eco what??!

so somewhat suddenly i am going to this documentary festival on Bozcaada island on wednesday. its maybe somewhat ironic since its the "ecological documentary festival"...but im sure there is something interesting to see. my friends company is doing the technical work/screenings for the festival, and my friend Hanna is going, so she was pushing me to join...   Bozcaada municipality is arranging a free bus ride too, so why not, itll be an experience :) ive been on Bozcaada once in the summer, its a nice greek-style island, cute and with tavernas...so, that helped the decision.

 got these shoes from eBay. nice rubber sole and simple, warm...  perfect for the winter.

i ordered from a new "home food" place, an omelette and a meaty stew...  bread is included, naturally, but hey, how much bread is that???!!! i feel bad throwing that away. sometimes i take it out next to trash in a separate bag but i admit this time it just ended up in our trash bin. turks and their bread...

doctor told me about a case at the hospital. in the morning, the was a lung cancer patient at another ward, they were doing a lung endoscopy on him. he had a heart attack in the middle of it, hence ER ppl were called. doctor performed CPR on him, gave him a lot of shocks, and eventually got the patient back to this planet. anyway, doctor goes back to ER etc. in the afternoon he goes out on the yard for a break. there is a familiar looking guy wearing hospital  clothes. yup. and he is smoking  cigarettes. the fastest recovery ever, doctor said.

juustoja

syksy on tullut ja olen kaivanut sukkikset laatikosta, ja ostanut toki parit uudet.

viikonlopun sosialisointi huipentui lauantaihin kun tapasin Billuria sen kotona ilta naposteltavien ja viinin merkeissä, ja Carilyn myös messissä. turkkilainen Billur on asunut espanjassa, joten keskustelu expat-elämän ongelmista ja voitoista olivat keskiössä. 

perjantaina ulkona parin tutuntutuntutun-couchsurfingkaverin kanssa jotka oli todellisia tanskalaisia olutfanaatikkoja. selvitin ne muutamat paikat kaupungissa jotka teoriassa voisivat tarjota heille jotain ja siis poikia näihin paikallisiin pubeihin joissa ei sitten ollut puoliakaan listassa luvatuista pienpanimoiden erikoisuuksista...eli ihan normi turkki, sekoittavat rose- ja punaviinin keskenään (joten pojat nopeasti kyllä heräsivät tilanteeseen että we're not in Kansas anymore...). sorry!

se missä täällä on kompensoitu heikkoa olutvalikoimaan ni sadat erilaiset oliivit ja juustot. osa expateista ihastuu tai mieltyy paikalliseen tarjontaan mutta mä a) en välitä oliiveista, ja b) oon edelleen että missä prkl on se edam... paikalliset "juustot" ei vaan yhtään lämmitä, ihan sama minkä pikkukylän erikoisuus ne on. mutta Billurilla oli tarjota savustettua goudaa, nam nam. ja viime viikolla mä ostin brietä kotiin ja maisteltiin sitä keksien ja rose-viinin kera kun lääkärillä oli vapaa ilta.

ja me todettiin että siivousapua tarttis taas. mun siivoukset ei ehkä ihan riitä... en tiedä liittyykö se siihen että neliöitä on se 120 vai siihen etten oo niin kovin innostunut hommasta...  mutta joka tapauksessa nyt tuntuu että nyt olis taas myös varaa maksaa ulkopuolisesta avusta. kaikkihan on suhteellista ja moni turkkilainen tinkisi jostain muusta kuin siivoojasta mutta meille se on about viimeisenä listalla. ehkä joku kerta kuukaudessa diili olisi ihan kohtuullinen mutta se voi olla vaikea löytää koska suurin osa siivoojista etsii vähintään kerta viikossa keikkaa. etsitään sopivaa...

