Avainsana: health

These times

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On Friday I cooked some sort of tian, a Provencal veggie dish I found by accident when googling something else. I used eggplant and zucchini and it was so good! I also read ”Everything I never told you” by Celeste Ng on Friday and it was really great. I loved her novel ”Little fires everywhere” but for some reason this was better imo. I also finished listening to ”Patient man” by Joy Ellis, read by Richard, today and it too was very good.

Yesterday I was a bit down. One of my best childhood friends had her 50th birthday and we couldn’t celebrate them. We’ve known each other since we were 9-y-o and their school’s all pupils came to our school for the school year as their new school was getting built and on one of the first gym classes she asked to be my pair and now she’s eldest son’s godmother.

Since there’s no celebrations during this time me and some of our mutual friends gave her together a gift card for a pedicure and a bunch of flowers delivered to their house and it was nice to surprise her. I also sent a greeting card from our family.

My friend is  working as an X-ray nurse in the pandemic hospital which I must confess makes me a bit worried. I’ve also been a bit blue since on March 27th it was the 5th anniversary of my mom’s passing and this is always sad time for me.

Luckily we had good weather during the weekend and yesterday I made a 90-minute walk in the woods (and my legs ached all night), heard finches sing  and later helped youngest son to cook us dinner and dessert since it was his HE homeworks.

Today I sorted the old cook books and recipes in kitchen self, it’s been on my to-do-list for ages. Did you know that in the 70’s it was recommended to cook pizza with liver or European cisco (fish)? I didn’t throw those recipe books to the bin yet, I’ll keep them as a curiosity.  Later me and hubby changed the cactus’ dirt and pots which has also been on the list quite some time.

There was an article about Finland’s stockpile of supplies in NYT if you want to read. There’s an old joke which goes: ”What does Sweden have Norway and Finland don’t? -Good neighbours” (neither Finland nor Norway appreciate Sweden as high as they could, sort of sibling rivalry).

Tomorrow I’m going to work for a few hours since my workplace health care is in the neighbouring house and I need to go there for some bloodworks (thyroid). Hubby will drive me there and also collect which is nice.

 

 

Hello again

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It’s been a while since I updated but something has happened.

Last Thursday I had an appointment to my work doctor since I had pain in my toes and feet joints and also because I had some blood tests taken. In my bloodworks the sugars were a bit high and also cholesterol was not so good and the doctor (a very nice lady) said that if I’d lose some weight they might drop and I said I’m planning to because of middlest son’s graduation and I must fit into my dress. So I’ll have new blood tests in the fall. About my joint pains she put me forward to see a physiotherapist which comes up in April and she tought I may have plantar fasciitis on top of the osteoarthritis which makes my toe joints painful.

Then I went to work and a bit after noon my phone rang and it was the nurse from the thryoid operation. She asked if I might be able to come on Monday since I had let them know I’d be available for cancelled times and I said Yes! even as my workmate was having lunch and I couldn’t ask her. So I got all the details, had to go to another blood tests on Friday and the operation would be on Monday afternoon.

When my colleague came back from lunch I was a bit worried but luckily we have a guy called Jyrki who does 20h/week for library and he had hours left from the winter holiday week when there is no classes and my colleague, Jyrki and my boss Sirkku all agreed that I’d go to the operation now. That sorted I was a bit relieved and much more worried, operations are always tricky imo.

On Monday afternoon hubby drove me to the other side of the Helsinki metropolitan area and I got in to the hospital and so on. The operation went nicely, everybody was very nice, the surgeon was skilled and I woke up without my thyroid glands. Later the nurse told me the surgeon had described them ’quite something’ so I guess I was right in getting them operated. I spent one night at the ward for monitoring and because I’m always quite sick after operations due to my feature of motion and travel sickness. On Tuesday when the lunch stayed inside I was given permit to leave and now I’m two weeks at home on sick leave.

When I left work a week ago Thursday I joked that I’m going on a two week corona isolation by my own choice. Yeah.. Hubby is staying home to work all of next week I think, he was just putting his works together for next week and getting a laptop to take with him.

Middlest son has his matriculation exams right now, still three exams next week to do. I hope they manage to do those without trouble. The good part is that they are seated separately and everyone has their own table so I hope we’ll stay safe. Youngest one has had sore throat all week and has been at home, I’m expecting more info from his school concerning the corona situation.

I’m going to watch tv, read, write and knit and slouch on the sofa with Sirius and family. Youngest one and me already finished 11th season of Doctor Who but I’ve got all Star Trek TOS and then there’s all of Richard’s, Jason’s and Karl’s works to go through. We are well prepared.

 

 

 

 

Winter break

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I took this week off since the kids are having their winter break and I’m sick with flu, my throat feels like someone used a cheese grater on it and I have temperature rising. So I haven’t done anything I was going to do and instead I’ve been reading fanfics, doing art decos and watching tv and knitting.  (I’m knitting the cardi’s first sleeve third time since the pattern instruction was weird to say the least and I had to finally just do it after my own head.)

