Wow

What a wonderful day!
Worthy of a book in narration, I'll try to be brief ....

An afternoon in nearby hot and sunny Ortaköy -  always a bustling place, especially at the weekend in such glorious weather. A little shopping, a large stuffed jacket potato and a lot of 'Istanbul street life' photos, (some of which I've chosen as extras) on any other day would have been more than enough, but on this day the best was still to come.  

Tonight was the third and final orchestra concert and if Thursday's performance can be described is 'excellent, engaging, entertaining, extraordinary' I am not sure I know enough superlatives in English or Turkish to do justice to what I saw and heard tonight, so I'm not going to even try. Wish you were here.

Not only were my eyes and ears full of super sights and sounds, but my heart was too, when before, during and after the concert I was greeted by (and cuddled with) so many super special students - both the current and the graduated kind - that I have now uploaded sufficient affection to carry me for months.

Other songs in Extras:  
"How much is that doggie in the window?" (Indırım = Sale)
"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". U2 (here)
"I heard it through the grapevine" Marvin Gaye
"Wherever I lay my hat"