aktivoiduin myös vihdoin aussikämpän etsinnässä, voi osittain olla liian aikaista mutta parempi ainakin tsekkaa markkinoita. tsekkaan jopa homeswap mahikset vaikka ne näyttää tosi surkeilta. home swap meininki näyttäis olevan se että Melbournessa on aika paljon sub urban -perheitä, tai sitten jotain 4-kerroksisisssa design-kämpässä asuvia pariskuntia, ja epäilen että kumpiakaan ei ehkä kiinnosta meidän suhteessa aika vaatimaton kämppä talvisessa Istanbulissa. mutta mitään ei saa jos ei kysy. kirjanmerkkeihin lisäsin jo paikalliset craigslistit (gumtree) jne. ja liityin facebook ryhmiin jossa asuntoja etsitään ja tarjotaan. kyl sielt jotain löytyy. kysymys on vaan et paljon tää sit kustantaa, ill do my best. toisaalla alan myös laskee että millä hintaa ja kelle me voitais vuokraa eteenpäin tää meidän oma kotipesä siks aikaa...  ja lääkärin pitäs alottaa viisumianomuksen papereiden keruu. itse anomus (ei mikään ihan yksinkertainen) on jo netissä valmiiksi täytetty.

toi Sunny Car Centerin juttu on kyl mahtava läppä, juin hesarin selvityksen, 2 nigerialaishuijausta?

leaning forward

some realizations about the new hair:
1. straight out of bed hair is ...not so great anymore, the hair needs some attention, namely,
2. wax. thank god doctor has some, i borrowed from him.
3. looks like i will be dyeing my hair much more often...

im so used to "wash & go" this seems very high maintenance. and my experience in styling hair is... well, limited. i think i need to google and talk to people who have more experience in this.

 
and what is this...   well a turkish cleaning lady of course. i havent seen statistics on their work related deaths but they may well be high. (those numbers for turkey overall are VERY grim).

a week ago my old high school friend posted this highly debated new article on FB (the one about a study that says women dont have vaginal orgasms...pfff) , and a friend of his commented on it and referred to some statistics regarding turkish women. so i then asked this friend off topic where the numbers came from and it turns out it was a study hes conducted in Istanbul. so we start to talk and turns out this guy is practically my neighbor. he has been studying womens sexuality for a long time here and said he would give me some books he wrote on it, and he sent me the surveys too which i was interested in. the sad news is that the sexual behavior and thoughts of young educated turkish women have changed considerably in the past 20 years...for the worse imho. the women have less orgasms, less partners, suddenly virginity on a wedding night is valued again etc. the figures are horrible :( and now that i talked with some turkish friends, they agree that the country was more liberal in the 90s (the first survey was from 1993). uff. so anyway on saturday i met this friend of a friend (Ümit is his name). he is a professor of pharmacology so we had plenty to talk about in that field too! but we covered sex & health education, scandinavian depression and turkish women in detail. inspiring discussions. and i came home with some suggestions to try (dopamin, melatonin, 5HTP etc). lets see, now googling hard.

Ümit is a big fan of tea as well and suggested i try black tea (called "gunpowder") and melissa tea. i do not like tea but somehow felt impulsive so i decided to try. this is day #2 of trying, and im not yet impressed, almost had a nap yesterday afternoon after this "gunpowder", and last night i stayed up until 6am, after 2 glasses of melissa tea past midnight. im not expecting these things to work like medical products but i think this is very unlucky. i do believe these experiences are very individual, and perhaps im so used to all the toxic waste and chemicals i normally consume, that these just wont even make me blink an eye. and im not sure if i am imagining, but i feel like both teas make me feel sort of nauseous?? 

im glad i found this proper tea mug in our cup board, we got it as a gift from someone, and i didnt even know what its for. lets put it to good use. i have to say, very messy and complicated though. 

