Working in your Pajamas or Meeting in your Underpants

COVID-19 changed work life dramatically. Some people like to be home and literally work in their pajamas, but, some are missing their face to face interaction with colleagues.

I normally wear sundresses around home in the summer. 

Today, I realized that I had under three minutes to join a Zoom Meeting so, I rushed to my bedrrom, took off my sundress and put on a shirt. I was in a nice white shirt and underpants during the meeting! Lol!

I cannot wait to get my gift card for the new mobile phone. It is impossible for me to use Outlook on my current phone so, I cannot get reminder alarms and I may forget a meeting easily since I am not working full time anymore. 

Working in your underpants... I have to tell my SIS. 

Small dent in the chore list

I got rid of some stuff today and vacuumed and dusted. My old sandwich maker, a bucket with a broken handle and my old pressure cooker's top found their way to re-cycling. The trash bag is now down the chute, the groceries have been received, refrigeration requiring items washed and put in the fridge, the rest of them are qurantining, did a small load of laundry and hang them up and I am exhausted

I refuse to cook today so, I am making myself a big salad with some protein on top, possibly turkey ham and cheese or may be canned fish? I have apples and fresh figs for snacking.

I have very good Dyson vacuum and a small upright vacuum for mostly kitchen and quick clean-ups. The upright thing has a cord and I found myself dreaming of getting a cordless one. Then I pinched myself and decided against it. Why?

1. It is another thing adding to the STUFF at home.

2. The upright vacuum does the job fine. 

3. The cordless ones are nice but the batteries die quickly. It is both expensive and a hassle to change the batteries.

Three good reasons were enough for me to give up the idea.

Here is the dent in my chores list:

- Fill the pill boxes and put away the extra pills DONE!

- Change the sheets on the guest bed

- Put away all the stuff in proper places

- Clean bathroom drawers and cabinets PARTIALLY DONE

- Dust all around ONLY THE BACK ROOMS

- Vacuum the apartment DONE!

- Wash the floors

- Put the kitchen cabinets back in order. Too many unnecessary things in there. PARTIALLY DONE                          

The Fall and whether I should freak out and a new mobile phone

Today, I noticed a couple of branches turning yellow on the huge linden tree in front of my living room. Fall has always been my favorite season but, this year nothing seems to excite me anymore. 

I do not know whether I should start freaking out or not, but, I am coughing a little bit and my temperature is slightly elevated. I am taking an antibiotic for my implant so, even a slightly elevated temperature is alarming. 

I have no other symptoms such as loss of smell, achy joints and etc. I am hoping, it is just a simple cold.

I made some Tom Kha Gai today. Sounded like a good cold and cough remedy. I also made fresh ginger/lemon tea using the real ginger and lemons. I may have another one after dinner.

My 4 year old phone is about to kick the bucket. I have been resisting to replace it for some time. The battery needs to be charged like four times every day and I cannot use all the apps I need to use. I had to get rid of many apps because, it is just a 32Gb phone. Due to the weak TL, phone prices have sky-rocketed over here and I am the kind of person who does not like shelling out a bundle of money for a COOL phone. 

I have been an Ericsson fan for years and then when they sold their phone business to SONY, I became a SONY fan. Well, nobody imports SONY anymore because of it's high prices and even if they did, I do not think I would be willing to pay a lot of money. They used to be very reasonable in the past.

I have been making do with my phone for quiet a while now and I even thought about getting it's battery replaced. However, that doesn't help with the capacity issue.

My lovely, smart SIS came to the rescue! She found out that a website we frequently order online, is buying your old phone back and crediting your account for that buyback amount. Her husband had an old IPhone 7 which he was not using anymore. It's camera is not working. Their bank provides them with new phones every two years and lets them keep the old phones. She looked it up online and told me that they were paying a good deal of money for the IP 7. 

So, I started looking for phones and have decided to buy a Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite. It is a 128 GB; more than enough capacity and it has an enormous battery. Read good reviews about it and I know I will always miss the SONY phones I have had the pleasure of using so far, but, hey; it is just a gadget. 

I wanted to buy a Motorola when I was back in the US last year but, they are also non-existent in this market so, repair would not be possible if something happened. Plus,  the  government upped the taxes on the phones brought into the country by travelers just to please the importers while I was still in the US. You can only bring one phone every two years and you have to pay a huge tax. Have I mentioned that I really hate the government? I do.

So,

Xiaomi                                3609 TL (USD 493)

IP 7                                   - 1900 TL (USD 259)

Money out of pocket           1709 TL (USD 233) Perfect!

So, I signed up for the campaign and SIS will send the I phone to the buying party who will credit my account within 15 days and I will be buying my new phone. 

