Legends

 I found another great crime series on Netflix and I wanted to share it/plug it here: Legends. It's both a crime drama and a true crime documentary, as it is based on true events: the heroin trade of the early nineties in the UK and the combat against it by a team formed by border officers. A ragtag bunch of misfits as the trope is called. I love ragtags bunch of misfits, especially in crime fiction, even more when they had an origin in real life. I might blog about the trope one day, but I digress. You have two fairly rarely seen (at least in fiction) mob groups as the antagonists, one from Liverpool, the other from Turkey. Anyway, I cannot stress how solid the series is and I cannot recommend it enough.

The Night Agent in Istanbul

 Okay, so I have started watching the third season of the spy TV series The Night Agent on Netflix. So far so good, I am really enjoying it. It's not entirely original or particularly groundbreaking, but it is competently made and there's plenty of suspense to keep you invested. Anyway, like every self-respecting spy thriller, it sometimes goes to exotic locations. In this instance, the Night Agent ends up in Istanbul in the very first episode. And it reminded me that there are certain places, certain cities in the world, closely associated with espionage and covert operations, both in fiction and in real life. So it inspired me to do a series of posts about them in the near future, if that can interest you. It won't be like deep dive, just a few fun facts about them, what I know and what I learned.

"Better than a Turkish barber"

I recently received from Amazon a clipper to cut cut my hair. As we are stuck in confinement due to the pandemic and there is no way in Hell I will go see a barber any time soon, even if I could, I thought I better do my hair myself. Or have my wife do it for at least part of the job. So we cut my hair on Sunday. It was a bit stressful at first, but in the end, the result is not so different from something a professional barber would do. It is true that it is not difficult to give me a haircut: I like my hair short and that's it. My wife said about the ordeal: "I think I am better than a Turkish barber". This is because last time I went to a Turkish barber, he gave me a small cut shaving the back of my neck. So yes, at least she was better than this. And this deserves to be a new great unknown line. Once the pandemic is over, I might actually carry on using the clippers. It saves us money.

Authentic Turkish Delights

This picture was taken... at work, from my cell phone.It is, obviously, a box of Turkish delights. Authentic ones, as the box says. It was from my colleagues who asks me to translate things, she got back from a trip in Turkey and had a translation for me. The sweets were not exactly a bribe like for the chocolates, as I had to share the box with everyone in the office. but I had the privilege to eat the first ones. I was surprised actually, I never thought authentic Turkish delights could be that good. The pistachios certainly gave it an interesting flavor. When I was asked if I liked Turkish delight, I thought it was this one. I am kind of glad it was the authentic stuff. I had a few anyway, but left most of them to my colleagues. It was not quite a sugar epiphany I guess. Now if it had been baklavas, I wouldn't have shared with anyone.