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Yesterday I forgot to mention my small Duolingo failure. It may not seem important, but for me it was. Since the beginning of the year, I had kept a perfect streak and really wanted to maintain it for the whole year. Unfortunately, I fell asleep again and forgot to complete my daily lesson. I woke up around 2 a.m. and realized what had happened, but it was already too late. I even tried to trick the app by changing the time on my phone and completing the lesson retroactively. It was a creative attempt, but Duolingo was smarter than me. Now I have one frozen day on my calendar — a small imperfection in what used to be a perfect record.
It wasn’t a bad day, but it wasn’t a great one either — somewhere in between. I felt healthier than yesterday, and overall the day felt more comfortable. I woke up easily for suhoor at 4 a.m., and then again at 8:30 a.m., which gave me enough time to start working and complete my morning routine without rushing.
As usual, I worked on my tasks, but throughout the day I kept hearing huge chunks of snow sliding off the roof. It’s quite unusual, and it has been happening for more than two days now. I don’t understand how so much snow managed to accumulate there. Every time it fell, it made a loud, almost frightening sound above my head, which made me feel slightly uneasy. As a result, small piles of snow have formed under the window, almost reaching its level.
In my previous post, I mentioned that building with the huge chunk of snow hanging from the roof. So today, during my walk, I decided to check on it. Even though the temperature was above zero, the snow was still there. It hasn’t fallen yet.
I overslept until 9:05 a.m., and waking up was really hard. By the time I finished my morning routine, it was already 9:15, and I had missed the first fifteen minutes of work. That’s never happened to me before, so I felt pretty bad about it. I think waking up for suhoor at 3:50 a.m. affected me more than I expected. I felt exhausted the whole day. It really bothered me and made it harder to focus on my tasks. However, I’m not sure why I felt so off. Maybe it was the weather, or maybe I’m catching a cold. I started sneezing during the day and had a mild headache. Thankfully, it wasn’t too painful.
I noticed some really pleasant feelings while I was out for a walk, breathing in the fresh spring air. The smell was incredible — hard to describe, kind of like fresh-baked bread or maybe a cinnamon bun. That scent seemed to fill the whole street and left only good thoughts in my head. The weather was fairly warm, around +1°C, so everything was starting to melt. The sky was cloudy, and every now and then something fell from above — maybe rain, maybe a mix of snow. Luckily, it wasn’t heavy and didn’t bother me too much. Just a few drops hit my face and even made my jacket a little damp, but I could keep walking and enjoy the first spring day.
I didn’t manage to finish all my promises from yesterday’s post, but I did get all my main tasks done. I went to my bank, extended my debit cards, and got some certificates about my account. Then I visited my barber for a short haircut—it cost 700 rubles, about $9, and included a head wash. That was my main goal, and I got it done easily, no problems.
I didn’t have time to walk around or visit my favorite places. The weather wasn’t great—snow had melted, it was around 0 or maybe +1, and everything was full of puddles. So instead, I stayed warm and dry in my car while driving around.
This Friday felt like an ordinary workday on the surface, yet there was something different about it — something calm and almost peaceful. I followed my usual routine, but I felt unusually comfortable throughout the day. No one rushed me, no one interrupted me, and I was able to work at my own pace. It was genuinely pleasant to focus on my tasks without pressure and simply enjoy the process.
When I woke up for suhoor, something strange happened with my laptop. I turned it on and immediately noticed problems with my browser, Firefox. At first, I thought restarting it would fix everything, but unfortunately, it didn’t help. During suhoor, I found myself trying to figure out why my pinned tabs had disappeared and how I could recover them.
To be honest, I really didn’t want to deal with it at that moment. I didn’t have much time and just wanted to spend suhoor peacefully. But Murphy’s Law struck again — of course, something had to go wrong. I almost ran out of time and ended up wasting it on something I couldn’t even fix. Later during the day, I managed to recover some of the tabs manually.
Yesterday, I went to bed around midnight. I only wanted to take a short rest, but unfortunately, I ended up sleeping until 2 a.m. The first time I woke up was around 1 a.m. when I accidentally dropped my phone. I thought I would sleep for just ten more minutes, but those ten minutes turned into a full extra hour. As a result, I missed my speaking practice and other daily routines.
Today, I need to practice even more than usual because I don’t want to lose the progress I’ve made over the past month. In fact, I’ve been practicing speaking every single day since January — even since late December — for at least thirty minutes. Now I want to maintain this strong habit and see what kind of results I can achieve after a full year. It’s my personal experiment.
Today marks the sixth day of Ramadan. My day was calm and free of worries, even though the weather wasn’t particularly pleasant. The sky was covered with clouds for most of the day, although from time to time the sun managed to break through and shine brightly. Unfortunately, it never lasted long, as the clouds would quickly gather again and hide it from view.
Today is the fifth day of Ramadan. It’s Monday, February 23, and it’s an extra day off in my country, so I decided to spend most of the day resting. I woke up at 4 a.m. for suhoor and started my fast. After suhoor, I couldn’t go back to sleep, so I spent about two hours working on my laptop and managed to finish a few tasks. By the time I finally went to bed, it was already 6 a.m., and it was starting to get light outside. Honestly, it felt unusual because I never go to bed when it’s already bright. I woke up again at 10 a.m. and took my time with my morning routine.
I stayed indoors for the majority of the day, and only went out for a short walk of about 30 minutes. The walk wasn’t very productive—I couldn’t visit all my usual spots. The wind was bitterly cold, and the sidewalks hadn’t been properly cleared. I didn’t want to trudge through the snow, and as usual, the wind froze my face. These conditions made walking around the city a challenge, so I stuck to the city center and returned home quickly. My usual park has been covered in snow since late January, and no one seems willing to clear it. Now, I can only reach it by car or by walking along the main road—which I prefer to avoid. I’ll just wait for spring.
I decided to create this fasting timetable so that I always have it at hand and can easily check the times. It might also be interesting to my readers, but most importantly, it is useful for me. I obtained this information from a brochure published by our local mosque. I noticed that the brochure uses Kazan time. Honestly, I am not sure why they use Kazan time instead of my city’s local time. My city is not far from Kazan — it is about an hour and a half away — so the time difference should not be significant. Perhaps it is simply for convenience, similar to how Kazan follows Moscow time.