birthdays – Nokisuu

The bench

19.9.202219.9.2022 julkaissut Nokisuu

My brother Kimmo’s birthday party was yesterday. He has now turned 60 and decided to invite all of us siblings for a coffee to his home here in Helsinki. It’s been years since I last visited his house and back then it was chock full of souveniers brought from their travels and paintings and I can just say that they had multiplied, severely.

Before the party I had called him and asked what he’d like to get for his birthday gift. Last time we were on the summer cottage the bench on the pier had broken because it was old and had been outdoors the last 15 years, mainly without cover for winters too so that when I sat on it some of the rungs just snapped. So now Kimmo wanted us to replace the bench as a birthday gift for him ’because we had been jumping on it and it broke’.

I was flabbergasted. Some of my friends say I shouldn’t have bought the bench and DH and the boys are also a bit miffed.

I decided to buy the bench even as I think it was not our fault it was broken but I thought I’d be the bigger person this time. DH found a bench from a garden supplier and bought it and we’ll be going to take it to Kimmo’s summer cottage in October when we collect some old furniture there for our own (new) summer cottage.

The party itself was .. well.. okay. Kimmo’s wife Anne has cats as she breeds Singapura so youngest son was happy to play with them and I talked with my middlest brother and his wife more than I have in years. Maybe I should add that Anne and I aren’t really in friendly terms due to some old stuff but we managed to be civil.

I painted the bench on Kimmo’s birthday card. DH says it’s too much but I think Kimmo liked it. I’m of course taking the piss.

Time flies

8.11.2020 julkaissut Nokisuu

November is already rollin’ ahead and I’ve been lazy with updating.

Eldest son turned 22 and I wonder where the time went since I’m about that age myself. Well, it took some time until he arrived, we even went to a clinic bc my hormones didn’t have a clue what they were supposed to do so I was pretty happy to finally have my baby boy in my arms. He continues to be a joy as does his brothers.

Today we Finns have Father’s day but since both mine and hubby’s fathers have long gone we only celebrate by having our own family on dinner. We are also celebrating eldest son today.

During this week I’ve been to movies to watch Tove-movie which was very good. Usually the films about Finnish artists show the person on a pedestal (i.e. Helene) like they weren’t a living and breathing person at all but lived from the spirit of art. Tove didn’t suffer of this and it made the film much better. The movie concentrates on Tove Jansson’s life between the WWII and 1960’s when she became a ’household name’ with the Moomins. It also tells the story of her finding her sexuality and in the very end we see a real clip of her (the actual Tove) dancing on the island of Haru where she and Tuulikki had their summer place.

I read in a magazine that Tove hated doing beds in the morning so in the summer cottage they always slept in sleeping bags in a tent in order not to need to make the beds. I find it a very nice thought. (Of course I seldom make beds myself..)

Sirius watching tv with me — A nice sunny day at my work

What else? Work went by as it does, everyday chores. Yesterday I went to another National park nearby us called Sipoonkorpi. It only takes about ten minutes to drive there so hubby drove me there and then when I had enough mushrooms and felt refreshed enough I called him and he came to pick me up again.

Then at home I baked a mud cake for today and a mushroom pie of the yellowfeet I had picked. It was so good.

I’ve also listened to and read some novels so that I already had to change my reading goal in Goodreads from 80 to 90 books this year. Lastly I’ve listened to Robert Galbraith’s (aka J.K.Rowling) Lethal white and Troubled blood of which the latter was very good. On the first one I knew the culprit pretty early on. I also read Quantum thief-scifi novel by Hannu Rajaniemi, a Finnish guy writing in English and I must say the story was good but I’d have needed a dictionary for all the new words he had invented which kind of took the joy of reading his story away. I also read one very light Finnish chick-lit and I don’t quite know why I read them since I always feel like I had been robbed after finishing them.

I’ve also been thinking about changing this blog’s theme. My instagram pics don’t show on the sidebar and it doesn’t help to refresh or redo the link, I don’t know why that is.

Now I’m going to have some coffee and mudcake. I hope you’ve had a nice Sunday too.

Birthday gifts and disturbing art

25.10.2020 julkaissut Nokisuu

Last time I told about my birthday. Back then I hadn’t yet received the gift from my fandom friend Rachel and it was a lovely surprise when it came a week later (the Finnish postal services are really something these days..). Among other very nice things there was this perfect piece of art which found place next to my Lucius figurine.

A week ago Saturday I went mushroom hunting with my friend M and we found a lot of yellowfoot which is a delicacy I’ve never been able to find on my own. The day in the forest was lovely and weather was cold but clear and when it finally in the afternoon started to rain we were more than ready to go home with our catch.

This week has been hectic to say the least. Since I work some evenings too I had something every day, i.e. on Wednesday I went to theater which had been postponed on May. It was nice, two elderly Finnish actresses told about their lives and loves turning even hard experiences into dark comedy. The audience had all masks on and only half of the seats were filled with empty seats between groups of two. In May there was four of us at work going but now it was just me and my colleague since the other two felt a bit flu-ish and decided against taking part.

