can when he visited.

 when not eating out, i sometimes enjoy the delicacies prepared by our in-house chef, doctor. he just whipped this up the other day when i was crying for a snack. he is easy to love :)

i figured i should have proper rain boots ie wellingtons if i live in London. these fit the description well. 

 yesterday i had an interesting luncheon with some british ladies. ive been a member of this fb group for maybe 2 years now, it's for (loosely described) alternative women, most of who live in the UK. occasionally some arrange local meetings so i actually stepped up and put together a London meetup. i would say it was a success. but also, being surrpunded by brits only, it was a culture shock, when the discussion goes into school memories and other local things, and keeping alone with accents alone is hard... not to mention local things you just dont know about...  well, it was interesting. overall very positive. 

Imperial War Museum was surprisingly good. i am not really into the subject, not very interested in history or fighter jets...but the museum had come up highly recommended and i wanted to go somewhere with Niina. the exhibitions we saw (WW1 and Holocaust) were both very 'artsy' and imaginative. WW1 had well done video visuals, and both exhibitions were full of stories of invidual people, civilians mostly. if u dont become a pacifist by visiting this museum, i dunno whats wrong. so while good, it was also quite depressing, no surprises there.

interesting article on Cuba's really good hurricane preparedness in Jacobin.

going to see The National tonight with Jessica's bf Ollie. 

beach holiday badly needed

i think we are getting old, we are thinking of going to Tenerife this november. originally we had more exotic ideas, Marrakech flights are the same price after all! but temperatures are better in Tenerife, especially in the evenings. and yes it matters. maybe Marrackech is better when its properly warm? i have been to canary islands before but not very seriously. now im really like ok, we want a pool, we want this, we want that...  just comparing options.

so i watched Hitman's Bodyguard. not amazing but amusing enough.

our friend Can from istanbul was here for 2 days, registering with GMC. whole process took like 9 months. it was really uplifting, to see him finish the process and just hang out and chill, talk about the moving plans. of course all that is yet another process, but an positive, exciting one. it really motivated me about my per project, the 'turkish doctors to uk' group that ive been working on. its going quite well and im trying to blow more steam into it.

what annoyes me is when i say that im allergic to cats and someone replies "oh well you can get one of those hairless ones!". okay, common misconception, but im not gonna bother correcting anymore, hairless or not, hypoallergenic breeds do exist, with variable success rates. maybe one day i will look into it, if we feel ready for a pet. as far as bunnies go, ive been looking after the neighbours bunnies for 2 weeks now and i am allergic to something. maybe the hay, though. cos when i clean their toilet and lay down new hay...uhh. but bunnies need hay.

Interpol tonight

damn ive been here for a year soon!! odd feeling...  it all came true, our plans. hmm, wow. im both surprised and not surprised. i am surprised once again how much life can change, not just organically but by planning. but i am not surprised that a an idea comes to fruition, as planned, cos i do have that ability to make shit happen. maybe i need to give credit to doctor too? :) this was a team effort but i certainly pat myself on the back. anyhow, there are things you cannot control and risk involved, but nothing catastrophic happened and here we are.

next week a turkish friend is coming to register at the GMC, he's gone through the same process as doctor and should be moving in december with his gf. im veeeery excited, i have taken it very seriously to help turkish doctors migrate here, and it will be nice to have an old friend from istanbul in our new environment.

its been a while since i wrote anything... what have i been up to, besides bunny sitting..  last saturday i went to london fields where anna celebrated her birthday. i met several of her friends, it was cheery and relaxed, chill picnic stuff.

then on sunday i went to greenwich where again we headed to a park with a group of friends. i played frisbee and football bravely - very unlike me but fun :) the summer was back that weekend, and on monday, 28 degrees! i finished work early and we went for a short park stroll with doctor. see here i go again listing things ive done. well, to each their own, this is what i do to document my life and im not too apologetic about it.

this guy and his dog on the bus were a sweet team.

Atlantic: How friends become closer . this article reflected a lot of what ive been thinking in the past few years. its nice someone has put it in words, meshed with science and even given a bit of further insight i can mull over. moving, which involves losing some friends, trying not to lose some friendships, and working on making new ones, kind of gets you to the core of this. and ive had some specific 'cases' that have had me question what friendships are made of, what are the expectations in general, whats fair to expect, what do humans need and what do i in specific need from my friendships for them to work, and so on.

love to listen lately:
Låpsley: Love is Blind
Kevin Morby: Harlem River
Benjamin Clementine: London (simply amazing)
Aine Cahill: Black Dahlia
Simon & Garfunkel El Condor Pasa (If I could)  (an old favourite)

...and tonight im going to see Interpol with Ro! havent been to a concert in years. there are simply very few acts im interested in seeing, even if i listen to a lot of stuff. Interpol passes the bar though. as does The National, which im supposed to go see end of the month. both concerts are "through" friends, theyve bought tickets and just waited to find someone who wants to join - pretty ingenious i guess, concersta re so quickly sold out, when you have a chance to buy there is no time to waste...  plus i dont think i knew either of these people back when they've bought the tickets.

Ocado is pretty nice, ive ordered groceries from various companies but their customer service and communication is really good so far. as an example this informative email i just received: