sirius the cat – Nokisuu

Limerick

13.6.202213.6.2022 julkaissut Nokisuu

We (me, my colleague and the head librarian Sari and our media teacher and education planner Mikko) visited the Further Education and Training College in Limerick as an Erasmus+-mobility project and it was very interesting. We got to talk with the teachers and visited different campuses and took part to the LifeLongLearning Festival they had on just that week. Here is a short video from the Multicultural day, look closely and you may see me there too, just try to spot the hot pink jeans 🙂

We had tight schedule and got so much information that I think we are still processing things. We had interesting talks with people and enjoyed seeing different campuses and also met one teacher originally from Finland with whom we had a long chat about how things are in both countries. One theme for our visit was media literacy and how it’s taught in Ireland and in the end one of the teachers said that they can see how much they still need to do in order to teach it to their students so I think we all got something out of this visit.

All days were so full scheduled that we had to sneak away on Thursday in order to get to see the King John’s castle which was very nice. We also visited St Mary’s Cathedral which was very interesting, there was a chamber choir just rehearsing for their evening performance and it was absolutely beautiful.

Frank McCourt’s novel Angela’s ashes tells of his childhood in Limerick

The Magdalene laundries memorial https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalene_Laundries_in_Ireland

I didn’t manage to do any kind of shopping since all shops closed so early, I only bought some trousers from Dunne’s where I did some grocery shopping in the evening and their clothes department was on the same level as the grocery side.

The people were awesome and made us feel welcome. We had a nice informal dinner on Thursday night and made friends and talked about everything more easily than on the campus. One very kind lady called Máire took us for a car trip all over the county on Friday.

We drove from Limerick to Burren National park where we did a short walk. From there we drove to the seaside so we’d see the Cliffs of Moher (we didn’t go there since it was a tourist trap) via Aillwee cave (where we bought some nice cheese and didn’t get into the cave at all) and Fenore beach. From the roadside we’d see Moher very well and took some nice pics and then Máire drove us all the way over the peninsula so we’d see the other side too. Then in Clahane shore Mikko went for a swim in the Atlantic ocean and afterwards we had nice dinner in Lahinch village and later ice cream stop at Liscannor before driving back to Limerick. Then we took the train to Dublin and were quite tired after all the excitement of the week so after we found our hotel we just bought some sandwiches from a shop next door and went to bed.

Cranesbill. We have it in Finland too, it’s called cranes knee here.

Sea shells? Can’t remember their name in English

Mikko in the sea in Liscannon and Sari being a tourist

Okay, here was the Limerick part. I’ll try to write the Dublin part this week too.

Just a FYI I’m over Covid19 now, I only had fever for two days (38,5C degrees) and runny nose last week, I went back to work on Thursday and Friday and now I’m feeling quite myself again. I was very tired during the first weekend of June but day napped with Sirius on the balcony and it was good.

Forest therapy

26.9.2021 julkaissut Nokisuu

Today I managed to get to the forest again. I find it essential for my mental well-being to see the trees up close and breathe the free unpolluted air. Last weekend we were at my other godson’s confirmation party and it was nice too but since it was a rainy weekend I didn’t mind not getting into the forest.

I was lucky to find a lot of yellowfeet, in short time I had a decent amount of them which was great since I had a minor headache that blew up into a migraine. I had hoped it’d gone away in the forest but it didn’t. I think it’s partly due to the yin-yoga where we did some exercises to stretch the area between shoulder blades and I also had my osteopathy treatment on Friday morning.

I finished watching the Good doctor S3 yesterday evening. I must say that even thou I liked the series it got too syrupy and the characters begun to annoy me a bit. Now I’m continuing with Lucifer and then I probably continue with Bloodline which was also annoying, it started so slow I almost left it.

I went to movies to see the new Dune and it was amazing. I really liked it but I liked the old one too (I still have the soundtrack on LP). The cast and music were good but the photography was beautiful, it reminded me a lot of Tale of Tales. It was weird to be in the movie theater with restrictions minimized to one free chair between groups and they will be lifted in the beginning of October totally.

On Friday the post services finally delivered my RA auctions last item, thank you Jane. Since one of the coasters was already picked by a friend you’ll only get to see two of them here 🙂

Next Friday I’m having a day off and if the weather is nice I’ll be going with my friend Mareetta to pick mushrooms in Nuuksio forest. Now I’m going to watch tv and knit and pet Sirius.

