Plans for the week

Today, I did a big grocery run at two different stores. I had checked the fliers last night so, I knew where to get which product.

Tonight I am having sea bass on a bed of potatoes and sweet potatoes in the oven. Today, I found locally grown sweet potatoes ever! They were pricier than regular potatoes but still, less than half of the imported varieties. I always cringed when I paid for those imports. 

I have decided to make lasagna without noodles. I will use eggplants which I have already cooked in the oven. When I turn on the oven, I like to make at least two things. I have cut the eggplants lengthwise and soaked them in salty water before oiling them and cooking them on a sheet. They are ready for tomorrow.

I will also be cooking Thom Ka Soup tomorrow. I think, I will have enough leftovers for another day of both dishes. There will be chicken salad in this week's menu. I will also be trying the frozen hamburger patties of one of the stores I went to. My sister said it was really good so, I will wrap the hamburger patty in iceberg lettuce and forgo the bun.

There are tons of greens and radishes to make salads with. I will possibly make a chili at the end of the week.

Although I made lists, I forgot to buy carrots, pickled cucumbers and eggs. No big deal. There is a smaller grocery store within 5 minutes of my apartment.

Tomorrow I will dust and vacuum the entire apartment. Thinking about it makes me wanna run. I need to mpo the floors too but, let's not go that far yet. If I can, I will.

On Wednesday, I will dump all the pants I had been hanging on to and take a picture for Treaders. Lol!  The pants are the biggest mountain I need to climb. I will feel very light once they are gone. There are a few outerwear items mom used to wear. I will donate them too. Sigh...

I wish everyone a good and fulfilling week as we approach the end of the year real fast.

Treaders! I challenge Thee!.... and me...

In my last post, I had mentioned that I did not feel ready to let go of my work clothes which I no longer need. Yes, I do work part time, but that requires only a few decent looking pieces. In her comment, Treaders from Random Thoughts talked about the same thing.

Sooooo, I decided to challenge both of us to purge our work clothes by the end of this month! Of course, there must be rules so, here are the ones I could think of:

1. We will count the tops, jackets and bottoms by November 15th and share on our blogs.

2. At the end of the challenge, we are allowed to keep a maximum of 6 tops, 4 jackets and 6 bottoms. These should cover all seasons so, we need to select wisely.

3. Everything set aside shall have to be donated latest by November 30th. So no keeping them around our homes beyond that point.

3. Just couldn't think of a reasonable penalty?

Any ideas? Anybody else who want to join?

Drum roll please!

When it comes to doing things around the house, I am the queen of procrastination. Normally, my suitcase would sit on the floor for days and things would be scattered around. 

As soon as I got up today, I found the motivation to put my beach things away, exchange the contents of my IKEA SKUBB boxes, and neatly put away everything. So, now I have my warm clothes in my closet. YAY! All set to face the cold seasons.

Next job is to clean the refrigerator so that I can grocery shop. In the afternoon I must collect my deliveries from the Management Office, pick-up my meds from the Pharmacy. 

I still have too many clothes in my closet which I will never wear again. I just can't make up my mind. Most are work clothes which I have needed only three times this year. I can definitely get rid of a bunch. I guess, I am not mentally there yet.

Before I went to Ankara, my SIS was there and she took everything she thought she could wear from mom's closets. She also made a pile to give away. Now there are only night gowns, shawls and some shirts that I can wear. The rest are household things left from mom like bedding, towels, etc. which we can all use. 

I feel so accomplished and proud of myself because for once in my lifetime, I emptied my suitcase poperly right after getting back home and put it away. Small joys of life are the things that keep us going right?

Today is a very dark and rainy day. It is 13℃ which is 55℉. Only 10 days ago, I was at the beach using an umbreall to keep in shade. Lol! Well, it is getting colder in Antalya too. 

I hear my washing machine announcing that it is finished. I better go and hang up the laundry. 

Home Sweet Home!

I am finally home. It feels sooo good. Before I left I had put everything in place so, coming home to a neat apartment is fantastic! It will need to be dusted and mopped in a few days but still...

The best part is; I have food in the freezer! Tonight's dinner is shrimp scampi and smoked salmon on two slices of toasted bread. Yum!

My fridge is lmost empty so, I will clean it thoroughly before I buy groceries. 

I have washed everything in Ankara so, when I open my suitcase, I will just put everything in their places and voila! I will be done.

Can you tel I am excited to be home?

Prepping for the winter

With COVID-19 on the rise again, it looks like I shall be homebound this winter. I spend too much time on the Internet and I am determined to exercise, eat healthy and spend time doing different things each day.

Reading is my number one hobby so, there's that.

I found a lot of yarn and knitting needles among mom's belongings. I have crochet hooks and other knitting needles along with a lot of yarn at home too. Mom bought them but never had time to knit any of it. So, I have plenty of knitting and crochet material to play with.

I have always wanted to make granny squares and I will be trying my hand at that. I bought some very colorful yarn for granny squares.

