I feel like I’m in-between everything nowadays. I guess it’s normal at this time.
Last time I told you about the blog I was putting up. Just as I got it ready to be published my boss said we need to do it in Google Sites because the City organization we are included uses it… so yeah. Been wringing it there about since and finally got it ready yesterday and I must say I just effing hate Google Sites. Have you actually ever tried doing things with their stuff? It sucks. It looks pretty nice but the usability of the thing is nowhere near even blogspot. (And it sucks too.)
Hubby’s company has put everyone on part-time layoff and they are not sure if the company’ll pull through. The managers of course have got huge financial benefits.
I went to hairdresser today and it was awesome to see someone live who isn’t part of my family. We had a nice chat and recommended tv-series to each other since we like the same kind of things.
When this is over I’ll probably not fit into my old clothes anymore. Youngest one has had to all kinds of baking as his HE homeworks and middlest son does dinner and baking.
I’m knitting yet another cardi and planning to buy more yarn for mext one.
Well.. see you next time. Piccies on the right side menu in my insta.
Last weekend we had our annual summer ending party with our friends coming to our house to barbeque (we call it grill), eat well and go sauna and have a nice meet. We’ve been doing this since the mid-90’s with my hubby and it’s really nice way to keep in touch with old friends. Now our boys had asked some of their friends to come too so we had more young people than us ’oldies’ this time. It doesn’t matter since they are very polite and nice people too.
We are having a fall-flu going around. First youngest son was sick at home three days and on Thursday hubby came home in the middle of the day and stayed home on Friday too. I had horrible headache all day yesterday. Luckily it passed but now I feel like I’m not totally well. I hope I’m not getting it now.
On Thursday morning I attended to a sport group near my work place. There’s a big sports center which houses a swimming hall too and I have bought a 10-time sports group ticket which expires on mid-January and I thought I need to start using it so I don’t have to attend to the groups all December. I took part to a dance-sport group called Lavis which is based on Finnish social dancing called Lavatanssit. The dances include tango, twist, rock/jive and some old folk dance steps. It was really fun and sweaty so I think I’ll go there again.
Oh and if you didn’t know, Finns are huge on tango, it’s been a great hit here for decades. Finland even has a great summer weekend festival for all tango people and there’s annual competition for tango singers too.
Here is a pic of me and my colleague Sari at our work in the Adult education centre’s library, it was takes two weeks ago and I think it’s quite nice pic of us.
I almost forgot to tell you that I enrolled to a swimming technique practice in November, it’s organized for the City workers. I’m taking part to one class which is specializing on breast stroke since I use it most.
Now I’m going to continue to watch ’Safe’ from Netflix and knit my cardi, I need to begin the second sleeve tonight. I really like Amanda Abbington but why is she cast as a police officer again? Meh.
I was going to write this earlier, like last Friday evening but since I was so awed and also tired I try to write something now.
Last Thursday I met my friend Mirva. She lives north of Helsinki, in a city called Jyväskylä which is near our summer cottage. We first met and became friends some years ago when we were studying Information sciences in an Open Uni web course and met on the first live study group-day as I sat next to her and we begun chatting like old friends. Some people just are like that and it’s wonderful.
Mirva was here on a work business and we had dinner and then went to the AmosRex Museum to see the Ars Fennica finalists. Mirva had not visited the museum before and liked it a lot. The exhibition was awesome too, I especially liked the painting of a forest which took up a whole wall and also Aurora Reinhard’s little dolls were awesome. Afterwards we had coffee and a long and nice chat about all things at a nearby cafe and it was lovely.
Friday morning we woke with a downpour, it rained so heavily that the Main railway station’s underground stop flooded and still the lifts are unavailable. Helsinki got about 6-7 cm of rain. I had my red wellies and a raincoat plus umbrella with me so I didn’t mind. At my work we got some of it right inside at the 4th floor too, the caretaker guys were furious. Last time 4th floor was flooded in spring when the snow begun to melt on the roof.
At home before leaving to work
On Friday evening me and my friends Heidi and Kristiina went to see the latest Tarantino movie ’Once upon a time in Hollywood’ and I must say it was very good. None of us is a great fan of neither Brad nor Leo but we all agreed that they did good roles and I personally think that Leo is quite a talented actor. The story was also very though provoking as in ’what if..’ sort of scenario. I loved the little details and photography, and I really liked Margot Robbie ans Sharon Tate. I think it also shows how much Tarantino loves movies as an art form.