Day tripper

16.5.202116.5.2021 julkaissut Nokisuu

Yeah! Me and my friend Mareetta did a Sunday trip to a nearby city called Lahti today. We left at 10 am and I just got home an hour or so ago. We had fun day.

First we visited a second hand store and then an outlet shop of an Finnish brand where I found one nice t-shirt and a light skort (skirt and shorts combination I really like, awesome for i.e. bicycling). Then we drove to the city and had a nice dinner at a local restaurant and afterwards we did some light shopping at a department store next door. From there we drove to a shopping mall a bit further since they had a lovely waffle cafe. After that we were about to drive home but decided to take a turn at the lakeside in the city next to the famous ski jumping hills. You may have heard of a Finnish ski jumper Matti Nykänen, these were his home grounds.

Since it’s been a holiday week again (a day off on Thursday) the motorway was so packed with people coming home from the summer houses that we decided to drive back via the old highway and it was nice. We watched the local houses and farms and enjoyed the scenery.

On other news; I’ve enrolled to my last Communications Science course which is a bout the freedom of speech and it’s okay I guess but so much writing. I need to write a paper of the lectures after I’ve listened to them and also I must read five books, of two of them I need to write a paper of and three will be questioned in an exam. Whoo boy. I think I took a too large bite with this one. Well, at least the summer holidays will be appreciated.

Last Tuesday I was getting my braces tightened again and the dentist said I’ll get them off on mid-June right before my summer holidays. On my last day at work (the next Wednesday after I’ve got the braces off) I’ll meet with my own dentist and we’ll plan what to do next. I hope I’ll get everything fixed during the summer, it’d be wonderful. The money I saved during this pandemic by not travelling will be put to good use.

Youngest son is going to his confirmation camp on early June, it’s a hike in Lapland. He wasn’t very happy when I said he needs to go but it seems he’s adapting to the thought. His best friend is coming to the same camp so it’s alright. On Friday I took him to shop all the necessary stuff, i.e shell jacket and trousers, woollen set of underwear etc. I think he was most happy of the new Marttiini knife he’ll need there.

I guess this is all for now so have a nice Sunday evening and awesome next week! Here is Sirius sleeping.

Wintery times

30.1.2021 julkaissut Nokisuu

We’ve got more snow and now the weather getting colder again, next week temperatures should drop down to -12C degrees. I don’t mind, I’ll rather take the rain in snow than in water during winter time, and the cat goes out anyway whatever there rains. Actually she really loves the snow, she plays in it and hunts the snowflakes too.

I’ve been helping at the teleworking students lunchpack sharing on couple of Mondays now and it continues next months too. The students are both from college and vocational school and there’s four schools they can drop by and get their lunches for a week. I’ve had a lovely group of people to work with, two are from my own workplace and one is a former colleague from the City Library, we have great humor too so the days go by quickly even if there’s all kinds of mixups and mess to clear up. For example on the first Monday the students name lists were not in alphabetical order but on the order they had enrolled to the service. It cased some serious queueing which is not very nice atm.

At work we’ve been doing some serious digital jumps again with teaching our teachers how to use Google Meet an such. We’ve also digitized some materials for the teachers so they can keep their lessons from home more easier and then there’s all the online-meetings.. Some days my ears are sore of the earbuds and eyes from too much screen time.

On this week some of my friends had their birthdays. On Wednesday I had dinner my friend M with who we saw Uncle Vanya in London last year. Since we haven’t met since November I gave her now the lovely wooden Christmas decorations made by Rachel and her SO and bought from the RA-fandom Christmas auction. She loved them and was very happy to receive them.

Yesterday I met two of my friends in Ekberg’s, one the eldest cafes in Helsinki, which is very classy and has delicious cakes. I bought some cakes home too since Juhana, middlest son, came home from the AirForce for the week and youngest one, Jimi, Has his birthday on Feb 8th and today we had Jarno, eldest son, on dinner too so it was small birthday party for Jimi like this.

I’ve been watching McLeod’s Daughters and now I’m halfway through 3rd season. It’s nice to watch something easy while knitting and I’m eagerly waiting to get on 4th season so I’ll see Deano soon. I’m also watching WandaVision from Disney+, it’s very interesting. Earlier this month I watched Midnight Sky, the new film by George Clooney and wasted two hours of my life for such a crap. It was horrible. I also watched one Finnish Detective series called Ivalo (Arctic Circle) and almost strained my eye muscles while rolling them too hard, it had so many twists that it’d have easily filled three seasons.

