rebecca soble

yesterday, day one of my weekend, was spent mostly asleep or half-way there, working through a head cold most likely picked up at my new university job (read: teeming masses of teenagers). today, day two of the weekend, I woke up feeling less congested and slightly more energetic, but still happy to spend the day at home. here’s how i entertained myself:

Made breakfast, which actually was brunch because I took the time to do the hashbrowns right.  Peel a potato, dice and boil the bits until soft, saute with onions, pastirma (a turkish dried meat like pastrami), salt, pepper, paprika.   While the potato bits were boiling and frying I tidied the balcony and sat out there for my meal.  Earl Grey tea.

Planned some lessons and marked 30+ student papers. The students had done an experiment in class in which they were in groups of 8 and within those groups they had to put themselves in order from who liked technology the least to who liked it the most (these are students at a Technical University, so most of them were on the technophile end of the scale).  Then they had to write up their methods and results.  Considering it was the first week of class, I was really impressed with what they produced.

Knitted.  A few inches on a couple different socks, sitting on the balcony listening to my favorite weekend podcasts “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me”, “Best Of The Left”, and “Car Talk” (I save the heavy newsy podcasts for falling asleep at night!)  Actually before the end of the day the purple sock was finished.  It’s for mom.  It’s done with Classic Elite Alpaca Sox (60% Alpaca, 20% Merino Wool, 20% Nylon) and the pattern is Embossed Leaves from Interweave Knits Winter 2005.

The yellow one is for me. I love the yarn, Plymouth Yarn Sockotta (45% Cotton, 40% Superwash Wool, 15% Nylon), because I like the cotton which adds a bit of definition to the yarn. However it can also make the yarn a bit less elastic. I chose the Hermione’s Everyday Sock pattern (found on ravelry) but modified the top to have a picot edge instead of ribbing. I think the picot edge plus the scaly texture of the sock makes it look like fish. They will be my fishy socks, for wearing on days when I feel suspicious of the world.

Watched the rain. No picture because I blanked out, but there was a nice bit of rain midafternoon that was hard enough to be refreshing yet light enough I could still sit on my balcony (with the overhang) to enjoy it.  And then the sun came out briefly.  It was lovely.

Did some yoga! Yay for the yogadownload.com podcasts – they are 20-30 minute audio accompanied by PDFs that include pictures of the poses in order.  Very professional and useful for do-it-yourself-yoga when you need a little guidance.

Took a shower. Evening showers for me these days, because I get up early and don’t want to waste time with the blow dryer or go to work with wet hair.  The shower was improved by my newly knitted washcloth combined with my newly purchased Body Shop Satsuma Shower Gel.  I think I really like evening showers, the hot water relaxes me and prepares me for evening mellowing and eventually sleep.  I also really like how it shortens morning prep time.

Plans before bed are to turn off the computer* and read.  Currently reading “Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith” by Gina Nahai, kindly left for me by my friend Jenney when she left Istanbul.  That was a while ago, I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to get around to this book, but I’m very glad to have it now.

That’s all, a quiet peaceful day to recuperate and prepare for a busy second week of classes.

*I mean it about turning off the computer, but it’s much easier said than done.   I can only do it if the mp3 player is fully charged and ready to provide a droning voice in my ear to fend off insomnia.

Ona benzeyen bir adam gördüğüm zaman kalbım yerınden fırladı.

Havuza girmeden önce çabuk ve sabunsuz duş aldığım için iki yaşlılar bana söylendiler.
Onlara sinirlendiğim için daha hızlı ve hareketli yüzdüm (ve havuzda dalgaları yaptım).

Eve giderken minibüs şoförü çok öfkeli davranıyordu. Diğer minibüs şoförlerine acı acı bağırdı, freni çok sert kullandı, ve İKİ DEFA bağırmak için minibüsten indi! Ikinci defa, evimini yakin varmadığımız halde, ben de indim çünkü o minibüs güvenli degildi. Keşke plaka numarasını almayı düşünseydim ama alsaydım ne yapacaktım?

Canım seni çok özledim. öptüm.

Şimdi eminim, Heybeliada en sevdim ada.

Of course, I did go on a partly-cloudy Monday, when there will naturally be many fewer people than on a sunny weekend, but it was glorious.  Back roads, empty of everyone but me, the singing birds, and seemingly zillions of little green lizards.  Found a comfy bench with a terrific view, so sat and did some knitting in nature.  Walked a loop around the island, which I have done before.  But last time I stuck to the low roads and had a much longer walk.  This time I went up to the high roads, had nicer views, a stop at an interesting Greek Orthodox cemetery, and a shorter loop.