Miriam suggested me a book (or, alternatively, the authors TEDtalk), Esther Perel's Mating in Captivity. it was 9,99usd for Kindle so clickety-click... i already started reading. she tends to have interesting suggestions so i did not even read a description or a bloody review, i trusted her recommendation and the interesting title. 

i havent cooked for a long time. but today while doing a shopping round in the neighborhood i opened BigOven app in my phone, it has a great feature where you write 2 or 3 ingredients that you have already, and it will suggest some recipes based on that. i started off with spinach and chicken. and chose a pasta food since one was available. although it required me to buy gorgonzola cheese and cherry tomatoes and whatnot...    overall it was too complicated, although the end results was tasty. recipe here.

dinner; served with a "you know i wouldnt do shit like this if i was alone, right? i do it for you." but in the cutest tone possible.

feeling like myself again

our new projector is looking good, we are happy with it. seems impossible (without a lot of effort) to get a photo that showcases the 'screen' watching experience we have, but here my best half-assed try.

beats a bulky black television hanging on the wall any day.

Miriam finally has a smart phone and whatsapp...  connecting just got easier. and nokia had (unfortunately) nothing to do with it.

i think Miriam subconsciously inspired my new haircut too. now im really starting to look like a "bitchy feminist"...  which is great? at least i like the look. the short side could use some more work, but im not sure what...  the hairdressers here are not very good with this type of stuff...i might be better off going to a barber. but for now im happy. i havent changed my hair so radically in years so its an odd feeling.

after the left side was cut short it was clear that i need to dye my hair again. its only been a week but... 1 have 3-5mm of brown growth, not too visible in photos but horrible in real life. operation hair dye then...

and doctor *loves* my new haircut.

there was an ebola scare at his hospital on wednesday night. a patient with high fever and flu like symptoms, who had returned from that part of africa 2 weeks ago. turkish health ministry instructions dictate that these kind of patients are assumed ebola until proven otherwise. im sure its the same everywhere else, but im a little bit proud my doctor followed the rule book and the patient was put in isolation and proper safety measures taken. it was a huge mess of course, the media ran to the scene etc. by morning the tests for malaria came back positive, so the situation solved. i was already thinking to myself i better move to sleep on the couch and take some distance, although doctor did not touch the patient.


tonight my friend is hosting a 'Mexican Fiesta' party, looking forward to those tastes!

stretching the brain cell

today besides my usual work i got some mental exercise from trying to set up some automated tests with Selenium Builder. i am just testing it to see if it fits my/our purposes at work. incredibly easy to use, but of course lacking some fine tuning then.

 im also checking out Applitools. slightly harder to set up and the focus is on automating visual regression testing.

i have since made more space to be practical, but this is my messy set up from last week:

i still need to make some arrangements, and i could use a slightly wider table to help me out. the make up however, is not going anywhere, i need it close by!

doctors birthday gift, finally pictured in flesh...Samsung Tab 4. 

and then we got YET another 'toy'. an Acer projector. it was about time we switched, the old one was like a starry sky...on a very dark night. and the tech service told us a new LCD will cost as much as a new projector all together. i think it might still make do at an orphanage or charity run school for refugees - will donate it to one of those. now, its time to present: Acer H5380BD;

doctor seems quite happy about it. and me too, i guess. my only issue is that this is slightly bigger than the old one :( arent these things supposed to get smaller with technical advancements??

34 things u can do with coffee grounds. i suspect some of those may be poor alternatives to other options (like using them as gravel on icy sidewalks, home made soap) or plain BS (remove dark circles from under your eyes), but others... i will try.

i have also bought some things just for myself...  i went to Mango and found this dress...its a bit turkish (all the lace...oh lord), but i felt like i should have something slightly dressy for ...birthday parties or whatever, all my clothes are very casual. this one fit the bill and was 13,50tl/4,5e.