My Riddari sweater is coming along nicely, I’m already on the yoke.

Well, tomorrow I need to concentrate on my studies at the Open Uni, I’m now doing Organizational communications course and it includes video lessons, a homework and a book exam of one very thick book. Aargh. Not to mention I’m reading some very good detective stories which doesn’t make it easier to start reading for the exams.

Oh! I bought an activity bracelet just to keep an eye on my steps and so far it’s been nice. I have also lost some weight as a consequence. Not bad.

Saturday and a Schrödinger’s cat

16.1.2021 julkaissut Nokisuu

This week we’ve finally got a proper winter here in Southern Finland. We got about 50 cm snow in two days (Tuesday and Wednesday) here in Helsinki met area and on Friday we got freezing temps as they dropped to -22C degrees. It’s been interesting to say the least. On Tuesday the traffic was jammed because of the snow, luckily a lot of people were teleworking but still.. I had to go to my dentist after work as the braces needed to be tightened and I walked the three kilometers because I couldn’t rely on trams working in schedule. It was good excercise I can tell you. When I got home finally hubby said he had cleared the yard of snow three times. In this article you can see some pics of the snow storm.

On Friday I was teleworking as it was such cold day and I had a meeting starting at 8.30 am so it was easier this way. Me and hubby had lunch at a Nepalese restaurant in a nearby shopping mall, it was very good. Youngest was supposed to have cross-country skiing at school but it was changed to walking which didn’t please him as he loves cross-country skiing. He would have had ice skating at school on Thursday but he dislikes it so much that he refused to take part on the class and I had to message with the teacher about it. I hope he’ll get to cross-country skiing some time this winter.

Youngest one had school doctor’s appointment on Monday so I’m now officially shortest person in our family as he passed me by two and a half centimetres.

We also have a Schrödinger’s cat living here. Sirius doesn’t know if she wants to go out or be indoors and so mostly we are not sure if she’s indoors or outdoors. Luckily she knows to drum on hubby’s window to get in.

The first three pics are a view from our library to one of the most important roads to the city centre. I couldn’t find a pic I saw in the newspaper on Tuesday where there was a traffic jam just outside as several trams couldn’t get through the intersection due to snow and the rails freezing. In the third pic you can see the beginnings of a two-year-long tram rail and pipe renovations, it’ll be awesome (not).

Rest of the pics are from yesterday and today, on the first pic with Sirius you can see how much we got snow.

I thought to share with you a picture thing which was going on in FB. It was for celebration of grannies so here you can see me with my grannies.

In the first one I’m with my maternal grandmother Eine, she has some pond-lilies on her hand and I guess we are coming home from a nearby farm where we used to buy milk at our old cottage. Usually Eine had a sock knitting on hand, she also taught me to play cards.

On the second pic I’m sitting with my paternal grandma Augusta, she was a seamstress and has made both of our outfits. This is from my confirmation day which was a big thing. She also made the best pancakes and meatballs.

On summer time I used to be at the cottage after school year ended first with Augusta in June and then when my parents had their summer holiday we took Augusta back to Iisalmi, her home, and then as my parents had to go back to work at the end of July Eine would come with me to the cottage. Eine was born on 1901 and Augusta on 1904, they had both lived through the civil war and it was never discussed in our household (which is kind of a loss imo), they both lived to 90.

Just a quick one

6.1.2021 julkaissut Nokisuu

Since Guylty asked to see more of my art (art and me being a bit too much said on same sentence) I’ve taken some quick pics of couple of things I’ve done.

I used to paint porcelaine. It was a dear hobby for about 15 years but then I changed workplace and couldn’t attend to the classes anymore so it was left behind. I still occasionally paint something by request, i.e. a plate for my godson but it’s very rare.

These cats are one of the last things I did on my classes. They are copies of a Finnish graphich artist Frans Toikkanen’s cats he made with mezzotint print. I was glad I managed to paint them on porcelain with their spirit intact.

This is just a quick drawing I made for my journal last year, on September pages. Actually it was the first draw for an Art Deco themed ’In the forest’ but I didn’t like how it turned out so I made another one for the deco and kept this myself. I like it more now.

