MERHABA 2 0 1 1

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Athena from the 2011 Pirelli Calendar,
created by Karl Lagerfeld,
Greco-Roman theme 'Mythology'

What makes it gorgeous is not only what I filled in by my own experience and packed into this year 2010, but what I could not. I think there is no any better expression in any language than merhaba. Merhaba is a reason that I have a lot to look forward TO. Merhaba is a reason to BE. Merhaba is hello. Happy New Year 2 0 1 1.

They Call Me Caterina...

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... this is my story.

In Italy, it was the common name given to the slaves from the Constantinople, today's Istanbul, Caterina.

Her son traveled to Turkey and Azerbaijan to discover his Caucasian roots. His findings as well as researches say his mother was hailed from... Azerbaijan and a Muslim. This very well-researched novel about the mother of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), slave mother Caterina da Vinci, is the best work I have ever read in a long time!



A very colorful story of her relationship with her son who was destined to change the world forever; from his growth, his creative and inventive side to how daring is why his mother felt she had to protect him so long.



Warning: Anyone not interested in historical romance, Turkey and Renaissance Florence will not enjoy this truly captivating book.



"All other cities are doomed, but I imagine that as long as people exist, Constantinople will exist."
~Petrus Gyllius
French scientist,
(Albi, 1490 - Rome, 1555)

Lady Kokkino

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Love them, hate them, you cannot help but see them!



If you ask me, I do not like seeing them everywhere in Istanbul. The photos that including them are kind of not my liking. Maybe the ugly shots that cast a shadow in Istanbul's beauty, however it is the fact of Istanbul life:



Of late, they are on the roads. Like any city in the world, main road flower-shops in down town can be little expensive. We know, things are cheaper if they sell. Shot the gypsies (above) on the Bağdat Avenue when I went for shopping this past weekend. Means red in greek language, kokkino is very popular New Year flower now, that they are hurrying up to sell them.

Not selling only flowers, they can also pick old furniture and old iron stuff. They tell your fortune reading up your coffee cup. They sell lottery tickets. They are interesting musicians who sing and play their accordion in the streets, so they are always hopeful to collect some money if people throw them a few cents from their balcony.

I would like to ask, if we should believe in bloggers?

Since I started the writing work on this community I became aware of one fact, important. Bloggers are chasing the "beautiful things" and sharing the only "best photos" of their town/city. Why is it so?

For example, is Rome a beautiful city? Have been to many times there. Of course Rome is not a beautiful city! Rome is not about fountains, squares, cuisine but also life and public fact sheet! Who shows us those sad Rome/Italy photos in a blog? Nobody. I do not want to talk about the southern Italy, Calabria region. How I was very disappointed when comparing north and southern parts of the same country. What about Paris, Wa DC, NYC, Tokyo, London? I saw the not so good parts of those world cities. Marrakesh in Morocco? I saw really poor and horrible photos of Morocco that made me said "oh my God!". If you read a Marrakesh photoblog, she tells it as a heaven on Earth. Who believes?

Another example. What about Turin in Italy? When I read a Turin daily photo blog that is being managed by Pietro, his blog here, there is no any bad photo of Turin life. All the photos are to say to the visitor as if Turin is a wonderland.

My one wish for bloggers is to be honest and, if not that, to be transparent. Share all the beauty and ugliness of your living zone. Because the world is not a fantasyland. Blogosphere should not turn to be a fantasyland under your pen.

Megakent

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Istanbul is a city of three:


S E A

Underground Basilica Cistern

Ferry Mooring Rope (cool vintage green and texture!)

Galata Tower

Arnavutköy Ferry Pier (the Bosphorus)

Maiden's Tower (the Bosphorus)

P E O P L E

Traditional Mosaic Lamps

Handpainted Ceramic Plates

Decorative Handpainted Ceramic Hanging Balls

Traditional Slippers

T I M E

Baroque-style Historical Buildings in Nişantaşı

Non siete per caso uno di quelli che abbiamo tentato senza riuscirvi di trasformare in un cittadino di Istanbul?

Istanbullulaştıramadıklarımızdan mısınız?

Rolling Grape Leaf

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A very popular Turkish dish. Very famous dish. In all regions. Very difficult cooking. Most favorite at tea parties, cocktails, picnics and hosting the guests. Of course, my most loved dish! Can be cooked in two ways. (1) with minced meat (2) olive oil. First way is served with yoghurt. Second is served as cold appetizer. We are now into second way: zeytinyağlı yaprak dolması as we call in turkish, also known as grape leaf rolls with olive oil:



A)) Here's your +++ ingredients list+++

1. 500g vine leaves, but try to find thin leaves!
2. 1.5 cups rice
3. 1 kg onion
4. 1 glass of olive oil
5. 3 cups boiling water
6. 2 teaspoon sugar
7. 1 tablespoon redcurrant
8. 1 teaspoon pimento
9. 1 lemon
10. A pinch of salt
11. A pinch of black pepper


B)) Here's your +++ instructions+++

1. Peel the onions. Cut them very thin. At low heat, sauté without oil. When the color of onions is changing, add oil in.
2. Add the rice. Now continue sauté.
3. Add 1.5 cups of boiling water. Then sugar.
4. Add all of the spices: salt, mint, pimento, blask pepper.
5. Adjust lower heat and simmer until rice absorbs all the water.



6. Fun now starts:) Wrap a spoonful of this mixture in each leaf.




+++Note+++ The vine leaves can be pickled in brine, so easily to be used out of the season. Like my leaves I use today, in December! In this case, what do we do? Leaves should be firstly soaked in warm water to reduce the salt. Don't forget this before starting your rolling process!







