Amasra's headland abloom with wild flowers. ❤️

Spring is seriously my favourite travel season in Turkey.

Tumbling down to the coast through that stretch of Turkey that looks like NZ.

On the road, heading north through the hills to the Black Sea

I miss those days, when they'd splash lemon cologne all over you & there was a trolley with a full selection of hot & cold drinks. 😎

Central Anatolia spring time:Patchwork fields, teeny villages sitting tucked into a hill & NZer mandatory photo of sheep.

Hehe. Phew. I thought maybe there was bus company gossip I didn't know.

Don't worry, he's not taking any of them! But are you talking about Metro mafia or EG??? Because I don't know the EG gossip if there is any either!

I am currently back in my natural habitat: on a bus rolling across central Anatolia.

& yet, we will tune in again this week as the racers tackle northeast Turkey & I look forward to John Hannah's narration mangling further Turkish place names.

(as someone who's major life skill is traveling, this is a very stressful show to watch).

I love Ted Chiang's Temple of Babylon & think it may be my favourite short story of all time, & I say that as someone who doesn't like most of Chiang's tech-heavy type stories.

Lol. All the normal backpacker travel tips have been totally lost to time.

Erm, a normal pair of knickers will dry overnight if you handwash in the sink then roll up in a towel & wring before hanging up🤷. You don't need some fancy 'travel knickers' 😂.

Jesus, late stage capitalism hey.

International journalists have been barred from Gaza for two years and seven months.
It's been seven months since the "cease fire" came into force, and two months since the Rafah crossing started to operate.
Israel continues to prevent the entry of journalists.

Winners and judges out of pocket as £20,000 writing awards appear to have closed The Plaza Prizes offered 10 awards in 2025 but some judges say they were not paid, while a number of winners hit back over AI accusations

This is such a bonkers story.

www.theguardian.com/culture/2026...

Resist Assuming Her Life Is Like Her Books

@iammilliam.bsky.social & @backlisted.bsky.social Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. #booksky

The idea that a student op-ed was deemed a threat to national security … a nation run by incompetent and fearful snowflakes

I realise I'm in a massive minority, but I didn't get a smart phone until 2018 & I still think the only useful things about it are having my podcasts all in one place, gmaps when travelling, banking, whatsapp & the kindle app. They have no chance of convincing me on AI.

Hezboolah.
Publicly committing the US to forbidding Israel from bombing Lebanon is a big deal though - and goes beyond the ceasefire agreement text published yesterday.

Ukrainian cat and its destroyed home

Finished Roisin Lanigan's I Want To Go Home But I'm Already There, last night.

A book for anyone who's suffered the horror of renting in London.

It's (kind of) a ghost story, but not because the real terror in the book is the indignities of late-capitalism if you're not rich.

Critical Atlantic current significantly more likely to collapse than thought Scientists say finding is ‘very concerning’ as collapse would be catastrophic for Europe, Africa and the Americas

Great. Super. Well done everyone.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

A tree in bloom with Uçhisar rock citadel far in the background

Spring has finally arrived in Cappadocia.

Getting my elderly mother a subscription to Private Eye last Christmas 'because I know you like Ian Hislop on TV' has been way more effective at reducing her right-wing rants than several years of effort by me & my siblings. Cheers Ian

In 2004, a taxi driver drove me from Tyre out to Al-Khiam for the first time on a trip to Beaufort Castle & the former SLA & Israeli run Khiam Prison.

We stopped in Al-Khiam for lunch. It was a normal, nice, nondescript town full of normal, nice people.

Iran formally demanded compensation from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, and Jordan, accusing them of enabling recent US-Israeli strikes by allowing the use of their airspace, bases, or territory.

Tehran is seeking full reparations for damages estimated at up to $270 billion.

Enjoy your little literary substacks everyone.

Those were the days.🤷

Göreme hotelier just phoned me so that I could list all the dolmus times for the Urgup-Avanos route & I'm like - sigh - remember when 1) guidebooks actually listed excellent public transport info & 2)people actually read guidebooks.

Yale University, your money is tainted by your demands for Zoom calls. Peter Thiel, on the other hand.... your money is perfect

OHHH, just found out this is Peter Theil/Koch funded money. Ewww. Icky.

I'm afraid Helen, I would not be able to not find a Starbucks for this.