Sneezing Season is Here!

Spring has sprung as if there wasn't snow on the ground just two weeks ago. It was a windy day in upper 60's. I realized there was quiet a lot of pollen stuck on my car. Too bad it can't be washed off till I come back from Ankara.

I tried packing very lightly so, it took some time trying different outfits. I did not need to wear any business clothes in the last two years so, it was a bit difficult to decide on things to wear. For three days, I am taking two jackets, one black and one navy pair of pants. Tops were easier to pick. 

I am taking one cabin size suitcase and a backpack. My purse goes into the backpack.

I will take a cab to the train station. Going home from Ankara station to the apartment is tricky. I will need a cab and a metro ride. I do not understand why they built the train station without any connection to the metro line. Some genius must be behind that decision. 

I need to participate in meetings on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (half days). Monday I am meeting a friend, Tuesday, I am taking my uncle to his check-up, Wednesday, meeting with two friends. I haven't planned the rest of the time. Will try to make the best of it.

I am a bit scared because of the meetings. They will be held at a huge congress center but still, I will not take off my N95 mask. Wish me luck!

Hope, everyone is having a good time this week. 

Normal is so much missed!

During the week, my dad's cousin invited me out for dinner on Saturday. Yesterday she called me to say another cousin on her mom's side and his girlfriend would be joining us. We went to this nice Italian Restaurant and sat outside. The weather was mild and there were heaters. Good food, great wine and lots of laughter and fun stories later, the cousin and his GF left. We went to the apartment and had tea. It was almost midnight before I left.

Driving home at night, coming from a pleasant evening, I felt soooooo very happy! Since we were outside, we did not wear masks. Prior to the pandemic, I used to go out all the time with friends and it was just a very normal thing to do. Last year, I did dine out with friends and my family in the summer but, coming back home at night, driving on the bridge that connects the two continents and having to park the car outside since there were no spots left inside the gated parking lot, felt just so different and welcome. I cannot tell you enough HOW MUCH I MISSED THAT! It brought back tons of good memories. It felt so real!? 

All those little things we take for granted... When they are taken away from us, we understand the value of each. Don't we?

I guess the feeling is partly due to the fact that it has been a long winter. Thankfully, during the last two days there was definitely Spring in the air. The weather report says it will be over 60 degrees Fahrenheit all week long. Yay!

I promised myself enjoy many days outdoors as long as the weather permits this year. I will go out every.single.day!

Oh BTW, dad's cousin's art deco apartment building was built in 1893. The roof tiles were imported from France, Marseilles to be exact. The roof had to be renewed in 1989 so, those tiles lasted just shy of 100 years. They kept a few of them and placed them under new tiles.

Early Bird

I am not a morning person at all. I can't fall asleep easily at night and get up several times to visit the bathroom. I usually fall asleep very late and get up very late. This surely kills almost half of the day when others are functional.

Despite the fact that I avoid meetings in the morning like the plague, sometimes I can't. Today was one of those days and I got up at 9 a.m. (I know, for most people even that is late). Had an interview with a very pleasant young men at 10 o'clock. He turned out to be way overqualified, well compensated and proud of what he is doing at his current job. I learn so much from the candidates I interview. This is the only good thing about this headhunting job.

My assistant, one of our young employees, had written three reports to be submitted to the Client on the previously interviewed candidates. I read them and made some adjustments although, I must say she is getting pretty good at this. I know she is honestly trying very hard and even asking her peers to read what she has written before sending them to me. She is a really nice young woman about 24 or 25. Her mother passed away when she was just 10. So unfortunate! If we have time I always make a point of chatting with her a while after we hang up with the candidates.

I sent the updated reports to the Client and then read a long contract for my other semi-volunteer job, sent my comments and I was done for the day workwise. I answer e-mails any time I see something in my inboxes and do not consider them work at all.

Then I looked at my watch and it was not even 1 p.m. yet. Wow! Early Bird does get the worm. I wish, I could repair my broken sleeping cycle. Tried everything. I even gave up electronic gadgets after 9 p.m. I shall keep on trying.

I spoke to my dad's cousin and she invited me over for dinner on Saturday. She told me I should stay overnight because, she wants to drink and chat. I do not like sleepovers much but, I like her a lot. So, I accepted her offer. She lives at an Art Deco Style historical building. Her apartment is on the top floor and has a panoramic view of the Bosphorus. Crazy expensive place. There is also a Russian restaurant since 1943 in the same building. I tried to find out when the building was built but, couldn't find anything online. I shall ask her.

New Internet

Today, the new provider came on time and quickly set up the new service. I now have Fiber Optic Internet plus a TV service they offer.

