An old blog from last Friday

As sods law dictates, the very second I am legally employed by an umbrella
company and start getting paid, my Turkish work permit comes through. So
all that work, photocopying, making international phones calls, running
around, scanning, DHLing, meeting tax advisors, arguing with HR,
researching contracts and other nonsense enabled me to be legal for
precisely one week more than if I’d have just sat on my ass and done
nothing. Brilliant.

Today I am nursing a slight hangover. A rare occurrence for the all new
moi. I went to dinner last night with a Dutch corporate lawyer and three
bottles of sauvignon later we were putting the world to rights. That was
about when my colleague walked into the restaurant whose name,
embarrassingly, I could not remember. I also realized that I had forgotten
the name of my dinner companion. It was starting to turn into a tricky
social situation on my part, until I took my elbows off the table at the
precise point my companion decided to put his weight on his and flipped the
table over, knocking all the wine glasses onto his lap.

Embarrassing introductions were immediately replaced by an embarrassing
clean-up operation by two obviously tipsy people.

Needless to say I have avoided all common points of contact in then office
building today, eschewing elevators and canteens until I feel I can look my
colleague in the eye again. Which may be never.

Tonight I am going to my Irish friend, Mairaid’s, house. Mairaid used to
work at Oskar Mobil 5 years ago. Since then she has moved to Turkey, bred,
and has a very lovely apartment overlooking the sea. So tonight is a St
Patrick’s Day celebration of sorts. I have green suede boots especially for
the occasion.

I am hoping to go home and have a little sleep first. Apparently there will
be French people there (her husband is from that part of the world) of the
single male variety. Unfortunately you cannot buy the leprechaun promoted
breakfast cereal ‘Frosties Lucky Charms’ here, but if you could - I would
stuff my bra with it.

On Saturday I will probably feel ill. And on Sunday I’ll have brunch with
corporate lawyer.

So that’s my weekend sewn up.

Last weekend, incidentally, I went snowboarding in the Uludag mountains
after taking a ferry across the Marmara sea. It was good. My first time on
a black run.