kat's weekly #2 - fortress of katayah?!

This week was tough and luckily it's almost over - I got sick as a result of which all my plans for this week went south. I didn't take part in the race I was so excited about - but most of my colleagues did and through them I got to enjoy the experience a bit. This is also why there is no sports activity for this week - as a side effect I lost 7.5 lbs and we'll see if I'm able to stabilize it. Average number of steps in the last 7 days: 10,355 - pretty good considering I spent most of the days horizontally. ;)

Photo of the week

View from a site visit on Thursday that I almost overslept for but in the end was able to make it. I went through a phase of being scared of heights and I seem to be comfortable with them again.

Song of the week

The beginning of the ultimate best album in my heart.

Google search of the week:

These will be two but both quick:

1. Synthesis and expression
   The first one must be Antonio Sant'Elia's (1888-1916) futuristic manifesto. You can read it here: click. I was recently quite randomly thinking that I don't like classicism in architecture and decided to come back to the manifesto.
   https://www.unknown.nu/futurism/architecture.html

2. Fortress of me
   After re-reading Sant'Elia I got sidetracked to something much more random. Precisely, this page, which is page 22 of the "Morning Chronicle" from June 5, 1851, where we can read:

“ Foreign-office, May 27, 1851. “Sir—I am directed by Viscount Palmerston to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 23rd inst., inclosing a copy of a resolution pas^ on the previous day by the Rignt Honourable the LordMas’or, Aldermen, and Commons in Common Council assembled, expressing their deep sympathj' with Kossuth and his companions, detained prisoners in the fortress of Katayah, and their earnest hope that Lord Palmerston may deem it consistent with his duty to interpose his friendly offices with the Government of the Sublime Porte to promote the liberation of the illustrious captives.

It is very interesting since "Fortress of Katayah" did not seem googlable. If you look at the other mistakes of the text identification program it does seem possible that it's just a typo. But what was the name of the fortress?! I was sure it was Budzin but how do you go from Budzin to Katayah? I was lost. And then I read in the English wiki (so easy, but I tend not to check wiki...):

Kossuth's time in power was at an end. A solitary fugitive, he crossed the Ottoman frontier. He was hospitably received by the Ottoman authorities, who, supported by the British, refused, notwithstanding the threats of the allied emperors, to surrender him and other fugitives to Austria. In January 1850, he was removed from Vidin, where he had been kept under house arrest, to Shumen, and thence to Kütahya in Asia Minor.

Wikipedia: Lajos Kossuth / Escape and tour of Britain and United States - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lajos_Kossuth

So here is our solution: it's a misspelling of Kütahya (tr) / Kotyaion (gr), and, additionally, it seems that Budzin is called Vidin in English. Quite funny but I'm glad I didn't name myself after that fortress. You can visit this place on google maps here: https://goo.gl/maps/MS6aFFzTUPU2

Fleeting thoughts

• I lost a lens today and was forced to walk home semi-blind because of that. It made me realized how an impaired sense changes the perception completely. Even though I still had my one eye and was able to see some shapes and colors with the other one, I wasn't able to assess danger, i. e. street traffic properly, while I took a family of four on the sidewalk in the distance for potential danger. It made me think in what way an impaired sense of language influences my daily life. It probably does to a great extent.
• How many positive examples of married couples do you know? I don't know many, so most of my life I have seen marriage as the end of your freedom, a step at the end of which you are strangled and you lose your personality. I recently got to see some examples of people who love and respect each other in which case I saw it as only a beginning of your growth as a person. It's a kind of a twist of my perception that I like to experience.

Food discovery of the week

Have you ever eaten yams? I recently cooked yams with potatoes in the proportion of 1:2 and it tasted like dessert! There are many kinds of sweet potatoes and I have tried those that are available in Poland but to my surprise a yam tastes completely different. I recommend that you try if you have a chance!

Also, for those of you who are or occassionally choose to be gluten free but like good flavors - I found rice cakes that taste like pizza. These are garden tomato and basil flavored but they successfully replace your junk food cravings without any major allergens. I found it to be a good occassional treat with no major regrets and only 50 kcal per slice. ;)

This is all for this week. Talk to you soon!