The weekend passed.. On Saturday I had terrible migraine. I haven’t had one in about six months and this one was really awful, I didn’t know if I should throw up or not or faint or not and it made me a cry-baby too. Not nice. Luckily after two pills I managed to even vacuum the house and read but I still felt dizzy and sweaty. On Sunday I felt all right and managed to sew new curtains to the kitchen, I really like them.
We are having a late summer and lovely nice and warm weather so on Monday morning I biked to work. My biking route is 14km from door to door and it goes via the University cow pasture which is quite nice. I really love cows 🙂 What I don’t like are the two or three hills I have on my route, they are loooong and slow and drag all my juices off.I almost fell at one point as I accidentally gripped the front brake and did a really short stop and now I have a deep bruise on my left calf from the pedal. I was lucky not to go over the handle bar.
Yesterday evening I finished reading ’Fools fate’ (Tawny Man trilogy part 3) by Robin Hobb and I think I need to have a short break of the Six duchies and River Wild for now since I tend to drown into them and forget everything else.
I took the bike also today and now I must say I’m exhausted now but I have biked 113 km which is good. Tomorrow We have the new teacher’s night at my work and I’ll do a longer work day and Thursday we have the all teachers meeting night. They are always fun happenings and it’s nice to meet old and new people.
The brown lumps in the middle are the cows
Some crops coming and the Viikki suburb (middlest son’s high school is there)
Vanhankaupunginlahti = the old city bay. This is where Helsinki was first located when Gustav Wasa established it. The technical museum is under construction but the rapid was lively. There were also some hook and line fishermen long the banks.
I’ve been so tired every day during this first working week that I have only been reading in the balcony with the cat in the evenings.
I’ve had fun in the work too. On Tuesday we stood two hours on the street to give passers-by our new study catalogue and it was nice. Most were very eager to chat with us and some cyclists even made a de-tour to come and grab a copy. Luckily the weather has been good too, not too warm but a bit windy but not rainy.
On Wednesday as I was trying to find a seat in the underground train I spotted a young man sitting with both legs up on the bench so I went to him and said ”Take your legs off the seat and let us people sit” and he did. Maybe I sounded like a mother since he didn’t complain.
On Thursday I received an e-mail from the Finnish blood donor bank and since I had time I went there after work. I got a nice nurse and we chatted all the time I was laying there. here blood donors don’t get any payment but we get a nice cup of coffee and different sandwiches, cookies and ice cream afterwards.
Yesterday I met my good friend Kristiina at one of the City museum’s called the Hakasalmi Villa which used to belong to a lady called Aurora Karamzin. There is an exhibition about Helsinki during the 1920’s and it was very good, funny and charming. It was inspiring and I’ve always loved the 20’s, my granny used to show me how to dance Charleston.
Later we had coffee in a small cafe situated in the museum’s garden and a little wild something ran from behind us to the nearby flowerbed. Ladies next to us asked if we saw what it was and we said that we had just agreed it was a yellow-necked mouse and we all laughed.
Well, now I’m going to watch Downton Abbey since the movie comes out in September and I can’t recall anything of Seasons 5 and 6.
Sirius saw a new friend
The amusement park Linnanmäki. My workplace is almost next to it.
Two old villa’s. The one on the left is called Villa Kivi, it’s the local authors working recidence. Hubby’s aunt had her wedding there since she is a poet, it was a very nice place. The Blue Villa has a very nice summer cafe.
The Caretaker’s house at the museum’s garden. Now it serves as the work rooms for the museum staff.
Youngest son’s school begun yesterday, he is now on middle grades and at least two of his teachers remembered his big brother. His ’own class’-teacher teaches Finnish and her husband is the Math teacher who was middlest son’s ’own class’-teacher, they were nice and good teachers imo.
We are having an abundance of cucumbers and zucchini. I have tried to eat them but every day we get more so I barely make a dent in the numbers. I must check zucchini baking recipes.
I’ve once again listened to audio books. I finished one (The Midnight Witch by Paula Brackston) I started in May because it was such an annoying novel and I deeply disliked the female protagonist. After that I’ve listened to Kelley Armstrong’s Lost souls (Cainsville 3.5) which was nice and short and the reader had a lovely voice, especially when he narrated Gabriel. Oh my.
After finishing that I’ve once again started ’The Tawny man trilogy’ by Robin Hobb and totally dived into Six duchies again. It may be I’ll stay there for a while, except my work begins next Monday *sigh*.
ETA Once again I don’t know why the Goodreads widget doesn’t show all of my read books, it’s really annoying.
