Working class hero

Today I worked all day long for the food show. It was exhausting. We worked from 8 am to 7 pm. Then I went to the technology show (teknosohbet.tv) where I worked from 8pm to almost midnight. It was fun though.

During the set up of the teknosohbet show I found those batteries I thought were cool. Those are batteries from the Besiktas soccer Team. The guys are real fanatics here ;)














Serdar and Timur.

No picture day

Today I worked at the food show. But I forgot my camera so no picture today.

SSK

This morning I went to the social security headquarter in Bakirköy. I needed to applied to the Turkish social security in order to be able to take advantage of it. In Turkey, you normally have a social security when you work, but not in the field I'm working in. When working on TV series they do not declare your job. Then you don't contribute for your retirement pension and whatnot. According to the law we have to be declared but well... We don't have paychecks, we don't have social security, we get our money cash in an envelope, etc.
Soooo, that's why I went there. Since Ekin is working I can benefit from the social security on her behalf. Meaning that I can benefit from health care and stuff. Is that all clear ? Is it ?


Marmara Sea, on the way there.









Still on the way.










Stopped at a traffic light.









By the way, it was so crowded that I decided to go another day. I had a job at 11 am and I had to be there on time. The job got canceled last minute. Anyway. Next time I'll come earlier.

New Blog

Today I've started the other blog I told you about.
It is a blog mainly about stencils but also art on walls in Istanbul made by anonymous artists. I've been taking pictures for a few months now and I wanted to share them so feel free to check it out, it's right here. I don't really know how I'm going to present it. I'll probably post one stencil each day.
Enjoy :)

Comfy Cat 2.0

This picture was shot last may in Tünel, Taksim. Another comfortable cat sitting on a chair. Being a cat in Istanbul seems pretty cool.

Transformers DVD

I watched it twice in the theater. Now the DVD is finally out and I watched both DVDs all day long, with the commentary, the Bonus DVD could be better though.
This is in my opinion the best action movie this year. Pure Michael Bay.
The CGi job is awesome. A lot of people I know who do not like that kind of movies were shocked to discover that they actually liked it. It's humorous and visually pleasing and overall decently delivered.













From the same Director, you can find "Bad Boys 2" which is magnificently shot. The Highway pursuit is much better than the one in "The Matrix".

Serap B-Day

We celebrated Serap's Birthday (which was actually yesterday), and went to a swiss restaurant where we actually had french (and both french and swiss) specialties as Fondue Savoyarde (with cheese) and fondue Bourguignonne (with meat). It was excellent, especially the meat. And also the home made dessert.










Happy Birthday Serap

Comfy Cat

I just got home from work. I worked for Teknosohbet.tv, don't forget to visit their page. Turkish speakers only though. I was home all day and went to work at 7 p.m. so I don't really have anything interesting to post. But since I want to post at least a picture every day, here is a picture of this comfortable cat shot last march from our window.




















Skull-A-Day is back from its holidays, don't forget to visit them as well.

Mongol Rally 2007

This is a short video of Benjamin's and Quentin's trip to Mongolia. They were part of the Mongol Rally which runs from England to Mongolia. The goal is to get to Ulaan Bataar in a small 1000cc car. Benjamin & his brother decided to do it in a 400€ Renault 4! It took them 51 days to get there, despite the fact they left with almost no visas and had to get them on the way.
They came through Istanbul on their journey and it was great to see them.

The tree is out

A cat, passing by

Ekin went to Edirne today, for her job. She refused to take the camera so no pictures.
Instead here is a cat from Cihangir in Istanbul.

Turkish Style

I love Turkey.
All three switches were on dimmer and we only needed two so we asked the electrician to change the third one in a normal switch. Here it is.

Cow

For several weeks now, even months, I've been taking pictures of art forms in the streets of Istanbul, such as stencils, drawings, paintings. And I just discovered this new thing I think is pretty cool.
It's this little cow in ceramic with the colors of the iznik ceramics.
The person doing it fixes them on the walls in the streets. That's the 2nd one I've seen so far.

Yoga

Tonight we went to see this nice yoga show of Edward Clark at Cihangir Yoga. It's a mix of Yoga, dance, theater. The guy was funny as well.
It was pretty impressive. The guy has a body of an 18 year old but is actually closer to 50 (according to Ekin).






















I'll try to post a small video later.

Zey's B-day

2nd post today.

Well it was Zeynep's birthday on the 27th but she invited us to this very nice pizzeria in Cihangir (Djihangir) called Miss Pizza. It's one of the best pizzeria in Istanbul I've been to.
On the way there I saw this cool cat sitting on a grave stone in this tiny cemetary sqeezed between two buildings. A patient cat by the way, it took me many shots before being able to get this steady one. Hand held camera at night.




























It was a cool night. Happy Birthday Zeynep.

Yesterday's picture

Yes, it is in fact a shower head. Thanks to ALR. It's the shower in the studio we're shooting in.










We're shooting this 'Jamie Oliver like' cooking show in this very nice old building in Taksim, Beyoglu. I'll try to take a picture from the outside next time. It's from the beginning of the last century.



















The shoot is pretty cool. We shoot twice a week. The thing is that it's only pasta recipes, so we eat pasta all day long.
Today we finished around 4 p.m. so I'll go home and get ready for Zeynep B-day (next post).

