Life, Travels, and Daily English Posts
Today I had a very scary dream and woke up at 3 AM. At that time, I felt a bit sick. I had a headache and was a little sweaty. At the same time, the temperature at home felt quite high. Because of that, I couldn’t fall asleep for some time. However, I had already started to feel the headache around 11 PM, and apparently it continued until 3 AM. I’m sure of that.
In the morning, when I woke up, I felt 100% healthy. I didn’t have a headache anymore and I wasn’t sweating; I felt comfortable. So I did my morning routine and went to the village. There, I had some tasks to do with my uncle. I had also promised to show what I bought yesterday, but I decided not to show everything. It was just some plumbing tools. I delivered them and explained everything to my uncle. After that, he will be able to install them himself.
This day started at 8 AM. I was woken up by the words, “We are late, you need to be quick,” because my family was invited to an event in another village. After I woke up, I did my morning routine, got dressed, and drove to the village. I drove as fast as I could because I didn’t want to make my family late. That event was important for them. The second reason was the road conditions. I couldn’t check the road conditions in advance, so I wanted to get on the road earlier to make sure everything was okay. I was worried that the road might not be clean enough or that I could get stuck somewhere.
Today in the evening, I tried to repeat my path from yesterday. Unfortunately, I couldn’t repeat my whole path because the pedestrian area was covered with snow after the blizzard. However, I managed to walk halfway to Sabantuy Park and then was forced to return to the embankment. The embankment was also covered with snow, and it hadn’t been removed yet. Because of that, walking was a bit challenging and uncomfortable. I quickly walked along the road and went toward the city center.
When I reached the city center, I noticed how lively everything was. People were slowly walking around the uncleaned areas and laughing loudly, especially young people, all along the street. Some people with kids were swinging on the swings. All of this created a very strong positive mood after the blizzard. Now the weather is pretty good — the temperature is −3 degrees. It’s just a perfect time to go for a walk.
Yesterday, I promised myself that I would disassemble and clean my laptop. So after finishing my morning routine, I immediately started the cleaning process. First, I disassembled the main components. I unscrewed the back cover and removed the cooling fans. While doing this, I realized something important about the thermal pads. Since I didn’t have replacement thermal pads, I couldn’t fully disassemble the entire cooling system. Originally, I hadn’t even planned to go that far — the idea was quite spontaneous.
To be honest, my initial plan was just to remove the back cover and blow the dust out with compressed air. However, once I opened it, I saw how dusty the internal components were. Because of that, I decided to clean each part carefully and disassemble as many components as possible. The whole process took around two hours, and I finished it successfully. Now my laptop is working much better than before, and the fans are spinning less. I also took photos before cleaning — you can clearly see how dusty the laptop was.
Today the weather was quite cold. The outside temperature was around –13 degrees, but it felt like –19. I felt this clearly during my evening walk. While I was walking, my face was extremely frozen, even though there was no wind outside. The hood of my jacket, especially near my throat, was covered with white frost. By the way, I walked for about one hour and covered approximately three kilometers.
During my walk, I visited several places. First, I walked along the embankment, and then I went to Sabantuy Park. On the embankment, everything was usual: I saw only a few cars parked in the parking area and one child with his father swinging on a swing. In Sabantuy Park, I saw many skiers. They were actively skiing between the trees, and I couldn’t even take a picture because they were very fast and skilled.
Today is January 1st, so the New Year has officially begun. For me, this day was quite usual, but I still started the year in a productive way. I woke up at 9 a.m., even though I went to bed at 2 a.m. As soon as I got out of bed, I got dressed and went straight to the bathroom. I didn’t want to stay in bed and waste time. I felt energized and had several plans for the day, so I decided to follow my morning routine and start the day properly. When I woke up, I noticed the weather through the window. The sun was shining, and the temperature was around -10 degrees. However, the wind was strong enough to sweep snow across the road. Later, during my evening walk along the embankment, I clearly felt how the cold wind penetrated through the hood of my jacket.
Today I slept until 11 a.m. and got out of bed at 11:15. I can explain this situation. Something understandable happened today. All night, the street lights were on, and the light came slightly through my window. My bed is located right next to the window, so the room was as bright as possible. Usually, the street lights are turned off around midnight, but this night they stayed on, and it really bothered me. As a result, I fell asleep around 3 a.m., even though I went to bed at 1:30 a.m. For about one and a half hours, I tried to fall asleep and read Reddit posts, as usual. After I woke up and finished my morning routine, it was already close to lunchtime. So I waited a bit and started my day with lunch.
Today I woke up a bit late, around 8:45 AM. Because of that, my morning was fast and busy. However, I still managed to finish my morning routine on time and had an opportunity to join our morning meeting. The meeting was without the team lead because he was absent until around 2–3 PM, so the deputy team lead was responsible during that time. During the meeting, the deputy team lead mostly wanted to have casual conversations, but the lead developer started asking questions about tasks and discussing them. Eventually, we got involved in work-related topics. Honestly, the meeting didn’t last long — about twenty minutes in total — but we could have used that time just to relax and take a short break from work worries.
I started working at 9 a.m. and finished at 6 p.m. During the day, I had several tasks to handle. One of them was new for me and was related to the Telegram API. I needed to check its functionality and analyze the code because there were issues with notifications. Today, I managed to test and review all of that code, although I still haven’t reached a final conclusion.
After some time, the lead developer sent me a message about one of my previous tasks. We discussed the main problem, and I explained what fixes I had added and why. His questions weren’t about mistakes on my part; on the contrary, I needed to extend the solution by adding a few more fixes within the scope of the task. Overall, the workday was quite good — not too difficult and without any serious worries.
I got out of bed at 10 a.m., although I actually woke up around 9. I had gone to bed only at 2 a.m., maybe even later, so in the morning I felt a bit weak and didn’t really want to get up. I stayed in bed for a while, scrolling through Reddit and listening to someone speaking loudly in another room. I also reread my post from yesterday, reviewed my blog, and planned some changes. I want to implement these updates during the New Year holidays and fix a few bugs in the mobile version. In general, I spent the morning — or rather the first part of the day — in bed, then did my morning routine and had lunch. It was a simple, quiet, and even slightly cozy start to the day, a bit unusual for me.
The day was very busy and a bit difficult. I spent almost the entire day in Kazan—from 12 PM until 9 PM. However, I left home around 10 AM. I woke up at about 9 AM, which was quite late for me, so I had only one hour for my morning routine, and that wasn’t enough. I had many routine tasks that morning and couldn’t finish them without rushing. I started by brushing my teeth, which is always the first thing I do after waking up. Then I shaved my face because my beard had grown quite a lot, and I hadn’t shaved recently. After that, I took a shower and had breakfast. Since I had to visit the dentist after breakfast, I brushed my teeth again. All of this took more than an hour, so I ended up being late. I had planned to hit the road as early as possible, but everything turned out the opposite way. I finally left home at about 10:15.
It’s already December 26, and there are only five days left until the end of the year. I clearly remember the first months of this year — how I obtained my Schengen visa and traveled to Europe twice. I also recall my trips to several Asian countries. These experiences became some of the most unforgettable journeys of my life. Time passed incredibly fast, but fortunately, I managed to preserve those moments. My blog pages are now filled with travel stories, and, of course, these memories remain vivid in my mind as well. Despite everything, I truly enjoy this period of the year. I’m not entirely sure why, because the final days are usually quite hectic. Yet, I feel calm and comfortable. There’s a noticeable New Year atmosphere everywhere — decorations in the streets, people in a festive mood, and the pleasant realization that I’ll have long weekends over the next two weeks. It’s simply a wonderful time to slow down and rest.