I tried all my devices and as I predicted none of them are broken contrary to what the former provider claimed. All could be hooked up to the Internet. I hope, the new guys keep on providing good service.

I also decided not to terminate the other service till the contract is up because, the lump sum penalty fee is almost the same as what I would pay in total till December. 

Yesterday's nice(r) weather is nowhere to be found. I went out briefly to get a surge protector strip and it was freezing outside.

Today, I had a funny conversation on the phone with my sister that went like this:

SIS - Oh, btw, please stop telling me you love me everyday.

- But, why?

- Because I already know you do.

- You sure?

- Of course, I am sure! Whaddaya mean?

- I dunno... Sometimes I feel like you need reinforcement.

- Nope! I definitely don't!

- If you're sure.....

- I am extremely, 1500% sure.

- Hmmmm. May I blow kisses?

- Yes you may!

- Ok then, mwah! mwah!

- Mwah! mwah! Bye!

OK, now that, this is settled, let's move on. Lol!

Beginning of the week

It is a nice day today so, I took the opportunity to do a quick grocery run mostly for salad greens and fish.

I bought a package of fresh salad greens and salmon. For the next three days, there will be salad and grilled fish or chicken for dinner. Easy and healthy! 

Today, I also picked two jars of peanut butter but, as I was trying to put them in my grocery bag, dropped one. It was a glass jar. Talk about food waste. I picked it up carefully, wrapped it up and tossed it in the garbage. Ugh! 

I was rushing because someone pulled behind me and waiting for my spot. Why do I care I don't know. There were plenty of spots so, if someone decided to wait for me, they could have waited for as long as I needed. 

Decided to get back to keeping a food journal. It was helping me a lot so, better get back on track.

Today it is in mid 40's and not but freezing cold anymore. All the snow melted. They say we may expect some more snow in a week or so but, I am sure, it will be nothing. Looking out, it is nice to see a clear blue sky and sunlight for a change.

The peonies I bought thrived on the balcony. They look lovely and last a long time. From now on, they will be my go to flowers.

My Internet provider has been driving me crazy lately so, I decided to pull the trigger and get Fiber Internet from another provider. The installation will be tomorrow. After that, I will cancel the other service. There will be a penalty but at this point, I do not care. I called them several times saying that some of my devices could no longer connect to the internet but, they kept saying averything was fine with their service and may be my devices had problems. Well, they don't because, they connect to other services. So, today I called them up to learn the penalty and you should have been on the phone with me. Ugh! The call center agent kept speaking non-stop saying things like they could also offer Fiber, that they did not want to lose me, blah blah blah! I kept saying, "please, I have made up my mind, just tell me the penalty for termination" several times. Finally, I got the answer I wanted. It is almost the same amount of money if I kept the service till the end of the term so, may be I will have them run parallel instead of giving them all the money at once.

If they had showed the same effort to escalate my case to a technical person, I am sure, it would've been just fine. I am so fed up with this company. The only account I will have remaining with them will be the TV service in Antalya. Uncle has problems with that too but, they cannot/ will not solve them. As soon as the contract is up, I will change that as well. For now, it is not a big issue. 

Wishing everyone a nice week!

To Snow or Not To Snow

I don't know what the snowmakers up in the sky are thinking. It goes dark all of a sudden and snow starts coming down like crazy and in 20 minutes it stops, the sky clears, the snow melts. Then it starts snowing again. This cycle kept repeating all day long. They predict snow all through the weekend but, I do not think, it will stay on the ground the way it looks. 

I had two interviews today and I will be sending the reports on these candidates to the customer. I called another person and she outright refused it saying that she knew the workplace and the boss. She said, she would be open to other opportunities. I liked her candor and she sounded like a pleasant person.

So, this weekend, I will try to see if I can find anymore candidates. If not, I am ready to throw the towel. 

The cabbage rolls turned out real tasty. I serve them with plain yogurt. I have three more servings left. I will freeze two servings for later. I will make another dish with the remaining cabbage. Although it was a rather small one, you can get so many meals out of one, may be even too many. Lol! Well, they say eat veggies and fruits in season and I am doing that. Luckily, it freezes well.

SIS and BIL are on their way to Ankara. They will check on BIL's dad. His regular caregiver is thankfully back from her country. Now that the bedridden patient has passed, she will not have much to do around the apartment. She is a kind hearted, hard working lady and she took care of BIL's mom so well. I am sure it was a very difficult and depressing job for her. 