I also have a coloring book for adults. It is buried somewhere in my bookcase. Time to dig that up and the coloring pencils too.

Add the sewing projects I already have on top of these, there is plenty to keep me occupied and happy. Well, I hope so anyway...

I think there will also be many Zoom Meetings with friends to fight the solitude. 

Today, I just felt this urge to go shopping. As I can not go to a Mall and wonder around carelessly, I walked into this store I really like. They offer very reasonably priced textile products. I bought myself two sweaters that I can wear at home during the winter. They are 50% real wool and 50% acrylic. Pure wool is hard to find and extremely expensive these days. Honestly, this mini shopping excursion felt good. Then I thought about this and believe it or not, my last shopping trip was in the US in January to buy something for myself. No wonder I felt like it.

Tomorrow, I am heading home (hopefully).

Nope, I am not home yet

Yesterday afternoon, a terrible headache started to bother me. I drank plenty of water to no avail. So, I decided to check my BP and of course it was pretty high. I fought with it till early hours in the morning and decided to postpone my trip to tomorrow. If I still do not feel any better, I might postpone yet another day.

BP or not, I took the old lady to the cemetery. It was very emotional for her and she thanked me many times. Every time I come to Ankara, I try going to the cemetery so, from now on, I will ask her if she wants to go with. It is so sad to see her trying to take care of her bed-ridden husband all by herself. If I were living here, I would do more for them. I call them every week to say hi. I told them I had many friends and in case they needed anything, I can easily ask my friends so, they should not feel troubled by anything. I can even hop in the cr an be here in 5 hours if need be. 

In the Spring, when I come back here, I will find a sitter for the husband for a few hours so that, I can take her out to lunch or something. She only goes out to grocery shopping in her neighborhood. While we were driving to the cemetery she was shocked to see how much everything has changed. Poor dear.

I still have a lingering headache. Had dinner an hour ago, so I better wait another hour to check my BP again.

Meanwhile, I have two assignments: 1. My BFF in the US wants to paint her foyer with a dark tan-ish color. She loved the foyer's color of the Irish mansion in Marcella, the TV show. She showed me her three colors she selected and told me to find out which one is more like it. So, I gotta go back to a few episodes. Lol! What a task right? Yesterday we spent a half hour trying to see which sample she had, worked better under different lights in her foyer on Whatsapp Video. Love the technology. Makes it possible to be best friends with someone who lives 5 thousand miles away.

2. My SIS and BIL will be purchasing a Hybrid Toyota Corolla and since I am considered  a bit of a car enthusiast (yeah right, rolling eyes), they told me to compare and contrast the options within their budget. 

So, I better go tackle my assignments in order not to get in trouble. 

85 to 40 in a week and a busy day

I was at the beach last Monday enjoying a beautiful 85 degree weather. Today, I went to my eye doctor early in the morning. And.... my car's thermometer said it was 40 degrees! Then I rushed back home to pack whatever my SIS and BIL left to be donated. I wrapped each pair of shoes individually and I placed the huge bags in my trunk.

I bought a nice potted cyclamen to bring to an old colleague and a good friend of my father's. We lived in the same neighborhood and my mom was also very good friends with his wife. Whenever I am here in Ankara, I always call them up to see if they need anything. The gentleman is bed ridden and his wife is 80 years old. She took me up on my offer this time and I took her to two grocery stores and she stocked up on quiet a few items. After bringing her purchase home, we visited for about half an hour and I kept my mask on. As I was saying goodbye, she gave me a huge bowl of Turkish style meat filled ravioli. I hadn't planned dinner so, I appreciated that very much.

I had to ditch a friend for lunch because I needed to visit two other older friends who know each other. If I had visited one and not the other, potentially, one might have felt hurt. Yeah! I know, I have sensitive friends. Oh and BTW, I had seen the friend I had to ditch just three weeks ago. Anyway, one of them got a potted cyclamen too and the other got a bouquet of gerberas. I will buy some potted chrysanthemums for myself when I go back home. Flowers always cheer one up. We all need some color and pretty things around us in these depressing times.

We sat with a good distance from each other at both houses and I kept my mask on when I was not eating or drinking. We may not be able to see each other in person for a long time in winter. We shall have to rely on apps to talk to each other. One of them gave me a butternut squash she grew. 

I stopped by the appropriate charity boxes for the donations and when I came home, I jumped in the shower, heated my dinner and gobbled it up. Then my BFF who lives in Upstate NY and I watched another episode of Bosch. I still have a few things to pack and need to put the kitchen in order. 

Tomorrow morning, I will load my car and pick up the lady I visited today. She told me she wanted to visit the cemetery and she had no means to go all by herself. So, we shall be visiting my parents and her son whom she lost in January. Mom knew her son well and she was devastated to learn that he had passed. After I drop the lady off at her home, I will take off to finally go back home.

I am sure, I will be very exhausted tomorrow night when I reach home.