news from my living room

I woke up today with a scratchy throat. It didn't go away. I think it could be the first cold of the season for me. The weather has been a bit erratic - sunny, rainy, warm, chilly. Of course a sore throat is not out of the ordinary. However, I am worried about this winter. Our bedroom & bathroom does not have heat!!! YIKES! So I'm in the market for a down comforter and maybe even a space heater.

But now on to the fun news....
In my effort to clean out the unused crap from the office, I told my boss to get rid of a lamp and tv. Then asked if I could buy it off him. He was shocked to hear that I don't have a tv. The lamp is a green, tall floor lamp. The tv is a small color tv. He said I could just have them even though I offered to pay for them twice. So today I paid for the taxi home, a small price to pay at 12 lira, which my boss and a co-worker rode in with me, and carried the tv. (It IS nice to be woman here!!!)

This is the first time in over 2 years I've had a tv. Obviously I'm not a tv person. Maybe I'm just done with being an anti-tv freak? No, that's not it. I've just wanted a boob tube to switch on and zone out to. Plus maybe it will rapidly improve my Turkish. There isn't much in the way of entertainment in my house: books and a computer. I've wanted one, but not bad enough to spend the cash.

The next wishes on my list: a down comforter, an oven, a bookshelf and a table to put the oven on (it will just be a small convection oven). No people, I am not so poor that I can't afford these wishes, I'm a stingy-future-planning-dingbat. Get it right. I live frugally, pay my bills on time and save the remainder of my earnings.

I've lived most of my life with the fear of not being able to afford life's necessities and pride myself on the fact that even though I live in a developing country I am able to have a decent life and save some money. Mostly I'm saving the cash to buy my residence permit next month. I have to show a certain bank account balance while being able to pay equivalent to 1 month's rent for the permit. It will happen.

I'm full of contentment knowing that I can meet my goals. Now the goals are: a down comforter, a bookshelf and an oven. Well, those are the closest goals to actually being met.

news from around the world

On my BBC catch up I found this cool article about laptops for developing countries. While I will still take the stance that developing countries need more than laptops, I'm happy that their populations can take part in youtube, google and perhaps reading my blog.

(On a side note, a good portion of my job goes to editing cv's...I've developed a new cv pet-peeve: people that write "surfing the internet" as an interest. Just a little too honest for my taste I guess.)

'$100 laptop' to sell to public
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6994957.stm

Sept. 12 - a day off work to HAVE SEX!!!!

This is too good not to repost this entire article to my blog. I'm not into rating countries as to which is 'the best' in the world. The US has a lot to offer...in Bosnia the entire month of January is a public holiday...the French work week is 35 hours...in Britain drinking is a way of life and calling into work with a hangover is routine...in Sweden either the mother or father of a child can take 2 year maternity leave...but this one in Russia, getting a day off work to do the nasty is pretty good too! If only I were Queen/President/Prime Minister Head of State, I'd take all of the best aspects of these countries and roll them into one policy for governing the country.


Russians offered cars for babies

ULYANOVSK, Russia (AP) -- Make a baby. Win a car.

Irina and Andrei Kartuzov drive away in a new SUV, after winning last year's baby contest.
Don't be surprised if the streets are empty and curtains drawn in this central Russian region Wednesday as residents take up an offer by the regional governor to help stem Russia's demographic crisis.

Ulyanovsk Gov. Sergei Morozov has decreed Sept. 12 a Day of Conception and is giving couples time off from work to procreate. Couples who give birth nine months later on Russia's national day -- June 12 -- will receive money, cars, refrigerators and other prizes.

It's the third year that the Volga River region, about 550 miles east of Moscow, has held the contest. Since then, the number of competitors -- and the number of babies born -- has been on the rise.

"If there's a good, healthy atmosphere at home within the family, if the husband and wife both love each other and their child, they will be in good spirits and that will extend to the workplace. So there will be a healthy atmosphere throughout the country," he told AP Television News. "The leadership (of the country) is interested in the family."

Russia's population has dropped since the 1991 Soviet collapse, fed by declining birth rates, a low life expectancy, a spike in emigration, a frayed health care system and other factors. The country -- the world's largest -- now has just 141.4 million citizens, making it one of the most sparsely settled nations. And experts estimate the population could fall below 100 million by 2050.

Just 311 women signed up to take part in the first competition, in 2005, and qualify for a half-day off from work. The next June, 46 more babies were born in Ulyanovsk's 25 hospitals compared to the previous June, including 28 born on June 12, officials said.

More than 500 women signed up for the contest in 2006 -- resulting nine months later in 78 babies, or more than triple the region's daily average. So far this year, the region's birth rate is up 4.5 percent compared to the same period last year.

"I don't think people get pregnant just to get a prize on the 12th (of June) but if the dates coincide and they give you a ... car there's nothing wrong with that," said Yuri, a 28-year-old father-to-be who declined to give his last name.

Last year, President Vladimir Putin called the demographic crisis the country's most acute problem and announced a broad effort to boost the birthrate, including cash subsidies for couples giving birth to more than one child. Women who give birth to their second or third child receive $10,000 vouchers to pay for education or home repairs.

In Ulyanovsk, everyone who has a baby in a local hospital on June 12 gets some kind of prize. The winners of the grand prize -- a locally made SUV called a UAZ-Patriot -- are couples judged by a committee on criteria such as "respectability" and "commendable parenting."

Perhaps not surprisingly, the effort has drawn snickers. According to one joke circulating on the Internet, regional university teachers -- after being ordered to draw up special activities for Wednesday -- proposed covering the floors of school gymnasiums with mattresses and dimming the lights.

Andrei Kartuzov, who won the last "make a baby" grand prize along with his wife, Irina, said they had been planning to have another child anyway.

The campaign "is a good help for people, especially for those living in villages," he said. "If they hold such actions every year, then maybe we will have (more children) growing up and Russia will be bigger."

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/09/11/russia.conception.ap/index.html

Saturday Morning

I have to go to work soon...yes, I work on Saturdays.

I am eating a very YUMMY concoction I thought up...I made a cheese filling from goat cheese (kinda like feta, but not really), garlic, thyme, a blend of different spices and some margarine. Mixed it all up good. Then took this, uh, very thin non-sweet pastry dough (yufka) and wrapped the cheese in small triangles of the dough and fried them. OH MY GOODNESS ITS SOOO YUMMY!!!!

I treated myself to a pedicure from the salon next door this morning. Figured I deserved it, and at 8 YTL ($6), its a small treat that makes me happy. But I felt so "UG!" with the pretty Turkish ladies in there getting their hair done and their skinny asses...I had my hair back in a headband, and my Northern European blood gives me a "thick"ness (and bigger hooters) that they don't have. Turkish women go to the salon to have their hair blow-dried straight a few times a week. It takes all of the body and wave out. So they all look the same. Boring.


When I woke up today, its was Fall. Yes, that quickly, the season changed overnight. A few months ago I thought I was going to die from the heat (120 degs), now its cool. The only thing that I'm not happy about is I didn't get to go swimming, not even once! By the time I'll be able to take a vacation this year, it won't be warm anywhere. Bogus. Maybe I'll just have to spend the extra cash and go to Egypt to swim in the Red Sea. (Its an idea, but I'm too cheap these days to actually go.)

Living with Turk-glish: "collection"

A conversation we had tonight:


Me: "What are you doing?"
Him: "I'm going to put these bills in my collection."
Me: "Your what?"
Him: "My collection. I have a collection of bills that I pay."


What he meant was that he keeps the bills that he pays together for future reference.


Its funny the way words get used in the 'wrong' way, but still make sense...