Nerd indicator #2: Don't be evil

To keep up the nerdy image (thick rimmed glasses and all) I just finished reading The Google Storyand I totally nerded out about it. I couldn't put it down!

The book starts with the development of the system and technology of the search engine while the Google duo (Sergey Brin and Larry Page) were at Stanford and then goes through the rise and rise of the company. The book claims on the back cover that "This book was not created, authorized, or endorsed by Google Inc." But they wouldn't really have anything to complain about and I totally wouldn't be surprised if they funded the whole thing. The author even attempts to make the whole computer/software/business story a little risque and sexy (attempts not succeeds) with a chapter called 'Porn cookie guy', another called 'Playboys' and another about the 'burning man' festival with mention of getting naked around a burning effigy. He also quickly argues himself out of the small amount of criticisms he makes and provides many favourable comparisons with 'evil' Microsoft. And despite the obvious bias I still bought in to the whole 'don't be evil' Google mantra wholesale! It makes Google look like the cool guy from the Apple Mac ads and Microsoft the PC guy.

I loved getting info about how the ranking of search results works, the conditions at Google offices (massages, time to work on your own projects, free ice-cream days etc) and the floating of the Google stock which made many of the employees super rich. There is even a whole chapter on the apparently legendary chef who cooked up nutritious organic food for all the employees.

And now that I have finished with Google I dipped into Sacre Cordon Bleu: What the French know about cookingand I am already addicted. It starts with the burning of recipe books by celebrity chefs and then Micheal Booth, his wife and two young children are off to Paris so that he can study at the famous cooking school - Le Cordon Bleu. By the time Madame Raffarin shows them around the Parisian apartment full of shelves of dusty antique books, vast oil paintings and fading velvet curtains with views of the Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tower (and then they excitedly spy the boulangerie and chocolatier on the street below) I was hooked! I am already dreaming of moving to Paris or at least having an extended holiday there.

Some things I am loving at the moment

My glasses! After wearing my contact lens way too much I decided to give my eyes a rest and dug out my glasses. Bordering on nerdy, the rims of these are pretty prominent and the arms are nice and thick. I forgot how much I liked them! And now I can pretend I am super intelligent!

And this book looks sooo good! It is bills open kitchen- bought by my sisters for Senol's birthday last weekend. I love the glowing fading light on the cover and my favourite photo inside is this one (sorry about my crappy photo of this gorgeous photo - it looks a hundred times better in real life):

I love how he writes about the relationship between food and family. He writes "I want my family to grow up with good memories around food. A freshly brewed cup of tea with a slice of cake still warm from the oven or a tart made from freshly picked apricots will become part of a happy memory..." I want that too! I have some very happy memories of making cupcakes with my mum. I am so looking forward to when Yashar is old enough that we can bake yummy memories together.

Yashar Update: A little bit of Possum Magic

Yashar was enthralled by this book (Possum Magic) that arrived in the post for his birthday. The illustrations (by Julie Vivas) are gorgeous and I love this story - I remember reading it when I was little too. It starts with "Once upon a time, but not very long ago, deep in the Australian bush lived two possums" and later leads to eating vegemite sandwiches in the far north of Australia and lamingtons in Hobart. So Australian and very, very cute.

Parenting Books

This book - Baby Love by Robin Barker - has been my guide for the past year. I read it and reread it constantly. My sister gave it to me after finding her own copy so useful. Particularly being here in Turkey, far away from my family and friends' support and guidance, it really was my source of advice and information that I felt I could really trust. I liked its approach - relaxed and realistic - and also how comprehensive it was. My sister-in-law would often ask me questions just before rushing to the doctor and the book always seemed to have the answer and saved her many unnecessary trips. Saying 'my book says...' became a running joke between us.

Before coming here I had romanticised ideas about what looking after babies and bringing up children would be like here. I thought that because of the strong family focus here, having babies and parenting would be more natural and easier, with good experience and knowledge being passed down from generation to generation. This has not always been my reality here though. For example there is a startlingly high rate of cesareans here (according to this article around 39% which is double the maximum rate recommended by the World Health Organisation - in some private hospitals the rate is as high as 95%!) and many doctors are notorious for their over prescription of medicines. Old wives tales also abound. Apart from that, my own ideas about parenting have meant that I need other sources of guidance. Plus I just love books!

Now Yashar is almost one year old and I have found myself rereading the last section (9 - 12 months) of Baby Love and wondering where to next? I have copies of Raising Boys (a book recommended by my cousin who has three boys) and The Creative Family by Amanda Soule on their way. But I need more! I guess I am fairly relaxed in my parenting and don't enjoy being preached to or a one-fits-all approach.

Do you have any suggestions?

