Alexandra Soroca 🎹 @SeventhMagpie@mastodon.art

Revised #introduction to reflect the state of my languages. 😋

I'm an amateur classical #pianist. Started learning properly at 34 and still going strong. Love Frédéric #Chopin. Admire Arthur #Rubinstein and Emil #Gilels, and am trying to model my playing on them (arrogant, I know 😅).

I love #cats and am enslaved to two of them. Love #sea, #sailing ships & books about sea adventures. #NaNoWriMo & fountain pens enthusiast.

I speak #Russian, #English, some #Romanian, and now study #Italian.

Dear neighbours. Anyone else, operating phrases like "Russian trolls", "kremlinbots" and other general dehumanising concepts, please step forward, so I could block you. Thank you in advance and sorry for the inconvenience. I'm not having this shit again here. There's Twitter for that.

I have a feeling that I always mess up articles in English. After so many years, I still don't feel them, and I still feel bad about it. I really don't want people to think I'm illiterate, or something. :)

Thing is, there are no articles in Russian, so it's a rather difficult concept to grasp. It's unnatural. :)

Infodumping is one of my pet peeves in fiction, so I'm keeping a particular eye on it when #writing myself.

This sometimes creates a feeling that you're listening in to the characters' conversations. :)

As in: "what is this event they've mentioned", "what happened in Stockholm?", "who the hell is Vova?" 😆

#Olympics #OpeningCeremony did not impress, tbh. Except for the drones' acrobatics. Those were stunning! Everything else was rather dull. There could've been so many possibilities, but the pandemic and all the scandals have disrupted everything. So sad.

Also, the choice of a person to light the fire seemed a bit strange. Couldn't they have invited Yuzuru Hanyu instead? :) Sure, he's in winter sports, but he's a *much* bigger figure where Olympics are concerned.

Anyway. Let's see how it goes.

Navka is disgusting. 😠

It really bugs me, when I send somebody a present, pay extra for airmail for quick delivery, and then they take a week or even longer to fetch the parcel from the post office.

Going for the second shot tomorrow morning.

There were no side effects after the first one, except for a slight drunk like state that came in the evening. :) So, hopefully, the second won't bring any bad surprises, as well.

I've booked three excursions already in my vacation destination, and they all require that you have either the vaccination certificate, or a PCR result.

Back in spring when I first started planning this, I was sure that it would be over by summer!

I've received a package from AliExpress that I have all but forgotten about. :)

Last time I did curls, it cost three times as much as an ordinary haircut. Because yes, it takes time, it's quite some fuss. How come they choose to treat a customer like this?

I feel awful. Being rejected by four hairdressers in a row is some way to lose self confidence.

I mean, I did not choose to be born with this hair, with this face, with this voice. There's not much I can do about. I'm ready to pay, so why would they treat me like this?

I just wanted curls, and look what it got me. :(

I spent an hour on a bus full of people in the evening traffic. Her colleague at the salon said that she must be somewhere around.

I waited for 20 minutes and she just didn't show up. So I left.

The necessity to call someone, especially someone I don't know, horrifies me. But I wanted curls.

So I gathered all my will and called this third hairdresser. She said, she had no time, and the nearest appointment she could offer was in the middle of August. But she again referred me to another hairdresser, almost half a city away from me.

I spent a day recharging, then called this fourth hairdresser. She said she had to see me first and made me an appointment for today.

I wanted curls.

So I came (literally, by foot, because it's much easier for me than calling) to my usual hairdresser and asked her if she could do it. She said no, but referred me to another hairdresser in another salon at 5 bus stops from me, but okay.

That one I actually knew, because she was the one who did my curls 4 years ago. So I called her. And she said she didn't want to busy herself with it, but again, referred me to another hairdresser. One that I didn't know.

It's kind of weird that now you can have conversations like this:

"I'm vaccinated if that's important to you."
"Yes, it is. Thank you!"

It's me talking to a friend in Moscow, who's been ill with covid twice already.

It's time to admit that I can't work on deadlines anymore. The very idea that I have to do some measurable amount of work in some fixed time is crippling.

I think it has started at some point during the time I was taking piano lessons. My teacher was wonderful, but I had to do homework :) I feel liberated now that there's no homework.

And I used to do #NaNoWriMo for several years. I can't imagine doing it now. I have to literally force myself to sit down and write. There's no much joy in it.

I'd like to share with you a video made by the #LGBT activists for the anniversary of the infamous changes to the Russian Constitution, which now defines marriage as being only between a man and a woman.

It's a mini film about two men, who are meant for each other, but cannot be together and cannot even meet each other, because they always have to hide.

It made me cry, seriously. And the bird in the final broke my heart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENYwwbcn4V0

Got accused of being intolerant towards a homophobe by calling him a homophobe. 😆 I swear, these people are beyond repair.

Ahh! 😂

A Japanese restaurant in my neighborhood has a sign on their door saying:

"We only serve the real ninjas. Please wear a mask."

I. is reluctant to get vaccinated just yet. Says she wants to wait and see. Probably to see if I suddenly grow a second head or something. 😆

Thing is, there's a rumour that airlines will be soon obligated to require either vaccination certificates or PCR tests even for domestic flights. Sounds really harsh, so probably they're just rumours. But who knows. Everything is possible these days.

Just when I finally arrange for a day off to get a shot, everybody seems to suddenly have the same thought - and the avg. waiting time skyrockets from two days to two weeks.

I managed to get an appointment for this Thursday. Taking a day off just in case I feel not fit to work.

Olive oil smells like summer night. 🥰

I'm in a flurty mood today, and I like seeing the girls blush. *gg*