Don't fix it, if it ain't broken!

Words of wisdom. I do not know why Blogger decided to change things while it worked perfectly fine but, they did what they did so, I will adapt. Sigh...

I am back in Ankara expecting my SIS and BIL to show up. They have left Izmir late and they still have another hour and a half to go on the road.

It is a long weekend and the refrigerators (yes there are two, mom's and sister's) are almost empty. My sister told me not to shop for anything because the long weekend is not as long and she wants to spend time with her in-laws and friends I guess.

So, I just bought a pack of chicken breasts, 5 tomatoes, 5 cucumbers, 3 onions and a head of iceberg. I ate some grilled chicken and a salad today. We'll see what happens tomorrow. Most likely they will get up late and rush to her in-laws. 

I am going to see two of my childhood friends on Saturday. We were raised in the same neighborhood, our families were friends and our dads were colleagues. Older friends become closer as I age.

It is so damn hot in this city. Or may be, it is the apartment but, I swear, I am melting away. Can't wait for the Fall. This has been the worst and the strangest year of my life and I hope, the ones on their way do not turn out to be any worse. 

It is time for yet another episode of Star Trek Voyager. I like to think myself a part of the crew, thousands of lightyears away from the Earth.

Yay! No cavity!

I had to go to the dentist because I was suspecting a cavity. It turned out to be tartar under my gum line on just that one tooth. Then my dentist friend cleaned my teeth. We discussed the implant I need for a long time now and decided to have it done late August. There is an old filling that needs to be replaced and that's it!

While I was at his office we talked about getting together with the rest of the group tonight. We have this smaller whatsapp group who all live in Istanbul. So, tonight we will be 6-8 people at our High School's Alumni Club. The place is never crowded during the week. Besides due to Covid-19, the pool is closed so there will not be any families crowding the restaurant after spending the day at the pool. There is a restaurant and a bar, a pool, one basketball, two tennis courts with a nice lawn to spread around.

I miss my friends dearly so tonight will be a nice change. We will surely observe social distancing and be very careful.

Tomorrow I am heading to Ankara for the long weekend coming up. My sister and BIL will join me too. After the holiday, I will stay two extra days to finalize the paperwork for inheritance and deed transfers. I have my sister's POA.

What a year this one is turning out to be.

A good Saturday

Today I felt compelled to wash all the glass panels of my balcony and the balcony itself. It took all of 50 minutes.

I am still binge-watching Star Trek: Voyager and enjoying it very much.

A HS friend of mine has moved to the US last year. She and her husband are architects and their two sons are going to college in the US too. Yesterday we were talking over whatsapp and she told me she had a niece going to Cornell studying Business Administration /Economy. She told me this young lady is interested in tech companies and was looking for some advice/mentorship and asked me if I would talk to her. I happily accepted that because, I never miss a chance to share my experience.

My friend's niece called me today at the time we had agreed on and we talked for about an hour. I enjoyed our talk and I hope she liked it too. Although she has lived all her life in the US, she speaks flawless Turkish and looking at her whatsapp message introducing herself, her written Turkish is excellent too. Kudos to her parents!

My sister and my uncle shared the temperature today in Izmir and Antalya as 102 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Yikes! I am not going to either of those places till mid-September at best. I don't know about the outside temp but, my home  was a comfy 77 with a nice breeze through the apartment because I keep my windows open.

I am going to see my dentist who is also a HS buddy on Monday. He promised I would be his first patient after everything is sanitized on Saturday. He wears a mask and a shield so, I am hoping I will be safe. I have a feeling, there is quiet a bit of work. We will see.

Forgotten Favorite

As a kid I used to love a veggie and meat recipe but, I forgot about that dish completely. There really is no recipe for it since, it is rather simple. I haven't been making it in ages. A couple of days ago, I had some leftover lamb meat and a bunch of vegetables so, I decided to make it.

It doesn't have to be lamb. It can be any meat you like. 

If anyone is interested:

1 large potato (cubed)

2 eggplants (cut them up in half inch slices)

A big handful of string beans or a bit more. Cut them up about an inch long or a bit longer

2 tomatoes (cubed)

4-5 Cuban or Italian peppers (no hot peppers)

2 zucchinis (half inch slices)

1 onion

2-3 tablespoons tomato sauce or a tablespoon of tomato paste

Olive oil or margarine or butter I like olive oil.

1/2 pound of cubed meat

Salt and pepper to taste

Cut up the eggplants and soak in salt water, set aside.

Cook the cubed meat first with a little oil.

Add chopped onion and tomato sauce or paste, stir thoroughly. 

Lower the heat to a minimum just to simmer.

Add string beans, a little water and cook further about 15 minutes with the lid on.

Wash the eggplants and squeeze them.