Heading out of the main village

Alone with the birds and trees

A lovely spot to sit in the sunshine

And some green friends for company.  This is just two of at least a dozen I saw.

view of the Marmara sea

Pics from my visit to Emrah in Mersin coming soon…

I went to the Carrefour in Maltepe today, enjoying the feeling of being in a large supermarket with wide aisles and big selections.  I don’t know why I’ve never gone there before, it’s an easy ride on the minibus from my house.  But being three days before payday, my budget is tight so I bought just 8 things (fruit, veg, sandwich materials for workday lunches + some “garden spirit” scented tealight candles on sale for 3TL).  I went to the checkout and was pleased to find one reasonably short.  I got in the row, waited, put my things on the conveyor, and waited a bit more.  Then a woman came behind me and had also started putting her items on the conveyor when the cashier told her that this particular checkout was 5 items or less.  The cashier was very strict about this and made the woman leave.   I just watched.  I hadn’t realized I was in a restricted lane (the sign was very high up) and was wondering when the cashier was going to notice that I too was over limit.  In the meantime another woman came behind me and was discussing with the cashier whether 10 items would be okay since 5 of them were the same (5 packets of the same brand of mallo-cookies, yuck).  When it came my turn to check out, the cashier finally realized that I also had more than 5 items and she was about to get strict with me too, I could tell.  By this time there were two people behind me and it would have been a real pain in the patootie to retrieve my basket, refill it, back out, and get in another lane where everyone had carts piled high.  I had an inspiration:  I started talking in English.  “I’m really sorry, I just didn’t realize!”.   That was all it took, and she made an exception for my extra three items and let me go through.  As I took my change, I said (in my best English) “Thank you VERY much!” and smiled.  Nevermind that I understood every conversation around me and once I saw the sign knew exactly what it said and could have spoken to the cashier in Turkish.  Sometimes you’ve just gotta use your opportunities.

FWIW I think the “X items or fewer” concept is great, but I think the X should be closer to 10 or 12.   There’s a big difference between someone with a basket-ful and someone with a cart-ful.  If I have 8 items, is it better for me to be in the limited-item lane or fuming in the lane with people who have 50 items?  Here’s a nice solution I saw online, at another Carrefour (a French supermarket that has gone global) in Shanghai.  If you have a basket, you can pass through.  If you need a cart, find another lane.  I suppose someone could cheat with two baskets, but who wants to carry two baskets?

BTW the sign in the Maltepe Carrefour was about the same color and height as that one in Shanghai, but sideways to the checkout lanes rather than readable straight on.  I would have had to come to the checkout lanes from near the entrance in order to read it.

Ok, that’s enough about supermarket checkout lanes. 

In the US, if a workman came to your house to cut a hole in a glass window for exhaust ventilation, that workman would then clean up the glass fragments left on the floor afterwards.

In the US, a workman would assume that you wanted your possessions covered with drape cloths while they were doing the work and bring them along at the start rather than wait for you to insist, go out and buy them, and then two hours after starting the work, cover your furniture.

In the US, if a workman came to your house to install some pipes through your cupboards, and had to move your cupboard contents to do the work (obviously forgetting to mention to you first that the pipe had to go in that particular place, or you would have cleared the cupboard yourself), that workman would make sure that a glass jar of honey was not balanced precariously on the top of several other things on the highest shelf to fall down on you when you opened the cupboard.  IF, by chance, this DID happen, that workman would not then, faced with a pile of glass-bits-and-honey, say “oh, no problem” with a dismissive wave of the hand and then leave it for YOU to clean up.  (No, not a single apology passed any lips.)

In the US, if a workman cut a hole in your shower surround in order to install some pipes, that workman would make sure the hole was the right size and position so that it could be filled or covered in a solid way (in other words, the workman would PLAN AHEAD), rather than cut a hole larger then necessary and then realize after the fact (because you tell him) that when you take a shower water flows through the hole to cover your bathroom floor, and then only upon your insistence that “YES, THE HOLE MUST BE COMPLETELY COVERED”, slap up some flimsy plastic (in multiple pieces!  not just one!) with silicone.

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No, I don’t feel better.  I still have hours of cleaning ahead of me and a jerry-rigged silicone-plastic-blob to look at every time I take a shower.  And I have no honey for my tea.