Life's Little Luxuries........ - Writers Forum

JoannaMac · 05-14-2008, 07:55 AM

LIFE’S LITTLE LUXURIES.

Until four years ago, spare time was a precious commodity rarely to be had. As a child growing up I always on the go with school, two instrument practices (supposedly) to be done every day, as well as ballet and gymnastics classes. The rest of the time was spent on maintaining the house.

Mum never had any money and living an environmentally friendly life style was a lot of work. The chickens and ducks needed feeding twice daily, as did the dogs and cats. Frequently there were sick animals, and tending them also took time. The garden had to be weeded and the veggies looked after.Our hot water was heated with solar power in the summer and by the wood stove in the winter. In the warmer months we chopped wood by hand and stacked under the rain water tank in preparation for the winter.

We had an old fashion wringer washing machine until it broke and then we just hand washed everything. Smalls got washed during the week and practically the whole of Saturday was taken up washing the rest. There was always something that needed mending or fixing and I don’t ever remember being allowed to sleep in, except when my brother and I went to stay with our father.

As soon as I was old enough, I got a job waiting tables enabling me to contribute financially to our household and to pay for my ballet shoes. For the next seven years I worked nearly every weekend and still had to cope with the everyday chores,work in the garden, home work, instrument practice, and ballet classes etc.

When I began dancing professionally I worked six days a week, so once again, while my ‘normal’ friends could go away for the weekend, I missed out. Monday was our day off at the ‘Friendrichstadt Palast’ in Berlin, but it was also the day off for most other theatres and museums I might have been interested in visiting.

In a nut shell, for most of my life I’d been dog tired.

Four years ago I quit dancing and moved to Kiev to try my luck as a circus artist. I can’t say I love Kiev, but there are a few things about my life here that even after four years, my appreciation for hasn’t waned in the slightest. Basically I’m self-employed, but mostly unemployed. I do a job for a couple of weeks somewhere and then live on the money earned for months afterwards. I have no set timetable and it’s a luxury I’m unendingly thankful for. I can sleep as long as I want, I have time to cook proper meals everyday, and I can look after my body the way it deserves to be.

Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day because it’s when I get to eat what ever I want, guilt free. It really is the most delicious feeling, and I savour it every day, when I wake up because my body tells me it’s time, and the first thought that crosses my mind is “Whoopee! I can eat again!”

I don’t have to be anywhere remember, so I can take as much time as I want. Maybe I’ll have a bath before breakfast, maybe after. Maybe I’ll check my emails before I put my toast on or maybe I’ll just snuggle under the quilt covers and read for a bit to really build up and appetite. Regularly, my husband Vlad wakes up slightly earlier than me and gives me a back rub. Whatever his other faults might be, his generosity with these morning massages is one of life’s true luxuries.

Every day for breakfast I eat toast and coffee. This doesn’t sound especially exciting, but wait until I’ve explained myself further. People who aren’t into savoury foods won’t appreciate this, but my fellow ‘sweet teeth’ will understand where I’m coming from.

Despite being the ‘Bread Basket’ of the old Soviet Union, there isn’t a strong tradition of baking in the Ukraine. There’re a few kinds of bread and couple of cakes and that’s about it. Baking powder isn’t even widely available. There are a couple of boutique bakeries in the city which offer European style delicacies, but only the wealthy can afford them, so most people eat white bread called ‘Baton’ or sour dough rye.

There is one kind of bread however, that I absolutely adore; an unsliced whole meal loaf, with raisins and sultanas. It’s quite popular and nearly always sold out by the evening.
Everyday for breakfast I cut two slices (sometimes three) about an inch thick, and stick them in the shiny new toaster Vlad’s brother (who understands how much my toast means to me) bought for my birthday. While the toast cooks, I leisurely prepare my coffee. It’s like a little routine I have.

Some of you will shudder when I tell you this, but I love instant coffee. I take my favourite coffee cup, the mug equivalent of a cognac glass, which takes about 300mls. One spoon out a teaspoon of instant, with two teaspoons of sugar and ‘vershki’ instead of milk, makes the most delicious cup of morning brew in the world. ‘Vershki’ is like cream but instead of the normal 36% fat, it contains 10%, 15%, or 20%, however you like it. I normally buy 15%.

