five of diamonds

this was a beautiful autumn day spent in one of the princes' islands, an hour off the coast from istanbul. we got on the ferry, sat outside, watched the seagulls hovering above and reached this beautiful and green island called 'burgazada'. i don't remember why i haven't been to this particular island since i was a child but i'm happy we chose this one to visit out of the other three; it was truly beautiful. i was a little too much excited about the beautiful, graceful old houses - and felt a bit sad as almost all were shut closed for the winter. we climbed up the hill on a lovely path and made it up just on time for the sunset (see below, it was fan-tas-tic) with amazing views of the marmara sea. i think my excitement was also partly about being able to look at istanbul from a distance with an undivided view, see its dents and its skyline; see it as a quiet beauty.

i found the five of diamonds card on the path to the hill; i've looked it up and the meaning attached to this card is: happiness, success and new things starting, not bad at all. oh, and that i have an inner restlessness, and a dislike for anything routine. what can i say, it sounds about right.

contents

contents:  food, lots of sun, friends visiting from around the world, lots of get-togethers, lots of good cooking, a visit to the park, a little concert performed by friends to a small audience of three, lots of figs, lots of sharing, wine, champagne, turkish tea, girl talk, lots of laughs. it's been good.

autumn in istanbul has finally started to show its face, when i say this i mean the temperatures only dropped down to twenties; yes we've been quite lucky lately. there was a very nice visit to one of the princes' islands yesterday which i will be sharing in a different post, i can only say that it was the greatest escape from the city on a beautiful autumn day.

p.s. those two cats i just met lately are special in their own ways; the grey one being extremely funny and talkative while the other is definetely uber-cool.

decisive ambivalence

i am choosing to post these images that i took the other day with the clear blue sky and the beautiful sunset and the several planes that are flying out freely, instead of something that reflects the drearisome/difficult/heavy/wearisome day i'm having (but the sun is shining and there's such a beautiful summery warm day out) so, you see it's complicated... i have mixed feelings about today. i will find some relaxing music on the internetz like something with sounds of waves or a rain forest or forest birds at the background so that i can bring my breathing back to normal... thought of the day: '9 to 6 life' is really not very suitable for the mortal humans. agree? thanks.

hot, homo, mallaka*

so, it seems many rebels around the neighbourhood.

it's gray but calm in the sky with lots of potential for a romantic day at the office. let's begin.

* is this a deliberately misspelled version of the commonly used greek word 'malaka'? or maybe it's just a clever word play that i don't get... who knows.

a nice change of pace

once again, children are wonderfully wise. they are simple and their wants and wishes are so pure, they  teach you how simple life should be - and could be- and that a sense of spontaneity is not such a difficult state to attain to when you say and do things from the heart. i've had my best friend visiting with her daughter so we had a week-end packed with action, at least for me as there were different kinds of movements at home than usual- and a cute toddler in my bed!! we've managed to do a lot because she's very easy going and quick to adapt.

on a nice sunny day we visited this wonderful museum, it's located on the docks of the golden horn. the kids hopped around in awe and excitement. there are collections of transportation vehicles; beautiful vintage cars, trams, trains, ferries, airplanes and a lot of historical machinery, models and toys. although i've been there before several times, this was the most fun of all. and the highlight of the whole week-end was the moment when us, the intelligent adults, sat the kids on a wall to watch a real helicopter take-off, not a very good idea. a memorable moment though, for us to laugh at our dumbness later. we just hoped that the children are too young to have a memory of the said event.  just hoping.