making a long post SUPER LOOOOOONG. you're welcome
it's a sunny saturday morning and i'm free. this is the mellow, yawny, long stretch kind of freedom that one longs for on weekday mornings...if one is me. i have become the kind of person that loves at least 2 hours to wake up slowly curled up against fluffyhusky and scrolling through instagram and insta stories, doin some morning texting. everytime i curl up on my right side one of the furries, usually archie, take that as an invitation to jump up right in front of my face, and i might give them a morning ear scratch and they might walk across my pillow over my head, but making sure to walk on my hair at which i groan mildly and they might purr or lick my wrist and wait patiently until i get up and feed them.
well that's how my morning started out but after about an hour and a half it was cut short by a call from one of my weekend staff who was flying solo because of a no show. i thought at first i made a scheduling error or something so i threw on a t-shirt and jeans, and brushed my teeth but not my hair and swished on some blue mascara and headed off to work.
it turned out that i made no mistake. pats on the back to me. just the staff in question got confused and thought she worked next week and after i called her dad and he woke her up it was basically just an uno game with some members before she arrived at work. so a casual hour at work was better than 6 hours and then i was free again. i headed to the pet food store but before i went in i was talking to katie on the phone about how i basically need her to help me plan my trip and why isn't she there for me? she should know her role by now.
at the end of that convo rob rolled by on his new bike with his long frizzy purple hair wisping out behind him. his bike is black with green flames and big tires and a white basket and a clown horn. he's quite the site these days. his basket was full of milk and chicago style popcorn. so we did some catch up. that guy. he can't get over the drink. still the popular guy though. at least three times people went by who knew him.
i'm think archie in particular has a hard time eating crunchies so i've been adding water to the crunchies all week, and now that i've run out i might just feed them only soft. i got senior kitties now. they are 12 on may 16th.
and here i am back at home. archie and izzy are fed and soaking up the rays in their sunspots and i'm listening to folk roots on stingray music on my tv, in my own sunspot. a free day laid out before me.
last night fats and i met up downtown. she knew about a new moroccan resto in gastown so we checked it out. it was really cool inside, with moroccan tin lamps and decor. we were placed at a tiny 2 seater where my hair was dangerously close to a tin lamp candle thing. we each ordered a tagine because that was basically the only thing you could order. they just opened a week ago and they cook without oil and had piles of veggies, not peeled. it was good. our waitress was a little interrupty but we forgive her. we had good chats because that's what budz do. after that we went in search of dessert. i really had to pee because we all know i guzzle water in restaurants. it's a compulsion. we ended up at tree organics and bent ourselves in half to inspect the cheesecakes in the display. said bending made us laugh at ourselves. buddah chose chocolate and i chose marzipan. i left her to order and i went in search of an elusive washroom. i kept walking past these chinese girls doing a photoshoot in the brick alley and coming back and fatima sending me on another wild washroom goose chase and back past the #chinesephotoshootgirls into an elevator that didn't go anywhere and back into the cafe and back out and on to the street and into starbucks and then finally a washroom. i didn't even pretend to be a customer. i was just can i get into the washroom please and they were like ok miss. don't think i didn't enjoy the 'miss'. i did enjoy it. but i enjoyed the relief of peeing more at the time. back at the cheesecake counter, one of us scarfed down her cheesecake in 4 bites and one of us lingered over hers. i wonder... we talked about the escapades of samah and janvie. samah goes to bed at 10pm! that's her thing. and she wakes up bright eyed and bushy tailed. janvie is an early sleeper. fatima is a no sleeper.
we parted ways at waterfront station, me to the canada line and her to the expo line.
i have to tell you a funny story. on thursday i was off early because i started at 6:15 am so it was the perfect time to renew my passport since the office is inconveniently only open until 4pm. i didn't put on my navy flower zippy before getting into my car because i'm in a covered parking area. but upon arriving at the passport office parking lot i decided to put it on because it was raining pretty hard. so i kind of slouched it on and zipped it up, slung my fringy turk purse cross ma bod and made my way into the building and up the elevator. the nice security guard man pointed me towards the first line up. and it was while in this line up that i felt my hair was caught and tight on something. i tugged it back and it did not move. that's when i looked down and saw that my hair was zipped into my zippy-- a piece of hair from both sides of my head. so i unzipped it a bit but this only made the knot of hair around the zipper worse. and it was my dry ends all straw like and crispy with all that great friction to grab on to each other and NEVER LET GO. and unzipping it pulled it tighter. and it wouldn't go down further and it wouldn't go up. and i was tugging at it and that's when it was my turn to go up. the lady at the window eyed me dryly. "everything ok?" she said with an eyebrow raised. "uhm yeah", i laugh nervously "i don't know how, but i zipped up my own hair..." ha ha...trails off awkwardly. she kind of laughed and quickly went through my paperwork and sent me off to wait for the next line. so i sat there and worked on my hair to pass the time. i kind of had to break off the small strand from the right side and after that i was able to kind of work out my hair from the left side which came out all wonky and bent with multiple broken edges. but when it was my turn i was able to face the cheerful bright eyed passport guy hair-in-zipper-free. but when he asked where i was going, i almost forgot. but then i was like oh yeah MOROCCO. and he was like why are you going there and i was like BECAUSE IT WILL MAKE MY DREAMS COME TRUE. and he was like, dude, you're too intense, no passport for you.
