things moving uphil again

turkish elections are by far more stressful than the finnish ones. in fact the finnish elections are not stressful, they can make me a bit nervous and curious, but the anxiety and worry that turkeys uncertain (and lately quite gloomy)  future evokes in me is something else. however, the elections could not have gone better. what will actually happen is another story, a minority government or a coalition between AKP and the other conservative party...and the possibility of new elections...  we will see. but turkish citizens sent a clear message to the president saying "enough". because lets be honest, this election was about him and his referendum. me and doctor were glued to the live feed of the results from 5 till 10:30pm last sunday. long evening! but it gave me a glimmer of hope. i was so stressed though that my jaw was aching. the stress and anxiety over the election results was ridiculous - but i was also managing our holiday schedule and bookings for august and that can get pretty stressful too, comparing hotels and all that...

votes from turkish citizens in finland. the kurdish party, HDP, won by a landslide over there. the kurdish population in finland is not that big, this was a tactical election where many liberals, minorities and individuals just wanting to push AKP & Erdogan back, voted for HDP. overall HDP got around 13% of all votes, passing the 10% limit and getting into parliament. in finland and turkey, #2 in votes was CHP - the leftist (and kemalist) party founded by Ataturk himself. CHP governs our Kadiköy municipality, and while i dont particularly love any of the parties available, i am glad to live in a CHP neighborghood because it shows.

i am really allergic to someone patronizing me. i think those instances are usually people just trying to be helpful, but i would like the assumption to be that im not an idiot. "oh you're traveling to africa, you should get vaccinated!". no shit? and no, im not traveling to africa. most recently this is about the advice i get when i talk about moving to Canada or London. nuff about that, but i would appreciate fellow humans treating me like the 35 yr old that i am, i think ive proven to deserve it.

i had my yearly health check up today (covered by my insurance). it wasnt due until this fall, but i decided to go earlier because while its very nice that my pulse is slowing down further and further, me and doctor started to question the causes. my resting pulse is now around 50. and im under 60 or just around 60 most of the day in general. i also got all the other generic tests and ekg of course. and: i am still healthy as a horse :) nice to have some good news, its been a stressful week.

first page of my report. 

the classy older female doctor who did my check up gave me her business card to call about the results in the afternoon. i just noticed it has her email address too, and its like  "drjennita@yahoo.com" (title first name 2 letters from surname) and yahoo. well, its a little bit cute...


doctor had his IELTS speaking exam yesterday and today he's doing writing and other parts. he needs it if we plan to move abroad...  like, has to have it (with decent points).

the flat is slowly falling into pieces, literally. okay, not surprising of course, just saying. we painted the living room white (which the painter at the time heavily objected, its so unheard of in turkey), and slowly these cracks started to appear in the supporting pillar;

just noticed this the other day in the corner of a window sill. its an unused corner so nothing wouldve even touched it. all i can say is 'lol'.