angels and heroes in one

do you have your personal angel and hero in one? well, I do. I am lucky enough to even have two. I need to tell you about them they deserve a bit of space in my little blog – their angelic and heroic deeds. angel and hero in one number 1: my mother in law
angel and hero in one number 2: my gorgeous friend Iwona. the reasons why they are angels and heroes in one are these:angel and hero in one number 1:
- cleaned the whole new flat (which the previous tenants left VERY dirty and horrible) (with me helping a bit, but I was sloooww, ever so sloow)
- supervised the painters and made sure they did a good job while cleaning and scrubbing balconies, window seals, window frames and windows
- telling me what to do (normally I’d be furious, but I needed some guidance this time, I wouldn’t know where to start!)
- scrubbed the bathrooms
- scrubbed the kitchen
- packed all the kitchen stuff and unpacked it in the new house
- carried fragile things herself so they wouldn’t be broken during the move
- cleaned the windows at least 3 times since we’ve moved in
- did shopping and cooked meals in the meantime
- moved and pushed around heavy furniture all by herself
- and did so many other things that I would need hours and hours to write about (and which meant that I didn’t have to do them!)
angel and hero in one number 2:
- came to help pack the stuff before the move and then again on the day of the move although she had an injured knee and a finger
- backed cakes and made a lovely börek for us (despite the injured finger!)
- brought her electric kettle (she knew I would need a coffee at some stage)
- carried heavy boxes (despite the injured knee!)
- supervised the guys who carried the furniture
- organised drinks and meals for them
- helped them move the sofa out of the old house (which got stuck in the old living room and I thought it would have to stay there forever!)
- came again in the evening (bringing her son Kemal Robert and husband Ozcan to help)
- knew what was going on (while I could relax and drink my coffee)

here they are, angel and hero in one number 1 and number 2: organising, supervising, controlling, planning (me - taking photos, drinking coffee, thinking: how good to have two angels and heroes in one like this!) these two angels and heroes in one made it soo EASY and STRESS FREE for me and Kemal (who was at that time virtually living in his new Starbucks store that was about to be opened!) to move to the new flat. What can I do to thank them for it? I guess, I can be happy in my new home to start with, I can say a big and eternal THANK YOU and ... I think I’ll have to come up also with some special treats for them later. P.S. Personal message to the angel and hero in one number 2: you are CRAZY and I love you for it!

still a mountain of things to do...

there is still a mountain (and a huge one at that) of things to do in the new flat. For now, though, here are a few peeks of what it all looks like today:

and I'm in all day - drinking hot chocolate, looking at the rain outside and dreaming of the mountain of things disappearing and flattening down to a plain lush with green grass that I can lie on and say to myself - good job well done!

This is to the one cat I love

You know I love cats, right? But you don't know that my biggest love as far as cats go is my only cat I have ever had and which sadly I don't live with anymore (it told me it's happy in Poland and doesn't consider moving to Turkey...so, what can I do?)- the cat called Punia. Or Puszka (which means 'a tin'). Or Puszek (which means 'fluff'). Or thousand other similarly fond names. She is all about fluff and softness and tenderness and coziness and warmness and cushion-ness and snug-ness and similar (when she feels like it, that is). She loves my dad something tells me it's because he is similarly all about fluff and softness and tenderness and coziness and you should just see her making a little ball of softness out of herself and nestling down on his arms folded over his belly creating sort of a shelf when he's sitting in his armchair and watching tv (soft, all soft). And she loves my mum, especially when my mum does something in the kitchen, Punia is her best friend then - watching her with loving eyes, following her every move and trying to talk, gentle 'miaow, miaow' (but something tells me it means: hello, I'm here, could I have a piece of that lovely chicken there, please? Now?). Punia has a great sense of hearing. She may be sleeping deeply in the attic, but the moment you open the fridge - she's there before you manage to close it again. Looking at you with her loving eyes (or so it seems), miaowing her gentle miaow (read: food, food) and wrapping her body around your legs. She looks after her health very well and only drinks fresh water straight from the tap, so no point putting a bowl of water for her there - she won't even touch it, instead, when she's thirsty, she'll go to the bathroom and miaow, and miaow miaow miaow until you go there and open the tap in the bathtub for her. Then, sitting on the edge of the tub, she will catch the water that drips from the tap with her pink tongue. I guess that also serves as her daily exercise...and one for my mum, who has to make thousand of trips to the bathroom a day for Punia to have two drops of water to drink at a time. Punia also loves sleeping - something tells me that's her favourite thing (second after food, that is) and following you around the house (when she feels like it, that is). She loves checking all the bags you bring in into the house - she once developed deep love for my cousin's Grzesiu's blue racksack. The moment he would walk in with it and put it down, she would sit on it with this extremely satisfied look on her face (we all wondered what was going on in her mind at that time!). Oh, and she loves eating flowers - whenever my mum gets any flowers from anyone - Punia thinks they are for her and eats them all up happily before my mum is able to sniff them and say 'thanks'. Punia has got thousand other little things she does I could tell you about - but I'll save them for some other time.