Muşmula

These are Muşmula (pronounced Mush-mul-la) and they are in season now so Senol rushed to get some at the market before it was too late. I love the sound of the name. Muşmula. But the taste of these isn't what I'd call delicious. Sort of like eating raw quince if you've ever tried that. They make your mouth all dry and the texture is fibrey (is that even a word?) fibrous perhaps. Either way not particularly tempting!

I have been surprised by how many varieties of fruit and vegetables there are here that I have never even heard of. I thought we pretty much had everything available in Australia now - although maybe they are there at the market, and I just never recognised them.

I love that the availability of fruit and vegetables is so seasonal here. It just makes sense - they taste better and are generally locally grown. Shame on me for not knowing which fruit and vegies are in season apart from the basics! But I'm learning - seeing what's available at the local market, what's weighing the trees down in the neighbourhood.

Ooh I just had an idea - I might start a monthly post where I look at what is in season here and maybe even cook something and include the recipe. It might get me a little more inspired with my cooking too. Brilliant!


(and it makes me want to buy this book even more!)

the namesake

One of my sisters recently sent me a surprise gift in the mail. It was the amazing book by Jhumpa Lahiri called the namesake. I flew through the book (woo hoo! Another step closer to achieving the '28 things I want to do before I turn 29') - it was a fantastic, easy read. Very briefly summed up: it is about the Ganguli family's transition between India and America and it explores themes of dislocation, heritage and escape from that heritage.

Although the story told in this novel is quite different to my own situation, I found the passage below particularly striking. I often found myself thinking about it and how Ashima's thoughts fitted in with my own experience.

Ashima has recently arrived at the hospital, soon to give birth to her first child.

Dr. Ashley pokes in his head from time to time. "No need to worry," he chirps, putting a stethoscope to Ashima's belly, patting her hand, admiring her various bracelets. "Everything is looking perfectly normal. We are expecting a perfectly normal delivery Mrs Ganguli."

But nothing feels normal to Ashima. For the past eighteen months, ever since she's arrived in Cambridge, nothing has felt normal at all. It's not so much the pain, which she knows, somehow, she will survive. It's a consequence: motherhood in a foreign land. For it was one thing to be pregnant, to suffer the queasy mornings in bed, the sleepless nights, the dull throbbing in her back, the countless visits to the bathroom. Throughout the experience, in spite of her growing discomfort, she'd been astonished by her body's ability to to make life, exactly as her mother and grandmother and all her great grandmothers had done. That it was happening so far from home, unmonitored and unobserved by those she loved, had made it more miraculous still. But she is terrified to raise a child in a country where she is related to no one, where she knows so little, where life seems so tentative and spare.

Bunnies

I mentioned a very cute little book in my last post called 'Softies: 22 friends for you to sew, knit and crochet'. So that finally got me motivated to finish sewing these cute little bunnies.

Aghh, now that I see the photo I wish I had stuffed around the ears a little more to get rid of those crinkles. Ohh well, I'm sure Yashar won't mind.

The pattern is by Sarah Bowe. I just had a look at her blog and it is gorgeous - I am very jealous!

I made the pink one pretty much according to the pattern, except I stitched the eyes instead of using beads and put a little bell in the middle of it so that it could be used as a nice soft baby rattle. I made the blue one a little smaller and changed the face to that it looked all sleepy and peaceful. Hopefully this will motivate Yashar to sleep a little better! ;)

I know, it's still hot but...

Even though it is still 30 degrees here most days, the evenings are getting cooler and I am definitely in the mood for Autumn to arrive. I'm dreaming of thick woolly scarves for me and cute knitted beanies and corduroy coats for Yashar. Here are a few favourite Autumny things I discovered on Etsy.

This one is from 'While She Naps' - what a gorgeous name. This little owl looks like it is cloaked in Autumn leaves. Amy's soft sculptures are beautiful and are more art work than toy. You can see more of these wise creatures over at her
blog, her website and the 'While She Naps' Etsy store. She also has a couple of patterns in the second 'Softies' book. I have the first book and it is so cute!





Aren't these little baby shoes cute? That hand-embroidering is gorgeous. I can't believe she is selling these shoes at this price - all that work! These are from Anneeta's Etsy shop.



And this little bear is looking rugged up and ready for the cold winter that is on its way. It is handmade by Shanna Murray and you can find Wintery bears, little dresses and fluffy pillows at her Etsy store, and read and see more at her website and her quietly beautiful blog.

Thank you!

I just wanted to say a huge thank you to all of you commented and emailed following my post 'It's a sleep thing...'. I was so happy that you all took the time to write. I have to say that I started to feel so much better about the whole thing straight away! Not that the sleeping is getting any better! But my outlook has changed and I have started looking at the websites and books you recommended too. The support makes such a difference. So thank you!