2 skirts i got from someone 2nd hand;  the grey woolly skirt has a funky form and the more fitted one is army green.

girlfight

today, maybe inspired by my week with the mac, i finally took my MINIPUPU laptop to Volkan and we installed Ubuntu on it. im glad i went to him because alone, im not sure how many hours i wouldve spent on it, the first try was not succesful. so far my initial thoughts are that it has a smooth ideology, just the execution is a bit bumpy. kind of as i expected. i may sound obnoxious, but there are reasons (besides corporate capitalism & lobbying & conspiracy theories etc) why especially Windows is so popular. stable and easy to use operating systems are hard to make (and W only succeeds every 2nd time...). anyway, i will continue my critical evaluation...

hahaa...  i just watched a trailer (Exodus: Gods & Kings, for the record) and it says "from the director of Gladiator" as a sales point...  okay, true, Ridley Scott did direct Gladiator, and sure, its similar to this so it makes sense. but i was a bit baffled anyway when i saw it, cos for me Ridley Scott will always be Blade Runner, Alien...     but yeah, the more i think of it (which is over 30 seconds now), the better i understand why they must refer to Gladiator in this instance.

turkish government recently allowed headscarves for students, while banning tattoos, piercings and make up. yeah. all this would make for a great reality show if fast forwarded 5 yrs, i would call it Turkey goes Iran. the Kobane thing and that, im not gonna go there. i have my first world problems here, like the stream feature gone missing from my utorrent.

i ended up looking for new reality tv food again after watching the '6 months later' episode of Married At First Sight. lovely show, more real than...typical reality show. maybe because with an actual marriage the shit just got real, its not ur usual dating show. anyway, i found Face Off! make up special effects show. reminds me of my more artistic times of course. great entertainment. also the new season of Ultimate Fighter has recently started. its womens strawweight season...:D

 random.

vikkelillä sormilla tämäkin toimii

nyt oon 2 päivää testaillu verkkosivuja silleen että silmissä vilisee...  mutta eilinen tuotannon päivitys sujui taas aika hyvin vaikka itse sanonkin :)  pieneen henkiseen väsymykseen vaikuttanee myös tuo uusi työkaveri eli mäkki, pitää työn tuoksinnassa asennella juttuja ja toki siinä on muutama jännittävä "ominaisuus" tuottanut harmaita hiuksia... mutta ei mitään mistä en selviäisi. aika moni asia selviää vain googlettamalla oikea näppäinyhdistelmä...

yksi mäkin sivuvaikutus ei tullut yllätyksenä; tarvii etsiä joillekin tutuille ohjelmille vastaava mac-versio. siinähän googlettelen sitten...  screenshottien kanssa olen etenkin hikoillut, OSX:n natiiviominaisuudet ei oo just niinku haluaisin joten latasin erillisen ohjelman, mutta sekin on vähän erikoinen käyttää. voi olla että en vaan osaa?

lääkäri lähti eilenaamuna suoraan yövuorosta kentälle ja lensi Mersiniin eli kotikaupunkiinsa. kerran kahdessa vuodessa on ihan hyvä... ja tänään on sen synttäri, mutta kun huomattiin viime viikolla että sillä on 3 päivää lomaa putkeen niin se oli sellainen tilaisuus jota ei oikeen kehdannut ohittaa, muuten kyläily voisi taas siirtyä vuodella...

Under the Dome alkoi ihan lupaavasti, tai lähtöasetelma ainakin oli mielenkiintoinen, mutta jo ekan kauden puolessavälissä se alko olla sellasta ihme teinijännitysbs:ää...ja toinen kausi on mennyt kepeästi fast forwardilla. enenevässä määrin. järkyttävää paskaa. ja joku kaveri huomautti hyvin että kys. sarja on aika kova win8 mainos. no todella.mistä tuli mieleeni, lääkäri asensi jo koneelleen win10:n jonkun previewn:n... katsotaan mitä siitä tulee. joka toinenhan pitäs olla hyvä, katsotaan jos näin on.