Many friends may laugh at me because I certainly can easily afford a shiny, expensive, cool phone. They may think, I am being cheap. However, I think, this is only frugal. The phone I use, the apartment I live in, the car I drive do not define who I am. Do they?

Implant Day

I had my dental appointment at 11 a.m. today. I felt very calm going in, to my surprise. I guess, I trust my dentist very much. 

I walked in and they prepped me. Then my friend walked me through the procedure so, I knew what to expect. It took a very short time for him to put the implant in. Then he stitched the place up and I was good to go. He made me stay a little while and gave me a prescription for an antibiotic, a pain killer and a mouth wash type of thing. He asked me to take the antibiotic and one pain killer right away. He also told me if I felt pain at night, I could take another one. It has been well over 5 hours and so far, I am OK. 

After the dentist visit, I did some grocery shopping. I am determined to stay put at home for a while because I was out and about too much lately. 

The house is getting out of control and so is my weight. I have trouble sleeping well for a long time now. So, I am starting to exercise and eating well tomorrow. Here is a list of chores for me to complete this week. Please ask me how I did, next week if I do not follow-up with an update.

- Fill the pill boxes and put away the extra pills

- Change the sheets on the guest bed

- Put away all the stuff in proper places

- Clean bathroom drawers and cabinets

- Dust all around

- Vacuum the apartment

- Wash the floors

- Put the kitchen cabinets back in order. Too many unnecessary things in there.

Wish you all a good week!

TGIF?

Honestly, after retirement, every day is the same and I do miss TGIFs. When I was working, it was something I used to look forward to. These days, I work rarely. 

When I was little, before my sister was born, every Friday my dad used to come home from work, change his clothes and take my mom and me on a bus ride to downtown to have dinner. The bus service was provided by his workplace and so was our apartment. We did not have a car back then. He and mom had a handful of favorite spots to go. Although we stopped doing it after SIS was born, and after mom started working too, it stuck with me. When I was working, I would always find an excuse to not go directly home after work. I just do not like to be home on Friday nights. It has been a habit from those early times of my life. I always fantasized about a place like Cheers to go after work but, that never happened. Lol! Nowadays, I am always home. Sigh...

Today, I had two interviews scheduled with my second part-time job. I met two very nice people over Zoom. One of them was overqualified for the position in hand. The other one is well suited but, I do not know if she would be willing to leave her comfort zone. Both are good additions to our database.

This morning, I had the natural gas service cancelled at my mom's old apartment. I did not have time to deal with the electricity but, I know I can do it in Istanbul. I also re-activated a new account at a bank I no longer worked with.

I came home to have a late breakfast, had my two Zoom meetings and now, I am relaxing. For dinner I am meeting babyhood friends.

Hope, everyone has a nice weekend!

Mom's Apartment Sold

I came to Ankara yesterday since the Real Estate Broker called me the other day that mom's old apartment would be sold. So, I hopped in my car and got here.

Today, my sister and I received the payments and I transferred the deed. The place had been vacant since last November when she moved and we did not know what to do with it till she died.

It was an easy procedure. My portion is going to my savings accounts. I like to keep my eggs in separate baskets so, I am going to be funding my TL and USD accounts and buying some gold coins.

I am returning back on Saturday. 

Tomorrow I have two Zoom meetings and some chores to take care of. Then I am going to have dinner with my childhood friends again. Open air, social distance and all...

Today I am Thinking of Friends

There are some friends of mine including a fellow blogger who are battling serious health conditions. 

Today, I am thinking of them and sending healing thoughts...

Sunday by the Black Sea

 Yesterday I went to viist a friend who has a summer house by the Black Sea. It was a very nice day and the water was awesome. To give the readers an idea; here is a map:

As you can see, our neighbors are Greece, Bulgaria, Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Iraq and Syria. ,

We share the Black Sea with Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia and Georgia. 

The sea between Greece and Turkey is called the Aegean and our southern coastline is the Mediterrenean. I keep mentioning Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir and Antalya and you can see them all on this map.

It felt good to swim and just be in the water. My friends, a nice couple whom I have known for the last twenty years were happy to see me after many months, may be almost a year. After sitting at the beach in a shade and swimming, we barbecued some steaks and then went back to the beach to enjoy the amazing sunset.

Here are a few photos of my beautiful Sunday:

Today, I had an old filling replaced and now that the anesthesia wore out, it started aching. On Wednesday, I am going to get the work started on my implant. It is a great thing that my dentist is a HS buddy. I trust him. He is my Tooth Fairy. Lol!

I will take a pain killer and rest a little bit.