On Friday I had coffee with my friend Kristiina and before I met her I managed to see an art exhibition by Patricia Piccinini before it was closed. It was said to be kind of fantasy figures and the ad pics looked nice but when I saw all the pieces in the exhibit I don’t know… I know art is supposed to make people think and wake up questions but apart from the fantasy pieces and alien tunnels carved into furniture I found some these more on the pervert side and some of them made my skin crawl. If you want a closer look just visit her page I gave the link to.

Yesterday I went to my former workplace’s party with M. I was hoping to meet some of my old colleagues but with the situation here now there were just about 20 people of which I knew five (and M). Also it was supposed to begin at 5pm but when we got there there was less than ten people and only around 7pm everyone was there and the food wasn’t very interesting imo. I must say I was disappointed. M and I left round 8 pm and went to a nice restaurant to have dinner just between us which was a good decision.

I’m sewing a coat for myself, we’ll see if anything comes of it. I’d sew the outside on the inside today and then do the finishing but I think it may go on to the next weekend when I finally finish with it.

Well, here’s a movie trailer of the Moomin mom Tove Jansson expecially for Rachel. The scenes of Tove in her studio have been shot in her real atelier in Helsinki. Sorry for it being subtitled only in Finnish and spoken in Swedish.

October already

3.10.2020 julkaissut Nokisuu

The fall is getting on again. For me the end of September means the number of my lived life turns one year up and this time it hit the magical number of half a century. It’s funny to think that since when my parents turned fifty they were much older in my opinion than I am now. Of course their lives had been much harder with wartime childhood and then the lean years afterwards but on the other hand my mom used to say that everybody else grow older when one stays young on the inside and that is my feeling too.

It’s weird to think that I’ve been longer than half of my age with hubby and also I’ve been longer than half of my life without my dad, he died when I was 23-years-old and I had only met hubby a year before that.

Since I’ve worked for the city my whole adulthood I got the day off as paid leave (a gift from my employer) and I enjoyed it enormously by taking an almost three hours hike in the woods. Afterwards I took a nap and later went to a nearby shopping mall with hubby to buy a cake and also got some nice fabric for a coat paid by hubby.

I received some gifts and flowers too; I got gift cards to a yarn shop and Marimekko shop, a pair of earrings, a throw, a journal and my long time friends since childhood gave me a writer’s course by a Finnish author which is so awesome I still a bit weepy over it.

I’ve gifted myself braces on the lower jaw. Last Tuesday I got the first rubber bands attached and two weeks from now I’ll get the metal braces done. Yay me. Since it’s a private dentist it’s a bit costly but as hubby said the money will go into my mouth anyway. (He’s got great humor.)

Here are some piccies.

Celebrations

30.9.2019 julkaissut Nokisuu

Today is my birthday and I’ve been celebrating the whole weekend I think. I’m not yet over the hill but as my friend said tomorrow is the last time when I’m under 50 on October 1st. We had a good laugh out of that.

On Friday I had coffee date with my two girlfriends in a local cafe which has a cake buffet, i.e. you get a big cup of coffee and as many slices of cakes you can eat, starting with three slices. The slices are small but delicious and since I love their lime-flavoured cake I usually have two or more pieces of that.

On Saturday I and youngest one begun to watch again all of the Harry Potter-movies which was fun. God, I’m still having hots for Lucius.

On Sunday evening we (our family and middlest son’s girlfriend) went for dinner to one of the more historically famous of Helsinki restaurants called Elite. It used to be the place for artists, authors and actors to go to and they still serve dishes which were the people’s favourite, i.e. Tauno Palo’s beef. Tauno Palo was a talented actor and very handsome, he was the Finnish romantic lead on big screen.

We took the underground train to city centre and walked through my childhood playgrounds, i.e. the Rock church to the restaurant which was nice. The dinner was very good and company was excellent and interior very nice.

This morning I started my fall swimming again. I’d bought hand-paddles since I’ve got osteoarthritis the breast strokes can be painful for my hands and the paddles were just awesome except now my triceps are killing me. Anyways I did my one km in 36 minutes which was pretty okay as it’s the first time since last spring.

Then I went to work and heard that our water supply had been cut for some reason, the whole house was in uproar and nobody knew when we’d get water again. The water was cut also in the two neighbouring houses which was good so there were more people complaining about it. We had to make bathroom trips to the other side of the street where is a sports center. The water company was just as out of sorts as we and nobody there knew nothing… Luckily the water came back on in the afternoon so the cooking classes could be held and people could use the bathrooms too.

After work I had a massage appointment again and I’m glad I did, my neck and shoulders are better now. This time the masseuse was another visually impaired young man I had met earlier couple of years ago. He is very nice and plays in the Finnish Goalball team.

Finally at home youngest one made us coffee, middlest son had washed clothes and hubby had bought me flowers. All in all a very nice birthday Monday.