The two pictures above are from an earlier party at Graham and Metin's. The top shows the view of the Bosphorus from the garden. The two guys are Danny on the the left, my colleague Kristine's husband and our genial host Graham Fleming on the right.
On Friday my shipment was finally delivered. We spent a couple of hours unpacking the 26 boxes. Everything arrived undamaged, but in quick order we managed to wreak minor havoc. The first box Sim tackled with a knife to cut the tape happened to have my leather coat on top. It now has a nice slice down the lapel. But I've been told by three people that the Turks can do wonderful leather repair. Then while I was unpacking glassware, I knocked the box off the chair and lost 3 wine glasses. And Saturday morning I plugged in our radio-iPod player and there was a pop and a phtt and a little puff of smoke. It is no more.
We took a break from the unpacking Friday night for social events. I went to my first meeting of my new book club. It's pretty much like my old one: lots of eating and drinking before we finally talk about the book. Sim will join it for the next book. But he skipped this one and went to Metin and Graham's for a fish, raki, and games party. The book club joined that party at about 11. Apparently, earlier in the evening Metin gave tutorials on the art of drinking raki and playing backgammon. When I arrived darts and drinking games were in progress.
Saturday Sim and I finished the unpacking and then made a list of household items we still want to make things homey. We walked to Ortakoy and wandered in shops, bought odds and ends in secondhand places. We picked out a big mirror that we'll go back for today and take a taxi home. We had dinner along the waterfront, right near the Ortakoy cami (mosque) which is an architecturally important one. (Picture above) It was a restaurant that served nargile...water pipes... so we observed (and smelled the practice.)
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