Hey there 👋 I’m Mathilde. Every week I explore the intersection of consumerism, myth, satisfaction, desire, joy and pride. Not specifically in that order. To brag at your next dinner, Objet is the french word for 'object' and should be pronounced 'OB-JEH'. You're welcome.
Hey! What’s up? Turning 34 in Lisbon today, and pretty late on schedule.
As you know, very week, I am paying a small tribute to an existing object that I live with, by writing down its story.
#5 Backgammon
Istanbul, 2016. I haven’t been taking notes during that trip, like I’d usually do, so I will have to rely solely on my fading memories.
Our friends Luc, Prisc, Daniel, Jane and us, embarked on a trip to Istanbul.
We had promised each other we would keep traveling together like we used to when we were neighbors in Geylang, Singapore. Istanbul was an iconic place we were all dreaming about, and relatively “central” when flying from Berlin, London or Singapore.
And so Istanbul. We’d found an apartment in Kadıköy, the local area, on the other side of Bosphorus. Every day, we’d commute downtown... on a ferry. Hot tea, estuary breeze. We’d visit mosks, many mosks. And an underground cistern, one of the most magical places I’ve ever seen: 300 columns, a gigantic drinkable water reservoir from the 6th century. We’d navigate up to the Black Sea, eat seafood. The smell of that book I was reading and that I can’t recall at all. We’d eat mezze. Flavours of mint.
We’d play backgammon. Drink tea. Smoke shisha. Again. And again. We became rather good at it. Tempers are sublimed, bad one especially…
And then we’d fly back. Couple weeks later, the mailman brings a little something for us: a wooden board. A backgammon board. No way. Tastes like a sweet anchor of this beautiful trip. Sneaky friends, lah.
We keep playing from time to time. Every new play tastes a bit like the recklessness of this time in Istanbul.
More about backgammon 🎲: alongside go and chess, backgammon is one of the oldest games, about 5,000 years old. It was born somewhere in what is Iraq today. Its name would probably come from Middle English baec = back and gamen = game.
About Objet.
Objet is a mobile app that helps you build your collection of possessions, so that you can train the skill of knowing what you want and need.
Objet is also a community of people who want to be at peace with what they have.
Thanks for the generous feedback on this new format of newsletter. Please, keep doing so! We are integrating these joyful play -extended stories/anecdotes of your favorite objects- onto the app. Want to join & play with us? Hit the reply button!
Cool reads.
📰 When fast-fashion brands enter the resale business (yep, that’s right), maybe it’s time to address our schizophrenic behaviors. Can we seriously believe they are not “simply helping their customers clear their wardrobes for more new [brand X] products”? More thoughts about second-hand in a coming newsletter.
Til next week,
Mathilde
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élucubration n.f. : production déraisonnable, absurde, issue de recherches laborieuses ; divagation, extravagance. Pardon our french.