12 Comments CherryPie on Apr 10th 2024
Synopsis from the book cover:
Ziya Bey has six months left to live. From his mansion on Farewell Fountain Street, the Ottoman aristocrat plans to tie up some questionable business affairs and say goodbye to the people he cherishes. He hires Artvin, a disillusione professor with a troubled past, to assist him. Intrigued by his employer’s mysterious household. Artvin spends the days uncovering Ziya Bey’s turbulent life story.
The two men become bound together as they reveal dark elements from their pasts. But when Ziya Bey releases Artvin from his duties sooner than expected, Artvin inherits a spiral of violence he cannot control.
In this gripping ride through the streets of Istanbul, two men learn one another’s secrets. But can either of them learn to live with themselves?
Thoughts on the book:
The book is promoted as a thriller but I would categorise it as mystery. The mystery which is teased throughout the book is revealed at the end was a surprise. I enjoyed the discriptions of Turkey and the interactions between Artvin and Ziya Bey.
The chapters are structured in a way that compelled me to read just a little bit more…
6 Comments CherryPie on Apr 9th 2024
…Easter Monday
Mum had been moved to the escalation ward over night and had started to become delirious as we had suspected she would.
Due to being home a day earlier than expected, we needed to pick up some food supplies. We visited Battlefield 1403 in the hopes that we could also have lunch there. There was a waiting list for tables so we opted to buy the fresh produce and have lunch in Shrewsbury instead.
We chose Palmer’s of Shrewsbury which is a lovely place to eat, drink and to sit and chat a while. After our relaxing refreshments, we picked up the rest of our week’s supplies from Sainsbury’s.
We visited the hospital to see mum where we were able to persuade her to have a drink of water and a cuppa soup.
Now it was time for some well-earned chill out time at home, looking forward to roast chicken.
8 Comments CherryPie on Apr 7th 2024
…Easter Day
When we called on mum to take her to breakfast it was obvious that she had become more unwell overnight. She could hardly stand up so we helped her to the breakfast room where she enjoyed her breakfast. We were also pleased to find that the other member of our party had recovered overnight.
After breakfast we made the sad decision to take mum home because she had the early symptoms of another UTI infection.
We were disappointed not to be able to take part in the Easter Morning service in Lincoln Cathedral which was meant to be one of the treats for mum’s birthday.
Back home, we dialled 111 who assessed that mum should attend a critical care appointment in the local hospital within two hours and that they had called ahead to tell the hospital to expect her arrival. However, we found that our local hospital insists that everyone should go through the hospital’s own triage nurses. The triage system labelled her as coming in with vertigo and downgraded her to non-urgent despite us telling them that we suspected she had a UTI and the consequences that we know lead from that.
Mum had a few preliminary tests to rule out a few things and then we sat and waited watching many people come and go. Nine hours later, only mum and another lady, who had been admitted for an orthopaedic problem, remained from the original intakes.
Nine hours was too much for a 91-year-old lady so she decided she wanted to go home but first needed a nurse to remove a canula from her arm. The nurse went to check what was going on and advised that mum was next in the queue and gave an approximate time unless it was bumped by ambulance admissions.
The doctor who saw her was amazing. He talked to mum, assessed and listened to her concerns and accepted that she hadn’t come in with vertigo. From the tests he concluded that she had a UTI infection and, due to frailty, admitted her into hospital for what was left of the night.
This was a relief for me because I knew what would come next…
6 Comments CherryPie on Apr 6th 2024
…Easter Eve
Breakfast, cooked to order was excellent. Unfortunately, two of our party were under the weather for different reasons but despite this we visited Lincoln Cathedral. It was mum’s birthday and a treat for her but her legs were a little wobbly so she only made it part way around the cathedral, having to sit down whilst the rest of us completed the tour of the Cathedral.