When my toast is golden, I quickly slather it in butter so it melts in. Then I top it with ‘varenya’ a kind of jam. It’s made by mixing fruit with sugar, but without cooking it. I buy usually it from Babushkas (grandmas) from the village who make it themselves and bring it to market to sell. The one I’m into right now though, is an apricot jam actually. It’s not cooked terribly long, so it’s runnier and the fruit tastes almost fresh. It’s not sickly sweet and I have to restrain myself from eating it straight from the jar in big spoonfuls.

On top of the jam or varenya goes ‘smetana’. I think the European equivalent is crème fraiche. Ukrainians like to put dollops of it in soup or on top of pelmeni, a kind of tortellini. But I love it on toast.

I was introduced to the combination, the first time we went to see Vlad’s Babushka in the village. She made me pancakes in a stone oven smothered in varenya and smetana. There are no words to describe the sugary ecstasy. I’d be the size of a house if I ate pancakes everyday, but somehow on toast, I can get away with it.

I make my coffee and toast every day with a little thrill of anticipation. I went through a ‘soft-boiled-egg-on toast-with-a-big-cup of tea’ phase for a while, but I’ve been on the varenya and smetana breakfast for over a year now, and show no signs of tiring of it.

When all is ready, I eat my breakfast at the kitchen table while reading a good novel, occasionally looking out at the lovely view we have from our ninth story apartment, and share the toast crusts with our budgies.

Foxee · 05-14-2008, 08:08 AM

Hey, Joanna! Nice to read another first-person account from you again. I always enjoy these little peeks into someone else's existence. It does indeed sound luxurious and for a few minutes I was transported to a place where I could sleep in. What a wonderful fantasy.

JoannaMac · 05-14-2008, 08:20 AM

Thank you Foxee. I'm glad I managed to draw you in for a little while. Tomorrow when I do my coffee and toast routine I will sit down at the kitchen table and raise my mug and say "Foxee, this one's for you"

Foxee · 05-14-2008, 08:33 AM

I'm honored.

It was nice to be transported for a little while.

JosephB · 05-14-2008, 08:44 AM

Quote:

Some of you will shudder when I tell you this, but I love instant coffee.

I enjoyed reading that.

The above makes me laugh. I'm the ultimate coffee snob. On one of our first few dates, my future wife asked me in for coffee. I was hoping it was a euphemism of some sort. Unfortunately, it wasn't. She really wanted to serve coffee. When she opened the freezer and removed a jar of Folger's instant coffee, I was horrified. I thought this would never work. The next time I came over, I found that she'd purchased some ground coffee and a small coffee maker. Then I was pretty sure I'd fall in love with her, even though it was a nasty generic grocery store brand.

JoannaMac · 05-14-2008, 08:46 AM

Foxee, it's me who's honored, because you always read my stuff faithfully. You're one of a very little crowd who actually reads my stuff, and I'm very appreciative.

JoannaMac · 05-14-2008, 08:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JosephB

I enjoyed reading that.

The above makes me laugh. I'm the ultimate coffee snob. On one of our first few dates, my future wife asked me in for coffee. I was hoping it was a euphemism of some sort. Unfortunately, it wasn't. She really wanted to serve coffee. When she opened the freezer and removed a jar of Folger's instant coffee, I was horrified. I thought this would never work. The next time I came over, I found that she'd purchased some ground coffee and a small coffee maker. Then I was pretty sure I'd fall in love with her, even though it was a nasty generic grocery store brand.

Hey Joe! Nice to see you. I am a coffee philistine, yes. Those coffee mixes where you get coffee, sugar and creamer all together are revolting, but normal instant tastes fine to me. You sound like an expert, so tell me, what's wrong with the instant taste?

JosephB · 05-14-2008, 09:09 AM

Quote:

You sound like an expert, so tell me, what's wrong with the instant taste?

I'm hardly an expert. First, fresh ground and brewed coffee smells wonderful. Secondly, it has a rich, almost earthy taste, slightly acidic. To use wine lingo -- it's full bodied. I prefer mine black, but you can temper the strong flavor with cream or milk, but never the powdered stuff. That ruins coffee.

Last, but not least, real coffee kicks ass. When I wake up, I like the jolt. The same if I'm working late or if I need a boost in the afternoon. Too much, and you'll crash later, but in moderation, it does the job.