On an entirely different note, I am a big fan of the Star Trek Franchise (can you tell?) and having watched the final episode of Season 4 of ST: Discovery, I don't think I can ever forgive the writers of this show. They have so much material, incredible technical advancements, such interesting characters and yet they always manage to turn it into a big, outrageously romantic or rather mushy drama. I think this show is the worst of the whole franchise. I don't know their ratings but, if it does not come back for a 5th season, I will not be surprised. With STD for an abbreviation, I shouldn't have expected more I guess.

Wishing everyone a nice weekend. I know some fellow bloggers out there have already started enjoying early days of Spring. I am looking forward to it too.

 

Hump Day

Today, I had two interviews but, I am not sure about the candidates.  Tomorrow, I will try some more candidates and try to set up interviews. I feel like I am reaching the end of the talent pool that I can access.  

I looked back and saw that I have found 200+ possible candidates, eliminated more than half and registered 101 candidates on our tool, eliminated 20+ after reviewing CVs, called 70+ to see if they are interested, half of them declined, interviewed about 24-25, sent 14 to the customer and had 1 (Yes One!) hired. 

A person who actually enjoys working as a headhunter must be envious of Sisyphus. Ugh!

The companies think that everybody will come running to work for them and the candidates think, they should be paid top dollar. 

Anyhow, today I walked to the nearest Mall and returned an item to Decathlon. While I was at the Mall, I grabbed a couple of bottles of body wash, some dental floss, wet wipes that I use to clean the toilet, toothpaste and a couple of other small items I needed. On the way home, I quickly went tinto the grocery store, grabbed salad greens, a celery stalk, a small cabbage and chopped meat. I will make cabbage rolls stuffed with a meat, onion and rice mixture. Never made that before so, wish me luck. I hope, I watched enough YouTube videos. My grandmas used to make cabbage rolls with the meat stuffing and a rice only stuffing which is served cold. May be I will do the same.

I think, I will not need another grocery run till the 31st when I will be leaving for Ankara except for vegetables and salad fixings.

Uncle had a gout attack recently and I can tell he freaked out due to so much pain. He cut all his alcohol consumption and foods that have high purine content. I took the opportunity to convince him for a full check-up. I will take him to my eye doctor as well. Yay me! He avoids doctors like the plagues and he is a Pharmacist. Go figure!

The hump day is almost over for me. Stay safe and healthy!

Busy Day

I needed to work quiet a bit today and now by 5 p.m., I am still not done yet. However, I will stick the roaster in the oven and go exercise before I return to doing what I need to get done.

A roaster means many meals so, I like to have one every once in a while. I think I will make mashed potatoes to go with it. Had a very light lunch of leeks cooked in olive oil.

I am deliberately not buying bread these days because bread is my kryptonite. 

It is still very cold here but most of the snow melted away. They say, we should be expecting one last snowstorm before the Spring arrives. 

I will go to Ankara late March for my part-time consultancy gig with the medical association. While I am there, I may stay and spend some time with friends. Initially, I was thinking of going to Ankara, staying there for a month and then going to Antalya for 6-7 weeks but that will be a very long time from home and if I finally pull the trigger to go visit my BFF in the US in July, that's even longer.

So, I will go for work, stay a bit longer, come back and go to Antalya later on. I also need to do the math on my gas consumption for those long drives. I know everyone has been affected by the gas prices but noone has been as affected as we are. During the last two months gas doubled in price over here. Yes! You read it right. Doubled!

May be I will go to Izmir to see my SIS and BIL and go to Antalya from there. Just can't decide yet.

Hope everyone is having a good week.

To Avoid Cabin Fever

Predicted snow fall started but, in my area it isn't too bad. Blizzard, open skies, snow starts melting, a strong wind brings clouds, rinse and repeat.

The Mayor keep urging people not to go out if it is not absolutely necessary and since I like him, I do what he says. 

Snow aside, it is very cold outside due to the cold front coming our way from Siberia. They say it is going to get worse over the weekend. 

I am cooking my every meal from scratch, tidying up small areas, reading, taking care of small repairs to avoid cabin fever. I haven't been exercising so, today my treadmill will be happy to see me again.

I am also listening to old radio shows on YouTube. Recently, I got hooked to the Paul Temple series from BBC.

Since I have retired, I started appreciating and feeling sorry for homemakers, SAHMs. Housework is such a bore. All my life I worked and had cleaning ladies, I ate out or ordered food most of the time. Now that, I am too chicken to get a cleaning lady due to COVID and that I am retired, I am home all the time and I am bored. If the virus weren't around I could have at least socialized with people, go out more often etc.

AND THEN, I suddenly remember that there is a war not too far from me and people are dying or desperately trying to save their loved ones and the winters are worse over there. So, I am shutting my mouth and dragging myself to the treadmill. 

This is a time to count blessings, not whine. 