And city life. Schools begin next Thursday and I’m having my final holiday week beginning Monday, it’s early fall. And I wonder where the summer did go.
Two weeks ago hubby drove me and youngest son with the cat to the summer cottage. The drive itself went pretty well except of the cat pooping in her box ten minutes after we left home so we did a service-drive back and started anew. Everything went well until the last leg before arriving to the cottage when the car (Volvo hybrid) told us that it can’t load the battery and the a/c went off.. Hubby had a deep think and said that he can’t stay at the cottage and he’ll keep the car running in case it doesn’t start again. So we took all our things from the boot and he got on his way back to town.
About 90 minutes later he calls me that he had got to Heinola which is about at the middle of the route and that the car had finally given up and he had just got it to a truck resting park when the brakes went off. Luckily we have Volvo service so he called them and the car was taken to a car repair shop in a nearby city called Lahti and he got a rental car so he’d drive home.
Well, to make a long story short we are still waiting for our car but since the guys at Lahti couldn’t do anything it was taken nearer to us to Volvo’s own car repair shop on Thursday and there the (hybrid specialist) guy said that he’ll look at it on Friday so with any luck we’ll get it at the beginning of the week. He told hubby that the a/c fuse burning had caused and all-around short circuit in all of the hybrids electrical components. Yay.
At the cottage we enjoyed the warm weather until last Sunday, we had +34C degrees on Sunday and then it dropped to +14C on Tuesday and stayed there. My brother came on Wednesday and on Thursday we all drove home. The cat pooped again after ten-minute-drive but my brother has five cats so he just said we’d stop at the nearest gas station and there me and youngest one took the cat box to the handicapped toilet and cleaned her and the box which luckily wasn’t as bad as before since I hadn’t given her any food on the morning.
At the cottage we swam in the lake and the water was really warm, it was lovely. We did small tasks my brother had made a list of: we cleared all the small trees off the platform side which helps the wind blow to the shore so there’s not so many mosquitoes, I cut the black currant bushes and picked the berries so he’ll be able to build new supports for the bushes and then I uprooted all the fireweeds off my mom’s old veggie garden which only grows weeds now. Meanwhile Jimi played with the cat outdoors and learned how to throw darts. We also had some visitors; my blog-friend from a bit further with her son who is Jimi’s age and then my old message board friend who lives nearby. My brother also paid us a visit on the previous week on Thursday to Friday since he can adjust his work schedules as he likes to. It was nice since he loves to bbq (he is sort-of like a CEO in a German bbq manufacturer’s Finnish office) and also took us shopping with him.
Yesterday I was browsing the Net and happened upon this article in BoredPanda. As I scrolled through the pics I was stopped short with this one. It kind of reminds me of a certain someone, maybe it is his forefather. And now I wonder how Richard would look with a man bun..
I guess this is all from me for now. The washing machine is announcing again that it’s done and I need to get the load out. Sometimes I wonder why the men who tried to invent perpetual motion machine never asked their wives.
We’ve been back home almost a week now. I was quite jet-lagged on the weekend but the days just flow by while I’m doing something close to nothing (Prince said it so well).
On Tuesday we had youngest son’s health check with a nurse as he’s beginning the middle grades on August and the official health check is done now, next one will be with a doctor and a nurse at 8th grade. Since it’s the middle of summer and the closest place was closed we got eldest son to drive us to the nearby suburb Tikkurila where we were supposed to be (the bus ride takes forever).
The nurse was really nice and health check was quick. Youngest one (=Jimi) is having his growth-spurt now and he is about 4 cm’s shorter than I am so I’ll soon be shortest in our family. Feels funny, he is only 13. All the boys and hubby have the same shoe size now but I wonder if youngest one will become tallest since it looks like his shoes size is still growing.
From Tikkurila we took a train to meet my friend Heidi at her flat in Oulunkylä. Since the train goes over the city border the train fare is a bit bigger and I had thought I had enough money on my public transport card and to my horror when I tried to pay with it at the train it said there’s not enough to cover the fare. I had especially taken care to upload more money to Jimi’s card but forgotten my own and so when the inspector lady came to check our card I was almost crying since the fee is 80€ and I really have better use for them. I told the lady that I was under the impression I had enough for the fare and I guess she saw my stress since as soon as we were over the border she said ”You can now buy the ticket” and when I asked what about the inspection fee she just shook her head. I was so grateful that I almost cried again. There are angels amongst us.