7. When finished, lay them all neatly in a saucepan and squeeze a lemon over them.





Now my dolmas (=leave wraps) are ready! I am going for the following steps:

8. Pour 1.5 cups of boiling water. Bring back the heat to the boiling.
9. When water is boiling, get lower the heat, and cook until the water has completely gone.
10. Transfer to a serving dish when cool.
11. Garnish with many lemon slices!

+++ ? +++

If it was your last meal, what would you eat? Share please...

Noelce Bir Gün

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After my beautiful poinsettia, this Cactus de Noel (Turkish: Noel kaktüsü) is blooming now and such wonderful decoration in the red corner of my home. Happy contentment washes over my day. I am very glad to be "me" today!

Lazy Italians

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Invite you to read the news:

[in italian] la tassa di soggiorno da gennaio, La Repubblica

[in english] tax for visitors to the Eternal City, Daily Mail




As you might remember, a few structures collapsed last month in Pompeii, then three chunks of Roman mortar fell from an arched ceiling at the Colosseum last spring. If it was the case that the money would actually go toward the much needed restoration of monuments and artistic heritage maintenance, I would happily pay it!

Stop and think about ancient 2000 year old Pompeii. It alone brings more than ~50 million euro (=70 million $) a year in admission fees!

I don't believe in local councillor Federico Guidi's defensive statement: In order for the City of Rome not to tax Romans, we have decided to tax the tourists.

Could this signal for Italians a coming economical crisis? Portugal, Spain and dolce vita lover "Italy" are on the dark list, I know.

Sometimes It's Just One Word

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There's plenty of same news for weeks! Today I woke and read again:

sport events were canceled. temperatures dipped to -22C/-8F in Scandinavia. endless traffic jams. thousands of travelers sleeping in airports. freezing ducks in the lakes. ice storms affected as far south as Italy. heavy snow blanketed the French capital. problems in transportation in northern Europe. late trains in rail travel. deaths in central Europe from deep freeze. snow even in Australia. freezing much of the US. many travelers waiting in our Istanbul Atatürk Airport for their EU connected flights. snowy chaos.
Ouffff!

Right under of our nose, Europe is freezing however Turkey, in one word "boiling". For example today we felt it 20C in midday! In the south of country people swimming! I wear my shoes with no socks. It is true, the air has moved out the of the arctic. Replaced air in the arctic is warmer, and as a result the air is getting warmer than the same date as previous year. Feeling unlucky and lucky, at the same time, see why now:

morning sun, not flash of my camera!

Early this season I bought them with a big heart-beat. Super long, suede, leather. Wore only 2-times! Today I replaced my très chic boots to the deep back side of my wardrobe.

Just because...








All I need is: strawberry, cruising in a yacht and my flip-flops.

Time To Invest

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These questions arise. Do you have any idea?

(1) Where am I going to?


(2) What's stopping me now?


(3) How do you measure delight?


(4) What fuels you?


As how we look matters, it is important how something looks matters. Being a woman or a man, looking younger or older, that matter as well. Whether I like it or not, I use my senses to make decisions. Personal to environmental conditions, things have an impact on maximizing the flow of my creative juices.

Within a few minutes walking from my home, I face to a pretty nice pink dressed this building that is located in the corner like a candy seller. Most of the time, I forgot its commercial identity because I love pink! I love the old house converted, renewed identity, smart money house:




Göztepe branch of a leading Turkish Bank, Türkiye İş Bankası. Actually the Bank's logo color is dark blue, not gold as seen above. But the outlook is very nice pink, you see. Looks like there is no logo that the Bank hides behind. Other branches of the Bank are in logo colors, but this one in my neighborhood is different having a freedom to look and dress as the management pleases.

When I look at things that we can change like how we wear, many questions come in my mind. The take home message for me is that we should be true who we are, and also remember that how we wear changes how we feel to impact what we do.

!mportant

The Asian side of Mega City Istanbul is becoming a financial hub as of new year 2011! Capital Ankara headquartered Turkish Central Bank, the Istanbul Stock Exchange, many financial institutions, headquarters of all Banks will be moving in my living zone to Ataşehir that is ten minutes drive from my home. So Gov't is aiming Istanbul to make the strongest candidate as a regional and global financial center in the region between London and Tokyo. As you can imagine, buying up lands in this area are boosting the prices. Is there any country which is seriously quickly changing each new day with a different headline on the news, one of the fastest rates of recovery from the worldwide recession?

How does this all come out?

Heat Transfer, Pine Needles, Campus Life

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The temperature of my living room is 23 C now. My hot cup of tea is 45 C. If I allow my hot cup of tea to cool in this room of 23 C, my cup of tea will quickly reach the temperature of the room.

On the other hand, depending upon the size of my cup of tea and the size of my room, the thermal equilibrium temperature will not be 23 degrees. How do I know? Because the energy of my cup of tea will cause the temperature of the room to increase. The 2nd Law of thermodynamics helps me to understand this concept. So it tells me that entropy tends to increase as defined in its formula:

qqqqqqqS = H / T

S = entropy (kJ/kg K)
H = enthalpy (kJ/kg)
T = absolute temperature (K)



The movement of energy, known as Thermodynamics, is the branch of physics and also basis of understanding the behavior of physical systems. Studied thermodynamics I and II, that were one of my most liked lessons. The "grown-up" life is really amazing, I give my appreciation in every stage of the life that there is always something to look forward to but there is nothing like being "university student". I missed being on the campus, studying thermodynamics, taking dynamics classes from our italian professor Antonio (from Milano), the library,...

If you wonder, right now drinking tea and reading the life story of clothing designer Rachel Riley, (above) Sophisticated English Lady. Boring article.