Last week middlest son had the traditional high school ending celebrations known as penkkarit (”benching”). The name comes from earlier days, my dad told us that when he had his penkkarit, the younger students carried them out from school on the study tables.  Nowadays the students have a carnival-type lorry ride in the city centre (it was awesome! One of the best school days ever!) and they throw candy to onlookers. It’s so much fun for everyone!

I and hubby took a few hours off from work, had a lunch together and then walked to the Old church park where it’s easy to see the lorries and kids. These days kids dress up as different characters, there was i.e. Money heist, Moomins and others. On my days we had just warm overalls meant for ice-fishing in the wintertime 😛 The lorries are also covered with sheets indicating which school it’s from, the students have done the artwork themselves.

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Middlest son is on the left side partly turned away, he has the pink Minecraft mask above his head. His best friend since kindergarten is taking pics and Julia was dressed as Little My with orange-red hair in the right side of the pic.
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Leftover candy, middlest son forgot half of his candy to school.. guess who’s been eating them.
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Birthday card for my friend Mareetta

 

On another thing, my two cents about The Stranger. I had some issues with it and I had to watch it twice to be sure they weren’t addressed. This is just my opinion; I really liked the actors but the plot was a bit meh. I must have read too many detective stories as it is.  A list of the things that really bothered me under the cut. Jatka lukemista ”Winter break” →

Halfway

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through January already. I feel like time is going faster but it might be because I’ve had busy times again.

At my work the courses have begun again and so we’ve got lectures and classes in the library almost every day too. Also finally on Tuesday they called me from the University Hospital about my thyroid and I had an appointment on Thursday with the surgeon. She said they’d like to operate it during this spring and I said that suits me well. Then the nurse interviewed me and I told I’m available for cancelled times so it may be I’ll get the operation quickly but latest in June. She praised me for having filled the pre-questionnaire very effectively and when she asked my BP I had it ready on my journal since I’ve been trying to keep track of it and she was so happy. It was funny. The trip to the hospital isn’t funny because it’s on the other side of the metropolitan area and it takes about one hour and a quarter to get there by public transport but luckily now I can at least take the underground train half of the journey.

On Friday I had two meetings at work, first was for all of our full-time employees and later I took part to the Union reps meeting where I signed the papers to be available in the reps elections. I had thought not to take part but otoh I find it interesting so I said yes when they asked.  After the meeting I met my friend Heidi in the city centre and we had nice coffee and cake.

On the next Friday I’ll be in London to see Uncle Vanya. I’m already so excited that I try not to think about it so I can sleep during the night. My friend said just the same today as we talked about the trip. We’ll be in London only one night but it’s nice to have a mini-holiday. I already have plans for doing a bookshop-run and also some clothesshopping.

I’m knitting a pair of socks to give to Toby Jones, I really liked him in Marvel movies. I have already knit a pair for RA and he has said he doesn’t want them anymore which I can well understand. He only has two feet after all. I’m thinking about buying a copy of Uncle Vanya in Finnish and take it with me to London and get RA’s signature on it, it’d be nice since I have his signature on my The Crucible too.

I’m watching Money Heist while knitting, it’s very good. Only I don’t like they’ve dubbed it in English because their faces don’t match the sentences and it bothers me. We are having dinner soon, I’m so glad middlest son and hubby are cooking because I don’t have the energy right now and middlest wanted to do chicken curry which is his fave dish to cook and he does it well.

 

 

Netflix and chill

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Has been my motto during these last days. It’s November which means the darkest time here in Finland because it usually rains or has just rained or will be raining and the clouds are wet and heavy and near the ground. The new season of The Crown begun and I’m already halfway through. I’m also finishing knitting a pair of socks for my cousin and then can begin a new cardi for myself.

I also got my deep stomach and back muscles so sore last week that I couldn’t breath very deep, even yawning made me wince with pain. I fear that the pain will return as I just got back from my Pilates lesson.

During the weekend I read two YA novels. The other one won a national book prize on the year it was published (my cousin was the main judge bc she teaches creative writing for kids and teens in Jyväskylä) and the other one was a quite recent Finnish YA-fantasy novel that had gotten good reviews. Both were good but I liked the first one more which is a bit surprising since I usually like all kinds of fantasy novels but there were some things that bothered me in the fantasy world.

We are in the middle of a postal strike here and it seems it will spread as the other unions support the postmen so I’ll probably have a day off on Monday as the public transport will probably be stuck. I was going to have a free Friday but now I can change it to Monday, I don’t actually mind.

Now I’m off to the English royal family and coffee and knitting.

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This and that

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So it’s been a while since I wrote anything here last. I’ve been a bit busy with life and everything.  I’ve also tried not to be so much in front of my PC when home and have instead been watching tv more.