Here is an appropriate photo for this week's Yashar update:

I'm usually not that into crime fiction but...

"I'm a licensed private investigator and have been for quite a while. I'm a lone wolf, unmarried, getting middle-aged, and not rich. I've been in jail more than once and I don't do divorce business. I like liquor and women and chess and a few other things. The cops don’t like me too well, but I know a couple I get along with. I’m a native son, born in Santa Rosa, both parents dead, no brothers or sisters, and when I get knocked off in a dark alley sometime, if it happens, as it could to anyone in my business, nobody will feel that the bottom has dropped out of his or her life."

This is Philip Marlowe. The Big Sleepwas the first in the Philip Marlowe series by Raymond Chandler who began writing his published novels during the depression.

Ian Rankin wrote the introduction and says that it is one of the best crime novels he has ever read and that it "opens with my favourite paragraph in all crime fiction and doesn't let up until a wonderfully written coda."

He also observes that Chandler is the "king of the one-liner." My favourite line so far is "Her eyes narrowed until they were a faint greenish glitter, like a forest pool far back in the shadow of trees." But I also love the one Rankin picked out: "He wore a blue uniform coat that fitted him the way a stall fits a horse."

I often pick books based on their cover (I know, probably not the best way but it seems to work for me) and I love this one! The cover artwork is by Steve Marking and seems to be styled after the design legend Saul Bass. Saul Bass did lots of film title design (think Hitchcock's 'Vertigo' and Scorsese's 'Casino', among many others). There is a great article on Bass over at the design museum. Don't you just love his work? I do.

28 things to do before I turn 29

So, quite a while ago I read a post by Andrea over at Hula Seventy called '37 things to do before I turn 38'. I thought that was a great idea - I love lists, I want to get all the things done that I mean to do and would love to do but never actually get around to doing...this is totally what I need! 5 months later and my point is proven -I need that list! (ok so I actually wrote the list back in April just after my birthday, but have only now got around to posting it - hope that is not cheating)

Here are my 28 things to do before I turn 29 in no particular order:

1. Go swimming with Yashar

2. Read 3 novels

3. Get up earlier

4. Get photos of Yashar printed and organise them in an album

5. Improve my Turkish to 'advanced' level

6. Draw a picture for Yashar's room

7. Generate some income -how? That I do not know!

8. Take photos of strangers - this is a hard one -see the 22 April post on Hula Seventy

9. Buy a sewing machine (and actually use it)

10. Take 5 pictures I love

11. Buy some vintage fabric

12. Sell one thing I have made

13. Get to know at least 10 new people in my area

14. Find other Mums to meet up with

15. Make a gorgeous room for Yashar

16. Knit a scarf

17. Have a romantic dinner with Senol

18. Buy handmade

19. Learn to crochet (see my earlier post about this - it is cool to crochet -believe me!)

20. Paint a picture

21. Go to Trilye

22. Get one of my photos printed 'ginormous size' for our bedroom

23. Write letters (not just emails!) to friends and family

24. Cook 4 things from Greg and Lucy Malouf's gorgeous book Turquoise

25. Paint a chair

26. Plant some herbs

27. Go to Topkapi palace (again)

28. Make the Christmas presents for my family (sorry to my family but that's what you are getting!)

...and what does this have to do with tomatoes and lettuce? Nothing, it's just dinner.

Crazy Crochet Cool!

Did you know that people are crazy crochet cool around here?! These are just a few of hundreds!! Here a bride might take around 50 crocheted creations with her to her new home!

So I decided to get in on the act and made this little singlet with a little square of crochet on it - it was so easy and it is so cute!...ahhh except I have no idea how to crochet so I actually just sewed the crochet square on the singlet...

But I really want to learn how to crochet (for those of you that don't already know, crochet is like so hot right now - all the cool crafters are doing it!)

So I bought this book and it was pretty cool but it didn't satisfy my crochet cravings and then I remembered that Alicia Paulson mentioned the book

Vintage Crochetby Susan Cropper (owner of Loop -a totally cool store in London that is on my wish list of places to visit).

The book arrived today and it is soooooo good! It definitely satisfied my crochet cravings. There are so many things I want to make from it, including Alicia's 'Maisie Cardigan' and Bee Clinch's 'Chevron Blanket'. You can read about the book and see some more pictures over at Alicia Paulson's blog (Alicia contributed two gorgeous items to the book and is the queen of crochet!). Alicia's blog and website are must sees! I have been reading the blog for almost a year now (although I am guilty :( of never leaving a comment -but have resolved to do so right now!) and it is full of inspiration and gorgeous goodies.