Add the eggplants, tomatoes, zucchini, potatoes and peppers, mix well. There should be enough water but not much. So, every once in a while you need to check this. Cook further with the lid on.

If the vegetables are tender enough, you can take it off the stove. If you wait for the next day to consume it, it is even tastier. 

Please do not heat it up in a microwave. Stove top is the way to go. You can serve it with rice.

What makes this recipe so tasty is, minimal heat and the long time to cook it. So, if you have a slow cooker, it could be perfect. However the meat takes the longest time and the beans take slightly longer to cook than other veggies. If you put everything all together, it can get pretty mushy.

You can use more or less meat or any of the vegetables. It really depends on your taste buds. You can make it vegan if you forgo the meat. 

Binge Watching Star Trek: Voyager and House Chores

Today, well technicall yesterday has been a lazy day with binge watching ST: Voyager. However, I did manage to squeeze in washing all the curtains in the living room, washing the windows, cleaning the window screens and hanging the curtains back up.

Each time I deal with living room curtains, I cringe at the fact that the dark green backdrops wrinkle so much. I always consider changing them but, as soon as I put up the floral lace sheer curtains in front of them I say to myself: "It's not that bad. I don't have to see them and nobody else does either. Why spend money?"

I have tried ironing them before and the result is not any better. It is such a stupid material so, I do not iron them anymore. I take them out of the washing machine and just hang them back up. Easy!

The dining room table now looks promising. Tomorrow, I will pretty that up. I have put away quite a bit of stuff today.

As for Star Trek, I love all versions. I thought I had seen every episode of every version but, apparently I haven't or I must have forgotten some of them.

I was going to go to the farmers market but, I decided not to go because, I woke up too late.

I now have to put my hair in a pony tail, wear some nice top and join a Zoom Bridal Shower happening in South Carolina. It starts at 1:30 a.m. my time so, I will just say hello, see my friends and the bride-to-be who is the younger daughter of my friends and then I will go to bed.

Progress rather slow...

Frequent readers may know that I had been trying to put my apartment in order for about a month now. I am as fast as a sloth when it comes to doing house chores.

I was overwhelmed by things scattered around all over the place, sewing stuff on my dinner table, all sorts of things I have brought back from Ankara, loads and loads of laundry and oh! the DUST! Everyday, I said to myself: "How am I gonna get this mess in order?"

Well, today I realized that it doesn't look so bad anymore since I have been taking a few things at a time and putting them where they belong. It looks like the living room room can be cleaned tomorrow after a short trip to the farmers market early in the morning. 

I am planning to take down the curtains and dust, wash the windows and deep clean. It certainly looks doable but, we'll see if this sloth will have the stamina to do it.

Here is what makes me want to cry: Back rooms need cleaning again. Thankfully, just dusting and vacuuming will suffice.

Next up are the kitchen, the balcony and the entrance. 

The bigger chores are waiting for me in the closets. I have not been able to take them down yet. It is just another overwhelming chore. I need to get rid of many pairs of shoes. I wore a pair yesterday and remembered they hurt my feet. So, that pair is already set aside. 

This pandemic and the time I spent in Ankara due to mom's sickness taught me how little I actually need. However, whenever I start to set things aside to give away, I tell myself: "Well, if I give all these away, I am sure I will need to go buy new stuff. These are in perfect condition. Why not keep them? So, let me hold on to these. Besides, what if I lose weight?, What if I gain weight?" and put the things back in my closets. It is very difficult with outerwear. I like everything that I own and even if I wear a coat once or twice in a year, I like to keep that. Oh, well...

I would like to buy fresh veggies and fruit tomorrow. If I go early enough, I am hoping the farmers market will not be crowded. 

Here is an image of yours truly:

Image By Ralf Designs by Pixabay

Interesting Day

On Saturday a Facebook friend, an alumni of my HS had posted that there were a bunch of Moroccan refugees who got stuck in Turkey due to the pandemic and that they were living in the Moroccon Embassy's garden in terrible conditions. He asked for help for these people. So, I told him I would like to contribute to this.

Yesterday I asked him what to get and he said, there were a few women among them and that ladies hygiene products would be good. He told me he was taking water and food. So, I bought sanitary napkins, lots of hand soap and wet naps along with about 40 pounds of fruit from a big box store. I figured fresh fruit would be a welcome treat.

So, this morning I met up with my friend and we went to the embassy only to find out that the refugees were taken to be sent back to their country. We decided to go to the place where we were told the people were taken to. When we went there, they told us they could not accept food from outside due to Covid-19. Stuck with lots of stuff to be donated we called a few places and finally found a soup kitchen. We took the stuff we bought and met with the coordinators. I asked the lady if sanitary napkins would be useful and she told me they were also helping battered wives and people on the streets so, she was very happy about that. I am glad, they were able to take those because, I cannot imagine being stuck with them especially now I have no use for sanitary napkins.