Snow Prediction

They say a big snowstorm is coming our way on Wednesday and it will possibly be the worst since 1987. I wasn't living in Istanbul back then so, I do not know what to expect. I did my grocery shopping and ordered water.

During grocery shopping today I noticed that, people were shopping like crazy not only because of the snow prediction but, because of sky-rocketing prices. These days the sunflower oil price has been increasing and I saw people bulk buying sunflower oil. They were buying multiples of 3 liter- 5 litre bottles and cans. For a split second, even I considered grabbing a 2 liter bottle but, then I reminded myself that I never use sunflower oil. Lol! Must be psychological. Glad I did not buy it. 

I use olive oil and butter exclusively. Nothing else. 

I try not to eat much bread so, I bought a package of whole wheat tortillas. I freeze them and they do not take up much space. 

My arm is still bothering me although, it is much better now. So, I did not buy too much stuff and used my shopping bag trolley. I also have a foldable utility cart that I can use. I have no idea why I do not use them and lift heavy bags. 

I needed to send two packages but, I totally forgot so, hopefully I will do that tomorrow before the snow.

Stocking up on food and Miscellaneous Ramblings

The other day, I was commenting on One Family One Income's post on Doomsday Prep that if either party used nuclear weapons, due to our proximity, I wouldn't have much longer to live and that I wasn't stocking up on food much. 

I honestly do not know stocking up on food would be beneficial but, just in case the supply chain may be broken at some point in the near future due to the war and rapidly increasing prices, I decided to replenish at least what I have already consumed and then some. So, I ordered some dry beans, lentils and chick peas. Also bought some canned tuna and some other canned fish. Other than that, I do not know what else to buy or how much. I do not want to end up with 3 years worth of legumes/pulses and canned fish. 

I do not consume much flour or sugar but still, may be I could buy a little extra. Powdered milk may be something to keep on hand although I normally never use it. I guess if the supply chain stays intact, I may use it in baking before it expires and gets wasted. 

I buy 19 liter (5 gallon) bottles of water at home. I always have an extra bottle and as soon as I finish one, I order a new one. Should I get extra bottles? How many? Should I get 1.5 liter bottles? Again how many? I hate uncertainty.

I am thinking that keeping some extra cash on hand may be useful too. 

Ugh! I hate politics, wars and people who feed on them. Now seems to be a great time for an alien invasion for unity of world nations but, where are those darn aliens? Oh yes, they are a lot more intelligent than us and cannot be bothered with the stupidity of humans. They probably wouldn't care to eat us because we are feeding ourselves so poorly.

Today was a rainy and cold day so, although I intended to go out, I decided to stay put. Then I checked the weather report and for the next 5 days, it will always be rainy and around 3-5 ℃ (37-40 ℉). So, the spring I smelled in the air was in my brain, not in the air.

The Government lifted the requirement of wearing masks outside. They say if the space is well ventiated indoors, masks will not be mandatory. How will anyone know whether a specific place is well ventilated or not? Ha?

They also lifted the use of the code that you needed to provide to enter banks, malls and such. Such stupidity! I do not care. I will keep on wearing a mask and staying away from people. I am just so worried about my SIS. Working at a bank, with a chronic autoimmune condition... Sigh...

I must have slept on my left arm I guess. It wasn't so bad in the morning but, now it is killing me. I cannot lift it over my head. I applied some sort of ointment but then, I realized that stuff expired in 2018. Ugh! I thought I had cleaned out the medicine drawer. 

Rice and Beans and Good News!

Today, I just could not decide what to eat and finally decided to make rice and beans. I had frozen fresh navy beans in the freezer so I took them out and soaked them briefly in hot water. I had purchased them fresh and shelled them myself late August so they do not need to be soaked overnight.

I chopped onions and sauteed that with some olive oil and salt. I added tomato sauce and the rinsed beans and put them in my pressure cooker. It took 30 minutes to cook.

I only use a specific kind of rice from northwest of Turkey. I soak the rice in hot water for about a half hour and rinse it really really well. I melt butter, add hot water, add the rice and a bit salt and simmer that with the lid on till all the water is gone. For each one cup of rice, I use one and a half cup of water. That is my most basic rice pilaf. I may use grated ripe tomatoes or stock sometimes. I may add chick peas, chicken pieces and currants.

Leftovers are for Friday. I do not like eating the same thing two days in a row.

Today was a lazy day but, I did tidy up certain areas and a couple of drawers and did a load of laundry. Tomorrow, I will change my sheets and wash them. 

The good news is that one of my candidates accepted the job offer and will be starting her new position in April. Yay!

Now, I need to find one just like her and their boss. Ugh! Her peer will have his first interview tomorrow. Hope, all goes well.