Magic Life Kartanesi Bursa

... are abundantly more illustrative. But in this case I could hardly resist a couple of the "Been there, done that" pictures.

On the way walking to the Sultanhamet area, where there was another bookstore I wanted to check into, I wiggled around in the streets, eventually visiting another Byzantine monument, the Fethiye Camii, another, but smaller sampling of Byzantine architecture and mosaics; the Fatih Camii, entirely shrouded in restoration fencing, and the main Istanbul mosque ...

... The guy next to me did not speak english but showed me a picture in the local rag of Bush dressed in Russian garb holding a toy missile and Cheney in the Dr. Evil pinky pose. The driving in the city is a little different, watch out kids! Walking around town, noticed I was the only one wearing shorts. Actually, did see one other guy in shorts and he appeared a little light in the loafers ...

... that most other volunteers had arrived to the dormitory camp on Thursday, August 21. My instructions were to be picked up at a metro line terminus at 9:30am on Friday. There I joined a couple of others just in--including Mustafa, who was assigned, or assumed the position of "project photographer." After depositing their gear at the camp we were taken to the youth center.

I walked into a room where the wall painting crew were busily engaged, each person making a ...

... Between rooms I was invited to sit and have tea with a Turkish family also visiting--the tea compliments of the museum. It was during this chat that a young fellow on the staff explained to me in English that there would be no show this day. The announcements I had seen were for last month. I'd come one weekend too late. So I looked around the second room: some musical instruments and samples of the shadow figures and props--translucent painted ...

One of the "plans" in Istanbul was to attend a concert by Sezen Aksu, whom I feel comfortable in calling a diva of Turkish pop music. Somehow that plan failed to materialize.

Back here in Bursa, yesterday I saw a poster advertising her appearance here for last night. So I went straight to a ticket office and got a ticket. It wasn't cheap.

I had been first introduced to Sezen Aksu by way of a film, "Crossing the Bridge." The film (also CD), which I highly ...

As they say (I think), every journey begins with the first step. I was just reading the NYTimes review of this book, ROME 1960 The Olympics That Changed the World By David Maraniss Illustrated. 478 pages. Simon & Schuster. $26.95 (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/16/book s/16gewen.html?ex=1216872000&en=115 0958ae8b247ac&ei=5070) which provoked my memories to a significant beginning to my travel life. I say "a beginning," as it wasn't the first event ...

... activities have become a dominant influence on the Earth's climate and ecosystems. But th**e is still a range of views on wheth** the changes could have catastrophic impacts, as the human population heads toward nine billion by midcentury, or more manageable results.

Ov** the last two decades, the world population increased by almost 34 p**cent, to 6.7 billion, from 5 billion. But the land available to each p**son is shrinking, from 19.5 acres in 1900 to 5 acres by 2005, the ...

... from the bee keepers' place I came to a school of some sorts, from which was issuing some horrid Turkish music which I could hear for "miles" up in the gorge, and absolutely dominated the local residential area. It was some sort of celebration of which I had no energy nor inclination to investigate. The music was so bad and loud. Lines of men (I saw one little girl) were doing some sort of line two-step, or something, reminding me of pictures of American Shakers I have ...

On this day I decided to use the house washing machine to do some laundry.

The control knob on the washing machine is broken; it can't turn the controls. I bought some "super glue" and glued the broken piece back. It broke again when I tried it. So much for "super glue." Nevertheless, I glued the piece back on.

Nevermind, I could use the vise-grip pliers to run the control, and just put the knob on to read the station in the cycle. I started a ...

... family and friends--arrived. A son-in-law spoke English, having spent two years getting his Masters in mechanical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic University in Albany, New York. (Speaking of which--I can't help the diversion--I went to the university site to check on the spelling, [http://www.rpi.edu/] and found this lead article:

On the Boil: New Nano Technique Significantly Boosts Boiling Efficiency

Whoever penned the ...