I had to cross between the continents four times today but, after all, our mission is accomplished and we were able to do good.

This friend of mine is about 11-12 years my junior and he is such a kind-hearted man. Through him, I was able to help several children in poorer parts of the country quiet a few times in the past.

It was refreshing to spend time with a kind person and we chatted away as we were on the road.

I have recently found out that a fellow Canadian blogger friend has been diagnosed with cancer. My heart goes out to her and I am wishing her the best.

Taken care of business...

On Tuesday, I drove from Istanbul to Ankara and the very next day 6.a.m sharp, I hit the road for Konya. I arrived at the municipality a little after 9.a.m. and thankfully got my document that I needed without any trouble. Then I went to the Government Office related with deeds and told them I could not find the deed in mom's documents. They gave me a document to prove her ownership. By 10:30 a.m. I was done with the documents required for submission to the Inheritance Tax Office.

Then I went to the bank to which I had applied for lifting the lien on the Konya property. They had told me there were 28 outstanding checks by one of the previous shareholders and that constituted a risk for the bank so, they would not be able to lift the lien. My sister said there is a statute of limitations and they should be give me a list of the alleged 28 checks with their expiration dates. I had sent an e-mail to the guy and he never answered. So, it was time for a face to face talk. The lazy dud was sort of apologetic. he went downstairs to ops to get the list. Now, 27 of those checks have already expired. There is onşy one left to expire in November. He told me I could pay a certain amount of money for them to lift the lien. It is not a lot but, why would I pay them? I am in no rush to sell that property. I will wait till November and they will lift the lien. Victory!

I decided to visit the two cemetaries where my grandparents are buried. They both wanted to be buried next to their mothers. That is why they are in separate spots. I got some flowers and went to visit them. I told them we have just sent their daughter and they should not wait for anybody else in a looooooong time since we are now outnumbered by a lot!

The last thing on my agenda was to go see the house that belonged to my grandparents. I now own 5/6th of it and my sister owns 1/6. It is in real bad shape. I do not know what to do with it. It was kind of sad to see it like that. I have so many happy memories there. Sigh... Will think about it.

I was back home in Ankara by 6 p.m.

Yesterday morning, I went to submit the documents to the tax office. Then I went to visit mom and dad. Originally I was going to return to Istanbul today but, my sister and BIL are coming for the weekend. I have decided to stay and see them tomorrow. I will go back on Sunday.

So, today I went to visit old friends of my parents. They have called me very often during mom's sickness and they had just lost their older son. The husband is bed ridden. The wife is 82 and she is the only caregiver. They cannot afford to hire someone. Really very sad. I visited with them for an hour and then took the lady for grocery shopping. I told her to take her time and get whatever she needed to. I drove her back and carried the groceries inside. I am sure glad, I was able to be of service if only a little. 

Then, I visited old friends with whom I worked for the same company both in the US and in Turkey. They have a really nice, big garden. We spent the whole afternoon chatting away. It was such a good time. I think, this was a happy day in a very long time.

Now, I am ready to watch another episode of a Turkish show on Netflix with my BFF who lives in NY. The distance between us does not mean a thing. We are thankful for the technology available to us.

Laughing, smiling, crying...

I decided to scan the dia positives from our childhood on Saturday. I am almost done. There weren't as many pictures as I thought there would be. 700 max.

I remember places, occasions, outfits as I look at the pictures. I even came across my parents' engagement party.

Sometimes I laugh at the pictures remembering exactly a funny moment, sometimes I cry after my parents, sometimes I smile at the pictures in which I was holding my sister lovingly and her funny faces. This has been another bittersweet task.

I was going to go to Ankara for inheritance stuff but, it was so darn hot yesterday night, I could not sleep well. I decided to stay home and finish scanning the pictures. I also finished the sewing tasks so, the machine and fabric can be put away. I have some more projects coming up, but, I will clean this room first.

I know that remembering my childhood as an entirely happy, healthy, sweet time is a huge blessing.

Rest in Peace Mom and Dad! Don't worry, I am holding the fort now. I will personally ensure the well being of the remaining family members as best as I can.

Friday wrap up and a cute story from the past

I finished making the masks for uncle. However, didn't want to go out today just to mail them. On Sunday I have to go back to Ankara to deal with soome bureaucracy involving inheritance, taxes and deeds.  I thought they could be done remotely but, when the staff is not trained properly to deal with online processed applications, it gets frustrating. Mom left us an apartment and her share in the family property. I already own the rest of that property and I cannot wait to sell it.

My uncle is dragging his feet to clean the place and take whatever belongs to him. He still thinks since it is a home with some small yard it could be useful. He just does not get that none of us will be living in that city and none of us are up to dealing with a house and a yard. He also thinks since the place will not be sold at a good price (due to some technicalities), it is a waste to sell it. Well...