Did I tell you I love surprises?

No? Well, I just loooveee love love surprises! Here is about one gorgeous surprise I got today that made me soooo scream and jump with joy!

I looked through the window and saw a postman walking into the house accross the street and thought hmmmm, a postman...I wonder if he's got something for me too... and five minutes later there was a knock on my door. I opened, and there he was - the postman, handing me a small brown envelope that I recognised straight away - an envelope from Ola (and did I mention it all happened when I was reading a message from Ola on facebook and replying to it? and did I mention I was also baking a mexican chocolate cake and waiting impatiently for Iwona to come and have lovely time with, all at the same time?)!

And in the lovely little brown envelope with stamps of red London bus and red plane to Africa, I found:
- a letter to me - sweet and funny
- a card with a cat that Ola made for me with her own talented hands
- a magnet with a picture of a cat from Portugal that she bougth for me when she was there

Have a look: I love surprises!!!!!! Thank you for this lovely surprise Olusia! Don't forget, I want more!

P.S. Did I tell you I love cats? No? Well, I love cats, but that's a completely different story altogether...

My new sweet addiction

Oh my gosh, I've just spent the last couple of hours (that's from 7 am till now) reading the most charming and inspiring blog of all: my happy little life (thank you, thank you dear Kelly!) And it dawned on me that here I am, lying in my warm bed with my hot water bottle by my side at 9 in the morning (when I would normally be soundly asleep) reading, not being able to stop and that I am, as of now, officially addicted to blog. I love it love it love it and am now so full of ideas and inspirations and good positive crafty energy that although it is so early now (that would be middle of the night for me only yesterday), I want to wake up and go and live and do and experience and be and run around like a small child that has seen snow falling down from the sky for the first time in life. It's like awakening. I feel like my life is only to start now. What was I doing before, I ask? Well, I forgot about so many things that make life delightful and cheerful and got entangled in grayness and mundane-ness of things, forgot to cherish the little lovely things that life brings, forgot to smile when smile was due, to take off my masks when I should have been myself and proud of it. Instead, I enclosed myself in a cage of poorlittleme feelings and thoughts. So what I don't have a child yet, so what my new home is little and I don't know where the washing machine will go, so what I can't drive and don't have a car, so what I don't have enough money to do everything I want, so what I don't have beautiful skin, beautiful clothes, beautiful shoes and bags. So what I am a bit rounder than health experts advise, so what I can't just get on the plane and go to my mum's and have a sip of her homemade wine and chat with her about funny things our cat does. Enough of thinking about what I can't or don't do or don't have or am not. Time to start living everyday as if it was the most beautiful day of my life and all my dreams became true at once. Finding little miracles in every corner, under every leaf of all the beautiful Antalya plants, under every stone on the beach. Falling head front into all the little magic that life is, that life shows us every moment in every thing we are in. There are so many things in my life to be grateful for. I'm grateful for all the people I have ever met, I'm grateful for all the people that are in my life now: my dearest, my greatest friend Kemal whom I love with all the power of my heart, my wonderful mum I miss deeply and love, my dad who is my greatest supporter, my brother who is my dearest soul buddy, my friends in London whom I love and miss and am so happy that although we are so far apart we manage to stay close, my new wonderful friend Iwona, who makes me feel at home in Turkey, my mother in law who teaches me how to cook lovely Turkish meals. I'm grateful for my new flat - for its walls that I'll be able to paint, I'm grateful for the sea and it's beautiful blue that every time I look at takes me straight into heaven. I'm grateful for everything I have - my laptop - so I can write this now, my bed - for being so cuddly and warm, my hot coffee - that I'm just about to make for myself, I'm grateful for all the yummy jams I made and am able to eat now and I'm grateful for all the beautiful blogs there are for their inspirations and love and joy they spread around the world. And I'm grateful for my own blog - my channel through which I can express all my gratitude and love for all the things I love and am grateful for. And I'm grateful for my new sweet addiction. It makes my life worth waking up for.

