Food

In yesterday's post, I already mentioned that I'd be taking another trip to the village. So after my morning routine, I immediately went there around 11 AM and arrived before the guests had arrived. Even if the guests had already arrived, it wouldn't have made much difference to me. I still didn't sit at the table with the other guests, as the seats were limited and everything was crowded. As a result, I was starving until 3:30 PM and just spent my time in a small, hot room, which didn't make my time there very comfortable.

Today was my mom’s anniversary, so everyone spent the day preparing the table. When I woke up and walked into the kitchen, I saw a bit of chaos—everyone was rushing around trying to finish their tasks. Some close relatives had already arrived in the morning to help. So my morning wasn’t calm at all—it was busy and quite loud. Still, there was plenty of food, so I had no problem finding something for breakfast.

Honestly, it feels like a huge relief to have some free time again. Up until today, I was pretty stressed about it because I got stuck on a few tasks, and it ended up taking over all my free time after work. I just couldn’t figure out why my code wasn’t working, so I spent an extra four or five days trying to fix it. My client started getting concerned too, asking what was going on and when I’d finally be done. And yeah, that was on me — we had planned to finish everything in early March, but now it’s already the end of the month.

Today, after I woke up, I quickly got ready and went to my aunt’s home. I arrived at around 10 a.m. Fortunately, she lives quite close to me, so it didn’t take long to get there. I just walked through the streets and arrived on time. When I arrived, everyone was already there and was discussing random topics with each other. I was the last guest because my family had come early in the morning. They helped prepare the table and finished other preparations.

Today wasn’t a very successful day. I couldn’t finish my work tasks, and the weather wasn’t very good. But fortunately, there was no rain, and even the sun appeared a few times. Maybe I’m wrong — maybe I can call it a successful day, because I saw the sun and it was also my salary day. However, that doesn’t really matter. What matters more are my travel plans. I still haven’t found a place to stay in Turkey, and honestly, I don’t really want to go there. If I keep searching for too long, I might waste all my time and end up stuck here. But if I do stay here, I can save my money and try to plan a big trip next year.

I’ve already mentioned my plans for this day here, and today I visited only one place I had planned. But I have to say, the birthday celebration didn’t go quite as I expected — and honestly, I didn’t really like it. I hoped everything would be quiet and that we’d just talk together. Instead, there was a host (tamada), and they started playing different games while recording everything on video. Well, okay, the video part wasn’t a problem. But one awful thing happened during one of the games — I was unlucky enough to pick a challenge that said I had to sing a song. Of course, I didn’t do it, because I can’t sing and never wanted to. It was just a catastrophe.

Today is the last day of October, and it’s Friday. But tomorrow I’ll have a work day. Next week I’ll have the weekend until November 5. During these days, we have holidays: National Unity Day (a Russian Federation holiday) and Constitution Day of the Republic of Tatarstan on November 6. However, I can’t rest on November 6 because I’m working in another region, and that day is only a day off for companies in Tatarstan. Therefore, I lose one weekend day, and it’s a workday for me. I also wanted to take a day off on Saturday because working on Saturday slightly disrupts my work rhythm and week schedule. From previous years, I clearly remember that when I worked on Saturday, I started to think Saturday was Friday, and it bothered me. Therefore, I don’t like changing my workdays. Also, I forgot to mention one nice thing: tomorrow I’ll work only until 5 PM, which is a short workday, so I decided not to take a day off.

Today, the first part of my day was very sunny and amazing. When I woke up and opened my eyes, I noticed how the sky was deeply blue. Yeah, it made my morning great because outside came a beautiful sunny autumn day. The sun lit up every fallen leaf on the ground. Even people’s moods were higher than usual — everyone had a smile on their face. But after noon, the weather changed to the opposite side. The sky became covered with clouds, and everything turned gray. Fortunately, it didn’t rain, because the gray clouds just floated above us in the sky.

From my post title, everything is already clear. Right now, I have no words, and I honestly don’t understand what’s going on. I couldn’t get that messed-up appointment again, because everything was exactly the same as last time. I saw the same errors, the same notifications saying the appointment was occupied or “try again later.” Also, they only published dates for Moscow. All of this completely ruined my plans, because I wanted to go to Europe for the New Year holidays and celebrate there. Now I need to think about where else I can go for my holidays and start making new plans, because I still want to make my travel plans happen — even if it’s another country.

My day started early because I was woken up at 6:40 AM, since yesterday we had planned to go to our relatives. They invited us and other relatives to help with their twenty angry geese. Finishing all those geese in one day was not easy because there were quite a lot. Also, those geese were very angry. Once, when I visited my relatives before, those geese tried to catch me and attack me for no reason. Fortunately, they couldn’t catch me, and I managed to escape. Since then, I’ve always kept my distance from them, but today I just watched as one of the geese was boiled and eaten. A few words about what “kaz ömäse” is: It happens in the autumn. It’s a work party, and the main purpose is butchering geese.

Today I woke up at 8:35 AM, and yesterday I fell asleep at 11 PM. Honestly, I didn’t plan to fall asleep — I just wanted to lie down for about 10–15 minutes. I had been working all day and couldn’t lie down even once. After I got up, I wanted to do my routine, but unfortunately, I ended up sleeping until 3 AM. When I woke up the first time, I found my phone next to me, and I was a bit happy because I could have broken it under me or dropped it on the floor. I quickly moved my phone to the table, brushed my teeth, undressed, prepared my bed, and started the second part of my sleep. I don’t even remember how I fell asleep — I just jumped onto my bed, and after about 10 seconds, I was already asleep. Even my Mi Band showed that I slept for 9.4 hours. It’s quite long and also not very healthy. I also want to say that I usually never sleep this early. Normally, I go to bed after 1 AM.

This morning started with clouds, but after lunchtime the sun appeared in the sky. Even though there were still many clouds and the sky was mostly covered, the sun shone brightly enough. On this sunny day, I decided not to stay at home. During my lunch break, I took my car and drove to a nearby village. That village is about twenty kilometers from my home, so it wasn’t a long trip. I managed to drive there and come back within my lunch break. I even had around twenty minutes left, which I used to eat because I was kind of starving. For lunch, I had buckwheat mixed with grilled onions, carrots, and one whole sausage. For dessert, I had half a piece of cake.