HS: perätön raiskausilmoitus toi ehdollista vankeutta. ihan oikein. noita on tietääkseni ikävän paljon. toki vielä enemmän on raiskauksia joita ei ikinä ilmoiteta koska se vaan on aika vaikea juttu, maassa kuin maassa ja naiselle kuin naiselle (tai miehelle!). mutta silti noihin kostoilmoituksiinkin pitää puuttua, se on tosi häpeämätöntä touhua se...

then, Mavericks!

our over month long queue of guests has come to an end, as Sebastian left for the airport yesterday. what a weekend! and what a month! i need rest after this.

but first things first, i had 89 emails (!) in my work inbox yesterday morning :D not all personally sent to me of course, but things to look into or keep an eye on, re: release management & testing. the colleague that was ill last week and whom i covered now left on a 2 week vacation so i will continue doing her job too - big shoes to fill. but last week went well actually. work wise, i am doing less and less anything else now, i still have 2-3 translation clients that keep coming to me with stuff but its not too much. i dont have any testing related freelance gigs now either, but i think i want to keep doing something on the side just for variety and learning...  overall im happy just working for this one company and client. AND, this brings me to an addition to our family, a Macbook Air! my employer gave it to me for work and Sebastian was kind enough to pick it up from the office and bring it in his hand luggage.

now, i am known to not be mac-friendly. actually im not a hater either, i think "to each their own" honestly, i personally just love my Win7 and i am very religious about keeping things the way they are. for work though, ok, whatever, i dont have feelings about the computer... i just require it to work. and im sure this mac will do just that. they are "notorious" for being smooth and easy to use, right? (the phone is!) so thats what i will expect. while i can of course use a mac for daily stuff i bet there is a lot to learn...  but for the reason i already mentioned, i dont expect the road to be rocky. my first mac related google search though? "how to lift a macbook air lid". seriously. because the lid is so thin and smooth, and i didnt notice the crease on the bottom in the middle, i was like fuuuuck, how do people open these...  

now, between doctor and me, we have 5 computers and 1 tablet. its starting to feel like a big family. a lot of responsibility. i had some dilemmas naming this newbie, but in the end i settled for DUUNIPUPU. "work bunny", which does not really sound as good as it does in finnish.

sunday night in Taksim.

im not proud of it but on saturday i definitely had the worst hangover ever. and by ever i mean one that ive ever experienced. lets not top this record. i blame it on my finnish guest, these things dont really happen when finns are not around! without going into too much gross detail, i was suffering a lot. when doctor arrived from work around around 3pm on saturday, i was laying on bathroom floor - the cold tile almost made me feel better. and toilet bowl was close enough, i was feeling like the painkiller i just ingested would try to creep back up... doctor prescribed me a hangover drink and mixed a vodka energy drink. well i would have thought of that myself but it was not possible to keep anything inside until that point. and just holding a glass sitting up was a struggle. sip by sip i worked on it though and sure enough, in a short while i felt almost human again. sitting there, on the bathroom floor with my better half next to me and Sebastian keeping us company nearby i felt lucky and emotional. surviving a killer hangover does that you. maybe writing this down will serve as a slight reminder, for a while... 

Sebastian, enjoying Istanbul & Efes (and shots!).

another KitKat...

today is the day i moved my summer shoes from the hall to the ..."shoe room", aka doctors room. the day temperatures are around 19-23 and i even need warm socks inside the house, there is no way im going out in sandals anymore. BUT, the other day i bought shoes for the fall/winter! real leather, sturdy heels - got them from another expat who had bought the wrong size essentially... 

me and Arttu watching telly when he was here.  

 

doctor has a birthday next week and i was struggling over what to get him, its a semi-round number after all, 35! Arttu pushed me towards the gadgets, which doctor loves...  so eventually i got a 10" Samsung tablet. i couldnt keep it a secret very long of course and gave it last night. i had essentially started leading doctor astray like a week ago, when he was talking about buying a proper, good quality umbrella. i said i will get it for him as a birthday gift! i would think thats an odd gift but i knew he wouldnt object. anyway, yesterday i said i found the perfect umbrella, and he was somewhat worried about it, asking the diameter of the umbrella etc :D i had him close his eyes and gave a pink box...and enjoyed seeing his face when in the box he found a printed picture of an umbrella and his tablet. i love seeing him happy like that. its not the fanciest tablet around but its not certain how useful it will be (his phone being almost the size of a tablet), i figured if he loves, he will buy the fancy model next year - fair enough?

