Imagine yourself crossing the threshold of Hagia Sophia as a random tourist visiting Istanbul. You’re wearing your blue jeans, white sneakers, and a t-shirt…
Latest posts - Page 2
The City
"You may imagine how they gazed, all those who had never before seen Constantinople... and the splendid palaces and soaring churches – so many…
Ethos of Thermopylae
When lost and looking for direction, the simplicity of Cavafy provides the necessary clarity.Honor to those who in the life they leaddefine and guard…
Adding constraints for peak performance
If you notice, it is exactly the same technique: by removing tools or adding constraints, we are forced to apply ourselves harder and ultimately…
Books: Byzantium | The Apogee | John Julius Norwich
After three decades of war, he annihilates the Bulgars and extends the dominion of the Empire from Iberia (eastern shore of the Black Sea)…
The tragic figure of Michael IV the Paphlagonian
Then the final time arrived. He had himself carried to his own monastery of SS Cosmas and Damian, stripped off his imperial clothes and…
Michael Psellus | ‘Basileus’ of modesty
"The Nile may water the land of the Egyptians, but it is my golden words that nourish their spirit. Ask the Persians and the…
Tennis observations: 33% + 33% + 33% + 1%
The game is 33% + 33% + 33% + 1%, yet the average player thinks it only consists of the first 33%, and the…
Books: Byzantium | The Early Centuries | John Julius Norwich
The terrified boy was clutching the altar with one hand and a fragment of the True Cross with the other. One of the agents,…
Notes on Lima | skateboarding is not a crime
I found surfboards, bodyboards, diving equipment, empty and abandoned fish tanks, an ancient color TV... but no Ron Allen. It had somehow, sometime, escaped.