Yaramaz Went Away

 From the Turkish Daily News’  TV Guide today, author unknown:

The complete review of Jodie Foster’s The Brave One.

David Kirmani is an American bachelor, who works as an Medical Professional, lives alone in an apartment with his dog and sweetheart, Erica Bain, who works as a Radio Host. They usually take their pet out for a stroll in a nearby park and let him run and fetch. 

From the Imbd movie review site:

David Kirmani is an American bachelor, who works as an Medical Professional, lives alone in an apartment with his dog and sweetheart, Erica Bain, who works as a Radio Host. They usually take their pet out for a stroll in a nearby park and let him run and fetch. One day while at the park they let the pet run without a lease, and when he does not return nor respond to their calls, they frantically search for him. They eventually find their pet being held by three men, who want a reward, and when David refuses, they start to molest Erica, David intervenes, both he and Erica are assaulted by two males, while the third uses a camcorder to film this incident. Erica is knocked unconscious, and regains her senses several days later in a hospital. It is here she will be told the shocking news that David is no more and the pet is missing. A traumatized Erica returns home to try and regain her life. She also attends the Police Station but does not get much help. Fearful of a repeat of this type of incident, she gets an unlicensed gun and carries with her all the time. One day she witnesses some youth terrorizing subway passengers, forcing them to alight at the next station. When they approach her, she shoots them dead. She uses her gun several times thereafter, always gunning down people committing violent crimes. One day she is asked to attend the Police Station to identify a male who may have been responsible for David’s death and the Assault on herself. She does recognize him, but refuses to identify him. Subsequently she finds out his whereabouts – and is all set to avenge her lover’s death – not realizing that Detective Mercer has her as a suspect in the recent killings and is all set to apprehend her. The question remains will Erica be able to avenge David’s death and the assault on herself? Written by rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com) 

The TDN summary just strikes me as absurd and almost Samuel Becketty in it’s illogical brevity and banality. I especially love the final sentence in the synopsis: They usually take their pet out for a stroll in a nearby park and let him run and fetch. 

Note: Kirmani is a surname I have only ever heard twice in my life- here, and in Cutting Edge Starter, in the unit where students learn how to fill in forms about personal data (‘And what’s your surname, please?’ ‘Kirmani’ ‘And how do you spell that?’ ‘K-I-R-M-A-N-I’ ‘Can you repeat that please?’) .  It’s all very odd.

This morning as D. came in from the balcony, the entire right-half of the wall-wide curtains came out from the wall and fell on his head, with the screws totally ripped out at the far end and barely hanging on in the middle.  Coffee flew at the wall and onto the floor, mingling with the chunks of cement and crappy paint flakes and plaster dust.  There is now a rather large hole in the wall where the bracket used to be, and I’m not sure the wall’s structural integrity is sound enough to withstand a bit of filling and re-installing.  Perhaps we’ll just be demi-exhibitionists until September.

Lola was slightly anachronistic this morning, flying around the room, bouncing off the walls and bed about an hour before the curtain rods fiasco, as if in reaction to the chaos of falling things that had yet to erupt. By the time the rod actually came tumbling down, she was quite calm and non chalant, as if the event had already long passed. I wonder if she exists in an alternate time zone exclusive to cats.

 Possibly from sitting in a hot, humid sauna office for days or from just the sitting itself, I feel dopey and lethargic and weighted down like a weighted-down stone. I’m going slightly bonkers from cabin fever, albeit work-office-fever.  Possibly because its over 30 degrees out there every day and teachers are on amazingly low hours and I’m still stuck at my desk schlumfing in inactivity, watching life pass by me as everyone else goes on holiday or takes long weekends out of the city. I know I said last year at this time that I was ready for a stable job and a stable life and a home I hold for more than a year but I was wrong. I did want it, but not ongoing. I think I’ve just about used up that need. 

I want to be outside during the day. I miss walking. I miss exploring. I miss movement. I miss having other things on my mind besides work and exhaustion.

The electricity was out for several hours last night so I went out onto the balcony to ride it out. Inside the flat was pitch black and my laptop battery was too low to watch dvds on. By the time D came home and we shared a nut brown ale out on the balcony, I was pretty much few up with waiting for the lights to come back on. The whole neighbourhood was black and grey and dark and quiet. 

I said, ‘Damn I wish the power would come back on. I’m bloody sick and tired of–’

And immediately the whole neighbourhood suddenly lit up. 

It was pretty nifty.