Sebastian arrives tonight, i gotta get ready for an Istanbul Tour weekend... 

kovemmat kädet

Arttu lähti eilen kotimatkalle. ja Sebastian tulee ylihuomenna. taas pari päivää hengähdys (ja siivous) taukoa. sain aika hyvän nuhan, mutta nukkumalla viime yönä melkeen 11h olen saanut sen jotakuinkin hoideltua. nyt pitää enää rasvata niistämisestä kärsinyt nenä kuntoon, siihen menee käytännössä toinen päivä tai pari.

kollega töissä (helsingissä) on sairaana joten otin vastuulleni hänen release management hommansa tällä viikolla - uutta ja jännittävää - vaikka silleen vähän tuttua kun testaajana tietty olen prosessissa mukana. mutta nyt olen itse se ihminen kenen kanssa yleensä olen tekemisissä :D tänään kuitenkin regressiotestailin 7h putkeen ja sen jälkeen olin jotakuinkin silmät ristissä. se on yllättävän vaativaa kun kokoajan keskittyy jokaisen visuaaliseen elementtiin ja miettii että onko tää se lopputulos mikä piti olla. sitten vielä tunti englannin opetusta, en ole raaskinut lopettaa tunteja yhden oppilaan (Seyda) kanssa joka on tosi mukava. pitää ajatella sitä taskurahana... 

soitin verotoimistoon kysyäkseni jostain ja tuli esiin että olen ollut ulkomailal yhtäjaksoisesti yli 3 vuotta. verotoimiston tyyppi oli sitä mieltä että 2014 ja siitä eteenpäin olen vain rajallisesti verovelvollinen, jolloin mun ei tarvitsisi muka maksaa veroja enää suomeen duunistani. vaan siis turkkiin. öööö. kuulostaa ensi ajatuksena kivalta, niitähän vois olla sitten maksamatta mihinkään, teoriassa. mutta noi verot on kyllä vähän sellanen juttu joka voi tulla vastaan myöhemmin. joten voisin niitä maksaa kyllä. sitten kysymys on että mihin. mä olen kokenut täm paikallisen järjestelmän toimimattomuuden niin monella tapaa että vähän epäilyttää. oliskohan veroprosentti eri? kertyiskö siitä eläkettä vai kertyiskö se delleen suomeen? paljon kysymyksiä. mä oikeesti ehkä haluan maksaa veroja suomeen? sovittiin sen verotyypin kaa etten tee nyt mitään, ne saattaa lähettää mulle joskus postia asiasta jos huomaavat, tai sitten voin itse ottaa asian esille keväällä kun saan sen veroehdotuksen. just nyt ei ehkä kiinnosta.

nyt vapaa ilta, yksin kotona osa VIII. aion reilusti katsoa telkkaria ja relata (uudet sarjat Selfie, Manhattan Love Story, Vain Elämää 2. jakso - jos mielenkiinto pysyy yllä - ja sit vielä mitä jaksaa...Good Wifen, Foreverin tai Ink Masterin viimeisin jakso). Vain Elämään ekaa jaksoa jaksoin melkeen loppuun asti, olen Vesa-Matti Loirin fani mutta ohjelman hidas on kai vähän raskas kun on tottunut jenkkikamaan ja muutenkin vähän keskittyminen herpaantunut.

/edit Paula Vesalan Vain Elämää -jaksoa en jaksanut kuin puoleen väliin ja Selfietä 5min. olisihan se pitänyt arvata. paras siirtyä tuttujen ja turvallisten pariin.