but for reals i get it in a week or so. he hole punched my current passport because i wanted it back.
since i have all new staff i had piyush to come in and train them on the ovens. i like to say piyush.
and this is how to make a long post suuuuuuper long! here are the photos of turkey i showed at relief society. :)
when i first arrived i did some wandering. this was a shop at the end of the road where i was staying.
jet lag had me up early the next morning and i was out of the door to continue exploring by six am. i ended up at sultan ahmet square where hagia sofia and the blue mosque is just as the sun was rising.
the day before i was a little lost and sitting on that bench and that's where i met my first tout who tricked me into my first carpet shop. on this day i came here and realized it was very close to my hostel.
then i wandered up to the entrance of topkapi palace and got the permission of these guards to take their picture.
outside of the palace is a 'fountain' or well that the sultans gave to the people to come get water. this is a fancy one, but there are these kinds of 'fountains' all over.
random city street.
there's happy well fed stray cats and dogs all over the city. the people just feed them.
this pup is taking in the views at the blue mosque.
this is the breakfast i got when pointing to the menu and not knowing what it was.
and this is the steamed milk i got when i tried to order water. ha ha. i shared it with a kitty
later i had a tour which took me actually inside the palace.
oooh ahhh
this underground cistern was a storage place for water and was built with random roman columns and a james bond film was filmed here so....
this was a gift from egypt
baklava
then we visited the amazing hagia sofia which was once a church and then a mosque and now a museum. in this pic you can see the seraphim and the islamic signs.
this door was called the beautiful door.
and then we were set loose in the grand bazaar
turkish delight...
those mushrooms are the most amazing chocolates. one of the shop boys gave me one and i wanted more.
lamps
and then i got lured into another carpet store and met my first carpet cassanova. but it took a while for me to realize that he was a cassanova. it might have been when he said "i want to hussle you" and i was all "what do you mean 'hussle' me?" and he made himself clear. but not before i made him toss the rug. in his carpet attic.
he took this pic though and i have to give him props.
sunday evening walk
some food that i didn't know what it was in a home cooking kind of restaurant
carpet cassanova #2. the guy who gave me the beautiful scarf and who had a hobby of intensely staring without words.
spice market.
i bought some turkish delight from this guy who jovially asked to be my boyfriend also. thanks for the offer pal but i'll take the delight though. that stuff's good.
oh just one of the many mansions...
this is like lamb instestines with sweetmeats fried with spices in a sandwich. why would i eat that? because yasemine told me to and said it would be good and i believed her. you drink a yogurt drink with it.
muscles stuffed with rice and squeezed with lemon.
a tomb
istanbul university
an ottoman graveyard.
on to cappadocia
a day exploring the rock churches and their frescoes.
a convent
i thought this was a shepherd but it's a goatherd.
my horseback tour during the golden hour to sunset.
my stoic laconic cowboy guide
my horse was soooo hungry and always wanted to eat. this dog wanted to be in the pic. he's cute.
the fort at cavusin
our shadows
the evil eye
pigeon valley...get it?
i woke up early one morning to the sound of balloons rising.
my last day i just walked through the valleys
people leave prayers and wishes to her on here written on anything.
this is nike. see the shwoop.
roman warshrooms.
the library of ephesus. the architect was named.......LIBRARY
having sage tea, which is literally sage in hot water and watching the carpet people working on the others in our group.
a wooden church in the tiny villiage in the mountains named sirince
evil eyes in the sidewalk
lycean tomb
went sailing on my birthday
another day i went scuba diving and it was rrrrrraaaaad
i leave you with a giant baked potato.
well that's how my morning started out but after about an hour and a half it was cut short by a call from one of my weekend staff who was flying solo because of a no show. i thought at first i made a scheduling error or something so i threw on a t-shirt and jeans, and brushed my teeth but not my hair and swished on some blue mascara and headed off to work.
it turned out that i made no mistake. pats on the back to me. just the staff in question got confused and thought she worked next week and after i called her dad and he woke her up it was basically just an uno game with some members before she arrived at work. so a casual hour at work was better than 6 hours and then i was free again. i headed to the pet food store but before i went in i was talking to katie on the phone about how i basically need her to help me plan my trip and why isn't she there for me? she should know her role by now.
at the end of that convo rob rolled by on his new bike with his long frizzy purple hair wisping out behind him. his bike is black with green flames and big tires and a white basket and a clown horn. he's quite the site these days. his basket was full of milk and chicago style popcorn. so we did some catch up. that guy. he can't get over the drink. still the popular guy though. at least three times people went by who knew him.
i'm think archie in particular has a hard time eating crunchies so i've been adding water to the crunchies all week, and now that i've run out i might just feed them only soft. i got senior kitties now. they are 12 on may 16th.
and here i am back at home. archie and izzy are fed and soaking up the rays in their sunspots and i'm listening to folk roots on stingray music on my tv, in my own sunspot. a free day laid out before me.