Saturday things

Today, I folded and put away all the laundry I had been ignoring. Then I swept and washed the floors of my kitchen and the entrance to my apartment. Since, I got rid of all the junk at the entrance, it looks very spacious and nice. Now it smells nice too.

As I type this, two eggs are boiling on the stove. I am having egg salad on top of a mixture of onions, tomatoes and cucumbers for dinner tonight.

I also need to take out the last piece of work I was dealing with to go over it. The customer had stopped that due to the pandemic but, as we approach the Fall, they want us to go ahead. Seems like work may resume. We will see about that.

The Fall is definitely in the air. Now, I realize it gets darker much earlier than in June and the breeze is cooler with some of the trees slightly turning color. I am sure there will be warmer days but, the change is in the air.

I am invited to a friend's summer home for the day tomorrow. Initially, I did not want to go but, these types of things may help shake my depressed state of being. So, I'm going.

I also got another invitation from one my of friends whom I work with. She says she is working from her summer home and we could work together and still enjoy the beach. I think,  I will go. After that, I think I will go visit my uncle for a few days. He sounds like he is missing us. My SIS and BIL are not sure whether they will be able to take time off this year. 

Happy Birthday Mom

Today is mom's birthday. I cannot thank her enough for making me who I am. 

Mom, I love you and miss you very much. So much that noone can ever imagine.

I do not share personal photos here but, I will make an exception. I took this picture few years ago at Ephesus.

Found Motivation

Yesterday night, I was talking to a very old friend of mine. We grew up in the same neighborhood, our dads were colleagues and moms were friends. We know each other since we were three years old or so. Now, that is an old friend right? Lol!

She is a bit depressed too because she lost her mom and dad within two years. She was very close to her mother like I was and she misses her very very much. She just got retired and due to COVID-19, she cannot do any of the things she wanted to do.

We were just chatting about how much stuff needs to be done around our homes and how we felt like we did not want to do them. I have a closet full of shoes, suitcases and who knows what else. She said, she needed to go through her clothes and we were laughing at ourselves. She said well, you go tackle your closet tomorrow and I will tackle mine. Let's call each other or at least text as to how we did.

Sounded like a good idea to me.

Today, I started by getting rid of the broken vase that had been stting in a clumsy package by the door for the last two weeks or so. I could not put it with the garbage because I cut myself badly enough as I was trying to make a safe package. I did not want to cause anybody else any harm. So, I asked the apartment complex manager to send someone for me to hand it over. It was a huge glass vase which I absolutely did not need. So, I am kind of glad it is broken and gone.

I also had some stuff that came with the grocery delivery which were being quarantined by the door. That was four days ago so, I put them where they belong. The entrance area got cleared away and I took down the whole closet. Yikes!

I then washed inside of it. Took out all the shoes from their individual boxes. Cleaned them if they needed cleaning and gave each pair a coat of shoeshine. Decided which ones to give away and put each pair in individual plastic bags. They are ready to be donated.

I cleaned the suitcases and travel bags. They collect dust just sitting there and the closet now looks a lot better.

We do not enter our homes with shoes. At the entrance everybody changes into slippers. I need to buy a few pairs of new slippers for when uncle, SIS and BIL visit. The pairs I had for them are worn out but, before I replace them, I am not getting rid of them just yet.

I even cleared a space for the vacuum cleaner. Yay! 

Inspired by One Family One Income, I cleaned my vacuum cleaner thoroughly. It is now good as new. 

Feeling very accomplished today. Tomorrow, I will tackle the little table by the door. I had been dumping stuff on it for quiet a while now. It won't take long. Then I will wash the floors of the kitchen and the entrance.

Tomorrow is mom's birthday. She would have been turning 78. Sigh... I am getting together with a small group of High School friends tomorrow night. I know they will be good  for me.

So fed up with idiots!

Today was the last day of the red tape I had to deal with. I do not remember how many times I warned people to keep the social distance, cover their noses with the mask and wear the damn mask. It is mandatory here in this city and people must wear masks properly at all times. Period!

How can this be so darn hard? 

Yesterday, I have read that a woman was tested positive but, she kept it a secret because her daughter was getting married. If she herself had kept home, may be it would not be that bad but, she attended the wedding and people started to get sick right after the occasion. So, the health officials immediately started to interview people and found out about the wedding. Now they are tracing everyone who had contact with, who had contact with the woman. How can people be so selfish AND stupid?

Loong Drive

It took me 6 hours to get back home. It should normally take about 4 and a half. So much traffic as I got closer to Istanbul. 

