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Welcome to your 2023 work recap. This

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year, you've been to 127 sync meetings, you

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spent 56 minutes searching for files,

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and almost missed eight deadlines. Yikes!

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2024 can and should sound different. With

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monday.com, you can work together easily, collaborate

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and share data, files, and updates. So

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all work happens in one place and

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everyone's on the same page. Go to

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monday.com or tap the banner to learn

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more. Hello,

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everyone. On today's update, I'm going

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to tell you about when the narrative is coming

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back, about podcast tours to Turkey

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in 2024, and

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about how Anthony Koldelles is answering more questions

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than I told him to. So

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stay tuned. First

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of all, thank you all for your questions

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for Professor Koldelles. The time for submitting new

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ones has now ended. We got

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over 100, which was brilliant, but at

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the same time, I had to do some serious pruning.

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When I sat down to record them with

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him, we got through two hours and only

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got halfway through, which is partly my fault,

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because I said I would

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make him answer them quickly, and then I just responded

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to everything he said. So anyway,

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he also insisted on including questions that

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I had said, let's not deal with

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that one. So it's

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all my fault if your question didn't make it. He,

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I think, would have sat there for eight hours

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answering them. So I'll release that

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first part in a day or two, and

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then we'll get together and record another

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two hours, I'm sure, answering all the other

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questions. He is an incredibly generous man, and

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we're all very lucky to get

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our questions answered. So that's brilliant. After

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those two episodes answering questions, I

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have two more interviews for you

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with other podcasters and authors, and

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then it will be back to the narrative,

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and we will return to the smoldering ruins

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of Constantinople in 1204, and

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we'll see who's going to answer them. to fill the enormous

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power vacuum that has just been created.

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Thank you for your patience. Finally

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then we have tours to Turkey

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this year which is very exciting.

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Now I was going to announce that there are

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three tours available but one has already sold out.

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What I've done for the last few years is I've said

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you know email me if you want to know about tours

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and I put people on a mailing list and I tell

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those people before I announce it on

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the podcast and that's because you know some people

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have been waiting for years for the right opportunity

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to be free or what have you

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to go on a podcast tour so I want to give them

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advance warning. You know not

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everyone's listening to the podcast some people binge it months

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down the road and then they go oh I missed

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you know I missed the tour announcement so if you

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are hearing this thinking oh I want to know about

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the tours then email me and I'll put you

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on the mailing list. I

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also say that as a slight warning that these tours

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can sell out very quickly. So

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we still have two tours available one in May

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and one in September they are both our classic

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podcast tour where we spend six

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days in Istanbul seeing all the Byzantine

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sites there and then we go off

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to Cappadocia to see the amazing caves

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there these places

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the Byzantines lived during the

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Arab raids and they've

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been turned into churches and all sorts of things

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it's just an amazing landscape and

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then we spend a day in Ephesus which is

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probably the best preserved Roman city after

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Pompeii. We

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wanted to give you lots of

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choice with these tours so three tours

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and but the

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balance with that is also that I found

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it quite difficult last year being away from

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my family for 11 days

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straight. So

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I'm going to be there on

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the May tour but I'm

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not going to be there on the September tour and

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instead David Hendrix from the Byzantine Legacy

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website and social media channels will be

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stepping in for me. Now

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all the details of these These trips

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are on the website, thehistoryofbyzantip.com, so check

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it out there and you can see

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what's on offer and see if

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the dates suit you and what you want

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to do. If you have any further questions,

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email me, but please read each

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tour has its own extra

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web page and there's all the details you could hope

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for on there. I'd

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be very excited to meet you in

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Istanbul if you want to come

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on one of those tours, but final warning, please

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don't book anything until we tell you to. So

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don't book any time off work, don't book flights

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until we say we have a full tour party

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and it's going ahead and it's now time to

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book. That's

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it for today, lots happening. I

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will be back in a day or two with

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your questions for Professor Kaldelis. Thank

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you all for listening, for your support and for

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your patience.