Soon we will all be mad...

In 1995 I saw the movie Strange Days and it totally freaked me out.  It predicted some crazy techno things about the future (1999 to be exact) which seemed very possible.  And now its just a thing of the past.  Then there was Minority Report  which was 10 years ago and I see that we are almost there.  Was it less than 4 years ago we didn't have smart phones?  Time is moving so fast.
So when I went to this PR and Digital marketing presentation for work a few days ago, I realised that we are pretty much doomed and as early as the end of this year!
It's the  Google Glasses.  Holy crap right.  You saw that?! Constant information in your eyeball from the moment you wake up.  Informing you on the weather (look out the window and find out the fecking weather!)  Giving you your agenda for the day.  Who you going to meet, when and where.  No not because you remember it, but because it flashes in front of your face while you brushing your teeth. Every time you look in the direction of some registered place, it beams up info about it, or ask if you want to check in.  Directions get mapped out in your vision like GPS when you need to get somewhere.  Blip, blip, blip constantly in your head.  What happened to the excitement of getting lost and having to talk to a stranger to ask directions.  Or discover a new place because you took the wrong street.  Bump into a friend and have a coffee instead of planning and scheduling every waking moment.
Were these glasses (oh now contacts are being considered because the glasses are so goddam ugly)- were these glasses developed because too many people were getting knocked over or walking into poles because they were constantly looking down at their phones?  Or is it that we want to see if its possible to regress our brains to that of apes.

I'm afraid.  I'm grossed out.  I'm shocked.  I'm worried.  What about Tilly?  Will this just be the way it is?  Will she not know how to communicate, or read body language or talk to people or think for herself?
I used to think those guys at Google were impressive for developing things like Google Earth but now I'm wondering if they have little horns and pointy tails.

Protect yourselves.  Teach your kids to think, question, read, discuss, discover, search.  Get them to do it with actual people too and make some rules about how much time you are online when your kids are awake.
Save Us!

Turkey in Easter...

Most years husby and I have always gone away on a city break for Easter.  But since Tilly came we have spent it at home with family and lots of eggs.  But this year husby got his travel bug on and booked us a trip to Istanbul.  And when I say us I mean only the 2 of us!  Since he booked the tickets 6 months ago, I have been dealing with a lot of feelings about leaving Tilly for 4 whole nights, but finally about 2 hours before we left, I embraced the opportunity for us to see a beautiful city together and have some US time.  

The city is amazing.  But that will be in the next post.  Now for some talk about the food.  

As you can see it was tremendous!  

Mediterranean food is the best.  And Turkish food is all that with a little spice.

From the doner kebabs, to the dolmades, to the aubergine to the fish.  Its all amazing.

We tried street food and restaurant food, and it was all good.  Fresh, organic, home cooked, loved and delicious.

Here are our tips:

1.  Sarnic -  a traditional place set in an old water cistern.  Sometimes seemed touristy but was lovely all the same - dinner was meze and lamb chops of course.

2.  Mikla - equivalent of a Michelin star place (but they don't give out stars in Turkey) which is on the top of a hotel Marmara Pera.  Amazing setting.  Chef is half Swedish! 

3.  Balikci Sabahattin - amazing fish restaurant.  You must book and don't listen when they tell you starters will be offered at the table.  That's only meze and not hot starters.  I missed my calamari.....

Some more tips and some more info on the flavours of Istanbul.

My advice is to try everything.  The surroundings, sights, smells all add to a once in a lifetime experience.  

My favourite meal however were the 2 on the plane.  We got upgraded to business class on the way there (i know!!) but we didn't get to have the menu option as husby had ordered a 'special meal' for us, which they just brought.  That would have been nice as an economy passenger but not this time.
 It was nice but I had to add a lot of salt.  Then on the way home when we were regular passengers they brought another menu which sounded lovely but wondered about our 'special meal'.  So I read a little in the in flight magazine and saw that special meals were for special religious or dietary needs and had to be ordered when booking the flight.  So when we received our 'special meal' again, I added a lot of salt.  I was so curios as to what special need husby had chosen for us, and after looking through our booking page I saw he chose BLAND meal.  Hello, bland?  WTF.  Why would anyone order bland and is that really an option.  Anyway guess who's booking our next flight!

Bon Appetito!