Yesterday night I have placed a large grocery order to be delivered tomorrow. No fresh veggies in it though except for some tomatoes. 

On Monday I have one errand outside but, after that I would like to stay home with the exception of going to the beach. I am thinking Tuesday may be a good day for that. I can pack lunch and drinks to take with me. We'll see.

Too tired to write more. Wish everyone a nice weekend!

Busy and Hot day

Today was 37 ℃  (98.6 ℉) and yet I still had some stuff to take care of. I cancelled mom's Cable TV subscription. After that, I went to a Notary to get some more documents notarized. 

These two were easy to do. I then went to cancel her land line but found out that the Internet comes with the land line. I wanted to keep the internet so, I had to fill a gazillion forms with the same info over and over again so that, they can transfer the title to me. It will get processed for a few days and when the transfer is finalized, I will cancel the landline and keep the Internet. 

As I was finishing my errands, a former colleague and a good friend called me and we decided to go to a Starbucks. I haven't been in one since February or may be even January. We sat outside away from a few people who were also there.

We chatted for about an hour and a half and then on the way home, I just went into a grocery store to grab something for dinner. I will make sandwiches for tomorrow for the road. I also got gas so that, I can just get in my car and not stop till I get home.

I intend to do a grocery shopping once I am back in Istanbul and just keep at home for a while. 

As I was filling out the dreadful forms today, I have realized that it has exactly been 2 months since mom passed. Between her 77 day ICU ordeal at the hospital and the shelter-in-place orders I do not think I know what hit us. It is just a blur and the void inside of me is still huge.

What a year this is...

I must go pack up my little suitcase, organize the paperwork, make the sandwiches and just be ready to hit the road tomorrow. I was planning to wash my sheets but, I will just place them in the washer. Sister can take care of that when she comes back here. Hanging up laundry for three weeks to a month does not make any sense. It will only collect dust.

COVID-19 on the rise again

In this country the COVID-19 has been handled fairly better than some other countries at the beginning. We had shelter-in-place orders, mandatory mask wearing in populated cities, lock-down on weekends and on a few other times along with travel restrictions. 65+ citizens and kids younger than 18 had to stay home for several weeks. Their needs were met by local authorities and volunteers. Most businesses allowed peope to work from home and high risk people who worked for government offices had paid leaves. My sister is one of those who did not go to work for 54 days starting March 20th. Restaurants, cafes, hairdressers, barbers and many non-essential businesses were closed.

Then the Government decided to open the businesses since the economy is tanking and the tourism sector was hit really badly. And of course summer came with everybody looking forward to beach vacations. 

People started ignoring wearing masks and social distancing. They started attending wedding parties, beach parties and crowded get togethers. Lo and behold, the Covid-19 cases are on the rise again! 

They say the ICUs are filling up again. Today my cousin who has MS went to see her doctor due to a recent attack and she needs to get cortizone intravenously for 5 days. The doctor told her it would be very dangerous if they did it at the hospital because the risk of exposure is so high nowadays. He also told her never to leave home at least for a month because, the cortizone has an adverse effect on the immune system and she is very susceptible to any kind of virus, germ, whatever.

Today, I had to go to a local government office to finally transfer the deed of my mom's apartment to my sister and me. My BIL called last night to ask me not to go. He has seen some of those offices where they live and he thought they were overly crowded. I assured him that I would not walk in if there were crowds. Luckily, they were observing the rules strictly and I was able to take care of the business. 

Wearing a mask is mandatory but, it is not enough. Washing the hands with a bar soap for the duration of at least two Happy Birthday songs and social distancing are also important aspects of taking care of ourselves.

I hope people will go back to being careful. 

Need a purpose, a direction in life

I feel, I am on my way to depression these days. I lack purpose in my life. My mom's passing left a huge void. Additionally, the part-time work I used to do has stopped altogether due to Covid-19 and due to the summer. I have no idea whether they will pick up pace.

I have zero talent in any form of art. I have no hobbies other than reading. I need momentum, action and a sense of accomplishment in life.

Yesterday I got together with my childhood friends. One is still working and she has a family of her own and has too much on her plate. The other just retired but, was already staying home since March due to Covid-19 anyway. She is single like I am and during the last 10 years or so, she had been arranging the caregivers for her parents and taking them to hospitals while she worked. In a matter of two years she has lost both parents and now, she says she just watches Netflix all day long. She feels depressed and regretful that she did not have a family of her own. We tried to cheer her up yesterday but, I am in not much of a different situation.

I had always thought, I would do some volunteer work but, with Covid-19, that's not possible.

My sleep schedule is quiet out of whack and I have no idea as to how to get back to normal. 

What to do? What to do?..........