Anyway, I am doing pretty good with what I eat but not so much with exercise. I have to start loving my treadmill. The treadmill is in the spare room and I have so much unfolded laundry on the bed there along with a drying rack which gets daily use nowadays that, working out is not appealing right now. Need to get that room put together fast. May be after I type this, I will go and take 15 minutes to do whatever I can.

On another note, I have two scales at home and one needs a special battery, the other just died yesterday. It was working fine on Monday and now all it shows is an error message. It is a Tanita scale and I lke it very much. I need to get it fixed somehow.

Yesterday night, I finally slept in my own bed instead of crashing on the loveseat. It took a while to fall asleep but, I did it. I will start going to bed early and try some soothing music or a really boring book to keep sleeping in my bedroom.

Today, I realized that there was a story from my youth that my sister did not know. She was surprised too. It is a kind of funny one actually. Here it is:

I did not have any boyfriends in my early teens. I did not have the time due to having to study very hard and commuting to school every day. Summers were usually at my grandparents and with my parents so, I had some little innocent crushes but, nothing that can be considered slightly as flirting. I was a bit of an introvert too. Yes, I was. I am surprised at that even now.

Well, the summer after my freshman year, I turned 18 and we went to a vacation spot ran by my dad's workplace. We came accross and old schoolmate of his with his family. They had two sons, one a year older than I am and another, a year older than my sister. The two families became very friendly. Their son and I became friends and took long walks together, sat by the sea at night, sort of like a very very little flirting thing. My dad went nuts. He would tell my mom to stop me to hang out with this guy. Mom would argue with him thinking that he was nuts, etc. He never said a word, himself.

After this 12 day vacation, we went to grandmas. One day I told my dad that I wanted to go on a long walk with him and I opened up his dreaded subject of me becoming an adult and showing interest in the other sex. After a long speech delivered by yours truly, we came back home to grandmas and not another word was said.

When we went back to our home, the guy started calling me to get together and my dad would be telling me I could not. So, one day, I sat him down and told him that I did not want to lie to my parents but I did want to keep being friends with the guy and if I did, they wouldn't even know.

A few days later, dad called me to the breakfast table and said: "Well, your mom and I talked about this your growing up thing. You are right. We do trust the values we gave you and we trust you and your choices. We know you will not do anything stupid to harm yourself and jeopardize a bright future ahead of you. However, I am a bit old fashioned and I just cannot bear the thought of you dating someone. So, as long as you tell us at what time you will be home, we will not ask you who you were with or what you have done". I looked at my mom and she just rolled her eyes. I asked him wouldn't it be rather safer to know who I hang out with and he said "No. I decided to trust your judgment than be uncomfortable and hurt our relationship as father and daughter". I said "OK. Fine. I know, noone will be sorry". This worked out fine for everyone.

So, that was our deal. To this day, my sister did not know that and she is shocked. Lol! Needless to say, dad was never as strict with my sister who is a social butterfly. She also wouldn't mind lying to her parents :)

Life is so complicated

Today an old HS friend of mine called and told me that one of our friends had a rather big surgery due to an aggresive cancer in her ovaries. She is a wonderful woman, an excellent Professor of Medicine, an oncology pathologist. She had been very kind and helpful during my mom's illness. She gently kept checking on me and was truly upset on mom's passing.

I asked my friend who called, how this was never diagnosed during her yearly controls. It turned out that she never had yearly gynecology check-ups. I am still trying to process this info. How? Why?

They say do what the doctors say, do not do what they do. Must be true... I am hoping she will get better. Her daughter is in Canada and we do not know if she knows. I am so so sad today.

So, I am trying to keep busy. I took apart the outer parts of the pedestal fan I have since 1997. I do not use it much because my apartment does not get too warm but still, it is an old fan. However it has a remote control, timer, different speeds and oscillation feature. One of my ex-boyfriends used to work for the company that made it and he had given me some spare parts for it although I never had to use any.

Well, it was filthy. I should remember to use a cover for it when it does not get used. I cleaned it thoroughly. I feel cleaning things make me feel satisfied in a strange way. This is rather interesting and weird for someone who loathes any house chores. Well, whatever floats my boat, right?

The nose clips I have ordered online for the masks I am making have arrived today. They are pretty good. Today's goal is to be done with sewing today and clean the living room tomorrow. I had also ordered a 50 pck of ready made masks with elastic just in case. I will add 30 of those to uncle's package for shorter trips outside.

I got up a bit earlier today. I must go back to a normal routine. I stay up until too late and then I sleep in till noon time. Today I woke up at 10:30 which is better. I would like to fall into a routine when I can get up at 8 a.m. every day.

Gotta go and take care of those masks. I would like to mail them to uncle on Friday.

What a day... Again...