I don't discount the ritual. It's much like your bread, butter and jam routine. Grinding the beens, measuring it precisely, pouring the first cup.

Real coffee vs. instant is like canned peaches vs. fresh. There is some relation, but one is superior.

Now, I have to go brew a fresh pot.

JoannaMac · 05-14-2008, 09:16 AM

Good description Joe. I understand what you mean about the aroma, but often I find the smell more pleasing than the actual taste. I don't like strong coffee, but love it with lots of cream. I guess I'm just not fussy about the coffee quality.

Go make yourself a pot then and enjoy!

smilinghelps · 05-14-2008, 09:26 AM

Joanna, I love this! I think one of the things that I love most about you in particular is that you appreciate what you have, not everyone does, actually a small number of people do. And the little luxuries that you enjoy are what some people, many people, take for granted.

If I may add to your little luxuries, I have a few of my own, for which I am especially grateful.

When my friends and I were all first married, we would occassionally go out for Girls' Night Dinners. Those dinners used to boil down to nothing more than a bitch session about our husbands. We all had housing projects going on, and were in constant upheaval in our homes. My one friend's husband tore their kitchen apart, living room floors, hallway floors, molding, everything and left it for years, undone. On Saturday mornings he would take their son for a long drive in the car and play ball with him or go to the car wash instead of working on the house.

My other friend's husband put a big hole in their living room ceiling, ripped out walls, inside and outside, tore out plumbing in a bathroom and started one job before finishing another. He worked for the Union and got up everyday to work at 4am and often didn't get home until after 5pm because his job was far away. But everyday he left her a love note 'hidden' somewhere in their house--sometimes the shower, or inside the refrigerator or on her car windshield.

Unlike my friends, my house projects were never undone. My husband worked 60+ hours a week in a restaurant and then would come home and work on the house. Whether it was painting or building or putting in a new floor, there was always something to be done and he rarely took a break. But he would ignore my daughter and myself in the meantime. We didn't have family dinners, we didn't go to the car wash or play ball in the yard and I never received a love note, tucked away somewhere special.

That life for me, ended nearly two years ago. Now I have a man who plays ball with my daughter and takes us all to the park. Now I have a man who sings me love songs and buys me flowers and tells me I'm beautiful. We rent a house. If we need anything done, we call our landlord.

It's not an easy life, we struggle just like everyone else. The best part is, that we don't do it alone. I don't think I'll ever take it for granted.

JoannaMac · 05-14-2008, 09:46 AM

That's lovely Smiling. It's the best thing in the world to have time for the important things in life. I think it's one of the main things that holds relationships together.

Do you remember the story of 'Pollyanna'? She played the 'Glad Game'. Her mother taught it to her and no matter what happened, she always found things to be glad about. I read the book and saw the film as a child, and have been trying to play the 'Glad Game' ever since. I really do know how lucky I am.

smilinghelps · 05-14-2008, 09:53 AM

And that's why I love you! I am the same way, there's always a silver lining and a bright spot during the rainstorm. Eternal optimist, that's who I am.

JoannaMac · 05-14-2008, 04:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smilinghelps

And that's why I love you!

Back at you sweetpea

Quote:

I am the same way, there's always a silver lining and a bright spot during the rainstorm. Eternal optimist, that's who I am.

I think you have to be. There's so much wrong with the world, if you don't have hope and optimism, what's the point of it all?
And really, it's not that hard to be thankful. You don't have to look very far to see people who have bigger problems than you. Seeing it that way helps me keep my worries in perspective.

If it all goes to pot, but you know you're not going to starve, you're not going to sleep on the street, and that there are enough people who care to help you along the way, then you should know you'll be ok.

When you let go of other people's expectations (like by 30 thou shalt have a house, a car and a child) it's like a the weight of the world being lifting from your shoulders. It's never too late. You can have that second or third or fourth chance. Being happy doesn't mean being rich or even financially secure. Being happy is feeling useful and loved, and when it comes down to it, having the time to give to other people you care for is what it's all about.

lin · 05-14-2008, 06:02 PM

Nice, Joanna. Good to see you're back at it.

Hawke · 05-14-2008, 08:46 PM

That was lovely, JoannaMac. Thank you for the peek into your life.