Our own little new home to be

We finally got the keys to our new little flat. We love it already, although there is a lot of work to be done before we can move in. This makes me a bit stressed out and worried and I can’t sleep at night. I even cried a bit – I guess all this stress overwhelmed me and I had to let it out. I wish I could say the flat is so beautiful and perfect and what I was always dreaming about and that I’m so mad about it. Well, not really. But I’m trying to be positive about it. I’m sure that together with Kemal (and with little help from our friends and maybe also all the deco ideas Ola is talking about on her blog) we’ll make a beautiful home out of it. I can’t wait already.

Our own little new home to be - here we come!

Robert Kemal

Robert Kemal is a super child. He is:
- a very cute little guy
- very clever
- likes reading books
- likes going to school
- loves lego
- loves getting presents
- loves chocolate cake
- likes his aunty Marta (that’s me) and uncle Kemal (probably becuase uncle Kemal is called Kemal and supports the same football team - Besiktas)

Robert Kemal is 6 today!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Robert Kemal!!!!!
And Iwona and Ozcan (that’s his mum and dad) – WELL DONE GUYS!

Birthday wishes

My dearest Oliszku, today is your special day.
And this is a special post for you.

I met you long time ago in Wroclaw (according to my calculations it must have been 1995). Our first meeting was strange – we didn’t even speak a word to each other and I remember thinking about you nasty things – and you thougth the same nasty things about me (we later found out). Then, you came to stay for a while in my house with Joanna and Ruda and we slowly started liking each other. Soon we became like sisters, remember?

We found out that we had this weird connection with each other. When going to Joanna’s birthday party on the train to Opole one day, we found out our gifts for her were exactly the same. When you came to visit me from Warsaw one day, I opened the door and saw you wearing the same scarf I bought for myself a few days earlier. We had the same taste in clothes, things and almost everything. It was truly magical.

Things I love from that time:


- our huge breakfasts together with Joanna, Ruda, Sylwia and boys, that would last for hours and hours
- Jonathan Carroll books
- clothes from Jackpot
- letters to each other (sent by real post)
- our meetings in my house in Wroclaw, or in your house in Warsaw or in other houses (Opole, Katowice, Skoczów, Krapkowice)
- holidays with your mom in the mountains (and sleeping with spiders)
- crazy photos

Then, we both moved to London. We started working, studying and found our loves.

Things I love from that time:

- our walks along the South Bank
- our ‘coffees’ on the bench at the Flower Market
- our trips to galleries in London
- our cakes baking for Easter
- our Angels and Tarot card readings
- our meetings with Aunty Sylvia
- our conversations about dreams, books, our friendship, everything
- our little notebooks
- your beautiful photos

Olusia, I really miss you and I miss all these things we did together in Poland and in London. But they are in the past. Today, it’s your birthday – something is ending and something new is about to begin. It’s a shame I’m not there to celebrate this moment with you, to see you blow the candles on the cake and make a wish. It’s a shame I can’t have a piece of that cake....
But though I’m not there with you, you know that I’m alwasy thinking about you. I’m always there for you, happy to see your wishes coming true, happy to know you are happy, happy to know everything in your life is changing for the better.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLISZKU!
I am so happy to be your friend

cleaning frenzy

my mother in law is in her cleaning frenzy today.
Maybe it was the carpet hanging from the balcony upstairs.

She cleaned the plants in the pots on the balconies.
She is now cleaning the balconies.
She wants to dust all the shelves in the entire house.
Hoover all the floors.
Mop them.
Do the washing.
Wash all the curtains.
Wash all the cushions from our sofa.
Wash the kitchen floor rug and the bathroom floor rugs.
Etc.

Today, however, is one of those days when I have a really bad headache. And all I want to do is to drink my coffee and write something in my blog.

some pictures from our home in Poland

my father sent me some photos this morning to remind me what the winter in Poland looks like.



And I was sitting today on our balcony, drinking coffee with my face turned towards the sun. I looked at our thermometer and it showed 30 degrees.

happy for Kemal

Yesterday Kemal found out that his little dream came true.
He got a transfer to another store. He was SO happy. Instead of spending 1.5 hours to get to work, it will now take him less than half an hour.



That means two hours more a day to spend with me!

I had a very nice day today

Lovely people came to my house and even my mother in law was smiling.
The lovely people liked the food my mother in law and I cooked for them.
And the lovely people liked the cake I baked for them.
And they liked the tea and the coffee with a surprise.
And they even liked my Christmas tree.



And they brought me a huge bunch of beautiful lilac heather they picked up in the forest on the way.



I had a very nice day today.

Thank you lovely people! And Kemal says hello!