I made a late night soup last night, after my interminable sauna office day culminating in a sauna Beginner class with my loyal MooseJaw group (we get to name our classes after cities- I had considered Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump when I started them as absolute beginners back in January but decided on Moose Jaw because I knew admin staff would never be able to pronounce the former). The soup was very good, an experiment for the coming season– sautéed garlic and onion and diced carrots and a square inch knob of minced fresh ginger and a bunch of dry brown rice toasted in the olive oiled onions and a ton of fresh black pepper and two fistfuls of kuba chicken bosom bits and some chicken bouillon and a bunch of water and covered and simmered for an hour (or at least an episode of X Files plus some surfing). It was really good. I squeeze of lime would have been brilliant, if only limes existed in this country.

Had dreams about packing all of my possessions into two suitcases and an excess-baggage backpack. Nothing fit, so I had to give everything away- books, art, my funky home made clothes, funky boots, electronics, dvds.  I had nothing left after 6 years here. I couldnt decide whether it was horrifying or liberating.

1. Lola with her sturdy, hairy sailor arms, in a face-off with D on the balcony.  2. Lola on my shins, in ecstasy, having a so-fabulously-undignified-its-embarrassing chin rub.

Lovely breezy bright sunny morning on the balcony, just showered so wet-headed and fresh, with a laptop occupying half my lap and Lola snagging the bit just around the knees.  The day’s heat has not yet hit. It has been insanely hot this week- even new Larry from St Louis said it was Damn Hot (and he spends his summers in Bangladesh and southern China and suchlike). Teachers are wilting, students stupefying, cats melting into fur puddles.  It’s been a very very long week. Our office is like a sweatlodge, without the purifying cedar boughs or sage smudges. Ever try to do admin tasks all day in a sweatlodge? In office clothes?

Sigh.

Leave me a comment o’ randomness, such as your favorite quote, the best sandwich in the world, what color panties you’re wearing, and I’ll respond with five questions you can answer in your own LJ, leaving open the invitation for other people to give you comments o’ randomness, and then you can ask them questions, and before you know it, we’ll all know everything about everyone — even if we’ve never met!

Questions below gracias a

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1. Do you ever feel scared when you travel?

Yes, in fact, I often feel my gut tensing as I head off into unknown realms. It’s possibly instinctive, even though I’ve been heading off into the unknown for just about 15 years now and have survived quite nicely so far.  The gut reaction usually hits when I’m coming in to an unknown city late at night, passing through endless dark suburbs, feeling totally disoriented, wondering how I’m going to find my bed amidst all this urban sprawl (easy answer: my hostel/pansyon is 85% likely to be located fairly near to the Central X-City train station).  My bed at night is vital to my sanity.

2. What have you learned from your travels that you wouldn’t have learned otherwise?

I am no longer afraid of charging into situations or groups of people or places unknown to me. I used to be terrified of talking to people I don’t know on the phone, or going up to info desks, or asking someone for directions, or anything involving putting myself out there.  Teaching has also helped a lot with my shyness/agoraphobia-lite, but I definitely think that being forced to do the things that terrify me the most has been a great boon.  I can’t imagine myself at 19 being able to phone up the electric company and carry on a calm conversation in Turkish about my electricity being cut off. I couldn’t even call hostels in England to make reservations. My hands would just shake and I’d feel paralysed. I still feel scared at times but I can usually get past it if something must be done.

Also perspective. I’ve learned perspective, both internally and geographically/politically/culturally.  I better know my position in the greater scheme of things, and it helps me to remember/realise that my life, my fears, my frustrations are pretty manageably small and easy compared to what I have seen or what I have dealt with in the past.  I can see government/nationalist posturing from a global perspective, which is both hilarious and absurd.   I can speak a lot of  languages in varying degrees of  competency, from fluent to just necessary phrases, which opens up a whole other side of a place (Turkish not only helps me to deal with Turkey better, but also gave me a head start in plunging into Egypt and the Gulf because of so many Arabic loan-words– I could manage most pleasantries  in Arabic and could understand  where I was more easily because geographical landmarks were often phonetically the same in both languages)

3. Which is better, quiet or noise (and why)?

Quiet. Definitely quiet. Noise seriously disrupts my equilibrium.

4. Do you think in words or pictures?

Words. I can’t think in pictures at all. I can’t even remember what people look like if they aren’t in front of me. If you asked me to describe, out of context, a person or a place, I’d blank.

5. What is the best flavor?

Sweet: dark chocolate with raspberry or cherry
Savoury: spicy, like a good madras curry, or tom kah gai, or super-hot chili

Stolen from 

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