Hubby wanted to buy us a new tv and did it so now we have a 60″ tv. It’s about as long as I am when I’m laying down.  DH wanted to install it on a wall support which can be stretched out from the wall and turned this way and that or it can stay against the wall and it’s quite like having one’s own movie theater.

Me and youngest one have been watching Preacher (I bought it on Blue-Ray from Stockholm) and I’m on the last legs of Black Sails too. It’s taken me about two years to watch it because the first season was mostly shagging and it gets boring pretty quick. (I had the same problem with Outlander’s first season.) Today the postman delivered Good Omens for me so I’m going to start watching it now, I can’t wait!

I probably told about the thyroid here. Well, I had the ultrasound and it has grown a bit but the doctor called me yesterday and said that my bloodworks are so good, there’s nothing on them (just like previously) so I don’t get medication. Instead she asked if I want her to send my details to the surgeon and see if they’ll take a look at the thyroid and I said yes. Even if they don’t want to operate it I’d love to hear their opinion.

Today I only did half a day at work because I had an appointment at my own health care center since I’ve been meaning to get a doctor to have a look at some moles I have. This is the public healthcare and I was happy to get the appointment pretty quickly, the thyroid was examined at my work place doctor (which is kind of private doctor because the City employees are so many) but they don’t do specialist doctors examinations, I’m being sent to the public side for that surgeon opinion.

Okay, back to the moles. So I had to take half a day off because I live in the neighboring city of Vantaa and had to travel a bit further by train. I found the place and had to wait about 15 minutes before the doctor who took a magnifying glass and said there’s nothing to worry about, the moles are just fat and will probably go away by themselves. I’m glad. I’ve been a bit worried of them but now I’m just fine.

Last Friday I went to youngest son’s school where we had a follow-up meeting with his teacher and youngest one. I felt quite proud when his teacher who teaches Finnish said that she hopes all her kids will be on the same level in Finnish when they leave middle grades as youngest one is now. He still has two more years to go so..

Later last Friday I and my friend had a North & South-marathon and it was so much fun.

On Sunday eldest son came for dinner as he turned 21 on Saturday. I wonder where the years have gone since he is a grown man and I’m still as young as I ever was. Funny that.

 

 

 

 

I’m alive

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I just haven’t been very active (anywhere).

Last week I took youngest one to Jyväskylä which is a city in Central Finland, about 60 km north from our summer cottage. My cousin lives there and some of my friends too so it was nice to go and see them.

Jyväskylä is quite an active city due to a long history as a University town and it also has a very lively artistic side, i.e. the Finnish Handicrafts Society’s Museum is located there (they have awesome things in their shop). There’s also a blacksmith and yarn shop in an old house near my cousins place.

The neighbouring city of Vaajakoski hosts one of Finland’s candy factories called Panda. (Yes, like the black and white bear from China.) My cousin drove us there and we shopped chocolate and liqorice and chocolate liqorice. In fact we have now a lot of candy since bought quite a lot from the trip to Stockholm too.

We also did an empiric study of the local cafés with youngest son. We didn’t even get into all of them since there are so many! Our favourite was a place called Miriam’s, it’s a family owned small place where the owner and her brother do the cakes them selves and they are so good!

One night we went to movies with youngest one, we watched The Joker which was pretty awesome. I had my suspicions about it but it was good.

On Sunday we took a train back home. It was so nice to see my cousin and her little son but it’s also very nice to be at home. My cousin’s son has a genetic disorder which is very rare, he is one of three boys to suffer of it. The pain made him a bit cranky in the evenings which is understandable but my cousin said it was like a holiday for her too to see us and I said to youngest son that he’ll get an inkling now what it is to be a big brother.

On Monday morning I went for a swim before getting to work and it was nice. I bought hand paddles some weeks ago and they are wonderful except my left shoulder was pretty painful the whole week. I couldn’t even laugh because of the pain. Tuesday I went for my Pilates lesson which I absolutely adore and it did good for the shoulder too.

In the evenings I’ve been watching Netflix and knitting. I’m soon finishing a scarf I had to unravel during summer, now it’s much better. I still need to do the buttonhole strip for the  Scull and Roses-cardi, it’s been much too warm to knit it.

I also visited the workplace-doctor one day since I think my thyroid has grown and it needs to be checked with ultrasound. This is the third year it’ll be checked. Last year there was a very grumpy doctor doing the ultrasound, he told me that I can’t possibly feel the thyroid grown 0.2mm and that it’d be left alone. Well, I think it’s grown again and so I’m going to the ultrasound again. I hope it’s not him again doing the check-up, the doctor writing the cover letter was a very nice lady who took my concern for real. I also gave blood samples since I’m sweating like a pig on and off and if it’s not thyroid it’s the menopausal heatwaves. Yeah, nice being a woman.

Oh well, I’m trying to get some sewing done during weekend and I’ll try to visit a friend who got her toes operated last week. Now I’m going to knit and watch telly with the cat.

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