intentions...

I'll leave you to fill in the proverb. needless to say the running shoes I packed have not been used, the lists I meant to make, unmade, the shopping I could have done, the friends I was supposed to see, the photos that would be sorted into albums ready and printed into glossy books before we left, the blogs I was to write! immersion education, education, property sales in Europe, tour de france obsessions, TV ... I've even forgotten all the topics of blog posts perfectly formed in my insomniac nights which floated away in the morning light reality of life in Europe sans help with social obligations, pathetically slow or non-existent wifi, or internet connections (i write this huddled in a corner of the bed upstairs on my ipad, stealing unpassworded wifi from the neighbour..)and the unaccustomed burden of having caught the common cold with it's attendant miseries. darn I don't like feeling sick and out of sorts, a little dizzy and light headed and awfully unmotivated.

fortunately the weather is sufficiently crap that I don't feel too bad about being indoors, sitting doing cross stitch with my daughter ( very little woman are we) with the tv blaring in the background with hours and hours of tour de France, live and then 3 or 4 times the live amount of time followed by commentary and analysis and speculation.


tomorrow we return to Asia

Ouch....

 We walked past all these shops and couldn't work out why boys / men would be in a bridal get up ...










And then I bent down and saw these boxes ....

Followed an hour or so later by this poor little mite walking along as if he'd just given birth!

I've already written about the long discussions my kids had on that!

And then when we went into the palace and wanted to visit the circumcision room they both politely but insistently said they'd wait for us outside!  (Not that there was anything left to see except tiles, tiles and more tiles...)

grass photos ...

Yes, I'm weird. It's from being in HK too long with all its grass limitations!

reading orgy

what bliss it is at the end miidle and start of each day to wallow in bed a while reading. Guilt free. both holiday and exam / homework less. the daily math of my son being taken care or on the terrace in-between the carpet sellers and tat purveyors over a strong cup of Turkish coffee by my husband, what bliss.

I've managed to work my way through Tiger Tiger by Margaux Fragoso, Sea of Poppies and The glass Palace by Ghosh, and in the absence of the second book in his Ibis trilogy being out ( drat I was quite getting into it all) I've moved on to Night Waking by Susan Moss. I must say that's pretty much a must read for any woman with or contemplating children. It makes "go the f***to sleep" appear very much a kids tale. oh how cleverly she weaves children's tales in her narrative!

back to the book.

green green grass...

and you can sit on it, walk on it, lie on it, picnic on it, walk across it, do handstands, cart wheels! Amazing grass. And it's all allowed.

The days have flown here, tomorrow we leave. What a stupendous place. Funny isn't it how history is so abstract until you walk on its graves? I wonder if the kids will remember any of this later when they do the ancients. Do children stll learn the ancient civilizations?

We were in a restauarant for lunch and as per usual my son was chatting with the staff / owner and helping out at the bar(? yup that happens) and after lunch we were taken down through a side door to an underground vault that went under all the houses and bars across a few streets. Oh about 1700 years old or so the guy said...

Ice cream. Turkish Ice cream is ever so different. Chewy and strong tasting. And of course you are treated to a show of trickery and deception as the cone is loaded. But then I read about how one of the essential ingredients (in the real stuff at least, there are cheaper substitutes) is the wild orchid. one article I read said one manufacturer alone used 12 million bulbs in his production each year. hardly sustainable.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3126047.stm

can't wait to upload all the photos.