We had elevenses in the Cathedral Café which turned out to be rather cold due to drafts. It didn’t help that the staff kept leaving the outside door open when they served customers in the outside eating area. No matter how many times I shut the outside door, it was open again a couple of minutes later…
After our morning refreshments we walked the short distance into town where mum picked up some items from the chemist. The ladies had a mooch around EWM clothes shop where mum found a lovely gilet which she just had to buy, a birthday gift to herself. We then had a wander around the cathedral square and mum managed to walk to the castle grounds where I showed her the dragons!
At lunch time the party split into two, Mr C, mum and I had lunch in a lovely café Grayz that Mr C and I had enjoyed on a previous visit. It didn’t disappoint.
Mum, on her wobbly legs, enjoyed browsing around antique and bric-a-brac stores and craft stalls. She had become tired so we took her back to her room to relax, then we walked down steep hill.
At the bottom of steep hill, we remembered why we prefer the upper part of the town. The upper town is calm in contrast to the busy and boisterous nature of the lower town.
Rather than walk up the steepest part of ‘Steep Hill’ we took a detour through Temple Gardens with its slow winding pathway upwards.
Mum’s birthday dinner was in The Old Bakery, which is operated as a training ground for students from Lincoln College. We had a lovely evening and the food was delicious.
Mr C drove back to Cathedral View guesthouse where all but Mr C and I retired for the evening. The two of us visited the Wig & Mitre for a nightcap. It was a bit boisterous in the bar area but calm & chilled in front of the fireplace where we chose to sit. Just what the doctor ordered.
6 Comments CherryPie on Apr 5th 2024
…Good Friday
Miraculously, we left home and picked mum up on time. Twenty five minutes later, after topping up with petrol and returning home to fetch Easter gifts that we had forgotten to pack, we eventually left our locality.
We had a good journey apart from our decision to stop in Newark for lunch. The traffic there was horrendous, adding half an hour to our journey. Eventually, Mr C dropped mum and I off outside a café he had seen whilst he found somewhere to park the car. We entered the café and joined the queue. The three ladies in front of us turned around and left saying ‘he obviously doesn’t want us’. We were now at the head of the queue, the proprietor asked if it was a table for two to which I replied ‘a table for three’. His answer was “NO!”, followed by a pregnant pause before adding ‘only tables for two’. We beat a hasty retreat and went into the café next door.
Mr C was bemused when I phoned him to tell him where we were, he was already looking for us in the first café having found a parking space near to where he had dropped us off. Lunch in the second café was lovely; I opted for a cheese and chive scone. The rest of our journey to Lincoln ran smoothly and we realised that the café on the outskirts of Lincoln that we normally use was nearer than we had thought. It would have saved a lot of hassle all round if we had realised this and gone there.
We checked into Cathedral View guest house and got mum settled in her room before going to find our room which was just what we hoped for. Mr C’s parents had arrived just ahead of us so we had a chat with them before collecting our bags from the car.
We decided not to unpack straight away, heading into the Castle Square and the castle grounds beyond, where we found Dragons!
We bumped into Mr C’s parents who were out exploring, and had a cuppa in a delightful tearoom where there was a sharing of coffee and walnut cake (not me). It was now time to head back to our room, unpack and chill out. This didn’t go quite according to plan… We called in to tell mum what time we were going to pick her up for dinner but, as we tried to enter the outside door, the key broke in two. Luckily, we were able to retrieve the portion that was in the lock. It was then that Mr C realised he had tried to use the wrong key.
Back in our room Mr C rang the B&B owner to confess the breakage and it was agreed that the problem could be sorted out in the morning over breakfast. The key that was broken was the one to our wing of the house and Mr C’s parents had a key to get in there.
We had an aperitif in the Wig & Mitre before dining in Brown’s Pie Shop. The food was delicious and we had banter and laughter with the waiter. Due to the misadventure with our key we had to retire to our room earlier than usual where our nightcap was just a cup of tea.
10 Comments CherryPie on Apr 4th 2024
…Easter adventures in Lincoln
10 Comments CherryPie on Apr 2nd 2024