Well. Another Christmas holiday over and tomorrow it’s back to work. Middlest son left back to his garrison already, their flying lessons will begin in few weeks (I’m a bit worried.. mothers you know) so I’m trying to concentrate on other things.

I received a wonderful gift on my birthday in September, my three best friends bought me a writer’s course. Of course it has writing assignments which was to be expected but I’m about to stress myself out with them too. I should write a short text every day and then there are other writing assignments too.. Well, it’s only ten lessons and then I’ve the lessons available next six months so I’m trying not to beat myself too much with that.

Oh well. Let’s enjoy a kitty in snow!

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.

Live music

5.9.20205.9.2020 julkaissut Nokisuu

Hi there! I’ve been mostly off line or done some small surfing on my phone during my free time since I get enough screen time at work and I’ve noticed my eyes grow tired after 8 hours of computering.

Yesterday evening my friend Mareetta took me to dinner to Tammisaari where we did a little summer evening dinner already on July. This time she wanted to see a Finnish-Swedish musician Fredrik Furu to perform. It was a free concert on a restaurant garden and since I had a work day we had some issues with the timing and rush hour but luckily managed to get there in time.

The weather was rainy and cold but the food and music were good so it was actually pretty good Friday evening. Some pics included.

My Caesar salad and happy Joe’s non-alcoholic cider and M’s burger

In other news middlest son has been at home this week and last Saturday we did some wholesale grocery shopping which was good. They’ve been eating camp-ratios in the garrison due to the C-situation but it’s going to change soon, he ate like a growing young man. My aunt used to say young men have hollow legs and she knew since she had four.

I’ve been reading, knitting and crafting. I’m finally getting all of the old swaps I had forward, soem of them have been sitting on my desk far too long so I’m relieved. And a bit shamed but sometimes Life happens to the best of us. I wonder if there’s anyone swapping art decos on my readers?

Here is a pic of Sirius sleeping on my knee. I was trying to get to bed but you really can’t go when one is such s dear kitty, can you? On the other pic you can see our desk. We got some nice paintings from the Helsinki Art Museum (HAM) to the House and there’s still some sculptures showing up next week. This painting is called ”Exhaust” by Petri Rummukainen and everybody says the bunnies are us, so you can guess who is the one with the handbag? Yeah 😀

I finally finished Lucifer Season 5. I tried to watch it just one ep per evening but it’s so good and then it was also very short season. Now I’m on Umbrella Academy S2 which doesn’t seem quite as good as S1.

A song by Fredrik Furu for you, he sings in Swedish but I think you’ll survive. I did.

School’s out

31.5.2020 julkaissut Nokisuu

Yesterday was quite different than I expected in January. We were supposed to have a big graduation party for middlest son but now we only had nice dinner with all of us here and it was okay too. Some of our relatives and friends are coming here on June 13th to celebrate him so it’s all right.

I did a test-cake of rhubarb and strawberry filled cake with meringue-cream icing and it turned out pretty good. I’ve never made meringue icing so it was interesting to learn that too.

Youngest son begun his summer holiday yesterday and he got good grades too. Both of them went to school to get the paper and later in the evening middlest son went to his friends house and came home in the afternoon.

As I said to Rachel we have my MIL’s old recipe booklet for pizza from the early 80’s. It’s got recipes for all kinds of pizza’s, i.e. one with liver and another with kidneys or anchovies and European cisco (fish). Eww. Here is a pic of Pizza with Sardines, the lack of other pics is due the fact the booklets didn’t have nice pics. They looked more just mushy and were not clear enough for photographing.

There’s a bonus pic of Sirius. I was reading on our balcony and she came to sleep on me. I love when she does that because our old kitty Sysi was much more reserved after being in a shelter as a small kitten and hardly ever slept on or with anyone. Sirius was born on an pony farm which had puppies born at the same time and she is a bit like a dog, i.e. she comes when you pat your knee and some other small things too. I really loved Sysi too, don’t get me wrong, she was an awesome kitty and was very protective of our boys when they were babies but she was shy. Only when she was old (18-y-o and forward) she slept on my lap in the evenings. But as a cat-person I love being a cat-mattress.

2020-05-30 11.12.56 - Copy 2020-05-30 13.17.16 - Copy 2020-05-30 20.29.30 - Copy 2020-05-31 19.24.03 - Copy

Back in town

3.8.20193.8.2019 julkaissut Nokisuu

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..

Buzzfeed

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.