Soon we were at Heidi’s and Jimi played with her two cats while we talked a while. We (me and Jimi) are going to London with Heidi on Sunday, her eldest daughter lives there and we thought to go meet her again 🙂
Later we took a bus from Oulunkylä to Itäkeskus shopping center since Jimi needed something and I wanted to change money for the trip and Heidi was going to her younger daughter so it was easier for all of us to go there. I had installed the traffic card app on my phone while we were at Heidi’s so I got a mobile ticket for the bus. It wasn’t easy but it was better than nothing.
We met Heidi again yesterday as we went to movies with her and my other good friend Kristiina. We are all Marvel fans so we went to see the new Spiderman : Far from home. It was really good, I liked it a lot. I like Tom Holland as Spidey, I never quite liked the earlier Spideys as much. This one reminded me a bit of the animated Spider-Verse which was awesome.
I’m still pretty tired and I’m so glad I still have weeks left of my summer vacay unlike hubby who went to work already on Monday. I was going to the pharmacy today but at 3pm I realized that I’d been just sitting here reading Stucky fics and listening to music all day and didn’t bother. Tomorrow’s another day.
And I’m a bad mother: only after I had bought the plane tickets to London I realized why the date (Sunday) was so familiar.. Middlest son turns 18 on Sunday. YAY. I told him to think about something I’d buy him from London but he hasn’t said anything yet.
On Wednesday we’ll be traveling back home again. I’ve liked being in Oahu and re-acquainting myself with the island.
We’ve been doing some things for the first time like the young ones climbing the KokoHead trail, youngest one with flipflops, and redoing others like the Makapu’u lighthouse trail.
It’s nice to go back home too and see eldest son and Sirius the Cat.
We’ve sand everywhere. I’d wonder more if we didn’t but really.
Yesterday we did the easy hiking trail on Manoa Falls trail and enjoyed it even thou it was pretty humid. It was a lot less muddy than our first visit there years ago so it has been filled with gravel and also there was more steps added to the muddy ground. At the water fall some people went swimming even if it was prohibited and there was danger of falling rocks and some bacteria which can make you really sick.
Afterwards we drove to Sandy beach which is the most dangerous on Oahu and also Mr. Obama’s favourite. My companions just went for a roll in the sea and I had my book with me while I waited.
Then we drove back to Makaha via grocery store and some take-away and it was nice too.
Today we spent about four hours at Makaha beach and back home middlest son and his girlfriend cooked us dinner; cashew chicken. It was so good!
On the beach I had a chat with Julia, middlest son’s girlfriend, about periods. I’ve noticed she’s having hers and asked if she’s okay and we had a nice long talk about them. I have had a hysterectomy done when I was 39 bc after youngest son was born I almost never stopped running and had to live 24/7 with a mooncup and the operation was such a huge relief. I bet anyone with huge flow can relate.
In the evening I finished a chick-lit novel ”Lots of love”. It was funny but not much of a plot. The romantic male lead was supposed to be blonde with silvery eyes so of course my brain turned him into Richard. Yeah… so now I can begin to read my B&N haul. (I wonder if there’s any RA-lookalikes in them.)
We are having a day off of beach life. We’ve been to beach every day now, on Makaha and yesterday on Waikiki and while it’s really my fave kind of time wasted we all need a bit of recovery too.
For some reason here in Makaha it’s been the custom in our family that hubby does the washing and I get a free pass of reading and such while he suffers in the hot shed next to the washing machine and dryer.
I’m currently trying to read ”Sugar money” by Jane Harris and I must say I find it a bit boring so I keep jumping over paragraphs. I usually am pretty devoted reader and tend to read every word but for some reason I find this novel hard to do.
Well, luckily I bought five new novels from B&N at Ala Moana on Sunday. I had four recycled books with me from home and I’m leaving them here. This is my good and well tried method for buying new books approved by hubs 😉
I’m also thinking about beginning to write again. I have a story which I’m writing in Finnish and it’s been going a bit slow. Since my mom’s passing I’ve only managed to write one and and a half chapters in three years but I think I’m getting back on track finally. Only I’m wondering about rewriting it all but we’ll see what I do.
Back to yesterday; we spent the day at Waikiki beach and then watched the traditional hula show there. Youngest one was bored since it was probably the fourth time he saw it but since middlest son’s girlfriend hadn’t seen it we thought it’d be nice. The pics are in my instagram again.. Last night as I updated them I almost chucked the phone to bin as it was third time which went through. If there’s something that annoys the heck out of me it’s digital but unworking things.
Nokisuu 