last night fats and i met up downtown. she knew about a new moroccan resto in gastown so we checked it out. it was really cool inside, with moroccan tin lamps and decor. we were placed at a tiny 2 seater where my hair was dangerously close to a tin lamp candle thing. we each ordered a tagine because that was basically the only thing you could order. they just opened a week ago and they cook without oil and had piles of veggies, not peeled. it was good. our waitress was a little interrupty but we forgive her. we had good chats because that's what budz do. after that we went in search of dessert. i really had to pee because we all know i guzzle water in restaurants. it's a compulsion. we ended up at tree organics and bent ourselves in half to inspect the cheesecakes in the display. said bending made us laugh at ourselves. buddah chose chocolate and i chose marzipan. i left her to order and i went in search of an elusive washroom. i kept walking past these chinese girls doing a photoshoot in the brick alley and coming back and fatima sending me on another wild washroom goose chase and back past the #chinesephotoshootgirls into an elevator that didn't go anywhere and back into the cafe and back out and on to the street and into starbucks and then finally a washroom. i didn't even pretend to be a customer. i was just can i get into the washroom please and they were like ok miss. don't think i didn't enjoy the 'miss'. i did enjoy it. but i enjoyed the relief of peeing more at the time. back at the cheesecake counter, one of us scarfed down her cheesecake in 4 bites and one of us lingered over hers. i wonder... we talked about the escapades of samah and janvie. samah goes to bed at 10pm! that's her thing. and she wakes up bright eyed and bushy tailed. janvie is an early sleeper. fatima is a no sleeper.
we parted ways at waterfront station, me to the canada line and her to the expo line.
i have to tell you a funny story. on thursday i was off early because i started at 6:15 am so it was the perfect time to renew my passport since the office is inconveniently only open until 4pm. i didn't put on my navy flower zippy before getting into my car because i'm in a covered parking area. but upon arriving at the passport office parking lot i decided to put it on because it was raining pretty hard. so i kind of slouched it on and zipped it up, slung my fringy turk purse cross ma bod and made my way into the building and up the elevator. the nice security guard man pointed me towards the first line up. and it was while in this line up that i felt my hair was caught and tight on something. i tugged it back and it did not move. that's when i looked down and saw that my hair was zipped into my zippy-- a piece of hair from both sides of my head. so i unzipped it a bit but this only made the knot of hair around the zipper worse. and it was my dry ends all straw like and crispy with all that great friction to grab on to each other and NEVER LET GO. and unzipping it pulled it tighter. and it wouldn't go down further and it wouldn't go up. and i was tugging at it and that's when it was my turn to go up. the lady at the window eyed me dryly. "everything ok?" she said with an eyebrow raised. "uhm yeah", i laugh nervously "i don't know how, but i zipped up my own hair..." ha ha...trails off awkwardly. she kind of laughed and quickly went through my paperwork and sent me off to wait for the next line. so i sat there and worked on my hair to pass the time. i kind of had to break off the small strand from the right side and after that i was able to kind of work out my hair from the left side which came out all wonky and bent with multiple broken edges. but when it was my turn i was able to face the cheerful bright eyed passport guy hair-in-zipper-free. but when he asked where i was going, i almost forgot. but then i was like oh yeah MOROCCO. and he was like why are you going there and i was like BECAUSE IT WILL MAKE MY DREAMS COME TRUE. and he was like, dude, you're too intense, no passport for you.
but for reals i get it in a week or so. he hole punched my current passport because i wanted it back.
since i have all new staff i had piyush to come in and train them on the ovens. i like to say piyush.
and this is how to make a long post suuuuuuper long! here are the photos of turkey i showed at relief society. :)
when i first arrived i did some wandering. this was a shop at the end of the road where i was staying.
the day before i was a little lost and sitting on that bench and that's where i met my first tout who tricked me into my first carpet shop. on this day i came here and realized it was very close to my hostel.
tulips came from turkey, you know. i think they said that they sent some to the netherlands as a gift.
we had lunch at the pudding shop which apparently all the hippies used to go to. i chose the iskender kebap because it was on my list of recommended foods from my turkish friends back in canada. it was delish.
the blue mosque was also amazing
the land of teas
another fountain
more teas
i took a cruise down the bosphorous between the eauropean and the asian side.
istiklal street and it's iconic street car.
kedi
t he saruhan caravenseri where i saw the sema. one of my favourite experiences. built in 1249.
the sufis contemplate in these cells.
next morning balloon ride.
this little church was empty and i sang a hymn in it and imagined the early christians meeting there.
a monastry
a graveyard
exploring an underground city that the christians used as places of refuge during persecutions. this one went 14 levels down but we didn't go down that far.
the evil eye
juiceman turned tour guide.
on to ephesus. this is mary the mother of jesus' house. that's what they say.
roman sidewalks are cool.
the heart the foot the woman and the money...this all means this way to the brothel. jerks.
collesium
ancient roman nail that my guide just picked up off the ground.
a carpet making workshop
it was really windy at the aegean sea
alive or dead? resting or eternal rest?
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