The kingdom of boredom

If anybody had told me, 2 months ago, that by the middle of June I'd be dying with boredom, I'd have laughed in their face.
Mind you, I'm not complaining - on the whole I prefer a bit of boredom to the kind of frantic stress everybody had predicted for May/June. It's just a bit anticlimactic, but I can live with that. Easily.
I really ought to start looking out for plot bunnies, since writing at work is one of the most inconspicuous activities and lots more fun than, say, playing endless rounds of Spider Solitaire.

As there's absolutely nothing to do, I'm going to take tomorrow off work. The sleeping problem seems on the verge of getting better (only about 30 min till I fell asleep last night, and I didn't feel as intensely awake last night as I'd done the previous nights), and so it would be a good idea to sleep a bit longer tomorrow morning. Nothing sours my mood as does being yanked from deep slumber by the alarm, so I suppose that waking up naturally for once might do me some good. Not that I feel any need to justify my staying at home anyway.

The Ambassador is on holiday till 28 June, isn't that marvellous? If they give me Vilnius (pleasepleaseplease), I'll only have to see her between 30 June and 4 August, and then maybe a week at the end of August, and that would be it. Almost too good to be true, but hope dies last. 

There's another reason why it might be a good idea to get away from Ankara: For about 3 weeks the city has been getting its water from an additional source, the Kizilirmak river. Ecologists and other experts have been warning for a long time that the water is toxic, something the municipality staunchly denies. The mayor even had the cheek to announce, a few days ago, that people had been using the water for some time now, and nobody felt any effects, because it's free of bacteria. The bacteria aren't the point, though. The problem are other toxic substances, most of all arsenic, of which there's more than twice the acceptable amount. Somehow I don't fancy showering with that kind of water.