The thumbnail image on the blog post is this. A view that I see every time as I walk through Yildiz Park. This is the Bosphorus looking south towards the Sea of Marmara. Beautiful!

I was pondering today about settling into a new place again. Moving into a new country, and a new apartment is not a simple thing. And I’ve noticed that it takes me about 7 to 10 days to get accustomed to a new place. The places to go to buy snacks or groceries. Where you catch a taxi. The best walking routes to here there and everywhere. The local laundry. Where to take the garbage out to. Coffee shops. Where to get a COVID test :-) … you know … The minutiae of daily life.

However, once that’s done, I am a creature of habit. I’m getting settled in and makes me feel very comfortable… Until I realized that I’m on a 90 day clock for my visa here and I have to travel somewhere for a week or so out of Turkey and then come back. And realizing it is fairly arduous to do that. I’m thinking Bulgaria. Sofia. It’s close, it seems to be letting people in, and I’ve never been there before. Planning starts this weekend. And I’ve brought enough with me that it isn’t making it easier. I mean I’m planning on leaving most of my stuff in my Air BnB in Istanbul, but what happens if I get stuck in Bulgaria somehow. 😊 Hmmm. But more on that in a later post. This Flying Dutchman routine may be a bit of a chore. And … being lonely is not helping. Easy to be alone in a city of 16 million people when COVID makes it extremely difficult to socialize. I’m looking at Thailand but that too isn’t easy to get to but I’ll take a stab at it. One of the reasons I will go to Bulgaria is to try to find out how easy it is to stay there for a long period. 90 - 120 days.

The world is crazy. My close friend’s son, who has been riding out the COVID idiocy in Vietnam has just been informed, along with 50,000 other expats, that they have to leave the country because the government won’t renew any of the tourist visas. What a braindead course of action. What purpose exactly do they think they are serving? Who knows? Now, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese who directly or indirectly make their livings from the ex-pats will be thrust into financial turmoil, the ex-pats themselves will be totally uprooted and traumatized, and for what purpose exactly? This is some coterie of narrowminded, xenophobic Vietnamese Communist apparatchiks who see this an opportunity to get rid of foreigners … for no other reason than that they can. What morons. I actually went out to look at this and the few web sites that mention it are about as confusing and opaque as they can be.

The Juice Media. A friend of mine from Denmark sent me a link to one of their videos. Really worth watching. As you all know, I don’t put too many links up for this kind of stuff but they are really well done. I just wish they had more subscribers on YouTube. Currently about 1,000,000 but I wish it was in the 100s of millions. You’ll see why when you watch a couple of them. I thought enough that I support for them on Patreon.

https://www.youtube.com/user/thejuicemedia/featured

The meaning of life … I saw a TED talk the other day by chance that really hit home. By a lady called Emily Esfani Smith. Here is the link. Well worth watching. I’ve spoken before about my … distaste … about ‘passion’ and ‘happiness’. This is a far more rational approach as to how to be content.

I’m happy with being content. 😊 So to speak.

I’ve never been one to ponder about ‘why’ we are here. We are and that is enough to deal with. I don’t see that the ‘why’ is terribly relevant. The important thing is to be good and help others. At the very least, ‘do no harm’.

This lady talks about the 4 pillars of meaning for life.

·        Belonging to a group that values you intrinsically for who you are – Certainly makes sense.

·        Having a purpose in life – Certainly speaks to me although I don’t feel I have much purpose these days. But I’m giving it some thought. Being helpful to others, or at the very least not a burden to them? It’s a start. I have given some thought to contacting relief organizations to see if they need a hand, but the current situation makes it a tough way to move forward.

·        Transcendence – This was a tough one for me … Not sure I’ve ever felt transcendent other a few wild nights in Asia when I walked outside whatever bar I was in to realize the sun had risen. But … I see her point even if I’ve never experienced it.

·        The story you tell yourself – This was the most interesting. That I can work on.

Still – worth watching the video for sure.

https://www.ted.com/talks/emily_esfahani_smith_there_s_more_to_life_than_being_happy?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

And now for something completely different (Monty Python reference 😊)

This object is called ‘The Orb’ – Possibly one of the best things I ever spent $12 on. I found it at REI. It works amazingly well to ease my muscle knots. The small nodules keep it pace against almost any wall or surface, it is very light and can be carried anywhere. I’ve used it on planes with great success. Really amazing item for anybody with chronic muscle issues. Or even if you just want to relieve muscles sore from working out.

My root canal is due to be finished off in a couple of days and the experience with the dentist at the American hospital has been painless. I’m a little puzzled about their pricing. The root canal seems to have been only $300 but when I asked for prices for a basic blood panel (CBC, Lipid, Liver, Thyroid, Kidney) .. I was told $600. What? Even in the states I can do all that for under $100. And less than that in Thailand. Oh well. Another datum.

Hope everyone is well wherever you are.