From where I sit

The thing is...I shouldn't have been sitting there. I should have been in a taxi on the way to the airport. Short version: we missed our flight and had to book on to one later costing us some dosh and an evening with friends. Good news is that the time with friends is rescued for tomorrow and...at the end of the day it's only dosh. More serious is the damage to my reputation for competence in making and delivering travel arrangements. I.e. some damage to my amour propre. But I'll get over it and laugh about it in the future.

Oh, and if anyone is in any doubt about Istanbul:

a) it's a beautiful city, and they do need the tourists/visitors and they currently aren't coming;
b) the people are generally helpful and kind;
c) delete taxi drivers from the above;
d) the traffic is terrible and taxi drivers have a fascination with being on highways when probably smaller roads would provide more effective routes; and
e) it is chaos getting into the airport in a vehicle, but once inside the cordon everything is fine.

Sitting in the lounge waiting for the later flight and hoping nothing else goes wrong.