Hi again, fillies and sexycolts. :3

First, lemme wish you a HAPPY NEW YEAR

I'm using a USB internet device my uncle gave me (or rather left for me a few days ago so I can pick it up if I wanted), can't go to that Internet Café again because of the incident mentioned in the previous log.

Before anything else, a few additions to the list of Turkish dishes you SHOULD try: haydari on bread to begin the meal, yahni or midye dolma (stuffed oysters) as the main course, ekmek kadayif or kazandibi for dessert. You might enjoy a cup of sahlep to stay warm inside, and eat macun (literally "paste") which is candy in an extremely viscuous liquid form.

Anyway, resuming.

On Thursday, my mother went to have lunch with an old classmate, while dad took my sister and me to one of his. The guy had this huge, complex train network in one of his rooms, complete with bridges and a tunnel through a hill. I took photos of it, as well as vintage car toys and weird house models.

Friday was when we went around a lot. Crossed the Bosphorus to reach the Egyptian Market (Misir Carsisi) and Beyoglu, even took the very first Istanbul subway line ever ("The Time Tunnel", it's 70-something years old now) to the latter.

Then we walked a long, weird path, looking for a certain quality restaurant. I personally was happy walking down steep hills and winding left or right (straight paths bore me to death), but it bothered the others.

There was a park near the restaurant where we sat to digest, and I got to know some stray dogs, big dogs, sunbathing and chasing bikes to keep warm. My mother bought some souvenirs and gifts from the shops around, and shared macun with me on the way back.

And we dined on lots of good stuff, like haydari, at one of my father's classmates' (YET ANOTHER ONE ).

On Saturday we went to a new mall, with a bunch of outlets, by the airport where we had arrived. I finally could buy myself a shiny new pair of shoes, both classy and sportsy-looking.

They also had a kind of park, a lake with geese and ducks and swans, parrakeets and chickens in cages, even peacocks.

Not much happened on Sunday. Visited my grandmother's grave, and had tea with an old lady who had raised my uncle.

Oh, two things happened on the way back though. First, on the minibus, some smelly drunk hobo climbed in; fell off his seat at one point, barely reacted until I pulled him up.

Second, my mom and I stopped by the market near our home to buy dinner, and I found Varjak Paw in Turkish.

Yesterday, New Year's Eve. My father spent it taking care of the rented apartment, while mom took us shopping before heading for her father's. Speaking of my grandfather, I wrote down some of the songs he often sings, I'm planning to look them up later.

Anyway, we went to my grandmother's house to join my father for dinner and snacks.

We then went back home and spent New Year sleeping, as we have been for a few years. Besides a harshly bitten lower lip and three toes smashed against a sofa, nothing special happened for me as I wrapped up the year.

Today we're planning to arrange some painting job for the rented apartment, and in the afternoon, visit an old friend of my father's who owns a dog.

Alright, now I'm being called because we must go, so I'll stop here. I'll be leaving the USB device for my uncle, so I won't be able to login until tomorrow, maybe in the morning from the airport.

Hope to see you tomorrow, fillies and sexycolts.

Fissy Faggot Sodacan the 69th Homo Erotis Pervertis, heading out!

UPDATES

Back at home in France now, I realize I forgot to mention something: my mom found the other paper I had forgotten in summer. It had dropped to the floor under my bed.

So I now have both pieces of paper; one with anatomy sketches (plus added things), the other with written ideas and a couple of pony doodles.

Anyway, we had tea at that friend's yesterday, as planned. He lives in the country, in a village full of dogs lying on the grass and walking around, though I couldn't take photos of them because we were going fast and my camera is retarded.

He had a German Shepherd, very social and even sticky, with which I had plenty of cuddling and nuzzling times. Very clever too; he wasn't allowed into the garden (because there was a pair of geese he didn't really like) and stayed outside the gate, but he nudged the metal bar securing the gates to the ground and almost opened them, though the two gates stayed together.

Then an old man, their nextdoor neighbor, joined us towards the end. I learned some interesting things about my country's History, past and present, that I won't detail here.

Finally, a couple of technical news.

First, I went back to my previous digital camera, because -as said above- the new one is stupid.

It has modes like "portrait" or "indoors" or "snow", where it chooses everything for me and I sometimes can't even switch off the flash. It's so stupid, the "pet portrait" mode reacts to unrelated things, like square patterns or trees, and automatically takes a picture. Worse, when I press the button to shoot, in some modes, it waits (I kid you not) THREE FULL SECONDS.

Nope. Return to the origins. If you're old enough to remember that song.

Secondly, the computers.

My big old lagtop stays in Turkey because it's slower than ever before and falling apart. The technicians gave us CDs where they transferred as many files as possible, but we haven't been able to find them with the lagtop. Our only hope for reaching them here, is the USB DVD-CD player bought some time ago, as we have no computer able to play CDs (except my Wii).

The netbook is back here with a new OS (Windows 2007) that is obviously not made for it. It is now unable to: adapt its resolution to the screen (everything is stretched horizontally), detect our WiFi signal (unless maybe I need to configure, but there was no such issue in Turkey), display battery level on the task bar, read an SD card directly... Also, I recall being told its files are lost for good.

That wraps up my 2012-2013 New Year trip log.