Today's picture

Guess what it is ...











Yes it is ;)

2-1

I was working today. For Canal+ but not as cameraman for once.
As a translator for the French director.

I got to meet Aimé Jacquet.

Going to bed, it's 1.30 a.m. and I need to get up at 6.30 a.m. tough.

Left turn prohibited

I guess they were out of "left turn prohibited" sign. But they already have two signs saying that you can't go this way. So why bother putting this third one ? That's Turkey's charm I guess.

Arnavutköy

I did some walking and running today.

traffic

I hate Turkish drivers. I hate them, I hate them, I hate them !!!
#\*@?!% !!!!!

Beykoz

on the way to work

I saw this writing on a wall today.

I can't really read the english part.
If someone could help me, that would be cool.






Today we shot new episodes from the Teknosohbet show.

Cheesecake

Today I made my first cheesecake. The New-York Cheesecake.

Here is how I did :

I mixed up 150 grams (5.30 ounces) of Flour, 60 grams (2.10 ounces) of sugar, some lemon zest and 5 grams (0.20 ounce) of vanilla powder. Add 120 grams (4.20 ounces) of melted butter and 1 egg yolk. Let the butter cool down if you melted it bain-marie, otherwise you will cook the egg.

Handle until you get a homogeneous dough. Make a ball with it, wrap it with stretch film and leave it half an hour in the fridge.
-----------------
Preheat your oven at 210 °C (410°F).
Butter up your mold, spread the dough evenly up to the upper side. Cook it for 10-15 minutes. Have a look often, mine almost started to burn by the 10th minute. Then take it out and let it out to cool down.
-----------------
In a big bowl, mix up 650 grams (1.4 pounds) of Labne Cheese if you are in Turkey, Saint-Moret or fromage blanc if you're in France, or any softened cheese cream you can find. Add some lemon zest, 200 grams (0.45 pounds) of sugar, 1 table spoon of flower, 5 grams (0.20 ounce) of vanilla powder, mix it all.


In a separate little bowl, mix up 3 eggs + 1 egg yolk, then add it to your previous ingredients. mix.

Have your oven preheated at 270°C (518°F). Pour your new mix in the mold on the cooled dough.
Put it in the oven.
After 5 minutes lower your oven's temperature to 90°C (194°F) and let it cook for an hour (maybe a bit more, depending on your oven.

Let it cool for 3 hours. Serve cold.

Bon appétit.

Satellite dishes

Today's picture :

Nutella

Man, Did you know the nuts variety used for the production of Nutella is mainly coming from Turkey ? The needed quantities are so huge that approximately 80% of the turkish production is bought by the manufacturer : Ferrero.
The volumes bought are so big that Ferrero can select the best nuts leaving its competitors the smallest calibers and lower quality nuts. This could explain why no other product quite match the specific taste of Nutella.
Another incredible fact : The Nutella found in the U.S.A. does not include E and B12 vitamins as it does in Europe.

I need to ask someone living in the States if this is all true.
The american Nutella is enriched in iron but impoverished in phosphor.
There is more peanut butter (mono-saturated fat), which is of a lower nutritional quality than vegetal oil (richer in Polyunsaturated fat acids) usually used.
It has more sugar and the peanut butter is preferred instead of cocoa butter.
It is sold in disposable plastic can and not in recyclable glas.
They say that the american Nutella would taste more like chocolaty peanut butter with a less smooth texture and less homogeneous making it less easier to spread.

Although I have some doubts about most those facts about the american Nutella. Those are probably old data.

Anyway, Nutella Rules everywhere.

- And if you ever go to Paris, France you'll be able to eat the best Nutella flavored Italian ice cream.
This is the only place in Paris where they really use Nutella to make their ice cream. The other flavors are also delicious; made from real fresh fruits.
The name of the place ? : Amorino.
Where to find it ? : Click here to see the 7 shops on google map.
There is one in Strasbourg at 11 rue Mercière.
And even 3 in Shanghai.

Cat

So many cats in the streets here. This one is sleeping in this old fountain in the streets in Cihangir.

Happy Birthday

Mustafa













& Umut

Bulgur King

The picture was taken while driving. Sorry for the poor composition ;)










The restaurant is here for those who are interested in raw meat balls. This one does it without meat though. They use bulgur (dried crushed wheat) instead. You can't really tell but on the sign you have the web address of the place. Every body has a website here, even the street salesmen. A place for vegetarian I guess.

Toilet Seat

I saw this very cool toilet seat in the streets of Cihangir today. It was here. The building it's in is abandoned with many graffities and stencils on the outside wall. You may see them soon on another blog I will create just for wall art.

Blue cat

The kids in the neighborhood love him so much they painted him in blue.

Bimbo

Today I went To Ikea with Jake, we took a look at the new outlet (Meydan) adjoining it they recently finished and went into this new hypermarket (Real) in which we found this amazing cherry juice.
This new outlet is an open-air shopping center. The air-conditioning is provided by one of the largest geothermic units in Europe. The center is heated and cooled using mainly geothermic energy.

Bosphorus at night

We went to see Gülper in Istinye, She has one of the best views over the Bosphorus.

Today's Picture

What is it ?