life improvements in istanbul

being back from Australia starts doctors last year+ in specialization studies. for the remaining time he works "only" about 210h/month, plus with a few classes here or there, it can definitely be rounded up to 215 or more. but hey, thats less than before. and definitely down from the 350h from when he started...  but even after graduating and possibly changing hospitals, his working hours would most likely not go down much from 200. depending on the hospital and department as a senior you do have the right to skip work altogether or just sit in the coffee room...thats very turkish. but is that what all the hard work and years of studying is for? yes, in turkey it is; first shit is poured on you, and then its your turn to pour shit on others. for doctor to have what i call normal working conditions and get to excel in emergency medicine, we need to leave this country. he really enjoyed the hospital in Melbourne, it was organized, professional and overall nice place to work at - just as expected. something the turkish hospital environment has taught him better than the western counterparts would is how to manage unexpected situations - when there are way too many critical patients per staff, when a required medicine is not available etc. managing tricky situations is a skill too.

 
we made a trip to ikea yesterday. took around 4.5 hours, of which only 1+ in ikea. the rest was istanbul traffic. we got a Sultan Tveit mattress pad - but the short of it is that our bed is still not super comfy. in fact i think it increased the comfort level by only 10%...  thats an expensive 10%. but okay, we had to try. the other option was to buy a new mattress but since we plan to leave next year, it just seemed like to big of an investment (i gather a good mattress would've cost 800-1000TL if not more).

another item on the shopping list was a corner desk for me. i had already picked out Linnmon from the website. upon seeing it in the show room i realized that there will be a lot of dead space in the corner, so i will not be getting everything out of the added desk space, but it was still going to be an upgrade so okay. i needed more space to accustom the work laptop, basically.

australians have plenty of words of their own. the ones that got my attention were:

AUS - ENG

bottle shop = liqueur store
city = city center

doona = duvet
capsicum = pepper  (well, capsicum is technically correct, and i always hated pepper for its many meanings)
cab sav = short for cabernet sauvignon of course, but never heard it used anywhere else

a quick reminder of aussie prices (these notebooks were smaller than A5). around 28-30 eur/60 TL a pop. the pink one is sold on american online stores for around 19usd/17eur.

 

i found one affordable thing though: this small shower wall basket for 2 or 3 aud. i liked it and looked at it, and realized it would make for a great phone holder. i am tired of the phone hassle while sleeping on the wall side of our Istanbul bed. doctor is not home every night of course, but when he is, i have to climb over him to connect my phone to the charger by the bedside table. and in the mornings if i have an earlier wake up...  :/  so i removed the suction cups off this little thing and nailed it on the wall, then added an extension cord under the bed and pulled the charger cable up through the hole. add hair band around the cable so it wont fall back down and there it is!

i didnt like how the phone was sliding a little too easy on the hard plastic, but i had thought of the solution beforehand; silicone. it gives rubber like friction. and something i had not anticipated: i can see messages on the home screen as i lay on the bed.

more of jenni's life hack;  a multi hanger and kitchen utencil holder make for great earring storage.

today is election day in finland. the parliamentary election is important to me, but i failed to vote this time. the early voting venue was really far from Melbourne CBD and open until 4pm on 2 days, both which are almost full working days for me. i couldve pushed through if i had enough will, but i guess i didnt :( but according to my own beliefs, now i dont have the right to bitch until the next election.